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Sherman Collins Alabama Death Row

Sherman Collins was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the murder of Detrick Bell. According to court documents Sherman Collins was hired to murder Detrick Bell who would be fatally shot at a rap concert. Sherman Collins would be arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death

Alabama Death Row Inmate List

Sherman Collins 2021 Information

Inmate: COLLINS, SHERMAN

AIS: 0000Z799

Institution: HOLMAN DEATH ROW

Sherman Collins More News

An appeals court has upheld the capital murder conviction and death sentence of a New Orleans man condemned to die for a contract killing in west Alabama.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals turned away a challenge by death row inmate Sherman Collins on Friday.

The 43-year-old Collins was convicted in the shooting death of Detrick Bell in Sumter County in 2012. Evidence showed he was hired to kill Bell, who was shot to death at a small-town rap concert.

Collins claimed the judge who sentenced him to die didn’t give enough consideration to his rough childhood and lack of a father figure.

The court turned away that challenge. It also ruled that the death penalty for Collins wasn’t out of line with the sentence in similar cases.

Sherman Collins Other News

A Sumter County jury voted last week to recommend the death penalty to a New Orleans man hired to kill 31-year-old Sumter County resident Detrick Bell in 2012.

Earlier this month, the jury convicted Sherman Collins of capital murder for pecuniary gain and criminal conspiracy to commit murder. Last week, the jury voted 10-2 to recommend that Collins be put to death. In January, Circuit Judge Eddie Hardaway is scheduled to consider the jury’s vote and impose sentencing.

“There was just no mitigation in this case,” 17th Judicial Circuit District Attorney Greg Griggers told AL.com. “He was a contract killer.”

John Stamps, a defense attorney in the case, said he and lead attorney Kyra Sparks didn’t think it would be appropriate to comment on the case until after Collins was sentenced, but he said the defense “most definitely” plans to appeal the verdict.

Bell was shot and killed during a rap concert at the Morning Star Community Center, near Cuba, Ala., at about 1:30 a.m. on June 17, 2012, according to the Sumter County Record-Journal.

“In a nutshell, the evidence that we presented shows that Sherman was paid – offered payment – by another individual to kill Detrick Bell, the victim in the case, and that’s what he did,” Griggers said. “When he got to the Morning Star Community Center, he was armed with a pistol, and he walked up and shot him in front of a handful of witnesses pretty much at point black range.”

Collins, who was 36 at the time of the murder, used an “extremely large caliber handgun,” Griggers said. The .454 handgun “caused such extensive damage to the victim’s head that the pathologist initially thought that it must have been a shotgun slug,” Griggers said.

Sumter County resident Kelvin Wrenn is suspected of hiring Collins for the murder, and could face trial in the spring, Griggers said. The state is not seeking the death penalty for Wrenn.

“According to the shooter, Sherman Collins, he said it had something to do with a beef that the guy that paid him had with Mr. Bell, something that had happened four or five year prior to,” Griggers said.

“He had access to this victim – the guy that paid him – for those four or five years, so I don’t know why they would have picked this night to get even, but that’s what [Collins told investigators], anyway.”

The prosecution’s case lasted about three days. The defense did not put on a case. Asked if that was unusual in a capital case, Griggers said no.

“Both sides were pretty much stuck with the witnesses who were there, and I felt like we did a good job of bringing to court anybody who had firsthand knowledge of what happened out there that night, or who had firsthand knowledge of the conspiracy I think that existed to kill our victim,” Griggers said. “I don’t think there would have been anybody they could have brought as a defense witness that could have added anything.”

The jury deliberated for less than an hour before convicting Collins, according to Griggers.

Jovon Gaston Alabama Death Row

Jovon Gaston was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the murder of Kevin Thompson. Jovon Gaston and Nicholas Smith would kidnap the victim, force him to drive to a variety of ATMS where he was forced to make withdrawals then would be stabbed to death. Jovon Gaston and Nicholas Smith were arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Alabama Death Row Inmate List

Jovon Gaston 2021 Information

Inmate:	GASTON, JOVON DWAYNE
AIS:	0000z802

Institution:	HOLMAN DEATH ROW

Nicholas Smith 2021 Information

Inmate:	SMITH, NICHOLAS NOELANI D
AIS:	0000Z790

Institution:	HOLMAN DEATH ROW

Jovon Gaston More News

A Calhoun County circuit judge Tuesday set trial dates for two capital murder cases from four years ago.

