Jury selection continues in Glynn Co.

Billy Hobbs, The Union-Recorder, Milledgeville, Ga.
·2 min read

May 15—BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Jury selection in the upcoming double-murder trial of Ricky Dubose has not reached the halfway mark yet in Glynn County Superior Court.

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III is seeking the death penalty against Dubose, who is accused of shooting to death a pair of state corrections officers onboard a state prison transfer bus on June 13, 2017.

The slain officers, Sgt. Curtis Billue and Sgt. Christopher Monica, both worked with the Georgia Department of Corrections and lived in Baldwin County. They were both fatally shot before Dubose and a co-defendant in the murder case, Donnie Rowe, escaped and became the subject of a nationwide manhunt by local, state and federal law enforcement authorities.

Both men were later arrested after they surrendered in Tennessee. The duo fired several gunshots at deputies during a high-speed chase on an interstate highway. The pair had reportedly committed a home invasion and threatened to kill an elderly couple while in Tennessee.

A Grady County jury convicted Rowe of the murders of Billue and Monica last year in Putnam County Superior Court in Eatonton, but could not reach a unanimous verdict on his punishment. Rowe was later sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda H. Trammell, the harshest sentence she could legally impose.

As of noon Thursday, only 23 of 60 prospective jurors were deemed as qualified to possibly be chosen as either a primary juror or an alternate in the Dubose murder trial, which is set for Wednesday, June 1, in Putnam County Superior Court in Eatonton.

Friday wrapped up 10 1/2 days of jury selection in the Dubose case.

Court officials believe it may take more than a week longer before they have the necessary 60 qualified prospective jurors to go forward with the striking of a 12-person jury and alternates.