Dubose now sits on death row following conviction, sentence

Jun. 22—EATONTON, Ga. — Convicted double-murderer Ricky Allen "Juvie" Dubose now has a new distinction.

At 29, he is believed to be the youngest prison inmate on death row in Georgia.

After a jury of six men and six women from Glynn County convicted him of the June 13, 2017, shooting deaths of Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Christopher Monica, jurors heard emotional testimony from family members and other state witnesses during rebuttal testimony. The jurors later recommended the death penalty.

The trial judge in the case, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Alison T. Burleson, agreed with the jurors and affixed Dubose's sentence as death last Thursday afternoon in Putnam County Superior Court.

During the rebuttal portion of the penalty phase, Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III told jurors exactly why Dubose deserved no less punishment than death.

Barksdale was aided in the prosecution of Dubose by Chief Assistant District Attorney Allison Mauldin and Assistant District Attorney Blyne May, as well as Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills.

Two of Dubose's four defense attorneys, meanwhile, Gerald "Jerry" Word and Amber Pittman, told jurors why they thought their client's life should be spared.

Pittman and Word, meanwhile, were assisted by defense attorneys Nathanael Studelska and Shayla Galloway.

"On June 13, 2017, I had just turned 16 a few weeks earlier," Barksdale said, recalling some of the comments made by Christopher Monica's youngest daughter, Zoey. "And the previous Saturday, my parents had thrown me a Sweet 16 birthday party. That morning I woke up to my sister crying and eventually I opened our back door to the warden's secretary, an officer and the chaplain. They broke the news that my dad had been killed in the line of duty."

Barksdale then asked jurors not to forget who the victims were in the case.

"Some say the death penalty doesn't value human life, but that simply isn't true," said Barksdale, who has just finished prosecuting his second death penalty case since winning election as district attorney. "It's the opposite. Some crimes are so bad that a death sentence is the only just outcome to ensure that life is protected."

The death penalty double-murder trial of Dubose began shortly after Memorial Day — a day set aside to recognize those who did their duty in protecting Americans and did it by sacrificing their lives, he said.

Barksdale told jurors that they had for the past several weeks participated in a form of duty too. He called it jury duty.

And the punishment they would later ponder was whether Dubose should live or die.

Barksdale described Dubose as an evil man.

"Do not be gullible; do not be fooled and do not be charmed," he told jurors.

He then took members of the jury and the five alternates back to a time when they met in the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick to begin jury selection.

Barksdale told jurors they had done their duty in the first phase by finding Dubose guilty of the crimes of murder. He said the deaths of the officers were not committed by accident and that Dubose had not been found guilty of the murders due to being intellectually disabled or mentally ill.

Instead, jurors had found Dubose guilty of killing Sgt. Billue and Sgt. Monica.

"I then told you that the law required me to prove aggravated circumstances," Barksdale said. "Ladies and gentlemen, you will have the verdict form back there with you and what you will see that the State of Georgia has not proven aggravating circumstance, but eight — eight. How many aggravating circumstances do you need?"

He told jurors they had indicated during the jury process that they could vote for death.

"You have eight aggravating circumstances," Barksdale said.

Now the time has come for a decision — a decision they, as jurors, would have to make.

He then asked what do we know at this time.

"We know that the man sitting at this table shot Christopher Monica multiple times," Barksdale said. "He shot him in the head. We know that he shot Curtis Billue multiple times. And he shot him in the head. He escaped from that prison bus and within a minute had a gun pointed at Phillip Beasley where he robbed him of his car."

He and co-defendant, Donnie Russell Rowe, who was convicted of the same crimes last year and later sentenced to two life terms in prison without the possibility of parole, then broke into a woman's home in Madison.

"You heard her," Barksdale said of that particular crime victim. "She couldn't sleep in her house for months."

Dubose and Rowe later stole a pickup truck from a rock quarry in Morgan County.

The prison escapees then drove the truck to Chestnut Ridge Church in middle Tennessee. The pair then broke into the church after they hid the truck in the woods and covered it with the baptism curtains from inside the church.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you've heard all the evidence, there is nothing off-limits," Barksdale said. "There's absolutely nothing off-limits for this man."

The escapees later left the church and walked to a farm where they stole a third vehicle — a car.

The pair later committed a home invasion at the residence of Bob and Becky Hickerson — his third burglary, Barksdale said.

Dubose and Rowe later stole their fourth vehicle since their escape from the prison bus in Putnam County.

