MCRAE, Ga. — The case against a Telfair County man accused of murdering an elderly couple in 2015 heads to the Georgia Supreme Court next week.
Last year, a Telfair judge threw out the murder indictment against Jay Towns.
His lawyers argued that the grand jury that charged him was not selected properly, but District Attorney Tim Vaughn appealed that ruling to Georgia's highest court.
Towns is charged with killing Bud and June Runion -- an elderly couple who traveled from Marietta to Telfair County to look at a car Towns listed on Craigslist. Investigators say he robbed the pair before shooting and killing them.
CASE HISTORY
In August, Towns’ lawyers argued that the composition of the March 2015 grand jury was unconstitutional, because it was not picked randomly.
Superior Court Clerk Belinda Thomas took the witness stand and testified that a computer randomly generates a list of potential jurors, but not enough people showed up for the grand jury to hear the Towns case.
Thomas said Judge Sarah Walls instructed her to select people who were on the list for the next day’s trial jury.
Thomas admitted she called four people on that list that she knew lived or worked close to the courthouse and could get there quickly.
She said, "I just called people that I thought we could get here in a hurry... it was not that I specifically selected them for a reason.”
Vaughn’s brief to the Supreme Court says the grand jury was still fair, because no group was excluded or over represented.
Towns is charged with four counts of felony murder, two counts of malice murder and two counts of armed robbery. Vaughn is seeking the death penalty against Towns. No trial date has been set.