Jovon Dwayne Gaston, 26, is charged in connection with the stabbing death of Wellborn school teacher Kevin Thompson in April 2011. His trial will begin Monday, Circuit Judge Bud Turner ordered Tuesday at a pre-trial hearing.

Gaston was one of three men charged in the incident. Nicholas Smith, 26, was sentenced to death in July 2013 for his involvement with the killing, and is now at Holman Prison in Atmore awaiting execution. Tyrone Thompson, 31, the third man charged in the killing, requested money for a mental health expert after Calhoun County Circuit Judge Debra Jones determined he was fit to stand trial.

Prosecutors in Smith’s case alleged that the men kidnapped the victim, drove him to several ATMs and robbed him at gunpoint. Following the robbery, prosecutors believed the men then drove to a section of U.S. 278 near Piedmont where Kevin Thompson was stabbed to death and left by the road.

Brandon Vontez Hawkins, 24, is charged in connection with the shooting death of Barbara Exum, an assistant manager of a Papa John’s pizzeria on Snow Street in Oxford, in September 2011. Hawkins’ trial is set for Dec. 7.

Hawkins pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in January for an incident that occurred a week after Exum’s death. Donquavious Russell, 21, was also charged with capital murder in the Exum shooting. No trial date has been set for Russell.

Dennis Hicks Alabama Death Row

Dennis Hicks was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the brutal murder of Joshua Duncan. According to court documents Joshua Duncan remains were found on an old police shooting range and the man had been disemboweled and decapitated. Dennis Hicks who was on parole after serving 25 years for a double murder was the last person to be seen with the victim. Dennis Hicks would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Alabama Death Row Inmate List

Dennis Hicks 2021 Information

Inmate:	HICKS, DENNIS
AIS:	0000z804

Institution:	HOLMAN DEATH ROW

Dennis Hicks More News

In keeping with a jury’s recommendation, Circuit Court Judge Charles Graddick sentenced Dennis Hicks to death Monday for murdering and dismembering a man in the presence of children.

Wrapping up a two-hour sentencing hearing for Hicks, Graddick ruled that “there can be only one penalty, and that is the penalty of death.”

The case began in October 2011, when human remains were found at a west Mobile site previously used as a law enforcement shooting range. The body was identified as that of 23-year-old Joshua Duncan, a mentally challenged man who had been missing for a month. According to investigators, Duncan’s body was decapitated and disemboweled.

Hicks, then 53, quickly was identified as a person of interest in the case. According to a police investigator, he had befriended Duncan at church, and was the last person seen with him before his disappearance. At the time, Hicks was on parole after serving 25 years for a double murder in Mississippi. In that case, according to an MPD investigator, Hicks had shot and stabbed two victims, then left their bodies in the trunk of a car.

In November 2011, Hicks was arrested for violating his parole, and eventually was charged with Duncan’s murder. He remained incarcerated through his trial; he was convicted of Duncan’s murder in late January, and the jury recommended the death penalty in early February.

Hicks entered Monday’s hearing with a list of objections and motions, arguing that the trial should be thrown out on several grounds. His hair now gray, and his voice nervous, he attempted to argue that his alibi hadn’t been properly considered, that evidence had been planted and that his attorneys hadn’t effectively represented him. “I just don’t think they did me right,” he said. “I was disinformed and lied to by both my counsel.”

Because Hicks’ objections weren’t always formulated in language the court understood, Graddick repeatedly asked him to stop the narrative and explain exactly what his motion was. In response to one of them, Graddick said, “Let’s see, I’ve never done this. I’m denying the motion for me to correct myself.” He denied all Hicks’ motions, except to stipulate that Hicks’ attorneys, Glynn Davidson and Deborah McGowin, would not represent him on appeal.

For his part, Graddick said that Davidson and McGowin had “done an outstanding job for you” and “provided effective assistance,” regardless of the outcome. It was a view shared by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Wright, who said after the hearing that she was familiar with the defenders and that they were “very strong and ethical lawyers” who had done an excellent job under the circumstances.

Hicks maintained that he had been helping Duncan learn to live independently by renting him a room, letting him work on odd jobs and teaching him to drive. He never would have harmed “Josh,” he said.

“I’m 100 percent innocent,” said Hicks, describing the murder and his prosecution as “a double tragedy.”

