A Morgan County Circuit Court has once again sentenced a man to life without parole for the brutal 1993 murder of a 16-year-old during a robbery.
Roy Burgess Jr. was sentenced to death 30 years ago, but this latest resentencing is his third since the killing.
Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement he was “pleased that justice for Kevin Gardner has been served once again.”
“Roy Burgess took the life of an innocent young man who died trying to help a classmate,” Marshall said. “On the scales of justice, Burgess’s age at the time of his offense could not excuse or diminish the savage and evil nature of his crime. Today, the court correctly ruled that he should again receive the maximum allowable punishment for which he is eligible—life without parole.”
Burgess was convicted of the Aug. 12, 1993 killing of Gardner. Prosecutors said Burgess, who was also 16 at the time, lured Gardner to a remote area where he could rob and kill him. Once there, he shot Gardner in the head at close range, then dragged Gardner’s body out of his car and concealed the remains. He then drove the car to Birmingham to take it to a “chop shop” for extra cash.
He was sentenced to death for his conviction on one count of capital murder in October 1994.
He appealed his sentence to the Alabama Supreme Court, and in 2001, Burgess was resentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
A 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that mandatory life-without-parole sentences could not be given to juveniles convicted of capital murder.
At a resentencing hearing, the court reviewed evidence and listened to testimony regarding Burgess’s age, his involvement in the murder, family history, and other factors, a statement from Marshall’s office said. After hearing and seeing all of the evidence, the Court ruled it was “satisfied that the capital murder committed by Burgess did not result from youthful indiscretion and transient immaturity.”
