Three high-profile murder cases from 2009 will be going to trial in the coming months.

Michael Brandon Kelley

A tentative trial date of August 30 was set last week for 29-year-old Kelley, who is charged with the capital murder and the torture of 23-year-old Emily Milling of Leeds.

Kelley, who was not granted bond after a preliminary hearing one year ago before St. Clair District Judge Phillip K. Seay, was indicted by a grand jury in April of 2009 on two counts of capital murder, one count of capital murder during a kidnapping and one count of capital murder during sexual abuse. The grand jury also indicted him on one count of sexual torture.

At the preliminary hearing one year ago, Leeds Sergeant Renee Reaves presented testimony dealing with police and forensic findings at Kelley’s residence, testimonies of witnesses to events surrounding Milling’s death and evidence found in a dumpster at a Leeds business.

Members of the U.S. Marshal’s Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Kelley at a Days Inn in Pico Rivera, California just over a week after Millings was last seen.

Millings was reported missing on November 16 2008. Friends of Millings said she did not show back up at the Central Club in Leeds on November 14 after leaving with Kelly and telling them, “I’ll be back in 20 minutes.”

Milling’s body was found three days later in a wooded area off Markeeta Road in Leeds.

Sergeant Reaves gave testimony that showed that a worker at Mike’s Fabrication in Leeds saw Kelley drop garbage bags in a dumpster the morning after Milling’s friends last saw her.

The five garbage bags collected by investigators contained bloody items including a man and woman’s clothing and a bathroom instrument used in what the coroner reported as a severe assault on Millings, though the official cause of death was asphyxiation caused by strangling.

Reaves noted in her testimony that Kelley had what appeared to be scratches on Kelley’s legs consistent with walking through underbrush when apprehended in California.

When Kelley’s mobile home and was searched by forensic and police investigators, Reaves said that there appeared to be reddish-brown stains on light switches and on carpet.

The forensic team sprayed Luminol, a chemical used to detect blood at crime scenes. When Luminol reacts with iron in blood it glows. Reaves said that when the forensic team sprayed Kelley’s mobile home with Luminol “the entire trailer glowed.”

Kelley’s Chevy Blazer was also searched and swabs of reddish brown stains found in the vehicle.





Randy O’Neal Davidson

Circuit Judge Jim Hill set a trial date of September 20 for 29-year-old from Sterrett, who is charged with the capital murder of 62-year-old Diana Donahoo Rice of Shelby County.

Last year Shelby County Sheriff Investigator Shelby O’Connor gave testimony before District Judge Phillip Seay that showed that Davidson had been filmed on April 3 of last year by a surveillance video late in the evening at the Brompton Chevron getting out of and back into Rice’s 2003 white Ford Taurus a few miles from where her body was found.

Two days before Rice was reported missing, Davidson walked out the back door of his residence on foot while Shelby County Sheriff’s investigators were trying to determine what role he may have played in a burglary, O’Connor said.

O’Connor gave testimony that showed that on April 3, Davidson showed up at a home where Rice cared for an elderly person about 6:30 a.m. claiming to have wrecked his car and was waiting for someone to come and assist him.

Testimony showed that he made several phone calls to his girlfriend while at the residence.

The person Rice cared for went to bed around 7:45 p.m. and later told investigators that the man was still at the residence. The elderly person later confirmed Davidson’s identity through photographs.

When her patient awoke at 4 a.m. the next day, Rice was not at the residence; though she was expected to have stayed the night and help drive the elderly person to an important event that morning.

Rice’s purse was recovered by law enforcement about a minute’s drive from where her body was found off Camp Winnataska Road with her credit cards still in it, but no cash. She had taken out $400 from her bank account days earlier, which her daughter said was to be used on the Saturday she was reported missing to secure an apartment, O’Connor told Judge Seay.

The day Davidson was arrested, Shelby County investigators happened to be meeting at a Flying J truck stop near Fultondale to map out a plan of action as to how to go about talking to friends and relatives of Davidson’s while investigating the burglary he was charged with, which took place about five miles south of the residence where Rice was last seen.

The sharp-eyed officers saw Rice’s car and two plain-clothes investigators decided to stay behind. Soon thereafter, Davidson returned to the car and he was arrested on the spot and charged with the burglary.

