Capital murder, non-capital murder cases set for trial in second half of year

May 8—Seventeen defendants are charged with capital murder in pending cases in Morgan County, with another 17 non-capital murder cases awaiting trial, and for now, two of each are scheduled to go to trial during the second half of the year.

The Michael Bishop capital murder case is currently set for October, according to Presiding Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Howell, and due to the continuation of another case, the Jason Osborn capital murder case, which was tentatively scheduled for the second quarter of 2022, has been moved forward to Nov. 29.

Bishop, 35, of Huntsville, is charged with four counts of capital murder in the Oct. 27, 2017, shooting death of Raul de Quesada, 37, who authorities said was gunned down on the porch of his Southeast Decatur home. Osborn, 42, of Decatur, is charged with capital murder in the Oct. 28, 2018, death of a Decatur man. Osborn is accused of robbing Ricardo Dewayne Brown, 42, near 12th Avenue and Third Street Northwest then hitting Brown with his vehicle and fleeing the scene.

"Due to the complexity and length of trial, among other things, those (capital murder) cases are specially set usually over a year in advance," Howell said. "We try to close four capital murder cases a year; however, we had five set this year. Three have already been resolved this year by a plea."

Prosecutors reached plea agreements this year with three capital murder defendants: Christopher Swoopes, Darrin Wilkes and Terrance Ellison.

Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said he hopes that if any capital cases are continued because of conflicts or other issues, others will replace them so two more capital cases will be cleared this year.

"Taking care of these cases is like whittling on a stick that keeps growing," Anderson said. "It's always been like this and it'll always be like this."

Howell said non-capital murder cases are set on regular jury terms and tried with other criminal cases on the docket. Two of those are set on the June 14 criminal jury trial docket, according to Howell.

"I expect that if both sides are ready, those cases will be reached on that docket," Howell said.

The defendants in those cases are Abdullah El-Amin Mustafa Sayyed-El, 52, of Decatur, who is charged in the fatal shooting of his girlfriend, Latonya Michelle Rasheed, 42, of Moulton, on Thanksgiving Day in 2019, and Shadeed Abdul Fuqua, 30, of Decatur, who is charged in the Nov. 21, 2019, shooting death of Jermaine Cardell Jones, 27, of North Courtland.

"I'm sure we'll have more (non-capital murder) cases come up (for trial) this year," Anderson said.

Of the 17 capital murder defendants, five of those are defendants in a Hartselle murder-for-hire and several other cases involve two or more defendants, according to Anderson.

Five people were indicted last month on three counts of capital murder in the July 24 fatal shooting of Anthony Larry Sheppard, 41, at his Hartselle home, in what Anderson called "one of the most complex criminal cases" in his 30-year career. The defendants are Logan McKinley Delp and Jaclyn Skuce, both of Madison; Aaron Howard of Toney; and LaJuhn Keith Smart and Angela Stolz, both of Huntsville.

Another case that was set for trial this year was for Carey Davis Jr., of Norcross, Georgia, who is accused in the shooting death of 22-year-old Tiara Cole, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, at a Decatur hotel.

"I have recently met with the attorneys in the Carey Davis capital murder case, which was set to begin in August," Howell said. "The defense asked to continue the matter, and it is now set to be heard on Jan. 3, 2022."

The Alabama Supreme Court last year suspended jury trials through mid-September because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

"We've been holding jury trials since September without any problems, taking COVID precautions," Howell said.

In an October trial, a jury found Michelle Owens guilty of murder in the June 2016 shooting of her husband, Lawrence Edward "Eddie" Owens, at the family's home in Decatur. And the next month, Roger Dale Stevens was convicted of capital murder in the slaying of his ex-wife, Kay Letson Stevens, on Nov. 14, 2015, at her Decatur bakery.

Anderson said that with COVID-19 protocols at the Morgan County Courthouse and courtrooms, including social distancing, and "with vaccines available to everyone and anyone who wants them, I personally have witnessed that the public seems to be more at ease in coming to court and sitting on a jury."

— marian.accardi@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438. Twitter @DD_MAccardi.