The Jackson County, Ala., man charged in the 1997 beating death of his first wife faces trial this summer, 17 years after her body was found in a shallow grave in neighboring DeKalb County.
A June trial date for Barry Whitton was set at a hearing Wednesday in Jackson County. The case is being prosecuted by the Alabama attorney general’s office in Montgomery. Attorney General Luther Strange’s spokeswoman, Joy Patterson, said jury selection will begin June 2.
Whitton, 46 when charged, is accused in the beating death of 28-year-old Michelle Townson Whitton, who disappeared Dec. 7, 1997, and whose body was found in a shallow grave in DeKalb County on Jan. 20, 1998. She died of blunt-force trauma to her head.
Barry Van WhittonWhitton was charged in January with murder. He pleaded not guilty Jan. 27.
Michelle Whitton’s body was found in the Powell area near the Jackson-DeKalb county line, about 15 miles from the couple’s home in Dutton, Ala., according to Huntsville Times archives.