Anthony Jackson, left, and Terry Jackson
Richard Burgin, Jr.
Man charged in Huntsville church pantry slayings had life sentence overturned in 2001
By Brian Lawson
al.com
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The man charged in the slaying of two elderly brothers last summer at a church food pantry avoided a life sentence for a 1997 robbery after the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the life term on procedural grounds.
As a result of the appeals court ruling Richard Burgin Jr., 50, was given a 23-year sentence and released from the Alabama Department of Corrections custody in November 2010.
He is now charged with capital murder in the May 21, 2013 slayings of Anthony Jackson, 76, and Terry Jackson, 69, at the food pantry at West Huntsville United Methodist Church, where the brothers volunteered to clean up and help distribute food.
Burgin, who was already in custody at Draper Correctional Facility in Elmore after a parole violation, was brought to Huntsville today to face the capital murder charges.
[Related story: 'Saints' of West Huntsville Methodist Church cut down as they volunteered in church's food pantry]
According to court records Burgin pleaded guilty to robbery in 1997 in Tuscaloosa County and due to prior felony convictions in Florida, and was given a life sentence. He challenged that sentence on procedural grounds, arguing prosecutors did not give proper notice they intended to introduce his criminal history at sentencing.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals agreed in 2001 and ordered him resentenced.
Court records indicate he was given a 23-year sentence for the robbery. Burgin was released from the Alabama Department of Corrections custody in November 2010. He violated parole last summer and was returned to state custody in August 2013, a DOC spokeswoman said today.
The probation revocation appears to stem from a June 10, 2013 robbery charge in Huntsville, about three weeks after the pantry slayings. In the robbery case he was alleged to have stolen more than $1,000 in clothes from Belk.
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/in...l#incart_river
Bookmarks