Sex, Lies, Pat Downs, & Death Row?

Most readers vividly remember convicted killer Christie Michelle Bray Scott. If any need their memories refreshed:

Scott's Road to Death Row

At the time of Scott's trial, we spoke with a cousin of Jeremy Scott, Christie's husband:

Interview

Not all of the cousin's comments were memorialized in our blog. We briefly discussed Jeremy and Christie's marriage. The cousin believed without a doubt that Jeremy would always remain faithful to Christie--there would never be a divorce. While such things are unusual, they aren't unheard of, but our money was on Jeremy ditching his errant wife after he had sufficient time to put things in perspective...and it seems our take was the correct one.

Flash forward to 2011 and the plot steams up. There was a great deal of he said/she said. There were also a lot of alleged threats from prison officials. It's anyone's guess what the truth may be, but we will attempt to present the alleged affair as the State of Alabama did in it's case against a Department of Corrections employee.

Picture Christie alone most of the day in a 6' x 9' cell. She has a television set, a microwave, and an ice bucket. She probably had some books also, but these aren't mentioned in trial accounts. Someone like Christie must have been sorely in need of someone to care...or someone to manipulate. Enter the night shift supervisor Matthew Hall.

Christie Scott & Matthew Hall

Hall was 31 and in an unhappy second marriage when he delivered Jeremy's divorce petition to Christie in March 2011. She broke down; he consoled. Fill in the blanks.

Christie claims that encounter produced their first kiss. Over the course of the next weeks, more kisses brought the two unhappy individuals together. Christie states they never had sex, but mainly discussed Hall's unhappy marriage in which his wife "made" him strip for her friends. Hall also made the routine pat downs interesting enough that Christie was brought to new heights in friendship and the sergeant openly spoke of buying her a home when she eventually won her release.

How long this relationship would have gone on is open to speculation, but apparently another death row prisoner became aware of the interaction. Did Christie just have to brag or were the pat downs that scream-inspiring? No matter how she knew, the inmate sent word to the warden, a warden who was not above threatening Christie to confess, at least according to her.

She may have loved Hall, but she obviously valued the ice bucket, microwave, and television more. Christie made a full confession. So did Hall. The confessions (Scott's was 11 pages long) were reported to match; however, at his trial in June 2014, Hall recanted and stated he had been coerced. The warden who had initiated the probe had retired, and the prosecution stated the jury apparently had issues with Scott's credibility. The jury took half an hour to find Hall not guilty, and his wife stood by him.

The trial was nine months ago. The story was not locally reported. Go figure...



Shoalanda

Exclusive Interview with Cousin of Murder Victim Mason Scott

We recently sat down with Laura Nelson*, a Scott family cousin, and asked her opinion on the circumstances surrounding the death of six year-old Mason Scott and the subsequent arrest of his mother Christie Bray Scott.

SS: I understand you're a cousin to Christie Bray Scott?

LN: No, actually I'm a cousin to Jeremy and Patrick's mother.

SS. Patrick was Jeremy's older brother? How did he die?

LN: It happened about nine or ten years ago. He had just gotten into a truck with some boys just north of Russellville when the vehicle flipped and ejected Patrick. I think he was killed instantly. It was sad since I was always much closer to Patrick than Jeremy. Jeremy was always the remote one. He never seemed to change facial expressions, even before Patrick and Mason's death. Now I never see him smile.

SS: Do you think he may have Asperger's or something similar? I know it can be hereditary.

LN: I don't know. I've never really thought about it, but he's completely different from the rest of his family.

SS: How did Jeremy and Michelle meet? I've heard they were high school sweethearts, but I know Jeremy is from Russellville and Christie is from Haleyville.

LN: I really don't know about that either. Jeremy's parents, Nell and Dale, live in the Crooked Oak community. Nell teaches handicapped children at Phil Campbell, and Dale was a truck driver until about a year ago when he retired in bad health. I understand the Bray family has quite a bit more money than Jeremy's, so I'm not sure how they got together.

SS: Christie is an only child?

LN: Oh, no. She has a sister and a brother and a little sister that died when a car rolled over her. Someone, don't know who, left the car in gear and the child was killed.

SS: Do you think her sister's death affected Christie? I mean in a way that could have altered her perception of reality?

LN: I don't know about that, but she's never seemed just right to me. She's always been distant and like she was in her own little world.

