Munford man acquitted of murder

A Coosa County jury deliberated for about two hours last week before finding 39 year old Gregory Clyde Saffold,  of Munford, innocent of the 2009 murder of his stepfather.

Saffold was accused of killing 47-year-old David B. Hullet,

of Goodwater. Hullet was reported missing in February 2009, and Saffold was arrested in March of 2010.

  He was indicted for murder the following month. There was allegedly a history of domestic violence between Hullet and Saffold’s mother.

Saffold was arrested after what investigators with the Coosa County Sheriff’s Office identified as burned human remains were recovered. According to defense attorney Rod Giddens, however, there was no evidence that the remains were Hullet’s.

The remains were tested at least twice at a lab in Minnesota. One test seemed to exclude the victim, and a second sample was likely contaminated. A DNA swab from Saffold was lost during the course of the investigation.

Giddens also pointed out that the victim’s truck was not processed for fingerprints, and that a woman’s blood found inside the house was not tested.

Saffold’s mother was previously married to Gregory Walls Saffold, the defendant’s father. This relationship was also violent, and the two divorced. Saffold senior is currently serving a sentence of life in prison in connection with the murder of his second wife. He was convicted in 1986.