Case & Logan Don't Know?

Those who have been following the ongoing alcohol fueled antics of Tuscumbia Police Chief Tony Logan are aware that the long-time officer has asked for a trial in Lauderdale County Circuit Court to determine guilt or innocence in his DUI arrest. Unfortunately, the Chief and his defense attorney Tim Case don't seem to know as much as the lay people keeping tabs on the situation. Quoted in Today's TimesDaily, Case offered these words in Judge Gil Self's courtroom:

Defense attorney Tim Case declined to enter a plea for Logan during an arraignment hearing Tuesday, arguing the charges against the police chief are vague. “We don’t know what we are charged with at this time,” Case said.

Sad, isn't it, when a veteran law enforcement officer and a juris doctor can't fathom simple DUI charges. Perhaps Case's strategy may get Logan off, but this prolonged theatre of the absurd isn't garnering any respect for Tony Logan. If Logan should win his case, just imagine the resulting chaos in Florence Municipal Court for all future DUI trials.

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Sources tell us that Randall Scott Shook was a second cousin to Kenny Strickland, convicted murderer of Rusty Earnest. According to other sources, Shook had approximately 15 felony convictions, as well as an extensive juvenile record. He was also awaiting trial for a recent assault conviction.

We suspect, like Tony Logan, Scott Shook had a serious problem with alcohol. While we have heard rumors that responsible drinkers are out there, they don't seem to live in the Shoals.

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Apparently, the e-mail sent to Colbert County Bar Association members concerning Tim Milam's move back to Mississippi was all in fun. Milam has a new Facebook page where he touts his expertise. A reader tells us one post on DUI defense was hastily removed.

See the last statement in the Scott Shook update...

Shoalanda

Kenny Strickland: The Murderer Speaks

When Lauderdale County detective Travis Clemmons learned that Kenny Strickland (pictured) had spent the night in the Wheeler Lake cabin from which he had been previously evicted, the 24 year-old meth addict became a prime suspect in the brutal murder of Rusty Lynn Earnest. Informants reported that on the day of May 2, 2007, Strickland was seen at various drug houses flashing a large roll of hundred dollar bills. After two interviews, Clemmons returned to Strickland's new home in Eva, Alabama, and arrested him on capital murder charges.

Because of the gravity of the charge, Strickland was initially denied bail; but when an April 2008 grand jury indicted the suspect only on felony murder, burglary, and arson charges, Strickland's family provided the bond for his release. Strickland was scheduled to stand trial in November 2008, but had other ideas.

Seeking to place the blame for Earnest's death on an uncle against whom he had a grudge, Strickland placed an anonymous phone call to Lauderdale authorities. Pretending to be an acquaintance of the uncle, Strickland called from a payphone at an Elgin convenience store. Authorities traced the call and obtained both the suspect's license number and a video tape of him leaving the scene.

During the phone conversation, Strickland told of the brutal attack on Earnest, whom he bludgeoned on the small porch before returning hours later to drag the body inside and set fire to the lake house. Only parts of the conversation have previously been published, but family members who are familiar with the tape tell of the depravity of the crime--Strickland even throttled Earnest's small dog in an attempt to keep it silent, leaving its body lying in the living room with its owner.

Arrested a second time for giving false information to police, Kenneth Strickland decided to enter a plea. At the time of the defendant's court appearance, Rusty Earnest's sister Patsy and her husband were visiting in Pennsylvania, but Earnest's mother Dorothy and brother Grant were in attendance. When Dorothy Earnest asked Strickland why he killed her son, he replied that he didn't know.

Now serving a life sentence at Holman Prison for Rusty Earnest's murder, Kenneth Bradford Strickland will be eligible for parole at some point, perhaps as early as 2015. If you would like to write a letter of protest to be maintained in Strickland's file, you may address it to:

Alabama Board of Pardons and Parole
Post Office Box 302405
Montgomery, Alabama 36130-2405
Re: Kenneth Bradford Strickland - AIS# 234843


Thanks to D.K. for his help with this series on the murder of Rusty Earnest, with whom he had once worked.

