Murder? Russell Lyn Reatherford Has Really Screwed up his Life

 

Pictured is Russell Lyn Reatherford. The ravages of drugs have not yet made an impact on his body. Get him the right tailor and a Billy Russo haircut and he'd pass...but that isn't going to happen for Russell. He's been arrested for Felony Murder.

Russell's not so brilliant crime career goes back at least nine years. In February 2014, our hapless bad boy was arrested in Lauderdale County on several charges including bail jumping. He was only 18.

In all, Russell has had at least 31 separate arrests - that's not charges, that's arrests. That averages out to well over three each calendar year. This does not bode well for Russell's chances in his current legal predicament.

On the afternoon of February 13th, Reatherford was taken into custody in Lauderdale on three warrants, one of them a felony. He apparently had some serious drugs hidden somewhere, somehow, on his person that the jailers missed when he was booked.

He was placed in a cell block with Harley James Coyer. On Valentine's Day, Coyer died of a fentanyl overdose. At least we know that Russell was a sharing kind of guy. Now Russell has been indicted for Felony Murder.

He should be able to plead to Manslaughter and get 15 years since there was no gun involved. That may, or may not, mean a prison stay of five years even without parole.

Or it may mean much longer. Our legislature in its finite wisdom is again playing with Correctional Incentive Time. That brings up the question: How much of each legislative session is devoted to changing/correcting/amending something past legislatures have set in motion?