Burge Sentenced To 15 Years For Molino Murder

January 27, 2015

Debra Burge was sentenced Monday to 15 years for her role in the 2013 murder of Harvey Ray Smith in Molino.

The body of  Smith, age 43 of Pace, was found stuffed into a trunk behind a Motel 6 on Davis Highway on the morning of May 4, 2013. after he was stabbed to death at Burge’s home in the 3900 block of Highway 97 in Molino. Smith had been reported missing in Santa Rosa County. Family members located his vehicle at the motel and then discovered the body.

Burge and Zachary Greer conspired to rob Smith. Burge allegedly lured Smith, her acquaintance, to her home. She told deputies she went inside while Smith and Greer remained outside. When she later exited the home, she found Smith on the ground of the Molino home bleeding.

Greer was sentenced to life in prison last Friday on a charge of first degree murder.  Burge  pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second degree murder.

Pictured top: Debra Burge learned her fate in Escambia County Circuit Court Monday. Photo courtesy Ray Turner, WEAR 3 for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

20 Responses to “Burge Sentenced To 15 Years For Molino Murder”

  1. coseysex on January 31st, 2015 8:30 pm

    @Iknowthesepeople So much for going to jail for a year and eating 3,000 calories a day with zero exercise,huh? Again if you quit the drugs you will gain weight because you’re actually eating. When you’re doing drugs you don’t care if you eat. I’ve seen a drug addict or two in my job as a paramedic. JS

  2. Juror on January 30th, 2015 9:40 am

    I was a juror on the Greer trial! I can honestly say that I believed that she had more involvement and fault then him. They had only been dating a month, the girl lured him there with the intentions of sex. She would have gotten the same as Greer had the state not offered a plea deal to her. I believe it is a very messed up situation but that’s how our states office works. They would rather get one person for life then risking them both going free. I believe she also lied on the stand but that’s besides the point! She was doing spice, Xanax, meth, and cocaine while her two children were in the car while a dead man was in the back of the car. Dead beat parent if you ask me and now had to leave her mother in charge of taking care of them. I could rant on and on but I don’t see the point. I wish I was a juror on her trial as well

  3. Iknowthesepeople on January 29th, 2015 6:02 pm

    First of all, I do not know this woman, however, I knew the victim and Greer both, not as friends both were brief acquaintances. First of all she was the one with the history involving Smith, and she is the one he went there to see. If she was trying to feed her children then she would have known all she had to do was ask, it wouldn’t take a robbery for that. None of us will ever know exactly what happened that night and what went wrong, but I don’t believe that Greer deserved a harsher sentence considering she is the one who set it all up. What motive would Greer have to murder him, and it wasn’t even Greers knife, the knife belonged to the victim didn’t it?? Think about it for a minute people, she chose to participate she isn’t an innocent bystander in this. As far as the weight gain it doesn’t mean you are on drugs, why don’t YOU go sit in jail for a year and eat 3,000 calories a day with zero exercise and see what happens to your body!!

  4. Richard on January 28th, 2015 3:10 pm

    She should have gotten a harsher sentence than that boy did since she lured the man to her house. This girl gets 15 yrs and the boy gets life. They both had equal parts in the crime yet the sentences were unequal. Makes no sense. Women have been fighting so long for equal rights and to be equals to men so why not sentence them like men

  5. traumaqueen on January 28th, 2015 7:26 am

    @Sarah You’re kidding right? We’ve all made mistakes but we’ve never conspired to rob and murder.

    Fortunately in the eye of the law suspects are guilty by association. If you had any part in a crime,even if she didnt intend to murder the victim,she can be charged with that crime too. You say she had children she always took care of? If she truly cared for the children she wouldn’t have been out robbing a man. She wouldn’t have been doing drugs(obvious because of the weight gain).

    I’m so tired of hearing people use kids as an excuse to prove you’re a great person. Before anybody says she had to support her children by robbing men…wrong! Do as myself and many other’s do and get a job/s. I am a widowed mother of two boys still at home and I work two jobs to give them the life they deserve. Being a criminal who ribs people kinda trumps the whole “she was a good person” fantasy.

