For Immediate Release:
January 21, 2025
For press inquiries only, contact:
Amanda Priest (334) 322-5694
William Califf (334) 604-3230
(Montgomery, Ala.)—Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that Josephus Boone, 32, of Montgomery County, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the death of Kelvin Cooley. Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Brooke Reid sentenced Boone on Thursday based on a Montgomery County jury’s verdict to impose a life without parole sentence.
On January 15, 2025, the jury found Boone guilty of one count of capital murder of shooting from a vehicle, one count of intentional murder, and one count of discharging into an occupied building following an 8-day trial. The State presented evidence that on October 23, 2017, Boone murdered Cooley on the corner of Lawrence and Scott Streets in Montgomery, Alabama. Cooley had recently left the Montgomery County Courthouse after he had appeared as a witness in a criminal case against Boone’s brother.
During the trial, the State presented forensic evidence that Boone fired 17 shots from his vehicle at Cooley. Two of those 17 shots struck First Baptist Church, with one of them going through a window, into a room, and through a hallway before being lodged in a door frame inside the church. Church staff were in the building at the time of the shooting. During the sentencing phase of trial, the jury voted to impose a sentence of life without the possibility of parole by a 11-1 verdict. Boone will be sentenced by Judge Reid on his other non-capital charges at a later date.
“Justice was served today,” Attorney General Marshall said. “Josephus Boone murdered Kelvin Cooley in broad daylight, endangering numerous citizens in downtown Montgomery while attempting to intimidate and undermine our very system of justice. His violent disregard for life extended beyond his intended victim, as he recklessly fired into the historic First Baptist Church, placing even more lives at risk. Boone will now serve the rest of his life in prison for his violent acts.”
Attorney General Marshall commended the Attorney General’s Office Criminal Trials Division who prosecuted the case, noting in particular Assistant Attorneys General Damon Lewis, Kenneth Gibbs, and Chenelle Smith. Attorney General Marshall also recognized Special Agents of the Attorney General’s Investigations Division and the Attorney General’s Office of Victim Assistance, and the Montgomery Police Department for their diligent work on the case.
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