Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-News, Pool/
Lawyers expect to make opening arguments in the murder trial of Jay Thomas Burlison listens during is trial for murder. Burlison is accused of killing a man in a Rocky Face, Georgia, convenience store in 1984. According to police, Burlison drove away from the store after the shooting and didn turn up until earlier this year, when he applied for Social Security benefits in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee.DALTON, Ga. – For 12,372 days, Mary Mealer wondered what would become of her former husband, the man who disappeared after shooting her four times and killing her boyfriend. On Day 12,373, Mealer got her answer.
A jury in Whitfield County Superior Court convicted Jay Thomas Burlison of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault on Thursday morning, after about six hours of deliberation. Burlison has been the lead suspect in the case since immediately after the shooting on Nov. 11, 1984. But he remained at large until this spring, when federal government workers found him after he signed up for Social Security benefits.
“It’s been stressful,” Mealer said. “You can’t rest for nothing. It’s been a long week.”
During the trial, Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bert Poston laid out the timeline that supposedly led to the shooting. After 11 years of marriage, Mealer filed for divorce in October 1984. She told a judge that Burlison was physically abusive. Meanwhile, she began to date Ernest Griffin, a frequent customer at the Golden Gallon convenience store that she managed.
Days after a judge granted Mealer temporary custody of her daughters, she testified, Burlison showed up at the store. She said he pulled out a gun and shot Griffin through the head. He then shot her once in the chin and three times on the left side of her body. He drove away and disappeared.