Smelley guilty of murder

Brian Smelley

Walker County, Al. 
  Brian Michael Smelley, the Cordova man who has been on trial for murder for nearly two weeks, was sentenced to life in prison Thursday afternoon after a jury found him guilty following about five hours of deliberation.

Also sentenced to life in prison on Thursday — while the jury was still deciding on Smelley’s guilt —was Smelley’s co-defendant, James David Hollie, who was expected to be tried in a separate trial in November.

Hollie agreed to a plea deal that had him plead guilty to murder. In exchange for his admission, the Walker County District Attorney’s office agreed to drop charges of first-degree robbery and abuse of a corpse.

Smelley, however, was found guilty of the lesser offenses. He received from Walker County Circuit Judge Doug Farris a sentence of 99 years in prison for the robbery charge and 10 years for abuse of a corpse.

All three of Smelley’s sentences will run concurrently.

“I’m sorry this all happened,” the 40-year-old Smelley told the judge before his sentence was handed down.

Farris said during his law career he has never been involved in a trial involving a crime as “heinous and gruesome” as the one for which Smelley and Hollie were found guilty.

Walker County District Attorney Bill Adair said Smelley and Hollie will probably be eligible for parole after they have served one-third of their sentences.

After killing Harris, the men dismembered the 62-year-old’s body and scattered it across Walker County in an attempt to cover up the crime.

Both men were also ordered to pay their share of a restitution fine that will not exceed $60,000 as well as costs associated with the murder’s investigation.

Members of Harris’ family, who have spent nearly two weeks watching the trial of Smelley, were present for Hollie’s plea and sentencing Thursday.

Jan Harris, Richard’s sister who testified in Smelley’s murder trial, said “Justice was finally served today for Rick.”

Connie Harris, the wife of Randy Harris, Richard’s brother, wiped away tears as she talked about her family’s loss. “They took a lot from us,” she said in reference to Hollie and Smelley.

She added she is grateful that her family will not have to endure another trial involving the gruesome details of her brother-in-law’s death and dismemberment, which prevented the family from having the open-casket burial the family had planned.

“We had to relive everything that happened a year and six months ago,” she said. “It’s been a tough two weeks and I’m glad to see it over.”

Jan Harris said she sympathizes for the family members of the men expected to spend the remainder of their lives behind bars.

“There’s really no winners in this. We lost Rick and we’re never going to get him back. They lost their sons because of their choices and I feel for their families — I really do.”

Adair said he was glad to see Richard Harris’ family get some relief when the trial concluded Thursday afternoon.

“This family has been through an awful lot and I think the results of today will hopefully give them some closure,” Adair said.

Thomas Carmichael, one of Smelley’s defense attorneys, said he was disappointed in the verdict.

He argued that his client’s participation in the crime was minimal and done under duress. In court Carmichael had conveyed to jurors that Smelley was afraid if he didn’t agree to help Hollie after the shooting, he too would be murdered.

“All he (Smelley) did was what he had to do to get out of there and get home to his mother,” Carmichael told the Jury during closing arguments on Wednesday.

After Smelley’s sentencing Thursday, Carmichael said “We respect the jury’s verdict, but we respectfully disagree with it, and expect further proceedings on the issue later.”

Because of what Farris called a “copious amount of evidence” he allowed jurors to stay in the courtroom while they determined Smelley’s guilt so they would have access to the materials used by the state to prosecute Smelley.

The evidence included dozens of photographs, clothing that belonged to Harris, a saw suspected of being the instrument used to dissect the victim’s body, the garbage can where Harris’ torso was discovered and what may have been the most crucial piece of evidence used to convict Smelley — the tape recording of the confession Smelley gave during an interview with Walker County District Attorney’s office investigators Frank Cole and John Softley.

In that interview played four times during the trial, Smelley admits that he drove Richard Harris’ vehicle away from the Boldo flea market where the murder took place and aided Hollie in hiding sawed off parts of Richard Harris’ body.

“Both of these guys got what they deserve,” Adair said.