As he approached his ruling, Graddick said investigators had found that three small children had been present in the residence where Duncan was murdered. Two of them had testified to details confirmed in forensic analysis of his body: That Duncan had been stabbed and disemboweled, and that his head and hands had been cut off.

https://www.al.com/news/mobile/2016/04/in_grisly_murder_judge_agrees.html

Stephon Lindsay Alabama Death Row

Stephon Lindsay was sentenced to death and remains on Alabama Death Row for the murder of his 20 month old daughter. According to court documents Stephon Lindsay would strike the 20 month old girl several times with a sword causing her death. Stephon Lindsay would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Alabama Death Row Inmate List

Stephon Lindsay 2021 Information

Inmate:	LINDSAY, STEPHON
AIS:	0000Z805

Institution:	HOLMAN DEATH ROW

Stephon Lindsay More News

It took an Etowah County jury less than two hours this afternoon to find a Gadsden man guilty of capital murder in the 2013 slaying of his 20-month-old daughter.

The penalty phase in the trial of Stephon Lindsay will begin tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at the Etowah County Judicial Center.

Lindsay, 38, was accused of killing his daughter, Maliyah Tashay Lindsay, almost three years ago in what was termed a “ritual” killing. Jurors heard medical testimony and saw graphic photos depicting how Maliyah was killed by at least six blows to the neck with a sword-like machete.

Following the verdict, prosecutors embraced weeping family members, who thanked them. Maliyah’s mother, Tasmine Thomas, was one of them.

Gadsden police discovered the body of Maliyah in a wooded area at the dead end of Plainview Street in Gadsden on March 12, 2013 after Stephon Lindsay was arrested in connection with the child’s disappearance.

Detectives found her body in garbage bags not far from the family’s apartment, and found multiple swords and long knives dumped in a wooded area a few blocks away. Lindsay during his arrest gave a confession of nearly two hours on video, which was later played for jurors. He had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Carol Griffin said the crime was “monstrous” and “too horrible to imagine.”

“You’ve seen things I’m sure you wish you could unsee,” she told the jury.

District Attorney Jody Willoughby asked jurors to remember the first words Lindsay had said in his taped confession: “I’m kind of scared. I don’t know where to start.” He then went on to recount how Lindsay had killed the child in the ground floor of the apartment.

“How scared was that baby girl the night of March 5?” he asked, referred to bruises left on the child’s cheek when Lindsay held her mouth to keep her from screaming.

Lindsay’s lawyers, however, argued that he thought he was following the command of his god. Lindsay told police he killed the child at the command of his god Yahweh, and Thomas had testified Lindsay kept a green binder with handwritten pages he referred to as his bible. Remnants of the notebook were found not far from the knives, with pages torn up.

https://www.al.com/news/anniston-gadsden/2016/03/gadsden_man_found_guilty_of_ca.html

Justice Knight Alabama Death Row

Justice Knight was sentenced to death and sent to Alabama Death Row for a robbery murder. According to court documents Justice Knight planned the murder of Jarvis Daffin in 2014 in order to steal the victim’s tax refund. Jarvis Daffin would be fatally shot. Justice Knight would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Alabama Death Row Inmate List

Justice Knight 2021 Information

Inmate: KNIGHT, JUSTICE J

AIS: 0000z806

Institution: HOLMAN DEATH ROW

Justice Knight More News

Henry County judge sentenced Justice Knight to death on Thursday for the murder of Jarvis Daffin in 2014 over what prosecutors said was a killing for money.

Circuit Court Judge Brad Mendheim pronounced the sentence Thursday morning at the Henry County Courthouse in Abbeville.

Knight was found guilty of three counts of capital murder in connection with Daffin’s death – capital murder during a first-degree robbery, capital murder during a first-degree kidnapping and capital murder while shooting someone in a vehicle.

Prosecutors alleged during a week-long trial that Knight conspired to kill Daffin in order to take his tax refund money. District Attorney Doug Valeska said Knight and another man, Antwain “Duke” Wingard, participated in the murder. However, prosecutors said evidence indicates Knight is the trigger man.

Knight’s attorney, Shaun McGhee, argued that Knight was present but did not participate in the murder and that prosecution witnesses had favorable connections to Wingard and were motivated to point the finger at Knight.

Capital murder charges against Wingard are pending.

During the penalty phase of the trial, Knight’s attorney said there were several mitigating factors that should be considered, which could save Knight from the death penalty.

https://dothaneagle.com/news/crime_court/justice-knight-sentenced-to-death-for-2014-henry-county-killing/article_734ace84-9c60-11e6-9622-0fa676c0cb4f.html