Photo by Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-News, Pool /
Jay Thomas Burlison testified in his murder trial in Whitfield County Superior Court on Wednesday morning. Burlison, 75, is accused of killing Ernest Griffin outside a convenience store in November 1984 and living on the run for 33 years. He told a jury that he didn’t kill Griffin and that he was only running away from his wife.DALTON, Ga. -After almost five hours behind closed doors, a jury failed to reach a verdict in the 34-year-old murder trial of Jay Thomas Burlison on Wednesday night. The group will resume deliberations Thursday morning.
Burlison testified Wednesday that he did not shoot Ernest Griffin in the head outside a Rocky Face convenience store in November 1984, a day after his ex-wife gave the opposite testimony. Burlison, 75, said an unknown man shot at him in the parking lot. Griffin and his ex-wife, Mary Mealer, were outside at the time, and they also got shot.
Burlison told the jury he believed Mealer ordered a hit. He said he heard her yell to the shooter “that’s him” or “get him” when he stepped out of his car at the convenience store, where Mealer worked as a manager.
“I thought she was trying to kill me,” Burlison said. “Now I’m not so sure I wasn’t the main target.”
Investigators reported at the time that they found Griffin lying on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head. Mealer, meanwhile, was shot once in the chin and three times in the side. She testified that Burlison shot her and followed her inside the store, where he pointed the gun at the clerk and pulled the trigger. He was out of bullets, though.