Kevin Wade Jung, the defendant, is charged with the beating death of Wayne E. Ellis, 54. Jung’s co-defendant, Kenneth Pollard, was previously convicted and is currently serving 22 years in prison.
According to medical evidence presented Tuesday, Ellis died as a direct result of multiple skull fractures caused by blunt force trauma. Former medical examiner Dr. Song W. Wong also testified that Ellis’s body had bruises on both sides of his neck and chest, both arms, his abdomen and thighs. He also had internal bruising of the fatty tissue in his abdomen and sustained an injury to one of his kidneys.
Although the overall injuries to his body were extensive, Wong testified that only the head injuries would have been fatal.
Among the injuries Ellis sustained was a basilar skull fracture, which involves breaking the bone that the brain sits on, above the hard pallet and behind the nose. It is the hardest bone in the body, and is often characterized by “raccoon eyes,” which paramedics and emergency room personnel testified Ellis had this particular symptom.
Although much of the testimony Tuesday centered on medical issues, the key state’s witness was Wayne Whitely, a hitchhiker Ellis picked up in Vicksburg, Miss., the day before he was killed. At the time, Ellis was driving from his home in West Monroe, La., to Nashville to help his brother repair his house. Whitely was heading to Massachusetts to visit his children, he said.
Whitely’s narrative remained largely the same as the testimony he had given during Pollard and Jung’s preliminary court appearance, during Pollard’s trial and during a Jung trial that ended in mistrial. The two men (and Whitely’s dog, Bandit), stopped in Meridian, Miss., and each of the two men purchase a pint of whiskey. Whitely admitted he drank a six pack of beer earlier in the day.
After taking a couple of sips of whiskey, he said Ellis spilled his. Whitely gave Ellis the rest of his and fell asleep shortly afterward.
When he woke up, they were in the parking lot of the Texaco/Burger King in Lincoln. Whitely said Ellis got into a verbal argument with a group of teenagers who called him “Santa Claus” and someone apparently called the police. Ellis gunned the engine of his truck, which was pointed toward the teens, but kept his foot on the brake. He then turned onto an access road and was about to leave when Pollard and Jung’s cars blocked them in.
In Whitely’s version of events, the officers approached Ellis, who rolled down the truck window and said “What the f—k do you want?”
One of the officers said Ellis needed to take a breathalyzer, to which Ellis responded “F—k you,” according to Whitely’s testimony. At this point, Pollard grabbed Ellis’s arm, pulled him out of the truck and slammed his body into the side of the vehicle. As he staggered back, Pollard struck him on the head with a flashlight, knocking him to his hands and knees, at which point the other officer (who Whitely never identified) kicked him in the gut, flipping him onto his back. At this point, Whitely said he looked away but could hear the pounding continue for what he said was up to 10 minutes. Although he could not identify the second officer as Jung, he was in uniform and there were no other officers on duty in Lincoln that night.
According to the previous trial, Whitely has prior felony convictions for burglary, theft, fraudulent use of a credit card and forgery as well as misdemeanor convictions for providing false information to law enforcement, DUI and public intoxication. He has also used at least false a dozen aliases over the years.
He was arrested (and gave a false name) for public intoxication by Pollard and Jung.
While in jail in Lincoln, Whitely was questioned by District Attorney’s investigator Mike McBurnett. Initially, Whitely told McBurnett that Pollard and Jung had pulled Ellis out of the truck, kicked his legs out from under him and let him fall, striking his head on the concrete and not moving again. Pollard came by his cell shortly afterward and asked what he had said.
Whitely testified that he lied initially because he was “scared to death” while still the custody of the men he had just watched beat Ellis to death. When he got out of jail a week later, he went back to McBurnett and told the story that he has since repeated under oath several times.
Another eye-witness testified that he was driving by the Texaco behind a slow truck and saw someone laying on the ground between two people in police uniforms, one with his arm raised up apparently to strike. He could not identify either the officers or the person on the ground, however.
Ellis was eventually transported to the emergency room of Citizens Baptist Medical Center, then airlifted to Baptist Medical Center Montclair in Birmingham and finally to University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital, where he died 13 days later.
Emergency Room staff notified the Talladega Police Department, and former Lt. Terry Truss responded and filed a report about 4 a.m. Former Lincoln Police Chief Dennis Surrett notified the Talladega County District Attorney’s office about 6:30 a.m., just over five hours after the incident.
Pollard’s patrol car was equipped with a video camera, but there was no tape in it when investigators went to check it.
Defense attorney Tommy Spina argued after the state rested that Circuit Judge Bo Hollingsworth should grant an acquittal, since the state had failed to demonstrate any intent on Jung’s part. The only act actually witnessed involving Jung (which the defense disputes) was the kick to the gut, which would not have been fatal.
Hollingsworth denied the motion.
Across the hall, in Circuit Judge Julian King’s court room, a jury acquitted Roderick Jemison of shooting into an occupied vehicle. Jemison was represented by Bo Shaw and Jordan Copeland.
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