Outside Judge to preside in case against Anniston Attorney

Matthew Merrill

A Judge from outside the area will hear a case against an Anniston attorney charged in an alleged murder-for-hire plot.  Circuit Judge Brian Howell announced during a Monday bond hearing for, 32 year old Matthew Merrill, that because the defendant practiced law inside the courthouse, Howell would have to recuse himself in the case soon. Howell said he would likely do so once he rules on Merrill’s bond later in July.
Merrill, was indicted by a Calhoun County grand jury May 9, charged with soliciting another man, Gerald Anton Griffin, to kill Patrick Thomas McCarroll. Griffin,  of Mount Meigs, pleaded guilty in 2012 to two counts of first- degree robbery, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. He was at the St. Clair Correctional Facility near Springville on Monday.
Griffin, formerly of Oxford, was indicted by a Calhoun County grand jury in 2008 in connection with the shooting death of Broderick Few in Hobson City on April 1, 2008. The state later declined to prosecute that case.
Anniston police investigator Shaun Firestone told the court Monday that during a May 4 traffic stop, police found a notebook in Merrill’s car that details his alleged attempt to pay Griffin $10,000 to kill his former girlfriend’s current boyfriend.
Court records show that the conditions of Merrill’s release include having no contact with Patrick McCarroll, Lindsey Ghee or her immediate family. Ghee is a daughter of Anniston attorney and former state Sen. Doug Ghee.
Firestone told the court Monday that firestone later verified the information in that notebook with investigators.
Merrill’s attorney, Bill Broome, asked the judge to lower Merrill’s bond on the murder solicitation charge from $500,000 to $50,000. Broome also asked that Merrill be placed in an inpatient drug and alcohol abuse facility under GPS monitoring.  Broome told the court that he made the bond reduction request because Merrill’s family cannot afford to pay the $500,000.
Merrill also has a separate $100,000 bond for charges including possession of a controlled substance, illegal possession of prescription drugs and public drunkenness related to the traffic stop, court records show.
Since his arrest, however, prosecutors allege that Merrill has tried to solicit fellow inmates in the Calhoun County Jail to kill people, and that reducing his bond would place the public in danger.