FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2019
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Mike Lewis (334) 353-2199
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Attorney General Steve Marshall Announces Court of Criminal Appeals Upholds Murder Convictions in Mobile County
(MONTGOMERY) Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday upheld murder convictions in two separate Mobile shootings.
The court upheld the murder conviction of Joseph Hunt Booth. In another case, the Court upheld the murder and first-degree assault convictions of Aubrey Allen Rosson.
Booth, 51, of Mobile, was convicted in April 2018 for the murder of Antonio Crawford. The evidence at trial showed that on April 27, 2014, a financial dispute over a drug transaction resulted in Booth shooting Crawford three times with a shotgun, killing him.
In the second case, Aubrey Allen Rosson, 61, of Mobile, was convicted in October 2018 for the murder of Duane Massingale and for the first-degree assault of Veronica Massingale. The evidence showed that on June 27, 2016, Rosson had been drinking at the Massingales’ residence when he declared he was going to kill them. He shot Duane Massingale multiple times, fatally wounding him. Veronica Massingale was shot, struggled, and tried to flee before being shot again but stayed alive by pretending to be dead.
Booth was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment for his murder conviction. Rosson was sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder conviction and 10 years’ imprisonment for his first-degree assault conviction. Both cases were prosecuted at trial by Mobile County District Attorney Ashley Rich’s office. Each defendant sought to have his conviction reversed on appeal.
The Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division handled the cases during the appeals process, arguing for the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to affirm the convictions. The Court did so in decisions issued Friday, September 13. Attorney General Marshall commended Assistant Attorneys General Kristi Wilkerson and Thomas Leverette for their successful work in these cases.
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