SS: Where is Jeremy living now?

LN: Sometimes he and Noah Riley (his younger son) live with Nell and Dale; other times they live with the Brays. It seems he aligned himself with the Bray family. I've heard Don has had a stroke since all this started and he's determined to keep Noah Riley close. They bought houses in Hartselle and plan on moving there when this is all finished.

SS: Two houses?

LN: Yes, one for the Bray family and one for Jeremy and his family, whatever that turns out to be.

SS: Have you been to visit Christie?

LN: I haven't, but Jeremy and his father-in-law Don Bray take all the girls food. They have to do it that way. They can't take food just to Christie without taking it to the other female inmates as well. When Christie's grandmother died a little while ago, the Woodmen of the World took trays of food to the jail for Christie and the others after the funeral. I assume that's how she's kept her weight up. I know jail food is terrible.

SS: I understand you've been at the trial as much as possible. Do you have any opinions or other info you could share with us?

LN: Well, I think she may get off. They're not paying Tuten (Christie's defense attorney) $300,000.00 for nothing.

SS: You know for a fact that 300K is his fee?

LN: Not for a fact. It's just everyone has talked about how much money Don and Kathy are having to pay out to keep Christie out of prison. So, yes, I can see her walking.

SS: Will you be testifying?

LN: No, I couldn't be talking with you if I were to testify. Some of the other cousins are. Maybe that's why Jeremy doesn't act the same around any of us anymore. There were blisters on the bottom of Noah Riley's feet after the fire. Christie said they were from walking on gravel, but the ones in my family that saw them say they were definitely burn blisters. I don't think anyone had a doctor look at them, but I'm not sure.

SS: You say she might get off. Do you think she did it?

LN: Oh, yes. She's as guilty as hell.

* Name has been changed to ensure privacy (Photo by Matt McKean)


Tomorrow: Florence's Brad Holmes announces his candidacy for District I state representative.

A New Sentence for Christie Scott?

Some call it “judicial override.” No matter what it’s called, a judge in Alabama doesn’t have to defer to a jury’s recommendation to sentence those convicted of Capital Murder to “Life Without.” Such was the case with Christie Bray Scott whom Franklin County Judge Terry Dempsey sentenced to death by lethal injection in August 2009.

Scott has spent over five years on Alabama’s death row; now she may have a chance to live her life out in slightly less confining circumstances. While it’s not a given that yesterday’s court ruling on Alabama’s sentencing policy will affect even one prisoner if the state appeals, the ruling has the potential to impact several death row inmates—Scott probably being the most high profile from northwest Alabama.

By all accounts, Scott is a schemer and a user; a cousin by marriage called her “just plain mean.” We predict she’ll be in her element if she’s granted the extra freedom that this ruling may bring.

*****

Another capital crime to add to Alabama’s long list? While we support enhanced sentencing in any crime of domestic violence, we can’t support the addition of another capital crime as a current bill now considered in the legislature is proposes. Phillip Pettus has sponsored a bill that has many good points, but making a capital offense of the killing of a partner if a legally dependent child witnesses the crime is not advisable.

What about the child who sees a grandparent or aunt/uncle killed under these circumstances? Do they always suffer less? In today’s world many raise relative’s children without any legal document solidifying the arrangement. It often takes years to adopt a child, or even to obtain legal custody. The children involved don’t love their caretakers any less than those being raised by legal parents.

The list of capital crimes in Alabama doesn’t need to be as long as our state constitution—you know, that document the Republican legislature promised to overhaul section by section. Just look how well that’s going.

Why Does Alabama Have 18 Capital Crimes?

***** 

Speaking of capital crimes, the Tuesday night shooting of Ki-Jana Ray Freeman is considered a capital crime. The same is true of the Gary Baskins and Kayla Glover murders last year in Muscle Shoals. All three victims were shot inside a vehicle.

Someone out there knows something about both these shooting incidents. While Gov. Bentley didn’t deem the Baskins/Glover murders worthy an extra reward, there is still a basic Crime Stoppers award for any information. At least the same basic reward will be available in the Freeman killing, if not more. There’s also a substantial reward that includes funding from both the governor and the victim’s family in the death of Tuscumbia WWII veteran Elbert Farley Davis of Tuscumbia.

Help solve these four Colbert County murders. You can anonymously report to Crime Stoppers at 256-386-8685.

Shoalanda