Man convicted in 2004 slayings to receive new trial

Jul. 8—MOULTRIE, Ga. — The only man convicted by a jury in the deaths of five Colquitt County residents in 2004 will get a new trial.

Alexander Woods III has been in prison since he was convicted in May 2013, but his attorneys are in the process of filing for a bond that will allow him out until his new trial, which hasn't been scheduled yet and may never happen.

Woods was convicted of five counts of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault and sentenced to serve five consecutive life terms in prison for the Nov. 8, 2004 slayings of Betty Faye Watts, 50; Katrina Darlene "Tina" Watts Resendez, 29; Juan Carlos Resendez, 3; Liliana Alegria Aguilar, 30; and 24-year-old Jaime Cruze Resendez.

Four of the victims represented three generations of the same family, and Aguilar was their housekeeper. They were all found dead inside the Resendezes' home.

Jerry "Johnny" Thompson pleaded guilty in 2011. He was the principal witness for the State and the only witness to identify Woods directly as a participant in the crimes.

Thompson said he had sent Woods and Anthony Davis to Jaime Resendez's house to get him to call a marijuana supplier to whom he said Resendez owed a large sum of money.

Instead, Davis urgently called Thompson to come to Resendez's residence on the Adel Highway, and when Thompson arrived he found the family already dead and Woods looking for money, according to Thompson's testimony.

After his testimony, Thompson was sentenced to five concurrent life sentences in May 2013. He was already serving a 20-year federal prison sentence on drug charges.

Davis never stood trial. According to court documents, he was shot to death and his body set on fire in January 2005 by an unknown individual.

In 2019, the Colquitt County Superior Court denied Woods' motion for a new trial, but the Georgia Supreme Court overturned that ruling in 2021.

"The Georgia Supreme Court found that there were professional deficiencies during the trial," Matthew Kyle Winchester, lead counsel for Woods, said in a phone interview Friday.

On May 31 of this year, Superior Court Judge Howard McClain ordered Woods a new trial.

"Judge Howard McClain took over this case on remand because Judge Moulton retired, and Judge Brian McDaniel has a conflict as he was the prosecutor who tried this case," Jason McLendon, of McLendon Law Firm and co-counsel for Woods, said in an email interview Thursday.

Winchester added, "There's a reasonable probability of a different outcome at a new trial. As a result of that, there's been an order that convictions have grown out in that and that Woods is entitled to a new trial."

The next step is for the prosecution to decide whether or not they want to retry Woods.

District Attorney Bradfield Shealy said there are a few issues they must review before considering the retrial.

"There'll be a number of issues we need to look at," Shealy said in a phone interview Friday. "The main [issue] being that case really would be based upon the testimony of a main co-defendant being Jerry Johnny Thompson. He testified at the original trial, [and] whether or not he is going to be cooperative or assist in the prosecution of the case again is going to be a question."

He continued, "The second issue we have is the use of the transcript. We're going to have to look at whether or not the transcript that was used in the written trial can be used in a retrial."

Since the defense counsel did not properly cross-examine Thompson and he wasn't subjected to a thorough cross-examination, it could affect the use of the transcript in a future trial, according to Shealy.

Winchester said Woods will be able to be retried for the five murders, but charges that have met their statute of limitations such as aggravated assault cannot be retried.

Shealy said otherwise.

"When you get a case reversed based upon ineffective counsel like this was, then you can start back from scratch. He can be retried on the whole thing. There's no double jeopardy in this situation," Shealy said.

He said if prosecutors were to conduct a retrial then Woods would be tried on the same offenses including the aggravated assault.

Shealy explained if a case is reversed because there is insufficient evidence then that would prohibit the prosecution from re-trying the case due to double jeopardy.

"If they find there is an error like an improper jury charge or ineffective counsel... then the case is sent to be retried again from scratch [as] if it hadn't been tried before," Shealy added.

Earlier this week, Wood's representation mailed a bond motion for filing.

"Mr. Woods has been in custody for more than a decade on these charges. With all of the information that we raised in the appeal, we feel like there's very little evidence of his guilt," McLendon said in a phone interview Friday.

He continued, "There's overwhelming evidence of guilt for the individual who implicated him in this case, and that's Mr. Jerry Johnny Thompson. We're going to ask the court to set a bond in his case, because there's very little evidence."

McLendon said the attorneys believe Woods will meet every factor that the court must consider to be granted a bond. He said he's not a flight risk, he's not a risk to anybody in the community and he won't intimidate witnesses.

Shealy said the prosecution will oppose any bond because Woods was still convicted by a jury and the risk of flight would be great.

As of Friday afternoon, the Colquitt County Clerk of Superior Court had not received McLendon's motion, a spokeswoman for the clerk's office said. Once it arrives, it will be up to a Superior Court judge whether to set a bond.