Trial begins in 21 year old murder case

James Douglas Bussey

Calhoun County jurors  heard opening arguments Monday in the trial of 50 year old James Douglas Bussey of Leesburg, charged with the murder of his wife Diana Bussey 21 years ago in a Bynum gas station where she worked. 

Bussey,  was indicted by a grand jury in May 2011, charged with murder in connection with his wife’s death.

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.

Calhoun County Assistant District Attorney Sheila Field in her opening statements told jurors that all the evidence found by the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit, which investigated the death, points to Bussey as his wife’s killer.

Field said that Bussey’s defense attorneys will argue that three men were seen by the defendant at the gas station the night his wife was shot, but she added that police in 1993 investigated those claims and found nothing.

Dan King, one of Bussey’s attorneys, told jurors that a potential eyewitness told investigators that he was with two other men when they robbed and shot a convenience store clerk in Bynum in 1993. The witness described the crime scene in detail,  but he added that the man later recanted his statements to police.

Marvin Bussey, the defendant’s father, died in 2007, King said, and a dispute between family members and Bussey over his father’s estate resulted in several of those family members telling police that Bussey killed his wife.

Fred Lawton, another of Bussey’s attorneys, said the defendant plans to testify during the trial.

The trial is to resumes today in an Anniston courtroom.

Man pleads guilty in murder of his sister

Brett Christopher Love

A man accused of brutally stabbing his sister to death pleaded guilty to her murder Monday.

As prosecutors in St. Clair County prepared to try 31 year old Brett Christopher Love on the murder charges, he pleaded guilty in open court to the murder of his sister, 29 year old Lindsey Michelle Love,  of Pell City.

 

Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday afternoon, and the trial was anticipated to start Tuesday morning.

Authorities said Brett Love killed his sister during the early morning hours of June 19, 2013, after the two argued.

In open court Monday, Love said he regretted what he had done and was sorry.

Prosecutors said that Love stabbed his sister 15 times with a knife authorities recovered from a backpack in Love’s possession, along with a blood-soaked shirt.

He said blood found on the knife and shirt matched the victim’s DNA.

The woman’s body was found inside her apartment at the Pell City Housing Authority duplexes.

Police removed her unharmed 1-year-old child from the apartment after the woman’s body was found lying in a pool of blood with her throat slashed.

During Love’s preliminary hearing, Pell City Police Detective Jonathan Swiney testified that the defendant texted a friend stating, “I killed my sis.”

On Monday, St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Bill Weathington sentenced Love to 25 years in prison after the defendant waived his pre-sentencing investigation and report.

Blount county man killed in Deputy involved shooting

A Blount County deputy shot and killed a man outside a home in Blountsville after responding to a domestic violence call early Monday morning.

 Blount County Sheriff Loyd Arrington said the shooting happened outside in a field off of Martin Road.

 Two deputies responded to a domestic violence call at a home off of Martin Road around 2:30 a.m. Monday.

 The sheriff said there was a physical fight outside the home and one of the deputies fired a shot, killing the man. The deputy is being treated at Cullman Regional Medical Center for an injury to his eye and is expected to be OK.

 Sheriff Arrington did not release any other details about the shooting.

 A neighbor said a man, woman and two children live at the home near the field where the shooting happened, but the sheriff's office has not said whether anyone was inside the home at the time of the shooting.

 The 30-year-old deputy who fired the shot is on paid administrative leave. He been with the sheriff's department for three years and was previously a correctional officer, Arrington said.

The Alabama Bureau of Investigations is leading the investigation

Talks continue between City of Anniston and Regional Medical Center Board

Discussions continue between the city of Anniston and the Regional Medical Center board in their mediation talks.  City  officials plan to mediate by phone and email to settle their recent legal disputes in lieu of meeting together in a Birmingham law office.

Bruce Downey, city attorney, said city representatives will likely not reconvene with board representatives in a meeting to negotiate unless it's considered absolutely necessary. The decision comes after both parties spent around 12 hours with a neutral mediator in Birmingham Oct. 28 in an attempt to settle their legal disagreements outside of court.

City and board representatives met last week with former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Thomas Woodall at his Birmingham office.

Both parties decided Oct. 9 to use a neutral mediator after agreeing to try to settle their issues outside of court. If the remaining issues are not resolved by Dec. 9, however, the court will consider them instead.

City Manager Brian Johnson  who attended the meeting, said he felt some progress was made between both parties.

As part of the mediation agreement,  RMC agreed to dismiss its challenge to Johnson's appointment. Also, a temporary injunction from the court kept Kernion as chairman.

All other issues remaining in RMC's lawsuit will be addressed in negotiations with the mediator.

The entire situation is the culmination of a months-long struggle between the city and the board over whether the board is a public entity, how autonomous it is from the city and how much information about the Anniston-based hospital it must provide to the public.

Low voter turnout predicted in todays election

Today is election day and Only about half of Alabama's registered voters are expected to go to the polls today

   The state has about 2.9 million voters.

Secretary of State Jim Bennett is forecasting a turnout of between 48 and 50 percent in a relatively quiet election that could see a continuation of 2010's Republican sweep of top offices. The election headliner is between Republican incumbent Robert Bentley and Democrat Parker Griffith for the Governor's post.

In the last 20 years, a governor's race has prompted a turnout of between 51 to 58 percent.

Even if turnout only reaches the low end of Bennett's predictions, it will be scores higher than the July primary runoff where only 8 percent took part, down from 21 percent in the June primary. Of the 2.846 million votes cast in the June governor's race, 434,525 were for Republicans, 180,658 for Democrats.

Gadsden residents plan veterans day walk in leiu of no parade

It's now been two years since Gadsden's last Veteran's Day parade.

A parade was being planned for this year but it has now been canceled because of lack of support from the community.

Now a group of citizens are planning a two block march on the sidewalks downtown.  The idea for the walk all began with a veteran who is upset the city isn't having a parade. He was planning to go downtown and walk by himself on Veterans Day.

Alice Minyard decided to take action Starting a Facebook group called Supporting the Veterans and she used it to ask the public to join in the walk downtown.

Everyone is meeting at 7:00 a.m. on November 11 at the Gadsden Federal Court House on Broad Street. The walk will start at 7:30 a.m. Organizers are inviting every veteran in Etowah County to attend.