FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
August l3 2018
For More Information, contact:
Mike Lewis (334) 353-2199
Steve Marshall
Joy Patterson (334) 242-7491
Page 1 of 1
Alabama Attorney General
AG Steve Marshall Announces Court of Criminal Appeals Upholds
Capital Murder and Murder Convictions in Madison County
(MONTGOMERY) – Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that the Alabama
Court of Criminal Appeals upheld convictions for capital murder and murder in two
Madison County cases. The Court upheld the capital murder conviction of Richard Burgin.
In another unrelated case, the Court upheld the murder conviction of Cary Trant Jefferson.
Burgin, 55, of Huntsville, was convicted in May 2017 for the murders of brothers
Anthony Jackson and Terry Jackson. Evidence was presented at trial regarding the
following events. On May 21, 2013, the Jackson brothers were involved in work for the
weekly food bank at the West Huntsville United Methodist Church. Burgin knocked and
was let into the church and while there, he stabbed Terry and Anthony Jackson multiple
times. When the food bank coordinator found the brothers a short time later, Anthony
already had died and Terry died soon after at the hospital. Because the offense was the
murder of two or more persons committed by one course of conduct, Burgin was convicted
of a capital offense. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of
parole.
In the second case, Cary Trant Jefferson, 48, of Huntsville, was convicted in August
2017 for the murder of Doris Timmons. The two were living together and involved in a
romantic relationship that was deteriorating. On the evening of April 27, 2015, Timmons
had been out with her family. When she returned home, Jefferson was intoxicated and
started yelling at her, telling her to leave the residence. Timmons told Jefferson that she
would leave in the morning, went to a separate bedroom and got into bed. Jefferson later
came to the room and shot her. Timmons was paralyzed from the chest down and lived in
that condition for almost three months before dying from complications resulting from her
injury. Jefferson was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for his murder conviction.
Both cases were prosecuted at trial by Madison County District Attorney Robert L.
Broussard’s office. Each defendant sought to have his convictions reversed on appeal.
The Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division handled the cases during the
appeal process, arguing for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to affirm the
convictions. The Court did so in decisions issued on August 3. Attorney General Marshall
commended Assistant Attorneys General Laura Irby Cuthbert and Thomas Leverette of the
Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division for their successful work in these cases.
–30–
501 Washington Avenue * Montgomery, AL 36104 * (334) 242-7300
www.ago.state.al.us
