alabama death row | My Crime Library

Jeffery Rieber Alabama Death Row

Jeffery Rieber was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Jeffery Rieber would shoot and kill a store clerk during a robbery. Jeffery Rieber would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Jeffery Rieber 2021 Information

Inmate:	RIEBER, JEFFERY DAY
AIS:	0000Z540

Jeffery Rieber More News

At Holman Correctional Facility, just north of the Florida panhandle in Atmore, Ala., Jeffrey Day Rieber waits to die – and some Madison lawyers, UW-Madison law students and a law professor are laboring to prevent his death.

Convicted in the shooting death of a convenience store clerk in 1992, Rieber is one of about 160 inmates on Alabama’s death row. A jury sentenced Rieber to life in prison without parole, but the judge overruled the verdict and sentenced him to death. Alabama is one of only four states that allows a judicial override of a jury verdict.

Rieber’s case now rests with UW-Madison Law Professor Frank Tuerkheimer, several law students and two Madison attorneys. They are seeking to overturn Rieber’s death penalty verdict because of what they believe was inadequate legal representation.

Because of attorney-client privilege and confidentiality concerns, Tuerkheimer and his students are prevented from discussing the specifics of their legal work on the case. But in general, they are re-examining the defense by Rieber’s former attorney, researching death penalty laws at the state and federal levels and investigating Rieber’s background.

“We are going back and doing everything his lawyer should have done,” says Tuerkheimer, a former U.S. attorney and former Watergate special prosecutor.

Like most of his fellow death row inmates, Rieber is poor and was represented by a court-appointed lawyer during the robbery/murder trial in Huntsville, Ala., where he had been living and where the crime occurred. In overriding the jury’s verdict, the judge in the case cited evidence that the clerk was shot twice, the second time when she was helpless.

After Rieber exhausted his appeals and lost his state-funded attorney, a UW-Madison alumnus who works with Alabama death row inmates turned to her alma mater for assistance.

Ellen Wiesner, a 1992 UW law school graduate and lawyer with the Montgomery, Ala.-based Equal Justice Initiative, called Tuerkheimer in 1996. She asked him to represent Rieber, who has been on death row since 1992, saying her firm can only handle a few death row cases at a time.

After getting the support and financial backing of LaFollette & Sinykin, the Madison law firm where he also works as an attorney, Tuerkheimer took the case. LaFollette & Sinykin attorneys Larry Bensky and James Friedman are assisting.

Yet Tuerkheimer knew he needed additional assistance to prepare the defense for such an important case. He recruited students to help and created a clinical class at the Law School titled “Law and Contemporary Problems: The Death Penalty.”

Tuerkheimer first recruited Elliott Milhollin, who joined Rieber’s defense team as a first-year law student in 1997. Milhollin was later joined by law students Fred Burnside, Tina Galbraith and Mary Sowinski.

Among other things, Milhollin is researching state and federal Supreme Court decisions on standards of review concerning attorney performance. He has also interviewed Rieber twice on death row: in the summer of 1997 with Tuerkheimer and Bensky, and this past summer with Friedman and the other students.

The student journeys to the prison where Rieber is incarcerated mark the first time Wisconsin law students have visited death row while working on a capital case. Capital punishment is legal in 38 states, but not Wisconsin.

“It was strange at first to meet your client on death row,” says Milhollin, who is from Washington, D.C., and will graduate this spring. “It puts an interesting take on things. I’m doing all this research on constitutional standards, which is very abstract until you meet Jeff.”

Tuerkheimer recruited Galbraith and Burnside for the case after they clerked at LaFollette & Sinykin this past summer. Sowinski, who researched Rieber’s social and family background, graduated in December and is now working in the Milwaukee district attorney’s office.

“When I started working on the case, I wondered if you can separate yourself as an attorney from your clients, and in some sense you can,” says Galbraith, a second-year law student from Westfield. “With this case, I think it’s a lot different. When it’s 10 p.m., I can close my books on my homework, but I stay up and work on this project. The stakes are different.”