  6. A Mom on January 28th, 2015 6:04 am

    Also, let me tell you one other thing Sarah, in case the light bulb takes a little longer to come on for you, I’m not saying that this girl was innocent on the murder charge because she could have known about it & wanted to play dumb but a lot of times the murder isn’t planned, all it takes is that one fighting back & then they think they gotta kill em because they can’t be found out, that girl lured that guy there but that older guy shouldn’t have been hanging around that young of a girl either, but his kids didn’t deserve that, that guy should have been home with his kids, when you have kids & love them, you make choices & take care of them, he should have had a woman go with him if he went to help her out. I am in no way shape or form taking up for this girl, she was wrong by even getting involved to begin with.

  7. A Mom on January 28th, 2015 5:49 am

    Sarah, this girl hardly looks old enough to have 1 much less 2 kids, but @ least they’ll have a chance to see their mom eventually, this guy was supposed to gave kids too, his kids didn’t need him? All kids need both parents, it’s just too bad for kids when their parents don’t think of them but themselves instead. Also, I bet if it was her that got killed, you’d still be here blubbering but only because she was dead, some people don’t care about the ones they don’t know only the ones they know, the world would be a better place if others started thinking about others not just their own, anybody can love a brother but who can care for a stranger? Uggghhh, exactly, she sounds like a greedy heartless woman, who don’t care for nobody else’s but her own, let me guess, her kids were starving so she had to rob this guy & his kids so that she could feed her own, she feed something but not her kids. Those type of women don’t hold a candle, but there’s a lot like them out there, they’ll destroy someone else’s home just to have one for themselves & their own @ no cost or worry on their part, makes me sick. Guys be extra careful, there’s true walking around piranhas on this earth, before you make a mistake think long & hard, they’re all nice & sweet until they reel you in, then you can’t go back to what you had, & it’s not all the ladies, it’s the men’s fault too.

  8. Gman on January 28th, 2015 5:27 am

    Yes Sarah I have made mistakes but never setting someone up to be robbed and killed. The only wrong person she was with is herself. Her two children deserve better and hopefully she will change while doing her time.

  9. Zoe on January 27th, 2015 10:29 pm

    Sarah you have to be kidding! She lured this man into trouble! Doesn’t matter what she knew of she started it by having him come over!! Who cares if she has kids obviously she wasn’t thinking of them when she choose this rode She went down. Shame on her for her part & she should get more time! This man died with HER help!!!

  10. 429SCJ on January 27th, 2015 7:47 pm

    Amen Billy D..

  11. Sarah on January 27th, 2015 5:23 pm

    I don’t think its fair that you’re all saying she’s as guilty as him. She knew about the robbery, but the mirder wasn’t planned. Yes, she should have called the cops. She didn’t kill the guy, he did. So he gets life. She made a mistake, a huge mistake. But you’ve all made mistakes, too. She has 2 daughters that she was constantly taking care of. She’s not a murderer, she was with the wrong person.

  12. john on January 27th, 2015 11:27 am

    She was not some innocent bystander, she actively participated in the planning and murder of that man. I can not see how anything less than execution is appropriate in this case for the both of them.

  13. MIster Takeover on January 27th, 2015 10:56 am

    I think that she should be doing life in prison also cuz she really set ole boy forreal she treat her like him thats wrong. and i think yall know that.

  14. Billy D on January 26th, 2015 10:15 pm

    Ol’ gal put some weight on since she quit running with meth heads and murderers huh? 15 years isn’t nearly enough time for her after what they did to a good man.

  15. Caraway Bandit on January 26th, 2015 9:36 pm

    What do they feed you in jail these days?! No wonder everybody’s going!!!

  16. RICHARD COOK on January 26th, 2015 8:57 pm

    I know 2 people who received 30 years sentences. 1 pulled the trigger and the other did not. The victim did not die and this girl only gets 15 when some ones dies. No justice or justice really blind. I should know, I was that victim and knew these 2 people very well and forgave them for their actions. A 15 year sentence is all they should have received. They have been tin prison for 18. This girl just got lucky and I hope she’s knows that.

  17. George on January 26th, 2015 7:20 pm

    Is that the correct picture? She’s changed a lot if so?

  18. jeeperman on January 26th, 2015 6:43 pm

    She is not starving while in jail.

  19. mick on January 26th, 2015 6:32 pm

    A plea deal?, she’s as guilty as he is, how many have to die , get robbed, raped, beaten, and victimized by the murderous, greedy, lawless scumbag criminals? Till we start treating these people like the lowlife vermin that they are and make the punishments commensurate with the crime, these kinds of despicable acts will continue…

  20. Reggie on January 26th, 2015 5:32 pm

    maybe when she gets out she can have a better life . Shows what happens when you hang with the WRONG people.