Saturday, February 12, 2005

Cottondale, Alabama

From the Tuscaloosa News of February 12, 2005
Grand jury says act was justified

There will be no criminal trial for Betty Sullivan, the Cottondale woman who shot and killed a man last year in front of her daughter’s home.

A grand jury has decided that Sullivan, 59, was justified in killing 29-year-old Isaac Martin on Nov. 13 as Martin fought Sullivan’s husband.

“They investigated the shooting of Isaac Martin, and they found that there was insufficient evidence for anyone to be charged criminally," said Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Tommy Smith, noting that several witnesses testified before the 18-member panel.

On Wednesday, the day the grand jury’s decision was made public, Smith said he didn’t know if any of the grand jury members voted to indict Sullivan because those proceedings are conducted in secret.

Martin was killed during a fight that broke out in the front yard of a Cold Springs Road mobile home occupied by Sullivan’s daughter, who was a former girlfriend of Martin’s. The daughter called her parents and then 911.

The parents, who live just yards away from their daughter, arrived within minutes, and the fight began. During this fight, Sullivan pulled out a .38-caliber handgun and fired it.

Joe Martin, Isaac Martin’s 72-year-old father and a witness to the shooting, said the bullet killed his son instantly.

(More)

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