Galbraith and Milhollin say their work on the Rieber case has deepened their opposition to the death penalty. Their main concern, they say, is that the death penalty is applied predominantly to poor people with inadequate legal representation.

Tuerkheimer, however, does not consider a student’s stance on the issue when recruiting them for the case.

“I don’t believe in litmus tests or political preconditions for taking a course,” he says.

A motion to set aside the conviction is currently pending before an Alabama judge. The motion maintains that Rieber had a significant drug problem that his attorney failed to mention. Tuerkheimer and his team have asked the court for permission to retain experts and examine numerous documents. Following that, they plan to file an amended petition, which, if granted, means Rieber could be resentenced or get a new trial.

Tuerkheimer says the students’ efforts on the case have been invaluable.

“Their assistance is essential; we couldn’t do the representation without them,” he says.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/818

Charles Burton Alabama Death Row

Charles Burton was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Charles Bruce was among a group of men who would rob a garage. During the robbery one of the men would shoot and kill a customer. All of the men were soon arrested. Charles Burton who was not the trigger man would be the only sentenced to death.

Charles Burton 2021 Information

Inmate:	BURTON, CHARLES LEE
AIS:	0000Z537

Institution:	HOLMAN PRISON

Charles Burton More News

The state’s evidence tended to show that on August 16, 1991, six menthe Charles Burton, Derrick DeBruce,[1] Deon Long, LuJuan *644 McCants, Willie Brantley, and Andre Jones robbed the occupants of the Auto Zone automobile parts store in Talladega, Alabama. During the course of the robbery, a customer, Doug Battle, was shot. He died as a result of a gunshot wound to the lower back, which pierced his chest. The trigger man was Derrick DeBruce.

The manager of the store, Larry McCardle, was at the cash register when an individual he identified as the Charles Burton entered the store, purchased some items, and asked him for the location of the restroom. McCardle testified that at this time another customer, whom he identified as DeBruce, was in the store. After Charles Burton started walking to the restroom, DeBruce pulled a gun and told everyone in the store to get on the floor. At this point, the appellant grabbed McCardle, pointed a gun at him and told him to take him to the safe. McCardle complied. Moments later McCardle heard yelling and gunshots.

One of Charles Burton s codefendant’s, LuJuan McCants, testified that the six men involved in the robbery were at Barbara Spencer’s[2] house in Montgomery on April 16 talking about committing a robbery. He said that Deon Long, Charles Burton, and Derrick DeBruce left the Spencer house to get some guns. They agreed to meet at the appellant’s house. They left the appellant’s house in two cars and headed toward Birmingham. They exited the interstate at Sylacauga and proceeded to Talladega. In Talladega, they went to a carwash and discussed robbing the Auto Zone store. They left one car at the carwash and they all proceeded in the other car to the Auto Zone.

McCants testified that Charles Burton organized the criminal activity and that he told the others what to do during the robbery. Charles Burton told McCants and Long to watch the door and told them that if he left the store that they should forget the robbery plans. McCants testified that the appellant also told them that if anyone caused any trouble in the store to let him handle the situation. McCants also testified that everyone who went into the store had a gun except Deon Long. McCants said that they forced everyone in the store to get on the floor and that they then took their valuables. The victim, Battle, walked in while the robbery was in progress and McCants told him to get on the floor. Battle was having some difficulty getting on the floor and an argument ensued between DeBruce and Battle. DeBruce hit Battle and he fell to the ground. DeBruce then shot Battle in the back while he was lying face-down on the floor. McCants testified that all of the robbers had either left the store or were about to leave when DeBruce shot Battle. He said that the appellant was among those who had already left the store at the time of the shooting. After all six left the store, they jumped in their car, picked up the other car at the carwash where they had left it, went to Barbara Spencer’s house and divided the money.

