GEONTAE GLASS - 5 yo (2006) - Albertville AL

Jury selection began Monday in the case against a man accused of killing a 5-year-old boy during an Amber Alert hoax.

Kevin
Andre Towles is charged with the capital murder of Geontae Glass.
Towles is being tried in Etowah County, where the child's body was
found. Geontae was reported missing in Albertville in December of 2006. His body was found in the truck of a car the next morning. Geontae's mother, Shalinda Glass, is also charged in this case. Her trial is scheduled for this spring.

The sister of a 5-year-old who was beaten to death has testified
that she saw her mother's boyfriend take her brother outside her home,
and that the boy appeared to be sleeping when the man carried him
inside.The Gadesden Times said 10-year-old Shaliyah Glass
testified Wednesday in the capital murder trial of Kevin Towles in the
beating death of Geontae Glass in 2006. Geontae's mother, Shalinda
Glass, is awaiting trial.The girl said Towles put her
brother in the back seat of her mother's car the next morning. She said
she and her mother went a convenience store and when they came out, the
car was gone.The boy's body was found in the trunk of a car parked behind Towles' house.

Photographs of the body of the victim were shown to the jury as
testimony continued in the trial of a man charged in the beating death
of a 5-year-old.
Photographs of the body of Geontae Glass were
submitted into evidence Thursday as Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin
testified in the capital murder trial of Kevin Towles, who is charged
with murdering the child in December 2006.
The body was found almost 24 hours after Geontae's mother, Shalinda
Glass, reported her car stolen with the child asleep in the back. It
was found in the trunk of his mother's car, in the garage at Towles'
home.
Forensics scientist London Pierce testified that a reddish-brown
substance found on the bathtub at Towles' home tested positive for
blood.

A man who is on trial for capital
murder in the beating death of a 5-year-old boy intially told police he
was responsible but changed course after police said they could not
guarantee the boy's mother would not be charged, officials testified
Thursday.Authorities
contend Kevin Andre Towles killed Geontae "Gee" Glass at the boy's
Mountainboro home in rural Etowah County on Dec. 3, 2006, and along
with the mother, Shalinda Glass, staged a fake abduction outside a
convenience store at Albertville the next day.Etowah
County Sheriff's Office Chief Investigator Michael Jones and FBI
Special Agent Brenn Tallent testified they interviewed Towles, 34, a
few hours after the child's body was found.Both
testified that Towles said he was responsible for what happened to
Geontae and asked for an agreement in writing that Shalinda Glass, his
girlfriend, would not be charged with a crime.The
officers said they could not make that promise and testified that
Towles then told them two masked men came out of the woods and wanted
him to have his son come outside.Towles said the men asked for money and he gave them $15,000.Jones
testified that Towles' story did not seem "plausible" and the interview
was terminated when he became agitated as the officers asked him
questions.The
jury was shown photos of the boy's body, which was found Dec. 5 in the
trunk of a car parked behind Towles' home. The mother is awaiting trial.Deputy
District Attorney Marcus Reid said the body was covered in bruises with
injuries on the sides, arms and legs. His upper thighs and buttocks had
been beaten so badly investigators could see the imprints of a piece of
wood, later identified as a bloodstained 2-by-4 board found in Towles'
yard.The boy's
10-year-old sister testified Wednedsay that Towles was upset with her
brother, took him outside her home and, when they returned, the boy
wasn't moving."He had his head on his shoulder, like he was sleeping," said Shaliyah Glass, who was 7 at the time of the murder.During
opening statements, Towles' attorney, Dani Bone, said Towles was
falsely accused and some issues in the case will be disputed.Shaliyah
Glass testified Wednesday that Towles was "a little mad" and told her
brother he was going to pay, prior to taking him outside.In testimony
the girl said the next morning, Dec. 4, she was put in the passenger
side of the car and Gee was put in the back, "half laying down and half
sitting up."Towles
was not with them, and authorities contend he got a friend to drop him
off near the convenience store, where Towles drove off with the boy's
body when Shalinda Glass and the girl got out of the car to use the
bathroom. The mother called 911 and authorities initially thought it
was a case of a vehicle being stolen with a child in the back seat.Officials
testified that an SKS rifle, a bulletproof vest and about $33,000 were
found during a search of Towles' Shady Grove Road home.Rob
Savage, commander of the Etowah County Drug Enforcement Unit, said the
unit was involved in a search of Towles' home when officers in Marshall
County discovered the address of the Shady Grove Road home on an
electric bill at a house in Albertville where Towles had been staying.

