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.
He then disappeared until this spring, when he registered for Medicare and military veterans' benefits. He faces charges of murder and two counts of aggravated assault in Whitfield County Superior Court.
But during his testimony Tuesday, Burlison said someone stuck a gun against his stomach. He said he managed to run to his car. He drove north until he got to Virginia, where he lived under the radar for three decades. He said he was afraid Mealer was going to have him killed. He also said he didn't know the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office had issued warrants for his arrest.
During cross examination, Conasauga Judicial Circuit District Attorney Bert Poston questioned why Burlison would have gone to the store on Nov. 11, 1984, the night of the shooting. About three weeks earlier, Mealer filed for divorce and wrote that Burlison threatened to beat her.
Around Oct. 29, 1984, Mealer said Burlison attacked her, drugged her and held her at their home. A family friend, who happened to be a state trooper, testified he found Mealer inside the home. He called the police and helped arrest Burlison.
A judge then issued a temporary order, granting Mealer custody of her daughters. The judge also ordered Burlison to stay away from Mealer and said Burlison could not go to the convenience store where she worked.
Poston asked Burlison why he disobeyed that order. Burlison said he was not aware of the judge's command.
On Wednesday, Burlison testified that he went to the store because he was about to move out of town. He said he was afraid Mealer was going to kill him. But, he testified, he also wanted to say goodbye to her.
"You were afraid of her, that she was going to hurt you somehow," Poston said. "So you went over to where she was?"
"Right," he said. "In a public place, I wasn't afraid of her."
During his closing argument, Public Defender Micah Gates leaned on the length of time since the actual events. He pointed out the state didn't present any physical evidence. Investigator Glenn Swinney testified that evidence seemed to get lost when the county moved to a new jail.
Gates also said Mealer's testimony was not reliable, arguing that she hated her husband and would lie to put him in prison. Burlison testified that Mealer once ground glass up into his food in a plot to kill him. "I was - - my guts out," he said.
Mealer denied this accusation. But she conceded that, during a struggle with Burlison in October 1984, she wrestled his gun from him and pulled the trigger. It was out of bullets, but she said she would have killed him that day if she could.
Ronald Lee Harris, the convenience store clerk the night of the shooting, identified Burlison as the shooter Tuesday. Harris is now serving a life sentence in Ohio for rape and aggravated felonious sexual penetration of an underage victim.
"The state is trying to sell you a story," Gates said. "And the only people who know anything about what happened in the gas station are a multiple attempted murderer, in Mary Mealer, and a convicted child rapist, in Ronald Harris. You wouldn't trust them with your money. Don't trust them with Mr. Burlison's life."
Poston argued that his witnesses' basic versions of events line up with what they said at the time of the shooting. Burlison's story, meanwhile, made no sense to him. If Burlison was only worried about seeing Mealer again, why did he live so deeply off the grid?
He never registered a vehicle in his name, requested a driver's license or applied for Social Security benefits.
"Who's looking for him?" Poston told the jury. "The police. He knows what he's done. He lived that life purposefully. He knows what happened."
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.