Getty Images/iStockphotoA man charged in Catoosa County, Ga., in 2004 with smothering his 6-month-old son will not be retried, because prosecutors forgot about his case for nearly eight years. Yet the case may spur changes in how the district attorney’s office handles outstanding appeals.
Alfred Jackson Alexander Sr., then 26, was indicted in December 2004 for allegedly smothering his crying son Eligah Lee Alexander with a pillow in the family’s mobile home near Ringgold. In October 2005, a jury found him guilty of child cruelty — and not guilty of malice murder — but could not reach a verdict on a felony murder charge. The jury split 11 to 1, resulting in a mistrial.
Alexander served five years and was paroled in June 2009 — although his November 2005 sentencing called for 15 years in custody followed by five years’ probation.
When Chris Arnt, the chief assistant district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, realized last spring that the felony murder charge was never retried, he had the case added to the Catoosa County Superior Court’s September 2013 trial calendar.
Alexander’s public defender, David Dunn, asked to dismiss, citing Alexander’s 6th Amendment right to a speedy trial, and Judge Ralph Van Pelt ruled in his favor in September 2013.