A forensic examination of the Auto Zone store revealed 17 of the appellant’s fingerprints. These prints were found on the items that McCardle had said that Charles Burton purchased before the robbery and on various other items in the store.

Barbara Spencer testified that before the robbery, the six men had been at her house discussing how to commit a robbery. She said that they left her house in separate cars and that Charles Burton and Derrick DeBruce were riding together. She testified that they returned to her house later and appeared to be upset. They had a large amount of money and the appellant was telling the others how to divide it. Spencer said that they gave her $100 but that she gave the money to McCants.

https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/court-of-appeals-criminal/1993/cr-91-1185-0.html

Mark Jenkins Alabama Death Row

Mark Jenkins was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for a robbery, kidnapping and murder. According to court documents Mark Jenkins would kidnap a woman outside of the restaurant where she worked who would later be found dead on the side of the road. Mark Jenkins would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. Due to his low intelligence level much of his appeals have centered around what IQ a defendant should have to be legally responsible for their crimes

Mark Jenkins 2021 Information

Inmate:	JENKINS, MARK ALLEN
AIS:	0000Z527

Institution:	HOLMAN PRISON

Mark Jenkins More News

The state’s evidence tended to show that in the late afternoon of April 21, 1989, the nude body of an unidentified female was found on an embankment on the side of interstate highway 59 south near Pelham, Alabama. The body was badly decomposed and was later identified by dental records as Tammy Hogeland. The cause of death was manual strangulation. The victim’s hyoidal bone was fractured which is consistent with a manual strangulation as opposed to other types of strangulation.

Several items of clothing were recovered from the scene: a ladies watch, a blue apron, a pair of ladies white tennis shoes, a brassiere, a pair of black slacks, and a hair net. Other items found at the scene were an owner’s manual for a Mazda RX7 automobile, a fraternity card, photographs, a cable TV guide, a road map, a work order for repair on a Mazda automobile, and several beer and soft drink cans.

Tammy Hogeland was last seen in the early morning hours of April 18, 1989, at the *1038 Airport Omelet Shoppe restaurant in Birmingham where she was working. She was scheduled to work that evening at the Riverchase Omelet Shoppe, but when an employee did not come to work at the Airport Omelet Shoppe, she was asked to work there. Her sister, Wendy Hogeland, and her sister’s boyfriend drove the appellant to the Airport Omelet Shoppe at around 10:00 p.m. on the evening of April 17. Wendy Hogeland testified at trial that Tammy at that time had on her jewelry, which included a Citizens brand watch, a necklace with the words “special sister,” a class ring with a topaz stone, and a diamond cluster engagement ring. That evening the victim was working as a cook, and she was wearing a blue apron, black pants, a white shirt, and a pair of white shoes. Early in the morning of April 18, the victim and Sarah Harris were the only employees working at the Airport Omelet Shoppe. At about 2:00 a.m. Sarah Harris observed a red sports car[1] being driven into the parking lot. She stated that she remembered the car because it almost jumped the curb and came through the glass wall of the restaurant. Harris identified the appellant, Mark Allen Jenkins, as the individual driving the car and stated that he appeared to be intoxicated when he came to the Omelet Shoppe. The appellant walked over to the victim and began talking to her. Harris saw the victim and the appellant drive off in the red sports car. She could not testify at trial whether the victim went willingly or was abducted. Testimony did reveal that the victim was a heavy smoker and that she left behind her cigarettes, her lighter, her purse, and her paycheck, which had been issued that evening. Harris had also worked with the victim on several occasions and said that she had never before left the shop without telling anyone as she did that evening.

