Calhoun Cold Case murder trial set for November

The trial of a man charged in the 1993 shooting death of his wife is set to begin next month, after a judge's ruling Tuesday to go ahead with the case.

James Douglas Bussey's attorney had asked for more time, but Circuit Judge Debra Jones ruled that the 50-year-old Leesburg man's trial will begin Nov. 3 as scheduled.

Bussey was indicted by a grand jury in May 2011, charged with murder in the shooting death of his wife, Diana Bussey.

The 21-year-old woman worked as a clerk at the Exxon Discount Food Mart on Alabama 202 in Bynum. A customer found her fatally shot in the head at the store shortly after midnight on June 26, 1993.

Bussey’s attorney, Dan King of Gadsden, asked the court Tuesday to consider delaying the trial so he could locate possible witnesses to the shooting that could clear his client by pointing to other possible suspects.

King on Sept. 2 replaced Bussey’s previous attorney, Richard Fricks, who had asked to be recused from the case due to nonpayment by his client and because Bussey was not “fully and properly cooperating” with him.

King told the court that he has not fully read the evidence given to him by prosecutors since taking the case over, and needed more time to do so.

King  said that he would like to locate a man who in 1993 gave a sworn statement to Anniston police that he was with three other men the night Bussey was killed, and that those men robbed and killed her. King said that After being approached and threatened by gang members, the man later recanted his statement.