Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Willie H. Forrest, Jr. Dies Awaiting Sentencing in 2011 AL Slaying of Shellane Green

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217

    Willie H. Forrest, Jr. Dies Awaiting Sentencing in 2011 AL Slaying of Shellane Green

    Ruby Hayes told a jury today that she was at work in Washington State on March 2, 2010 when she got a call from her ex-husband, Willie H. Forrest Jr., to confess that he had killed another ex-wife in Alabama.

    "He told me he cut her throat and she was (holding onto) her throat and he looked at her and said 'why don't you just die," Hayes told the jury. "He told me that he didn't' feel bad about what he had done and didn't miss any sleep that night."

    Hayes was the final prosecution witness in Forrest's trial being held before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Clyde Jones.

    Forrest, 59, is charged with capital murder in the course of a burglary in the death of his ex-wife Shellane Green sometime during the night of Feb. 28, and March 1, 2011 at her home in Adamsville. Forrest could face the death penalty if convicted.

    Defense attorneys Daniel Wainscott and Kenneth Gomany met with Forrest and his mother late this afternoon to decide whether Forrest will testify when the trial continues on Thursday.

    Hayes testified that she had married Forrest in 1998 and he divorced her in 2003. But she said she had left Alabama to go to Washington State in 1998 for "domestic violence reasons."

    Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Moore stopped Hayes from discussing the domestic violence issue.

    Prior domestic violence issues involving Forrest and Green also surfaced during testimony.

    Green had filed a protection from abuse order and had refused to sign a complaint one time. She also had refused to sign a burglary warrant against Forrest for an incident at her home on Nov. 16, 2010. However, an Adamsville police officer signed the arrest warrant for burglary. Forrest was arrested on Feb. 11, 2011 when he ran out of gas in Adamsville and an officer stopped to help and found out Forrest had a pending burglary arrest warrant.

    According to earlier testimony, a cellmate said Forrest had told him he was going to get even with his wife when he was released from the Jefferson County Jail. Just over 12 hours after being released from jail on Feb. 28, 2011, Adamsville police found Green's body inside her home.

    Wainscott asked Hayes if Forrest talked about having stayed over at the house with Green even after their divorce. She said Shellane wouldn't let him stay over there when he was upset.

    Wainscott told the jury during opening statements that Forrest did kill Green, but that it wasn't capital murder in the course of burglary. He said that Forrest still spent time over at Green's house.

    Wainscott had told jurors that Forrest was over at Green's house when she got a call from a boyfriend in California and the situation escalated until he killed her.

    When that boyfriend, Mark Sloan, testified today he denied he called her on the night of Feb. 28. He said he did get a missed call from her cell phone. He said when he called the number back one time Forrest answered the telephone and cursed at him. He said he later got a text that stated "I'm not coming to see you because now I'm dead."

    Sloan said he had originally met while both he and Green were in the U.S. Army and stationed in Kosovo.

    After Forrest was arrested, a bloody knife was found in the battery compartment of the car he had been driving and the blood on the knife matched Green, according to testimony today from a police evidence technician and a DNA expert today.

    Jefferson County Medical Examiner Dr. Robert Brissie also testified that Green had 47 stab wounds or cuts to her body. Dr. Richard Weems a forensic dental expert at UAB also testified that Forrest was the probable source of a bite to one of Green's forearms.

    Adamsville Police Officer Jonathan Peterson also testified that when he arrived at Green's house the morning of March 1, 2011 the front door was unlocked and the back door was cracked open. He said he and another officer found Green's nude body upstairs in the master bedroom.

    One of the things police also found was that the phone lines to the house had been disconnected, Peterson said.

    Another police officer also testified they were able to find and arrest Forrest through the tracking of cellphone calls he had made. Four cell phones were found in his car when he was arrested.

    Three police officers have said during questioning by Wainscott and Gomany that Forrest did not resist arrest during their contact with him before and after Green was killed.

    http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/09/...birmingha.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  2. #2
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Jury weighing death penalty, life without parole for man convicted of killing ex-wife at her Adamsville home

    A Jefferson County jury is set to begin deliberating whether a Birmingham man, who was convicted of cutting his ex-wife's throat inside her Adamsville home, will be put to death or sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    The jury deliberated for about two and a half hours Thursday afternoon before finding 59-year-old Willie Forrest Jr. guilty of capital murder in the death of Shellane Green.

    Forrest's trial is being held before Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Clyde Jones.

    Deputy Jefferson County District Attorneys Tom Moore and Misty Reynolds are prosecuting the case.

    Green was killed sometime during the night of Feb. 28 and March 1, 2011, at her home in Adamsville. She was found nude with her throat slit about 12 hours after Forrest had been released from jail.

    Forrest also was convicted of second-degree burglary in a November 2010 incident that also involved Green.

    Moore said that Forrest cut his ex-wife's throat and likely had sex with her after she died.

