Tuscumbia, Alabama

From the Thibodaux Daily Comet (LA) of June 12, 2007

Sheffield man acquitted in 2005 killing of mom's boyfriend

A Colbert County jury has acquitted a Sheffield man of murder in the shooting death of his mother's boyfriend, a killing he claimed was in self-defense when threatened in his home.

Cameron Stephan Garth, 46, was acquitted Monday after testifying that he shot Mitchell Parnell, 64, after he returned home in the early hours of July 3, 2005, and questioned Parnell about why his mother was crying.

"He said he was going to cut my throat," Garth said. "It made me mad because he said he was going to cut my throat in my own home."

Garth said he got a .38-caliber revolver from his bedroom and fired when Parnell, who was sitting on a bed, lunged at him.

Prosecutors told the jury it was not an act of self-defense.

"It's unreasonable for him to try and have you believe he was afraid of a 64-year-old man with heart disease and emphysema," Assistant District Attorney Angela Hulsey said.

But defense attorney Steve Aldridge asked jurors to put themselves in Garth's shoes.

"If you had come home at two in the morning and the first thing you hear is the evil man say 'I will cut your throat' and then you hear your mama crying in the bathroom, would you have gotten a gun?" Aldridge asked.