Later, at around 5:00 a.m. on the morning of April 18, Geraldine and Bobby Coe were at a Chevron gasoline service station on I-59, when they saw an individual in a red sports car. They identified the individual in the car as appellant Jenkins. They also stated that a female was in the front passenger seat of the car and that she appeared to be “passed out.” They could not say whether she was alive or dead. While Bobby Coe was pumping gas, the appellant approached him and asked him for some cigarettes. Coe gave the appellant some cigarettes, and the appellant said, “looks like it’s been a long night and it looks like it’s going to be a long day.” The appellant then told Coe, “God bless you,” and as he was walking back to the red sports car he asked Coe how to get to interstate highway 459. Coe gave him directions. They both got into their respective vehicles and left the station. The Coes, each driving a different car, drove out of the gas station. Bobby Coe stated that he saw the car driven by the appellant follow him for awhile, flash his lights, slow down, and then pull to the side of the road between mile markers 151 and 152. This is the area where Tammy Hogeland’s body was found approximately three days later.

By agreement, a statement made by Christine Nicholas was received into evidence. Nicholas told police that she had known the appellant for several months and that she had met him at the Omelet Shoppe where she worked. She further stated that the appellant was at her home on the evening of April 17 and that he stayed at her home until approximately 2:00 a.m. on the morning of April 18. She stated that the appellant was very intoxicated and that he was attempting to seduce her. She resisted and the appellant got “real mad” and asked her several times what she would do if someone came up from behind her and grabbed her. At approximately 1:00 a.m., the appellant and Nicholas went to the Riverchase Omelet Shoppe. The appellant went inside the Omelet Shoppe and talked with one of the waitresses. Shortly after this, the appellant and Nicholas returned to her home, and the appellant fell asleep on the couch. Around 2:00 a.m. the appellant was asked to leave by Ms. Nicholas’s mother. When he left, he fell down some steps and then rammed his car into another vehicle. Nicholas also stated that she saw the appellant later in the morning of April 18 at a Delchamps grocery store. The appellant was making a telephone call, looking at a newspaper, and attempting to *1039 sell his automobile, an old model Buick Century. At this time Nicholas loaned the appellant $4.00 so that he could get some gasoline for his car.

Douglas Thrash, a manager of the Riverchase Omelet Shoppe, saw the appellant at around 1:00 a.m. on the morning of April 18 at the Riverchase Omelet Shoppe. Thrash said that he recognized the appellant because he was a regular customer at the restaurant. The appellant spoke with Frieda Vines, one of the waitresses. Thrash heard mention of, at one point in the conversation, the Omelet Shoppe near the airport. Thrash also stated that the appellant knew all of the waitresses, including the victim, because he was a regular customer and that he talked with them all when he was in the restaurant.

Testimony also established that the appellant sold his car around 10:00 a.m. on the morning of the April 18, to Michael Brooks, a mechanic at the Alford Avenue Chevron gasoline service station in Birmingham. He told Brooks that his mother was sick and that he needed money to go home to California. One of the attendants at the service station took the appellant to the bus station between 11:30 and 12:00 p.m. that day. A ticket agent for Greyhound bus lines testified that she sold two tickets that day between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. The two destinations were Houston, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

When the appellant was living in Birmingham, he was sharing a house with Mitchell Babb. The house was a one-bedroom bungalow with no electricity. Evidence established that the appellant was in financial trouble. The house was owned by John Angwin. Angwin testified that the appellant lived in the house for approximately two months, that he paid no rent, and that he allowed the appellant to stay there so that the appellant could keep his job at a landscape company.

The evidence presented further established that near the appellant’s residence in Birmingham was a gasoline service station, Rocky Ridey Road Service Station, where the appellant did some odd jobs. This station was managed by Leon Wooten. About 10 days before the homicide, a red Mazda RX7 automobile was brought into the service station for routine maintenance work. While the car was at the service station, the appellant was working there. Approximately two days before the homicide, the appellant was at the station more frequently, and he parked his Buick automobile there. He told the manager of the station that he wanted to leave his car there because he did not want the person who sold him the car, John Angwin, to know when he was driving the car. On April 18, one of the managers of the Rocky Ridey Road Service Station noticed that the ignition to the service truck had been tampered with. When the manager discovered this, the appellant was at the station putting some gasoline in his Buick. The manager asked the appellant if he knew anything about the service truck and he replied that his Buick had also been tampered with. Later in the day when the owner of the red Mazda came to pick his car up from the station, it was gone. The car was later recovered on I-459 near Leeds. While the Mazda was at the service station, the keys to it were left in the car above the visor. The manager of the station said that they always left car keys above the visors.

