1994 Birmingham homicides

This is a List of Birmingham homicides in 1994. It includes homicide cases occuring within the city limits during the calendar year. Note that not all homicides are ultimately ruled to be murder in courts of law.

Birmingham had 135 homicides in 1994.

Listing

• March 5: Kenneth East, 56, was killed during a burglary at his home. One suspect, Joeshedrick Sirrome Jones, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of 2nd degree burglary and was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison. He was released in 1999 and was himself shot to death in 2014. (report)
• April 1: Parrish Tabb, 18, was killed in a drive-by shooting on Dennison Avenue Southwest. The shooter, Jeffery Stewart, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to life. The driver, Marcus Benn, was convicted of reckless murder and served 16 years. (report)
• June 13: Donald Deason, 30, was beaten to death while in detention at the Birmingham City Jail on assault charges. Deason, an Air Force veteran and employee of the Federal Reserve Bank, had been arrested during an altercation with African American teenagers outside a movie theater. Intoxicated at the time, he allegedly shouted racial slurs during his arrest. His family alleges that jail guards orchestrated retribution for his actions by placing him, unsupervised, in a cell with a violent offender, Bobby Shearer. Shearer was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. One guard, Matthew Brock, was also charged with manslaughter in connection with Deason's death, but was acquitted. (report)
• August 15: Faith Hall was shot to death at a friend's apartment. Her former boyfriend, Joe Nathan James, had been stalking and threatening her before forcing his way into the apartment where he killed her as she attempted to flee. He was convicted of capital murder in August 1996 and sentenced to death. In 1998 an appeals court overturned his conviction because hearsay evidence had been admitted to trial. He was re-tried in 1999 and again convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. That conviction was upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and an attempt to appeal it to the Alabama State Supreme Court was denied. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declined to overturn the conviction. His execution has been scheduled for July 28, 2022. (report)
• __: Joseph "Little Joe" McLendon, 21, shot to death in Woodlawn. No arrest.
• September 3: Melvin Ronald Hatcher, 30, was found shot to death in a back yard at 1533 58th Street Ensley.
• September 4: An unnamed victim was found dead behind a stolen Jeep Cherokee on the baseball field at Wahouma Park.
• October 16: Pamela Dodd, 37, was one of five people shot to death during a robbery at the Changing Times Lounge. Stephen Pilley and Andrew Anthony Apicella were tried separately and each convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Pilley died of liver disease in 2009 and Apicella also died from liver disease in 2013. (report)
• October 16: Lester "Eddie" Dodd, 38, was one of the five people killed at the Changing Times Lounge.
• October 16: Florence Elliot, 45, was one of the five people killed at the Changing Times Lounge.
• October 16: William Nelson, 52, was one of the five people killed at the Changing Times Lounge.
• October 16: James Watkins, 52, was one of the five people killed at the Changing Times Lounge.
• 135. December 31: Parris Taylor, 17, shot and robbed in the 3200 block of Avenue I in Ensley.

References

• Robinson, Carol (January 4, 2001) "City's 2000 homicide rate rises after 5 years of steady decline." Birmingham News
• Gordon, Tom (February 12, 2009) "Alabama Death Row inmate Stephen Pilley, convicted in Changing Times Lounge murders, dies of illness." Birmingham News