Special thanks to Patsy Earnest Michael for her assistance with previously unpublished information. Mrs. Michael has been especially kind to help with these blogs and wants others to know her brother as he was--not as a faceless victim.

While Det. Clemmons and some others characterized Rusty as one who carried large sums of money, Mrs. Michael has further related to us that, while these amounts may have seemed large to Kenny Strickland, Rusty usually just carried enough cash to carry on day-to-day living in Rogersville where debit cards are not always welcome. Rusty had sold his fishing boat in order to help finance a Lasik eye surgery not covered by his insurance.

We're happy to make these addenda, but it should be noted that no matter how much money anyone carries, they do not deserve to be the victim of a brutal beating, to have perhaps half their life taken from them. We're sure that all those who knew Rusty, and many who never met him, have been moved by the story of this sadistic murder, a crime that even took the life of Rusty Earnest's dog.

Shoalanda

Kenny Strickland: The Ultimate Betrayal

According to Kenneth Bradford Strickland's family, he had been an addict his entire adult life. Frequently family members intervened, and Strickland always managed to retain his freedom. In a 2006 attempt to rehabilitate Strickland, his grandfather allowed the then 23 year-old to move into his lakeside cottage--a cottage next door to the home of Rusty Earnest. For a short time, Kenny Strickland seemed on the road to a drug-free life. During this period, Earnest helped the younger man in any way he could.

However, it was not long before Strickland relapsed and was evicted from the small beach house. According to those who knew Strickland, by 2007 his life had become a cycle of theft, drug use, and more theft to fund his drug of choice--methamphetamine.

In late April, Rusty Earnest sold his fishing boat to a co-worker, a fact Earnest casually mentioned at a local restaurant belonging to Strickland's family. Whether Kenny Strickland knew the exact details of the sale is unknown, but what is known was Strickland's desperation for money and drugs on the day of May 1, 2007.

Strickland had unsuccessfully attempted to sell a knife before borrowing $25.00 from a friend. According to those who saw him later that day, Strickland, along with two female companions, had spent the money on whiskey and was again broke. Around midnight, he decided to pay Rusty Earnest a visit...


Tomorrow: He killed both of them.

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Featured on From Muscle Shoals to Music Row, you can buy their music on their MySpace site--The Levees:

Shoalanda

Are All Murders Equal?

Before you answer yes to the question posed in today's topic, let us consider some different scenarios. A man kills his daughter's attacker, a second man kills his wife's boyfriend, a third kills an acquaintance in a drunken brawl, and a fourth kills a stranger for the cash in his pocket. Are all four murders equal? At least in Alabama, the fourth murder could possibly be the only one designated a capital crime. Yet even murders where a second crime is involved are not always prosecuted as capital offenses--think Shaun Shapley who murdered his stepdaughter during an attempted rape.

Alabama is one of only a handful of states that will sentence a white collar criminal to prison, yet will not consider premeditation grounds for capital charges. Our legal system is indeed an enigma.

Obviously, a district attorney, no matter how air-tight the case, is not guaranteed a guilty verdict. Plea bargains may look good in almost any capital case. Like Shaun Shapley, Kenneth Bradford Strickland pleaded guilty to a lesser offense in the 2007 death of Rusty Earnest. Until now, many of the facts concerning Earnest's murder have gone unpublished.

Rusty Earnest was a friend to many in the Shoals area, as well as Loretto and Athens where he had family. Lauderdale District Attorney Chris Connolly called the Strickland murder case one of the strangest he had ever prosecuted. Join us tomorrow as we begin our look at Rusty Earnest's life and death.


Did you know: Almost one in ten residents of Alabama Death Rows was convicted in the counties of Lauderdale, Colbert, and Franklin.

Shoalanda