MCRAE-HELENA, Ga. — A man has pleaded guilty Monday to the Telfair County murder of elderly Cobb County couple Bud and June Runion, bringing a nearly decade-long legal battle to a close.
"It's been 10 long years," Judge Sarah Wall admitted.
Jay Towns entered a guilty plea in the Runions' death, who were lured down to Telfair County on Jan. 15. 2015 after Towns responded to the couple's Craigslist ad seeking a 1966 Mustang.
But instead of coming home with a new car, the Runions were shot to death. Their bodies were found in a wooded area near the Towns' family property.
Towns was sworn in on Monday before Judge Wall, admitting his guilt on two counts of murder.
"With regard to count one, Malice Murder," Wall asked, "do you wish to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty?"
He leaned into the microphone and said: "guilty."
After hearing from the family, Wall issued her ruling: two counts of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"It's pretty obvious that the Runions were special people," Wall said. "This was a very senseless act."
The family members of Bud and June Runion poured their hearts out, depicting the couple as people of God who made an indelible mark on their family.
"We miss them terribly," daughter Stephanie Bishop said. " I was hoping so hard to be able to call my dad.... [But] they were taken from us."
Bishop said that, despite what Towns had ripped from them, her parents would want Towns to find forgiveness in the eyes of the lord.
After admitting guilt in the case, Towns was handed a piece of paper by the judge to officially admit his guilt.
The journey to Towns' guilty plea was a winding one, plagued by numerous delays and some serious legal snafus.
Back in July, additional evidence was discovered by a fisherman: a .22 caliber rifle and a bag containing what is believed to be the Runions' credit cards and driver's licenses. That led to the judge delaying the trial.
But roughly four months later, Towns' day in court was scheduled for his guilty plea.
In exchange for the plea on the most serious charges — murder —Wall agreed to drop six other counts listed in the indictment along with dropping a Dodge County indictment against Towns.
Towns declined to speak during the hearing.
As to why this case took so long, Judge Wall outlined a long list of reasons. A faulty indictment issued on unconstitutional grounds went all the way to Georgia's Supreme Court, which agreed that the indictment was issued inappropriately.
Even though his case was eventually re-indicted, that appeal process delayed the trial.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic led to the suspension of all court proceedings, pushing all court activity to August 2020.
"This has been an extremely long 10 years," Wall said. "I assure you that we do things as quickly as we found under the conditions that we were facing."
After handing down her ruling, Wall told Towns what her sentence meant in plain terms: he would spend the rest of his life in the Georgia Department of Correction.
