Court rejects appeal by Joey Wilson convicted in 1996 ‘cell phone murders’

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — An Alabama appeals court today again rejected a request by Joey Wilson to revisit his capital murder case, the notorious 1996 cell phone murders.

Four people were killed and two seriously wounded in a house off U.S. 72-University Drive shortly before midnight on Sept. 25, 1996. Wilson and another man, Nick Acklin, were both given death sentences for the killings.

Michael Beaudette, Bryan Carter, Johnny Couch and Charles Hemphill were killed; two others, Michelle Hayden and Ashley Rutherford, were seriously injured.

Wilson was convicted of capital murder in 1998. His direct appeals were denied in 2001; he filed a Rule 32 petition, arguing he did not get a fair trial.

Wilson’s lawyers claimed a number of problems, both in the trial phase and the penalty phase of the case. The claims included inadequate work by his attorney, incorrect instructions from the judge, a failure to move the case out of Huntsville, and problems with the jury selection and the prosecution’s behavior.

But in its ruling Friday, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals rejected all of the claims, arguing they were without merit, had previously been decided, or were not raised at the appropriate time. The appeals court said none of the issues raised led to Wilson’s conviction and death sentence.

The killings included references to drug-dealing and were apparently spurred by a filed police report accusing Wilson of stealing a cell phone. Wilson, Acklin, and Corey Johnson went to the home, armed, according to testimony and over several hours beat and threatened people in the home; eventually, the shooting started.

According to the court record, Wilson testified during the penalty phase of his trial that he shot Carter, but denied shooting anyone else that night.