Change Of Venue Motion On Hold In Atmore Man’s Capital Murder Trial

August 22, 2013

A change of venue request in the capital murder trial of an Atmore man is on hold as jury selection in the case is set to begin next month.

Trial is set for September 16 for Cedric Jerome Floyd in Escambia County, Ala. He is accused of the January 2, 2012, murder of Tina Roshell Jones, 43, inside her 5th Avenue residence in Atmore.

Floyd was in court Wednesday morning in Brewton as Circuit Judge Bert Rice heard a change of venue motion from  his attorneys, Charles Johns and Kevin McKinley. The defense attorneys say it’s not possible for Floyd to receive a fair trial in Escambia County, Ala., due to pretrial publicity.

Rice said he believes that it will be possible to seat an impartial jury in Escambia County despite pretrial publicity, and he won’t consider the change of venue motion until a jury is seated.  Calling the case “complex litigation”, Rice said a large number of potential jurors will be  called “from one end of the county to the other”.

The defense attorneys had subpoenaed several area newspaper publishers for Wednesday’s hearing, but they were dismissed without being called to the stand. Subpoenaed were  Kerry Whipple Bean, publisher of The Brewton Standard and former publisher of The Atmore Advance; Joe Thomas, publisher of The Tri-City Ledger in Flomaton, Ala.; William Reynolds, publisher of NorthEscambia.com; and Sherry Digmon, publisher of The Atmore News. Digmon was unable to attend Wednesday’s hearing and had submitted requested information by affidavit.

Comments

4 Responses to “Change Of Venue Motion On Hold In Atmore Man’s Capital Murder Trial”

  1. Just a Question??? on August 23rd, 2013 7:33 am

    @ Speaking for law enforcement……….. Not scared @ all.. I have protection for my family. I just thought it would be nice for the community to be informed how the office that we as citizens pay for, has corrected a problem. I’m sure we will hear all the problems that were corrected at election time.

  2. Speaking for law enforcement on August 22nd, 2013 6:05 pm

    @Just a Question ???

    Are you scared???

  3. alabama leo man on August 22nd, 2013 8:17 am

    He walked away because of poor security practices at the jail. These practices have been rectified by Sheriff Groover Smith and Cheif Mike Lambert. They fired the jail administrator responsible for allowing lax security and hired two highly experienced and firm administrators( one full time,and one part time) with over 60 yrs. correctional/detention experience between the two of them. I don’t think Mr. Floyd will be walking out again. Probally why he wants a change in venue, so he can get a chance to walk out of anouther jail. This dude(Floyd) is a master con artist.

  4. Just a Question ??? on August 22nd, 2013 7:16 am

    Has anyone ever updated the community on how he just walked away from the jail back in October ???