Steve Musser testified that he had known the appellant for approximately six months prior to the murder. On the day before the victim disappeared, the appellant approached Musser and asked him if he wanted to buy a chainsaw. At this time the appellant was dressed in jeans and a pullover shirt. After talking for several minutes, the appellant left. On the morning of April 18, the appellant again came to see Musser and was dressed in the same clothes that he had on the day before. The appellant told Musser that someone had stolen his car the night before, and he asked him if he would say that he had been with him all night. Musser refused and the appellant stayed and talked for about 15 minutes and left. Musser did not see the appellant again.

The appellant was identified as a suspect by Michael Weems, a Hoover Police Officer. Weems went to the Omelet Shoppe where the victim worked every day. He knew that the appellant knew the victim and that when the appellant was in the restaurant he would talk with her and that on several occasions he had passed notes to her on napkins.

*1040 The owners of the Mazda identified the car recovered off I-459 as their vehicle. They further identified items found near the victim’s body as items that were in the Mazda when they took the car in to the Rocky Ridey Road Service Station for repairs. Several business cards from a golf professional at Delray Beach Municipal Golf Course in Florida were identified as those that were in the glove compartment of the Mazda.

Hair fibers collected from the victim and items of her clothing tended to establish her presence in the red Mazda automobile. Fibers from the seat of the automobile were found on her underclothing. Hair fibers consistent with those from the victim were found on the car seat and on the storage area behind the seats. A pubic hair identified as that of the victim’s was found on the passenger floorboard mat. Hair fibers collected from some of the appellant’s clothing connected him to the red Mazda. Forty-six car seat fibers were found on the appellant’s blue jeans. Fibers from the appellant’s blue jeans were also discovered on the victim’s apron.

Mitchell Babb, the appellant’s roommate in Birmingham, identified boots that were recovered from the appellant’s uncle in California as being like boots that the appellant wore. A boot print found at the scene of the crime was identified as being consistent with the heel of the boots recovered from the appellant’s uncle.

A prisoner who was a cellmate of the appellant in the St. Clair County jail, testified that the appellant approached him several times while they were in jail and talked about the murder. He said that the appellant feared that he would be transferred to Jefferson County because the victim was married to or was going to marry a Jefferson County deputy sheriff. According to this witness, the appellant was afraid that the people from the service station, the Coes, would identify him and he was also afraid that the police would find his fingerprints on a beer can left at the scene, according to this witness. The witness also said that Jenkins told him that “he had done the crime.”

https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/court-of-appeals-criminal/1992/cr-90-1044-0.html

Charles Stewart Alabama Death Row

Charles Stewart was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for the murder of his ex wife. According to court documents Charles Stewart would go over to his ex wife home and fatally shoot her in front of their six year old son. Charles Stewart would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Charles Stewart 2021 Information

Inmate:	STEWART, CHARLES RANDALL
AIS:	0000Z524

Institution:	HOLMAN PRISON

Charles Stewart More News

Gregory Hunt Alabama Death Row

Gregory Hunt was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for the sexual assault and murder of a woman. According to court documents Gregory Hunt would set his ex girlfriends home on fire. When he learned where the woman was staying he would break in, sexually assault her and then murder her. Gregory Hunt would be arrested convicted and sentenced to death

Gregory Hunt 2021 Information

Inmate:	HUNT, GREGORY
AIS:	0000Z521

Institution:	HOLMAN PRISON

Gregory Hunt More News

Gregory Hunt had been dating the victim, Karen Lane, for about one month before her death on Tuesday, August 2, 1988. At the time, Lane was living with Tina Gilliland, Hunt’s cousin, in Gilliland’s apartment at 105 Elliott Heights, Cordova, Alabama. Hunt was with Lane at the apartment in the afternoon on Monday, August 1, when Gilliland’s ex-husband arrived with his fiancee, Shirley Romine, to pick up his and Gilliland’s two children. Gilliland was taking a nap at the time.