The escapees stole a vehicle from the Hickerson and ultimately ended up in a high-speed chase with deputies from the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office.

"They were going 120 mph," Barksdale said. "And you heard from Niki Morris that she couldn't drive on the interstate (highway) for months."

Barksdale said a three-day manhunt ended similarly to the way it began from the start with Dubose shooting at law enforcement officers.

"So, I ask you (jurors), you said you could vote for the death penalty," Barksdale recalled. "How many vehicles have to be stolen? You said you could vote for the death penalty. How many homes have to be burglarized? You said you could vote for death, how many people have to have a gun put in their face? How many times does someone get to shoot at someone else? How many times does someone get to shoot at law enforcement?"

Barksdale said what is known is that Dubose fired 32 times.

He then held up both of the state-issued pistols that had been assigned to Sgt. Billue and Sgt. Monica and told jurors that Dubose squeezed the triggers of those guns 32 times at human beings.

"That's what you know," he told jurors. "Do not be fooled."

He then pointed out the lead that Dubose pumped into the heads of both victims.

"This is what killed them," Barksdale said.

Before he sat down, he told jurors that he had waited five years and three days to speak to them.

The district attorney said the night before his closing arguments to them as jurors that his 5-year-old son came into his study at home, while he was thinking about what he was going to tell them.

"He gave me a hug and he walked out," Barksdale said, noting he then leaned back in his chair and his mind drifted back to Curtis Billue and Christopher Monica. "There was an empty chair at Zoey's dance recital. There was an empty chair at her high school graduation. There will be an empty chair at her college graduation. She will walk this world without her father, just like she will walk down the aisle on her wedding day — by herself. That chair is empty because this man (Ricky Allen Dubose) sitting at that table took her daddy from her, and shot him in the head. This chair is empty because of that man. Never forget who the victims are in this case."

Jerry Word followed with closing arguments on behalf of the defense team.

He told jurors they had upended their lives to serve.

"And I think everyone here appreciates what you have done," Word said. "I want to remind you that even though you're now into this 46 days — the hard part is yet to come, because you have to make a very weighed decision."

Word told jurors it would be the last time he would get to speak to them on behalf of Dubose.

"And no matter how many times I do this, this is always the hardest day, because there are no words," Word said.

He recalled that the night before he tried to come up with words to express what the Billue and Monica families had gone through the last five years.

"I searched and I found nothing that could adequately express the heartbreak, the pain, the sorry," Word said. "But the only way the defense team knew how to deal with that was to basically come in on day one, ladies and gentlemen, and say Ricky Dubose shot two prison guards while escaping from a transport bus and that he is a member of the Ghost Face Gang."

Word said he and other members of the defense team didn't stand up and question witnesses with few exceptions because they wanted to do nothing to disrespect the memory of Sgt. Monica and Sgt. Billue.

"We wanted to do nothing to disrespect you," Word told jurors. "We didn't want to waste your time because we knew that Ricky Dubose shot and killed two prison guards while escaping from a prison bus."

Word said he and the other members of the defense team had carried the life of Ricky Dubose in their hands and on their shoulders for five years.

"But in a few minutes, each of you is going to have to take that life into your own hands," Word said. "And why do I say each of you, because as we said from day one of jury selection, each one of you has to make an individual, moral decision of life or death."

Word told them their decision would not be an easy one.

Pittman, the lead defense attorney, also talked with jurors one last time.

She told jurors that Dubose had a father, but he didn't have a father.

"What he had was Rocky and Crystal," Pittman said — his brother and sister. "And Frankie, too. He had brothers and a sister that loved him and that loved each other."

She said the midst of all they went through growing up, something beautiful arose from it all.

"It was love between those brothers and their sister," Pittman said. "Ricky relied on Rocky. Rocky was his big brother."

Rocky was the person Ricky went to when he didn't know what to do, she said.

Pittman told jurors that what happened on the bus during the escape was a crime of opportunity.

"It was not something that was planned or plotted," Pittman said. "It was a crime of opportunity."

She noted that Dubose accepted responsibility for what he did from the get-go.

"He told them what he did," Pittman said. "He didn't lie about that."

Pittman asked jurors for mercy.

She asked jurors for mercy for the family members and former schoolteachers in Dubose's life.

Pittman asked for the second worse punishment allowed under Georgia law — life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In the end, jurors opted to recommend death instead.