A man was found guilty by an Etowah County jury Wednesday morning in the death of a 5-year-old child. Kevin
Towles was charged with capital murder in the death of Geontae
Glass. Investigators found the boy's body in the trunk of a car in
December of 2006. The case started a day earlier as an Amber Alert hoax
in Albertville. Geontae's mother, Shalinda Glass, is also charged in the case.

An Etowah County Grand jury has returned an indictment including two
counts of capital murder against a Rainbow City mother whose 5-year-old
son was beaten to death in 2006.
Shalinda Glass, who is 28, has been in the Etowah County Jail since
her son's death. Kevin Andre Towles, who was dating Glass at the time,
was found guilty of the boy's murder in October.

The body of 5-year-old Geontae "Gee" Glass was found in the trunk of
a car one day after his mother reported him missing in a faked
abduction.
Testimony from Glass' daughter indicated Towles had beaten the boy until he couldn't move.
A pathologist testified that Geontae was most likely paralyzed by
the assault and that the injuries show he was beaten over a period of
days.

Etowah County Judge Allen Millican sentenced Kevin
Andre Towles to death after a jury recommended the death penalty, 11-1,
for the murder of 5-year-old Geontae Glass, according to Marcus Reed,
Etowah County chief deputy district attorney.

Reed said the judge had the option of accepting the jury’s recommendation or imposing a life sentence without parole.

“Our
office is very pleased with the sentence,” Reed said. “We think it is
the only appropriate sentence under the facts of this case.

“This was a cruel murder. A child is as helpless as any victim could possibly be under the circumstances.

“And this is the extraordinary sort of case the death penalty is reserved for.”

Towles will reportedly die by lethal injection.

The
crime happened in December 2006 when Geontae’s body was found in the
trunk of a car one day after Towles and Glass reported him missing. The
mother claimed her car was stolen from an Albertville convenience store
with the child sleeping inside.

GADSDEN, Ala. - An Etowah County judge has imposed a death
sentence on Kevin Andre Towles for the December 2006 beating death of
his girlfriend's 5-year-old son, who was originally reported to have
been kidnapped.
The case drew wide interest when the child, Geontee "Gee" Glass, was
reported by his mother to have been abducted from the parking lot of an
Albertville convenience store. The mother, Shalinda Glass, initially
told police her son was sleeping on the back seat of the car when a man
got into the car and drove away.Alabama state troopers and
Albertville police issued an Amber Alert for the boy, which initiated a
nationwide search. But the next day, police found the car parked behind
Towles' house in Etowah County with the boy's body in the trunk. Towles
was charged with capital murder.The courtroom was tense Friday
when Towles was sentenced by Circuit Judge Allen Millican. As the judge
announced the sentence, a woman ran from the courtroom sobbing.
Etowah County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marcus Reed called the
death sentence appropriate."This was a cruel murder.
A child is as helpless as any victim could possibly be under the circumstances," Reed said.The
boy's 10-year-old sister, Shaliyah Glass, testified during the trial
that Towles was upset with her brother, took him outside her home and,
when they returned, the boy wasn't moving."He had his head on his shoulder,
like he was sleeping," said Shaliyah Glass, who was 7 at the time.During opening
statements, Towles' attorney, Dani Bone, said Towles was falsely accused.The
mother was at first charged with hindering prosecution, but has since
been indicted by a grand jury on capital murder charges. She is in jail
in Etowah County awaiting trial.