According to Romine, after Lane left the room where they had gathered, Gregory Hunt voiced frustration with Lane. He said that “he was tired of everything and that he was moving back to Miami, Florida.” He also said, “She makes me so mad I could kill that [b]itch.”

When Gilliland awoke, at about 6 p.m., Hunt was gone.*fn2 Shortly after 6 p.m., Gilliland and Lane left in Gilliland’s beige 1986 Yugo. After stopping to buy cigarettes, they went to the residence of Gilliland’s then-fiance, Clinton Cook, in Parrish, Alabama.*fn3 When they arrived, at about 7 p.m., they saw Hunt’s van outside. Gilliland got out of the car and entered the residence; Lane left in the Yugo.

Once inside, Gilliland encountered Hunt. Hunt, having noticed Lane in the Yugo, asked Gilliland, “You mean Karen is with you and she didn’t get out because I was here? Where was she going?” Gilliland replied that Lane had gone to her mother’s home. Hunt left.

After leaving, Hunt drove to the home of James Mullinax and Hortencia

Ovalle in Jasper, Alabama, arriving at about 8 or 8:30 p.m.*fn4

While there, Hunt again discussed his frustration with Lane.

Mullinax testified that Hunt “kept on saying he was going to have to

do something about the problem.” Both Mullinax and Ovalle testified

that as he left, Hunt said he was going to “fuck somebody

up.”

Gregory Hunt then returned to Cordova.*fn5 At about 9:40 p.m., he called Cook’s residence to speak to Gilliland. Hunt’s mother, Ruby Savage, lived in Cordova, at 407 Second Street, and Hunt made the call from there.*fn6 According to Gilliland, Hunt asked where Lane was. Gilliland told him that Lane told her she was going to her mother’s home. Hunt warned, “I know how you women are. You better tell me where she’s at.” When Gilliland replied that she did not know where Karen was, Hunt again insisted, “You better tell me where she is at. . . . Or, it is going to be detrimental to you.” Hunt said he was ready to go back to prison if that was what it took.

Later that night, in Cordova, Lane’s father, W.O. Sanders, discovered

that a house Lane had previously occupied was on fire.*fn7

Sanders, who lived about two hundred yards from that house,

testified that he heard Hunt’s van pass his house twice that night. It

was after the second time the van passed that Sanders discovered the

fire.

After calling Gilliland and driving by Sanders’s house, Hunt left Cordova and returned to Jasper. When Debra Twilley left work at 11 p.m. and returned to her home in Jasper, Hunt was there, using her telephone. According to Twilley, it appeared that Hunt “had been drinking.” Hunt followed her into the kitchen, where he asked to borrow her car. “I’ve got some stuff I need to do,” he explained. “It’s not wise that I’m seen in my van.”

After Twilley refused his request, the conversation turned to Lane. Gregory Hunt said that he and Lane had been having problems and that he was “tired of her crap.” And he admitted that he had burned her house. He had “poured gas on it,” he said, “and set it afire.” When Twilley asked why, he replied, “I’m just tired of everything.” He asked Twilley to drive him to Cordova. He did not know whether the house had “burnt down all the way,” he said. But, he told Twilley, he hoped it had.

After that conversation, Hunt returned to Cordova. Amy Sheree Long testified that, at about midnight or 12:30 a.m. the next day, August 2, as she was standing in the parking lot at the First National Bank, she saw Hunt in his van, chasing Lane in a beige Yugo at a high speed.

