Wednesday, March 28, 2001
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Wednesday, March 28, 2001 |
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Hodge's alibis to SUV murder failed to sway Fayette jury By JOHN MUNFORD
Although Karl Bryan Hodge never took the stand to defend himself of murder charges, he was still caught in his own lie. While investigating the murder of drug dealer Adolf Stubbs, Hodge told police he was working at a Pizza Hut the night drug dealer Adolf Stubbs' body was left in a burning SUV in Fayette County. But a Pizza Hut employee took the stand and testified that Hodge couldn't have worked the evening of March 31, 1999 because he had been terminated from that store. Although police never found the murder weapon, another key piece of physical evidence caught Hodge in another lie. Hodge explained some of the burns on his arm and face to police by saying they came when his lawnmower caught fire. The lawnmower was shown to the jury, and it didn't have any scorch marks present that could indicate it had caught fire. "They looked a lot worse than that," said Maj. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, referring to a photo of burn marks on Hodge's head. Eyewitnesses said Hodge was burned after he dropped the match that ignited a trail of gasoline to start the blaze that burned the SUV, in an attempt to destroy evidence of Stubbs' murder. Judge Christopher Edwards sentenced Hodge to life in prison on the murder charge and an additional 25 years on the other charges, all of which will be served consecutively. Co-defendant Glen Simon Hamilton, accused of ordering Stubbs's death, will face a trial on murder charges later this year. Securing Hodge's conviction was no easy task for police and prosecutors. Enlarged photographs of witnesses and participants in the murder alongside their various aliases helped guide the jury through complicated testimony. For example, star witness Paul Hylton referred to Hodge as A.K. and he called Hamilton "Rizzler." Other witnesses said they knew Hamilton as "Paul Anderson." The discovery of Hylton's whereabouts several months ago was also crucial to the case against Hodge. He was the sole witness who saw the shooting take place. Investigators from the Fayette County Sheriff's Department were tipped off to Hylton's whereabouts and they flew to Jamaica to place him under arrest and interview him. While Hylton's testimony was damaging to Hodge's defense, his presence helped Hodge escape the death penalty. Jamaican authorities would not extradite Hylton without guarantees he wouldn't face the death penalty. Since Hylton was also charged with murder at the time, along with Hodge and Hamilton, prosecutors were forced to drop the death penalty against Hodge and Hamilton also. Just weeks before the trial, Maj. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department had to hunt down one of the key witnesses Stubbs' girlfriend in New York. The two eyewitnesses to the murder and fire also suffered from credibility problems. Hylton, who was in the SUV when Hodge shot Stubbs in the back of the head, left Atlanta several weeks after the murder with $40,000 in his pocket without referring the matter to police. Then there's Clive Lancelot Williams, who lied to police about his real name until the falsehood was discovered by one of Hodge's attorneys. He claimed to be the driver of the getaway car that followed the SUV before Stubbs was shot and the vehicle was set ablaze and abandoned. The jury saw enough evidence to convict Hodge of murder, arson, concealing the death of a person and illegal firearms possession. Stubbs was in Atlanta for a drug deal, planning to steal 300 pounds of marijuana from another dealer, witnesses testified. Then Hamilton and Hodge stole the marijuana from Stubbs before he was killed, others said in court.
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