Criminal Details

caselaw.FindLaw.com
August 26, 2005

On Sunday, January 26, 1997, during the evening hours, Max D. King and Johneen King were murdered at their home, located at Route 2, Box 4, Midland City, Alabama.

On Sunday, January 26, 1997, the Kings were at their home on Highway 134, between Midland City and Pinckard, Alabama. Their motor vehicles were parked in their driveway and in their garage or carport. Their lights were on. It was obvious to anyone that the Kings were at home and awake. Their dwelling was occupied.

The defendant and Calvin Butler approached the Kings’ home and knocked on the door. The defendant and Calvin Butler were under the guise that they were looking for a particular person or house. When Mr. King responded to the knock at the door, the defendant and his associate or accomplice, Calvin Butler, forced their way into the home. Mr. King was forced to lay down on the den floor in front of the television and was shot through the top of the head with a nine millimeter pistol. According to the autopsy reports and the testimony of Dr. Parades, the forensic medical examiner, the bullet entered the top of the head, passed through the brain, then exited the throat and neck area.

The defendant then escorted Mrs. King to the kitchen area in search of her purse and money and shot Mrs. King in the top of the left side of the head.

Both Mr. and Mrs. King were shot with a 9mm pistol at close range one time into the head.

The defendant and his accomplice or associate, Calvin Butler, took or stole Mr. King’s wallet, a .357 revolver, a 30/30 rifle, Mrs. King’s purse and contents, a toolbox and a safe which contained several hundred dollars during the course of the burglary, robbery and double murder.

The State’s evidence also showed that the police investigation focused on Wimberly after Mary Spivey was murdered in June 1997 in Dale County and Wimberly was arrested and charged with her murder. Forensic testing of the bullets that killed Spivey matched the bullets that killed the Kings. Calvin Butler, Wimberly’s codefendant in the Dale County murders, pleaded guilty to five counts of capital murder for his involvement in the murders. Butler testified at Wimberly’s trial that Wimberly shot and killed both Max King and Johneen King.

The Southeast Sun
Sarah Gilbert – Apr. 11, 2001

A Dothan man convicted in the slaying of a Midland City couple is scheduled to be retried in Dale County Circuit Court next week. Shaber Chamon (Hulk) Wimberly is scheduled to go on trial for the Jan. 26, 1997, slayings of retired state trooper Max King and his wife, Johneen. Mrs. King was the daughter of John and Earleen Bludsworth of Clayhatchee. Wimberly was convicted of the killings on April 24, 1998, and sentenced to death, but the conviction was overturned by a state appeals court in May 1999 on an age-rrelated technicality. At the time, Wimberly was the youngest death row inmate in the nation.

A Dothan man convicted in the slaying of a Midland City couple is scheduled to be retried in Dale County Circuit Court next week.

Shaber Chamon (Hulk) Wimberly is scheduled to go on trial for the Jan. 26, 1997, slayings of retired state trooper Max King and his wife, Johneen. Mrs. King was the daughter of John and Earleen Bludsworth of Clayhatchee. Wimberly was convicted of the killings on April 24, 1998, and sentenced to death, but the conviction was overturned by a state appeals court in May 1999 on an age-rrelated technicality. At the time, Wimberly was the youngest death row inmate in the nation.

The Court of Criminal Appeals based its ruling for a new trial on the premise that when investigators arrested Wimberly, then 17 years old, he was interrogated without being properly informed of his right to have his parent or guardian present.

The appeals court also said a statement by King’s stepdaughter which was read to jurors during the sentencing hearing was improper.

After the conviction was overturned, the Alabama Attorney General’s office petitioned the appeals court for a rehearing on the ruling, but the petition was rejected. The case was then appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, which agreed that Wimberly should have been allowed his juvenile rights to have his parents or guardian present during the interview with police. The justices said 16- and 17-year-old killers must be treated the same as other juvenile offenders. Justice Jean Brown disagreed, and wrote a dissenting report, saying that the traditional Miranda warnings were sufficient. Brown referred to the statute approved by the state Legislature, which states that any person who is 16 years old at the time of an incident is not subject to the jurisdiction of juvenile court if they have committed a capital offense, a Class A felony, committed a felony using a deadly weapon, and a felony which caused death or serious injury.

Wimberly was connected to the Midland City slayings after bullet casings showed the same 9mm gun used to kill Mary Spivey, 63, a longtime Columbia restaurant owner, was also used to kill the Kings. Spivey was killed during a robbery at her home several months after the Kings were murdered. Wimberly was found guilty of killing Mary Spivey by a Dothan jury in January 2000.