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About Griffin daily news. (Griffin, Ga.) 1924-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1977)
Page 10 Griffin Daily News Wednesday, September 28,1977 Suspect acquitted in shooting of black minister ALEXANDER CITY, Ala. (AP) — An all-white jury Tues day night acquitted a black truck driver in the shooting death of a controversial black minister some believed prac ticed voodoo. The jury found Robert Lewis Bums innocent by reason of in sanity of charges he gunned down the Rev. W.M. “Willie” Maxwell during funeral serv ices last June for the minister’s stepdaughter. Spectators who waited throughout the jury’s five hours of deliberations greeted the verdict with applause and ran to congratulate the 36-year-old truck driver from New Site. During testimony Tuesday, Alfonso Murphy of Eclectic told the court that the Rev. Mr. Maxwell tried several times last June to hire him to kill his stepdaughter, 16-year-old Shir ley Ann Ellington. Murphy said the minister told him the girl tried to poison him and he wanted her killed “be fore the 16th” of June. Miss Ellington’s body was found June 11, her neck pinned beneath the tireless rim of the minister’s car. State tox icologists said she was dead be fore she was placed under the car. Her death, like those of four Weak cold front pushes across state By The Associated Press The weak cold front that pushed a line of heavy thunder storms across Georgia will have passed out of the state by tonight, according to the Na tional Weather Service, leaving drier and sunnier weather be hind. Highs this afternoon were ex pected in the 80s in northern portions of the state to near 90 in the south. Today’s weather was in sharp contrast to Tuesday’s stormy and windy conditions across the state. A tornado warning was issued for Heard County, although no tornados were spotted. In nearby Omaha, Ala., winds reached a peak of 70 miles an hour, the weather service reported. Classroom 12" Favorite Save Sora by charm step SHOES tOday walk test al I. S>yy If you ore not sotis ■V** ,ieCl <hat OU ’ shOe!i /XV ore the best fitting I fLXz V or> d nK)5< com ‘ fortoble shoes ok /* you hove ever worn bring them ‘-'V'*" bock ond well re fund your money! Come See Our Collection of' School Styles. i ’S 00 Shoe EWorld FAMOUS BMMDS_yR TO SOI IHMOBIM. MM - OhfFIII other members of the minister’s family, remains unsolved. Bums, Miss Ellington’s 36- year-old uncle, pleaded in nocent by reason of insanity to OVER 150 STORES SERVING THE SOUTHEAST Mie Other Furniture Stores Are Advertising Sale Prices Badcock Home Furnishings Is Advertising ■ EVERYDAY LOW PRICES I K* - . -TawgMßl ' I I m I wife t/ I Ml- ■USUUiteR RB.I UM . ft ’ > I , .1444., - - * 1 11 Sofa wIWIK' I Oak 4 ’P iec « Bedroom Suite ■ I Hwrculon. All Cushions L I Double Dresser — 4 Drawer Chest I M,rror — or Q u »»" Bed I ns 120x94 I I ~| ’r I —■ gm ogU ett 4-piece Pecan Contemporary Living oom Suite Room Suite ueen Size Bed. Sofa-Love seat-Chalr. In ' f I ' Black or White Herculon. neete 5-piece Sit ’ I 1 . , 'WOsL. Dinette HVV*r Z/l 42 “ P» d «' ,< ‘ l table ' </ I • Clear acrylic back chairs. I 'X, J fll If VlrZi r s I • Black e White one chrome. ' // » - !* ’ ’1 • Amber e Yellow and chrome j * - ■'rf’k If t V- 1 ‘ >199*5 igj Hotpoint Multi-Cycle Washer I I 30” CrAS RclllgC e Perma press cycle e 3 temperature selections . 5 * White e Harvest Gold e •wHc*’ •• * ?* • A *ocado e White or harvest gold —— jKWSjjMF Elvinator 17" Frost Free Refrigerator 4 ys | Terms To established iso* Badcodi'A I Suit Your WB Famous Double J/ 4 JZI ? I *ll J Jb J s GUARANTEE of Complete Customer East Solomon Street Shopping Center Satisfaction or Your I CQQO Money Back. Backed I ZZu~UUdO oidT; MIMI Griffin, Ga. charges he gunned down the Rev. Mr. Maxwell during funer al services for the girl. The minister was shot three times in the face at point-blank range moments after a woman identified as Miss Ellington’s sister shouted at him, “You killed my sister and now you’re gonna pay.” Burns’ defense attorney, Tom Radney, told the court Monday that Burns’ actions were prompted by rumors that the Rev. Mr. Maxwell practiced voodoo and had “murdered his first wife, second wife, brother, nephew and Shirley Ellington.” Radney defended the Rev. Mr. Maxwell in 1969 when the minister was charged with murder in the death of his first wife. The clergyman was acquitted after he married the state’s principal witness, who then changed her testimony. She, too, later died under mysterious circumstances as did the minister’s brother and nephew.
