D.A.: Officers 'carefully watched by a predator'

Jun. 3—EATONTON, Ga. — Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III said Wednesday that corrections officers Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Christopher Monica were "carefully watched by a predator" the day they were murdered aboard a prison transport bus.

Barksdale and Ricky Allen Dubose's lead defense attorney, Amber Pittman, presented opening statements Wednesday in Dubose's double-murder trial in Putnam County Superior Court.

If jurors convict Dubose of the June 13, 2017, slayings the prosecution team plans to seek the death penalty against the defendant. The crimes for which Dubose is accused of are killing the officers and escaping from a state prison transport bus in Putnam County with co-defendant Donnie Russell Rowe.

Rowe was convicted of the same crimes last year and is serving life in prison.

Billue, 58, and Monica, 42, lived in Baldwin County and worked out of the transportation unit of Baldwin State Prison near Milledgeville. They were employed by the Georgia Department of Corrections.

"I'm going to take you back to June 13, 2017," Barksdale told the jurors, who were selected from Glynn County to hear the case. "It's early morning. It's the start to a hot middle Georgia summer day. And not too far from this courthouse, there is a Georgia Department of Corrections bus traveling down Highway 16."

The bus was driven by Billue. His partner was Monica.

"It seems like a very ordinary start to the day," Barksdale said. "But as the evidence will show, it's anything but."

Barksdale said the defendant sitting at the defense table, busted through a gate separating inmates on the bus from the officers at about 6:40 a.m.

After getting through the gate, the defendant went straight to a Glock 9mm pistol and shot Monica in the head, the prosecutor told a hushed courtroom of family members of the victims and a large number of representatives from the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Dubose then turned and shot Billue in the head, Barksdale said.

"Over the course of the next several weeks, you're going to hear about the brutal murders that occurred that day," Barksdale said. "You're going to hear about the prison (bus) escape. And you're going to hear about the three-day manhunt that ensued."

Barksdale offered jurors a look into what happened earlier on the morning of June 13, 2017.

The inmates who left Baldwin State Prison destined for other state prison facilities were all handcuffed and loaded onto the bus.

"Almost immediately, upon entering that bus, the defendant slipped his handcuff," Barksdale said. "He then took that handcuff, flipped it around, and actually used it as a tool to remove others' handcuffs."

The prosecutor said there was video surveillance on the bus.

"What you will also see is the first person [Dubose] goes to is an inmate by the name of Donnie Rowe," Barksdale said. "And Donnie Rowe is this man's partner in crime. He then goes about the bus and removes several other inmates' handcuffs."

At some point, Billue and Monica leave Baldwin State Prison on the bus and head to their next state corrections facility — Hancock State Prison near Sparta.

Their assignment was to pick up additional inmates.

The officers get off the bus and go into the prison, he said.

"What you're going to find is that the gate that separated the inmates from the officers was not properly locked," Barksdale told jurors. "While the two officers were off the bus at Hancock State, helping get the other prisoners ready for transport, the man at this table, and his buddy, Donnie Rowe, went through that gate and retrieved the lunch of the two officers. These two men literally ate the lunch of the two people they were about to murder."

Barksdale told jurors they would see those same two inmates passing out food to other inmates.

"But you will also see only two people that go to the front of that bus," he added.

Those two men were Dubose and Rowe.

The district attorney said when Billue and Monica returned to the bus with their additional inmates, neither of them noticed their lunches were missing and Dubose had closed the gate back.

The bus made its way from the prison near Sparta along Ga. Route 16.

The bus crossed over the Oconee River and into Putnam County.

Barksdale said a short time afterward that Dubose breached the gate again.

"But this time, he's not looking for lunch," he said. "What you're going to see is someone with skill and precision. He goes through the gate, retrieves a Glock 9, loads it — shoots Christopher Monica, shoots Curtis Billue, and kicks a window out of the bus. All of that, ladies and gentlemen, takes a mere 40 seconds — 40 seconds to bust through the gate, retrieve a gun, load it, shoot two people and kick a window out. Forty seconds is all it took for the defendant to do what I just described, and you're going to see every second of it. You're going to see, absolutely, every second of it."

It so happened that a Putnam County man, Phillip Beasley, was headed to work at his construction job when he came upon the state prison transport bus stopped in the middle of the roadway.

"He thinks it's broken down," Barksdale said. "In less than a minute, the defendant is a free man and his next victim is Phillip Beasley."

The construction worker was greeted by Dubose ordering him at gunpoint to get out of his car.

"He hijacks that man's car," Barksdale said. "And he takes his cellphone. In less than a minute, the defendant has already victimized another person."

Dubose and Rowe got into Beasley's green Honda Civic and headed down the highway towards Eatonton.

They made their way up U.S. 441 into Madison.

"Along that route, the defendant passes several law enforcement officers — blue lights and sirens — and he knows exactly where they are going," Barksdale said. "They are going to the carnage he just left."

Dubose later decided to get rid of the car, the district attorney said, abandoning it in a creek bed.

Barksdale said it was there that Dubose ripped off the prison blue stripes from his pants, took his prison-issued shirt, and walked to a washed-out portion of that creek bed where he left the clothing.

The car wasn't found by authorities until the next day.

The duo then burglarized a nearby residence.

They walked several miles and later stole a pickup truck from a rock quarry near Buckhead.

They then journeyed along I-20 into the mountains of middle Tennessee — "the stomping grounds of Donnie Rowe," Barksdale said.

They committed several crimes, including a violent home invasion where an elderly couple was threatened by the escaped inmates from Georgia.

Eventually, the pair became involved in a chase and Dubose shot at several deputies with the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee.

Rowe later wrecked the vehicle that he stole from the elderly couple and they are forced to flee on foot.

A short time later, the pair surrendered in the driveway of a nearby residence.

Barksdale told jurors he wanted them to pay close attention to the interview that Dubose had with FBI agents shortly after he and Rowe were taken into custody.

"Pay close attention to that interview because the defendant is going to describe why he did what he did and how he did it in great detail," the prosecutor said.

Barksdale told jurors that they would be left with an intelligent, calculated criminal, motivated by his desire to escape the Georgia chain gang.

"What you're going to be left with is a gruelling murder of Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue," he said. "And at the end of this evidence, we're going to come right back here and ask you to find him guilty of exactly what he did."