Memorials for Victims

Criminal Details

The Dothan Eagle
Ebony Horton - Sep 16, 2010
View on DothanEagle.com

OZARK – A year-old tragedy that split a family across two sides of a Dale County courtroom ended Thursday with a man being found not guilty of his cousin’s death.

After more than three hours of deliberation, a jury found that 28-year-old Josh O’Neal Cook was not guilty of murder when he shot his cousin, 38-year-old James “Spanky” Stephens, on Sept. 14, 2009.

It was the second murder case in Dale County this year in which a jury returned a not guilty verdict when defense attorneys argued self defense.

Authorities said Cook shot and killed Stephens with a .22-caliber revolver on the night he came onto Cook’s property to protect Cook’s ex-wife Chloe Pugh, who authorities have said was Stephens’ girlfriend at the time.

Defense attorneys Robert Brogden and Jason Brogden argued Cook acted in self defense when he fired one warning shot as Stephens advanced toward him and then another shot that claimed Stephens’ life.

Stephens’ mother, Diane Hallford, said through tears that she didn’t know whether to be angry at Cook or to hug him.

“It’s been more like Spank was on trial, when we know the only reason he went there that night was to protect somebody else. But I know that if Spank was here and Josh (Cook) had shown any remorse or was the father he claims to be, that my son would have said not to send (Cook) to jail,” she said.

“It ain’t easy. Sometimes I still sit out and wait for Spank to pull up. He loved his momma, and we all loved him very much.”

Robert Brogden said Stephens risked his own life because Pugh told Stephens that Cook threatened her life and the life of her 3-year-old son on the night Stephens was killed.

The incident happened within two minutes of the Midland City Police Department, according to Brogden.

“Both Chloe Pugh and (Stephens) had opportunities where this would not have happened. She could have listened to her friend and left or called the police. He could have listened to his friend and not gone over there, or left when that first warning shot was fired,” Brogden said during closing arguments.

“If (the jury) found this man guilty, word would get out that a woman can sick her (boyfriend) on her husband, they can come to your house and you can’t do nothing about it.”

Dale County Assistant District Attorney Bill Filmore said Cook had other options besides killing Stephens on the night of the incident.

Filmore said he believed the self-defense law defense attorneys applied was not intended for such a case.

“I don’t think the Legislature’s intent (on self defense) was that for anybody who walks in your yard, you have the right to just blow them away. How about jumping in his truck and taking a right turn?” Filmore asked in closing arguments.

“What about where he shot him at in the center mass? Were there other options there? … Josh Cook committed murder. Common sense tells you that.”

Cook’s mother, Tressa Denton, said there were things everyone could have done different the night Stephens was killed.

“My son could have acted differently. If the shoe was on the other foot and I had lost him, I would be angry as well. It’s been a full year since we’ve seen our grandson. Everyone could have done things different,” she said.

Criminal Details

Facebook.com
@AlabamaLostnmissing

#Missing: Kemberly Lorin Ramer

NamUs MP # 4025

NCMEC number: 836649

Missing since: August 15, 1997

Missing from: #Opp, #Alabama #AL

#(Covington County)

CharleyProject.org
Date Unknown

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

• Missing Since: August 15, 1997 from Opp, Alabama
• Classification: Endangered Missing
• Date Of Birth: May 18, 1980
• Age: 17 years old
• Height and Weight: 5'4, 130 pounds
• Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Kemberly wore clear braces on her teeth at the time of her 1997 disappearance. She has thick eyebrows and her ears are pierced. Her nickname is Kem. Her shoe size is 6 1/2.
• Clothing/Jewelry Description: Possibly white t-shirt with a brightly colored design on the front and the words "New Orleans" underneath, gray cut-off sweatpants, a gold bracelet, a gold necklace and a gold chain ankle bracelet.

Details of Disappearance

Kemberly attended a softball game on the night of August 15, 1997, then visited her boyfriend and other friends. She left her boyfriend's house sometime between 11:00 and 11:45 p.m. to return to her father's residence, which was about a five-minute drive away, and her car pulled into the driveway at around midnight. She has never been seen again, and none of her shoes disappeared with her. She vanished four days before she was due to start her senior year of high school. She planned to attend the University of South Alabama and major in physical therapy.

Kemberly's parents reported her as a missing person at 9:00 a.m. on August 17, two days after she was last seen. There was evidence of a struggle inside her bedroom and it's possible that she was been taken against her will. Her personal belongings were left behind at the home, including her eyeglasses, her contacts, jewelry, and money. Foul play is suspected by both the police and Kemberly's family. Her boyfriend and all her family members have been ruled out as suspects.

Nine months after Kemberly's disappearance, on her eighteenth birthday, investigators searched a rural Walton County lake. They were acting on two tips that her body had been dumped there. The search lasted three days and turned up no clues relating to Kemberly's case. In 2001, a non-profit group in Texas searched Baptism Hole with cadaver dogs and got several hits. They dug up an engine block with a rope tied to it, but had to leave the site before they could excavate it completely. The next day the FBI brought in its own dogs and the animals gave no indication of smelling human remains, so there were no more searches conducted in that area.

In September 2006, investigators searched a sinkhole near Ponce de Leon, Florida for Kemberly's remains after receiving an anonymous tip directing them to that location. The search turned up no evidence and Kemberly's case remains unsolved.

Investigating Agency
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Opp Police Department
334-493-4511
OR
Federal Bureau Of Investigation
202-324-3000

Criminal Details

No criminal details found.

Criminal Details

blog.AL.com
The Associated Press - May 29, 2009

MONTGOMERY -- The Alabama Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for a kidnapping and murder in Houston County.

The court issued a 7-0 ruling today rejecting Michael Jerome Lewis' challenge to his death sentence for his capital murder conviction.

Lewis was convicted in the beating and shooting death of Timothy John Kaye at a mobile home in Houston County on April 25, 1997.

In his appeal, Lewis said his trial judge erred when he didn't instruct the jury about "residual doubt" in the penalty phase of the trial. Residual doubt is the absence of absolute certainty of guilt. The Supreme Court said residual doubt is not a mitigating circumstance in capital murder cases.

The Dothan Eagle
Lance Griffin - Aug 4, 2014

The attorney for a man convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death 11 years ago believes prison inmates could have information that will help him land a new trial.

 

Ab Powell, attorney for Michael Jerome Lewis, asked a local judge on Monday to allow the testimony of three inmates currently housed at various prisons around the state.

Lewis is seeking a new trial for several reasons, including ineffective counsel during the trial. An evidentiary hearing to determine if a new trial is warranted is set for Aug. 19 in front of Judge PB McLaughlin and Lewis is seeking those inmates’ testimony during that hearing.

Lewis was convicted in 2003 for the 1997 murder of Timothy John Kaye. Another man, James Anthony Free, was also convicted and sentenced to death. According to court records, Lewis, Free, Kaye and another person went to Lewis’s mobile home in Houston County. Free and Kaye became involved in an altercation, which resulted in Free beating Kaye in the head with his fist and a beer bottle.

At some point, Lewis also became involved in the altercation. Free and Lewis then started arguing over who would shoot Kaye. The badly-beaten Kaye was subsequently shot twice in the head. Kaye was placed in the back of his pick-up truck and taken across the state line into Holmes County, Florida. Lewis and Free then threw Kaye’s body from a bridge on Highway 2 into the Choctawhatchee River. Lewis and Free later returned to Houston County, in Kaye’s truck, drove the truck to a field alongside Sonny Mixon Road, and set it on fire.

Powell argued Monday that Free told several inmates he acted alone in the murder.

State prosecutor Jon Hayden argued the motion to allow the inmates to testify during the Aug. 19 evidentiary hearing should not be granted because the testimony amounts to hearsay.

McLaughlin is expected to rule today.

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.

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.

Criminal Details

No criminal details found.

Criminal Details

DothanFirst.com
Valencia Jones - January 9, 2016

Dothan Police Lt. Will Glover, the supervisor of the criminal investigation division (CID), said the inquiry into what happened to Ruthie Mae Jackson remains open. He said investigators in the violent crimes unit periodically review old unsolved cases, such as the Jackson one, checking to see if there’s any evidence that can be analyzed with more up to date technology.

According to an earlier Dothan Eagle report, Ruthie Mae Jackson was fatally stabbed at least a dozen times about her body and neck during the early morning hours of Easter Sunday, then April 7, 1996, at her 403 E. Adams St. home.

Glover said investigators have ruled out robbery as a motive in the Jackson homicide.

“We don’t close unsolved homicides,” Glover said. “Any lead that’s developed or called in we follow up on it immediately.”

randyroughton.blogspot.com
Randy Roughton - May 22, 2014

Mrs. Jackson, 73, was preparing her Easter Sunday meal in her 1403 E. Adams St., home on April 7, 1996 and had planned to join her daughter Shirley for worship services. Shirley Jackson was waiting on her mother to call her that day, but says "My mama hasn't called me yet."

The Jacksons - Bobby, Early, James (and wife Patricia), Sam Selma and Shirley - live together in a cluster of houses in the Helen community where they were reared by Mrs. Jackson and her former husband Sam. But holidays have not been the same since the murder.