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