List of homicides in 2004

From Bhamwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This is a List of homicides in 2004, including all cases investigated in the Birmingham District.

This list is incomplete and may never satisfy any subjective standard for completeness. You can help Bhamwiki by expanding it.

Bibb County

  • December 10: Steven C. Spears was shot to death and his wife beaten with a chain at their home on Alabama State Highway 139. Troy Connell, then 16, was convicted of capital murder and given an automatic sentence of life without parole. He appealed after the U.S. Supreme Court banned mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles, but Bibb County Circuit Court judge Collins Pettaway gave him the same sentence at a rehearing in 2022. Jimmy Lamar Killingsworth, Jr was also convicted, but was granted a new trial in 2010. Prior to his second trial in 2012 he pleaded guilty to capital murder in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. (report)

Jefferson County

Bessemer

  • 5 homicides

Birmingham

Center Point

  1. January 9: Marlene Jason, 58, a lunchroom cashier at Mountain Brook Middle School, was found shot at her home on 2nd Way Northwest. Montez Spradley was convicted of capital murder during an armed robbery on February 29, 2008. Though the jury recommended life imprisonment, Judge Gloria Bahakel rendered a death sentence. He also received a 20-year sentence for intimidating a witness in the case. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new trial because they found Bahakel allowed improper evidence. His separate conviction for intimidating a witness was upheld. (report)

Fairfield

  1. July 4: Krystal Joy Bennett, 19, shot along with Terrin Greer in crossfire during gunfight at a BP Station on the 3600 block of Richard M. Scrushy Parkway in Fairfield. Tommy Rogers was convicted of reckless murder and sentenced to 60 years. Another suspect, Calvin Burns, was acquitted in his September 2005 trial.
  2. July 4: Terrin Greer, 17, shot along with Krystal Bennett in crossfire during gunfight at a BP Station on the 3600 block of Richard M. Scrushy Parkway in Fairfield. Tommy Rogers was convicted of reckless murder and sentenced to 60 years. Another suspect, Calvin Burns, was acquitted in his September 2005 trial.
  3. July: Jarvis Jenkins was shot to death in a car parked in a Fairfield alley. Alvin Beck was injured in the shooting. Sean Bias was convicted in January 2009 on the testimony of two witnesses. [1]

Hoover

  • April 28: Darren Keith "Freddy" Palmer, 44, was shot and killed by Jeff Allen, 46, who then killed himself. The two were business associates who shared an office leased from fellow Libertarian party official Jimmy Blake at 1575 Montgomery Highway, where the shootings occurred.
  • Donald Goodwin, 57, was struck and killed while checking his tractor-trailer tires on the shoulder of I-459 near the Parkwood Road bridge. Kelly Lynn Miller was indicted two years later by a grand jury on a charge of vehicular homicide. She pleaded guilty, but fled the country before reporting to serve her five-year sentence. She traveled to Thailand and disposed of her identification there, expecting to remain on the lam in the country's remote islands. She is believed to have received money from relatives in the United States. American authorities investigated and passed information on her suspected whereabouts to Thai officials. She was taken into custody by Phuket Tourist Police in the parking lot of the Poontrap Bungalow on Koh Lanta in March 2015. While in Thailand, Miller gave birth to a son. The mother and infant were extradited back to Alabama face trial and resentencing. (report)

Hueytown

  • October: Rebecca Jean Sampson, 26, had throat slashed by Adam Thrash, Jr. Thrash, 35, was sentenced to life without parole in January 2007.
  • October: Sampson's son, Troy "Nate" Gann, 9, had throat slashed by Adam Thrash, Jr. Thrash, 35, was sentenced to life without parole in January 2007.

Midfield

  • March 31: Aquil Abdur-Rasheed was shot to death during a robbery at his Music-N-More store at 20 Phillips Drive. Sandrekus Watkins and Jimmie Martez Lee were charged with capital murder. Accomplice Gary Robinson was charged with felony murder. Watkins was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Lee was convicted of felony murder.

Shelby County

  • October 17: Kentonio Terrel Kirkland was killed in a shootout in Almont. Antonio Laventa Dubose was convicted of murder in September 2009. [2]

Talladega County

  • November 11: Roscoe D. Anderson, III, 26, was found dead in front of his home on Marion Avenue in Sylacauga. Corry R. Averett, serving time in Atlanta on a weapons charge, was indicted for murder in August 2009. He was convicted in September 2013 in Talladega County Circuit Court and sentenced by Judge Bo Hollingsworth to life without parole. While in jail, Averett told other prisoners that Anderson had tried to hire him to kill someone else, but afterward gave him only 9 ounces of cocaine instead of 36 ounces he had promised. The conviction was upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in 2014. (report)

Responses

Sylvia Stone, the mother of victim Krystal Bennett and a worker at the Jefferson County Family Court, created a documentary film entitled "Violence + Vendettas = Victims" in partnership with Klearvision Productions and ABC 33/40. The film consists of interviews with young people on the street, with relatives of murder victims, and with Birmingham Police Chief Annetta Nunn.

References

  • Gordon, Robert K. (April 17, 2007) "Deadly crossfire inspires 'Violence + Vendettas'." Birmingham News.