UPDATE: According to the original incident report, the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office responded to a shooting just after midnight on Nov. 12, 1984, at a gas station in Rocky Face. There, investigators found Ernest Griffin lying on the ground, shot in the head.
They also found Mary Burlison, who had been shot three times. After paramedics rushed her to Hamilton Medical Center, she told investigators that she and Griffin were walking out of the gas station convenience store when she saw her husband, Jay Burlison, pull in to the parking lot. As Griffin got into his car, she said her husband shot him.
Jay Thomas BurlisonShe said she ran to her car, but Jay Burlison allegedly shot her three times through her window. She said he then chased her back into the store and hit her with the pistol before threatening the clerk, Ron Lee Harris, with the gun. Jay Burlison fled the scene, and Harris called the police.
According to an indictment, Jay Burlison shot his wife in the chin, left shoulder and lower back.
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