    Another ex-wife told Adamsville Police that Forrest had confessed to her that he had killed Green "and slept well the night he did it."

    Green had gotten a protection from abuse order and by law he wasn't allowed at the house, even if she had invited him, Moore said.

    Prosecutors asked the jury to recommend the death penalty for several reasons, including that Green's death was "heinous, torturous and cruel."

    "Unlike what you've heard before, this factor does not focus on his intent but on the pain that the victim experienced through this savage murder," Moore said.

    During the first phase of the trial, defense attorneys Daniel Wainscott and Ken Gomany argued that Forrest did kill Green, but that it isn't capital murder.

    Gomany asked the jury to recommend that Forrest's life be spared.

    "In no way do we diminish what Shellane went through," he said. "We're very sorry that this occurred."

    A neuropsychologist who evaluated Forrest this year testified that he suffers from severe depression that went untreated for decades, and he has tried to commit suicide at least five times.

    During the evaluation, Forrest said he had hallucinations and heard voices telling him to kill himself and harm Green.

    In her closing argument, Reynolds challenged the medical findings, saying that Forrest simply tells doctors what he wants them to hear.
    "Shellane's family was robbed of a mama and a grandmamma and a veteran of this country," Reynolds said. "She did not deserve to die. He deserves the death penalty not because of the dear person that she was but because of the person that he is."

    http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/09/...alty_li_1.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Jury recommends Birmingham man get death penalty in 2011 slaying of ex-wife in Adamsville

    A jury this afternoon recommended a Birmingham man be sentenced to death in the 2011 slaying of his ex-wife in Adamsville.

    After deliberating about an hour this afternoon, a jury voted 11-1 to recommend Willie Forrest Jr., 59, be sentenced to death in the death of Shellane Green.

    "I think this is as close to justice as you can get on a case like this," said Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Tom Moore.

    "If Willie Forrest did not deserve the death penalty, then we ought to stop giving it at all," said Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Misty Reynolds, who prosecuted the case with Moore.

    Green's daughter, Brittany Jackson, 25, who has two young children, issued a handwritten statement on behalf of her family:

    "Shellane L. Walker Green was a daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, friend and a woman of God, who loved her family and the work that she did as a nurse and Army reservist."

    "What Willie Forrest Jr. did to Shellane has forever changed our lives. Shellane did not deserve this. She was loved by her family and friends. While we respect the jury's verdict and punishment, this will only close a chapter in this healing process."

    "We would like to thank DAs Tom Moore and Misty Reynolds, the Adamsville Police Department, Detective Angela Smith, and the jurors for being the voices for Shellane. Justice was served."

    Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Clyde Jones will hold a hearing Nov. 13 to decide whether to take the jury's recommendation and impose a death sentence or sentence Forrest to life without the possibility of parole.

    Forrest showed no emotion when the jury foreperson read the jury's recommendation.

    "We hope he will override or not take the recommendation and sentence him (Forrest) to life without the possibility of parole," Ken Gomany, one of Forrest's attorneys said after the hearing.

    Gomany said there will be appeals. "We think we raised some issues in the trial that could be looked upon by the appellate court," he said.

    Daniel Wainscott was the other defense attorney in the case.

    The jury on Thursday had found Forrest guilty of capital murder in the course of a robbery and a second-degree burglary related to an earlier incident at Green's Adamsville home.

    During the first phase of the trial, defense attorneys Daniel Wainscott and Gomany argued that Forrest did kill Green, but that it wasn't capital murder - that he did not commit burglary and he was invited inside.

    Prosecutors, however, said that Forrest cut his ex-wife's throat and likely had sex with her after she died. Another ex-wife also testified that Forrest had called to confess and that as he watched her clutch her throat told Green: "why don't you just die."

    Forrest killed his ex-wife hours after he had left the jail, where he had been held on a burglary warrant from a previous incident at her house, prosecutors said. A cellmate had testified that Forrest had talked about getting back at Green.

    Forrest also had texted Green's boyfriend that she wouldn't be coming over because she's dead.

    Green, who had a protective order against Forrest, had 47 stab wounds or cuts to her body.

    http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/09/...ngham_man.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Ala man convicted in murder dies before sentencing

    A Birmingham man convicted of killing his ex-wife has died before hearing whether he would get the death penalty.

    Al.com ( http://bit.ly/1esWLcn) reports that 60-year-old Willie H. Forrest Jr. died early Monday. A judge had planned to sentence him on Friday.

    A jury convicted Forrest last year for the 2011 murder of his ex-wife, Shellane Green. Green's throat was cut and she had 47 stab wounds.

    Jurors had recommended Forrest get the death penalty, but the final decision was up to the judge.

    A judge was supposed to sentence Forrest last week, but the hearing was delayed because of the winter storm.

    A doctor had told the judge that Forrest had cancer and only had only days to live.

    http://www.moultonadvertiser.com/new...3b466c191.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •