A courtroom that might have been packed with family members, curious members of the public and news media was instead kept to a very limited group Tuesday as opening arguments began in the trial of a Limestone County woman accused of participating in a 2017 botched robbery that left a man dead.

Jurors were kept socially distant at only three to a row, seated so they could view one of three television screens installed in the courtroom if they were too far from the witness stand. It was a first for the Limestone County Courthouse, courtesy of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

With the changes, the trial for Kandes Elizabeth Lambert went on as scheduled. In an opening statement for the prosecution, Limestone County Chief Deputy District Attorney James Ayers Jr. shared a bit about the victim, key figures in the case and the timeline that had been pieced together by investigators.

The victim, Brenton C. Gatlin, was a 27-year-old married father of two when he was shot July 25, 2017. According to Ayers, Gatlin was murdered during a robbery that was planned by Lambert, Terry Dale Amerson and Marty Gene Stafford, the latter having already been convicted and sentenced for his role in Gatlin’s death.

Ayers said evidence would show the group “had been friends for some time” and frequently used drugs together. When Lambert and Amerson learned Gatlin had received his tax refund, Ayers said they crafted a plan for Lambert to bring Gatlin to their home on Horton Street in Athens, where Amerson and Stafford would be waiting.

Court records from Stafford’s case state he was “in the course of robbing Gatlin when the fatal shot was fired.”

For the most part, Lambert’s defense team didn’t deny this. Defense attorney Lucas Beaty said the group used methamphetamine together, and there were messages between Lambert, Amerson and Stafford that show how they knew each other and their plan that night.

However, Beaty said, the message alerting Amerson that Lambert and Gatlin were a few minutes from the home where Amerson and Stafford were waiting to rob him was sent hours before they actually arrived. Beaty asked jurors to consider what might have happened in those hours and if Lambert might have alerted Gatlin to the plan, suggesting she may have gotten cold feet.

Where Ayers pointed out Lambert initially lied to police to give Stafford a chance to run, claiming instead a man she did not know had forced his way in through the back door to rob them, Beaty offered another explanation — Lambert was a drug addict being interviewed by law enforcement, so “what would you expect?”

“Tragically, a young man who did not have to die is dead,” Beaty said, but he asked jurors to also keep in mind that Lambert attempted to provide aid to Gatlin after he was shot and Athens Police noted signs of forced entry on the back door that Lambert initially identified as the point of entry for the shooter.

Still, even if she did try to back out of the plan, warn Gatlin or help him as he lay dying in her home, state law says that her presence in the home and participation in the robbery plot make her just as guilty in Gatlin’s death as Stafford or Amerson, whose trial hasn’t been held yet. The first count of her indictment, reckless murder, was dismissed Tuesday morning before opening arguments, but the other two — felony murder and first-degree theft — remain.

Under Alabama law, someone who commits or attempts to commit a “felony clearly dangerous to human life” and is in the process of committing, attempting or fleeing when they or another participant causes the death of any person has committed felony murder. Ayers told jurors during his opening remarks that while Gatlin’s death may have been unintended, Lambert did intend to join Amerson and Stafford in committing a robbery.

“If you undertake that crime and death results, you are guilty of that murder,” he said.

Whether jurors will agree remains to be seen. A verdict could be announced later this week. If convicted, Lambert could be sentenced to life in prison. Stafford received the same sentence in August 2020 after being convicted seven months prior of felony murder.

Amerson’s trial is set to begin April 12.