Gregory Hunt then returned to his mother’s home in Cordova and, at 12:55 a.m., again called Cook’s residence.*fn8 This time he spoke with Cook. According to Cook, Hunt said that “something had happened, materialistically, and that Karen’s family and Karen [were] going to be upset with him . . . because of what he had done.” Hunt said he would have to move back to Florida. But, he said, “people didn’t screw him over like this and get away with it.”

Around 1 a.m., Gregory Hunt called Lane’s mother, Betty Jo Sanders.*fn9 According to Sanders, Hunt asked her if Karen was there, and she answered no. Sanders told him that Karen’s house had burned. “Well,” Hunt said, “Karen will really be hurt about that because she really loved that place. . . . It will really depress her.” Hunt also told Sanders that he had been looking for Karen. “[S]he is running stop signs and lights,” Hunt said, “and all I want to do is say ‘Hi’ to her but she will not stop.” Hunt also threatened violence against Gilliland. “You know, Tina [Gilliland] is scum,” he said. “I’m going to throw her up against the wall, do you know what I mean? I won’t do to m[e]ss with. I grew up in violence. I know what it’s all about.”

Later, shortly before 2 a.m., Mary Turner, who lived at 103 Elliott Heights, in an apartment separated from Gilliland’s by one other apartment, heard a noise that sounded like glass breaking. Turner testified that when she looked to see what had caused the noise, she saw Hunt reach his hand into the window of Gilliland’s apartment and then enter through the adjacent door. After Hunt entered, Turner heard “peculiar noises”-one that sounded “like somebody had hit real hard, hit the floor,” and another “like somebody sitting in a chair and just sliding it across the floor.” Then, at about 2 a.m., she heard the door slam and looked out her window to see Hunt leaving the apartment.

At 2:44 a.m., Cook received another telephone call from Hunt.*fn10 Hunt was calling from Gilliland’s apartment. Hunt told him that Karen was “lying [t]here in the kitchen floor” and asked Cook to “get somebody up [t]here to get her to the hospital.” Karen Lane’s body was discovered in Gilliland’s apartment later that morning.

Evidently, after calling Cook, Hunt returned to Jasper. Both Mullinax and Ovalle testified that they found Hunt’s van outside their home at about 6 a.m. According to Mullinax, Hunt was in the van and, as Mullinax left for work, “raised up a little bit and went back down.”

Later that day, Gregory Hunt drove to Cullman, Alabama, to Jack and Jean Kilpatrick’s house.*fn11 From there, at about 7 or 8 p.m., Hunt called his brother-inlaw, Russell Davenport, at his home in Cooper City, Florida. According to Davenport, Hunt said he had “been out partying” with a woman and had gotten into a fight with her. “I don’t think I killed her,” Hunt said. “I’m not sure how she was when I left her. I checked with the hospitals and newspapers and I can’t find anything else out about her at all.”

Gregory Hunt was arrested later that month. In October, his sister, Loretta Martin, visited him in jail. Martin testified that they discussed Karen Lane’s death. During their conversation, she asked Hunt, “You did kill her?” Hunt said, “Yes, I did.” Hunt explained that he and Lane had a fight on the night of her death. Hunt said he “hit her and lost his head and couldn’t control himself.” Hunt told Martin that he had “[gone] out looking for [Lane]” and “ chased her through Cordova.” When Martin asked him if he had been drinking, he said he had been “drinking and taking some medication that the doctor had prescribed for him.”

Later, in June 1990, while he was detained in jail pending trial, Hunt also confessed to his cellmate. The cellmate, James Carr Sanders, testified that Hunt said that he and Lane had fought because she was dating someone else. He had “knocked her down and choked her and kicked her.” He also inserted a broomstick into her vagina. After that, he saw that she was bleeding, became scared, and called the police.

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/almID/1202537666017/?slreturn=20211117194514