Cold case killing goes to trial

Feb. 14– Opening statements got underway in Hardin County Circuit Court this morning in a case which took more than nine years to bring to trial.

John Wesley May is accused of first degree murder in the death of 59-year-old Mildred Grant at her Edna Street home in Savannah. May is also on trial on charges of especially aggravated robbery, aggravated arson and tampering with evidence.

Grant’s partially burned body was found in her bedroom on Nov. 15, 2001. The blaze, however, was confined to that part of the three-bedroom, brick veneer residence, snuffed out from lack of oxygen, according to a state arson investigator.

Ed McDaniel, Hardin County assistant district attorney general, told jurors they are going to hear testimony from "people who saw and heard, and you’re going to hear from people who questioned and collected evidence. This is an old case that’s finally going to see the light of day."

 

Representing May, attorney Curt Hopper of Savannah quickly launched into a critique of what he said will be the state’s evidence.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "this case is a mess."

Jurors will learn of conflicting confessions in connection with Grant’s death, a threat to kill her made by someone other than his client that Grant reported to police shortly before she was killed, and about DNA evidence which does not point to May, said Hopper.