Twenty-one-year-old Jarvis Hines of Tanner was sentenced to life in prison this week after pleading guilty to murder in the shooting death of 64-year-old Donnell McCullough.
District Attorney Kristi Valls said Hines agreed to plead when offered the reduced charge of murder, a lesser charge than capital murder.
Under the life sentence, Hines could be eligible for parole in the future, she said.
Hines was accused of capital murder in connection with the Dec. 14, 2006, shooting death of McCullough after being arrested in Opelika, where he fled after the shooting.
Athens Police investigators said they found drugs in Hines’ possession when he was arrested. Hines also gave a false name that matched a false identification card, but Opelika authorities recognized him from a wanted poster and sent his fingerprints to an FBI scanner, where they were quickly identified as those of Hines.
Athens Police Capt, Marty Bruce said earlier that McCullough’s next-door neighbor, whose name was not disclosed because he is a witness, called 911 the night of the shooting at McCullough’s residence at C16 of Houston Court Apartments. The witness told authorities he, Jarvis and McCullough were in the efficiency apartment when Jarvis and McCullough began arguing. Growing fearful, the witness said he went into the bathroom, where he heard shots. When he came out, he found McCullough dead from four gunshot wounds, Bruce said.
Valls said Wednesday that Hines had gone to McCullough to sell him some drugs and that McCullough refused.
“McCullough was found with cocaine in his system,” she said. “Jarvis was going to make him buy, no matter what.”
Valls still has several murder cases pending for trial.
Among those is Kathy Birge, 53, of Madison, who is getting another trial after the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously overturned her 2003 capital-murder conviction. Birge was convicted of poisoning her husband, Cecil Birge, in 2001.
In the Birge case, the high court said the Indiana pathologist who performed the autopsy on her husband could not name everyone who handled the toxicology samples. It overturned the conviction and ordered another trial.
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