O’Connor’s testimony showed that once he was in Shelby County’s custody, Davidson admitted to investigators that he had been high on methamphetamine and had no recollection of killing Rice.

O’Connor said that he did, however, give three locations as to where her body might be found. One of them included the area Rice’s body was located by St. Clair Sheriff’s officials.

“At some point he said that she (Rice) gave him the vehicle,” O’Connor said. Asked by Davidson’s attorney if he gave a confession, O’Connor replied that he didn’t come out and say that he killed Rice, but added, “He qualified the answers.”

O’Connor told the court that Davidson “said he couldn’t believe that he could have done something like that. He remembered being at the lookout with Diana. He said that he had been on methamphetamines for several days.”

Davidson told investigators that he didn’t have a gun and that he didn’t like blood.

Evidence techs sent blood found on Davidson’s clothing to a forensic lab to see if it matched Rice’s. A nylon cord found 10 to 15 feet away from Rice’s body was also recovered at the scene.

Davidson told investigators that he had been riding near the power lines off Camp Winnataska Road a few weeks before he was captured on surveillance tape at the Brompton Chevron.

O’Connor told the court that Davidson was asked by investigators if Rice was with him when he was captured on camera. He told them that he had stopped to buy more minutes for his cell phone. “He felt like that she was with him at that time. She had assisted him in punching the code in his phone because he was unable,” O’Connor said.

“He told us that if he did it, she would be basically right where she fell,” O’Connor said a bit later in her testimony.





Adrian Glass

The 24-year-old’s lawyer entered a plea of not guilty by reason of disease or mental defect last week in St. Clair Circuit Court.

Glass is accused of murdering his parents last summer, and was indicted of two counts of capital murder, one count each for the slaying of his father, Jimmie Edward Glass, 51, and his mother, Jackie Denise Glass, 49.

At his arraignment a week ago St. Clair County District Attorney Richard Minor read aloud the two-count capital murder indictment against Glass, which charges that he shot his parents with a .22 caliber rifle.

His parents were found shot to death in July at their home on James Taylor Road in Moody in July.

After being apprehended and questioned in South Dakota, Adrian Glass admitted to killing his parents in a hand-written confession. He was being held in the Mount Rushmore State on a probation violation in connection with a 2007 DUI and a stolen property dispute.

At Glass’ preliminary trial in September of last year, Sgt. David Scott of the Moody Police Department testified before District Judge Phillip Seay that officers were called to the Glass residence on Friday, July 31 after being asked to check on the welfare of the couple.

Officers broke a window on the rear door of the residence to gain entry. Sgt. Scott testified that upon his arrival at the residence, the responding officers informed him that there were two bodies inside.

The sergeant was led to the master bedroom entryway. “The house was very cold,” Sgt. Scott testified. The temperature of the house had been lowed to 50 degrees.

The Alabama Department of Forensics was called in to process the scene. Sgt. Scott testified that the couple was found to have died from injuries incurred from multiple gunshot wounds.

A family member at the scene informed authorities that Adrian Glass’ Toyota pickup was not at the residence. Adrian lived at the home with his parents.

A manhunt ensued in the following days and Glass was eventually apprehended on August 5 during Bike Week in South Dakota. He had run out of cash and began using his bank account, which is how authorities were able to track him down.

He was interviewed by members of the Moody Police Department and then extradited back to St. Clair County by plane.

In interviews conducted in South Dakota and back in Alabama, it was revealed that Adrian Glass was in credit card debt. Glass wrote in a statement that combination of alcohol, unemployment, a t-shirt given to him by his mother and “sarcastic” comments she had made to her son contributed to his actions.

Sgt. Scott testified that there was an air of relief to Glass when he sat down for his initial interview in South Dakota. He testified that Glass’ bottom lip “was shaking like crazy.”

Some of the interviews revealed that he was “a real nice guy,” Sgt. Scott told the court. “Some of the interviewees [said he was a] ‘very good drinker,’ others said ‘sometimes he had a quick temper.’” Most of the time authorities hear “He was okay.”

Glass wrote in his statement that he hoped that some day his remaining family members might forgive him. He remains in custody without bond.