From The Trussville Tribune staff reports
A Blount County man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of capital murder, according to Carol Robinson. Justin MacNeill, 27, was found guilty after being tried for the 2015 murder of a man that was committed with a hatchet.
Blount County jail escapee Justin Macneill is charged in 2015 hatchet murder. Photo from Oneonta Police Facebook page
This morning, a jury convicted MacNeill on two counts of capital murder after seven days of trial. In 2015 he was accused of killing Myron Brian Beavers, 57, with a hatchet and stealing his truck along with money and a credit card. He was later arrested by a state trooper in St. Clair County following a car chase.
According to the report, the murder stemmed from an argument between MacNeill and Beavers over money that Beavers accused MacNeill of stealing. It was then that MacNeill is said to have hit Beavers several times in the head with a hatchet.
Clifton Ridgeway, 24, was present during the incident. He has not yet gone to trial.
Beavers died of blunt force trauma to the head. MacNeill confessed to the murder after he was arrested. In 2016, MacNeill escaped from the Blount County Jail but was recaptured by authorities.
