Coley McCraney takes the stand:
Follow Day 4 of McCraney trial here
Witness: Coley McCraney , defendant
9:34 a.m. Coley McCraney takes the stand.
9:35 a.m. McCraney stated that he was 49 and that he worked as a part time pastor before his arrest. Defense attorney David Harrison asked how far Johnstown was from his previous place of residence. McCraney stated about 3 miles. Harrison presented a photo of McCraney from 1998 in which he was 23 years old. That photos was shown to the jury, they passed the photo around to all the jurors.
9:37 a.m. McCraney said he moved back to Ozark in 1997 where he lived with his parents in Johnstown before moving to his Lisenby Street, 3 miles from Johnstown.
9:40 a.m. Harrison asked how he stayed in contact with his family while he was on the road as a truck driver. McCraney said that he had to use payphones. Harrison asked if he was married in 1998. He said no that he married Jeanette McCraney in 2001. Harrison had McCraney explain the pagers that he and Mrs. McCraney had.
9:42 a.m. McCraney said he and Jeanette were planning to move in 1999 to the vacant lot next to his parents house in Johnstown. “We had been working on it off and on all year,” McCraney said of the land. He said he worked on the land every time he came home from truck driving. The mobile home was already planned to be moved.
9:44 a.m. McCraney said he met JB in June of 1999 at the Wiregrass Commons Mall. He was in Dothan to drop his then girlfriend, now wife, off at work and he stopped at RadioShack in the mall. JB was walking by the store when McCraney was walking out. He testified that he walked up to her and introduced himself and they struck up a conversation. He gave JB his mother’s number because he did not have a phone and he did not want her to page him while his girlfriend was around. McCraney testified that JB called him at his mother’s house that same day. He said that JB called him again in July. “We had plans to meet up whenever we could,” McCraney said.
9:48 a.m. Harrison asked when McCraney came home on July 30,1999. He said it was after lunch and testified that he would park his truck on County Road 18 at a gas station because his truck wouldn’t fit at their Lisenby Street home. McCraney said that he would leave his truck there until he needed to get back on the road.
9:50 a.m. Harrison asked if their was a shortcut from the Big Little to Dothan and McCraney said yes and that it would let out at the gas station that he parked his truck at all the time. McCraney testified that there was a bed in the truck where he slept when he was on the road. McCraney testified that he had several children at the time. Harrison asked if one was with a “white woman” and McCraney said yes and that they dated for two years.
9:52 a.m. McCraney said he went out to the land they owned on July 31, 1999. He said he got a call from JB that day saying that she would be in Ozark. He asked her if they were going to get together. McCraney asked JB, whom he called “Jennifer” if she knew where Carroll high school was and gave her directions. McCraney said he was going to “meet Jennifer,” at 10 p.m.
9:56 a.m. McCraney said he waited for her at the Big Little until after 10 p.m. and then went back to his mom’s house because that was the only number that JB had if she were to call him. McCraney said she never called. McCraney testified that he visited with his family for a while and then left around 11:45 p.m. He said that his “alternator started acting up” and he parked his car at the Big Little. As he got closer to the payphone, he said he recognized the girls, one of them being JB. McCraney testified that he talked to both of the girls. He said JB was supposed to meet him and she said she was running late. He said he got in the back side passenger side of their Mazda 929 to show them the shortcut that McCraney knew back to 231 passed the gas station where his truck was parked.
10:00 a.m. McCraney said that he showed them the truck and JB got in and “one thing lead to another” and they ended up having sex in the truck. Harrison asked if he raped her in the truck. McCraney said “absolutely not.” He stated that they only talked for a few minutes because she said she had to meet someone. He asked them to drop him off but he didn’t want to be dropped of at his house for his girlfriend to see them. McCraney said the Mazda 929 was clean when he got in.
10:02 a.m. Harrison asked what time he was dropped off, he said 12:45 a.m. and he walked home. He asked his girlfriend to help jump the car. McCraney testified that Mrs. McCraney drove him to the Big Little where they jumped the car and returned home around 1 a.m. Harrison asked if he left the house again that night. McCraney said no. Harrison asked McCraney what he did on August 1, 1999. McCraney explained that he and Mrs. McCraney went to Walmart.
10:04 a.m. McCraney said that he didn’t hear about the murders until a few week later when Mrs. McCraney told him. “Did that concern you at all,” Harrison asked. “No, because everything she was telling me was completely different from what I knew,” McCraney responded.
10:05 a.m. McCraney detailed the call he got from Marlos Walker in which Walker asked him to come help go through names of people near Johnstown. McCraney said they made arrangements to meet because he was on the road at the time. McCraney said his wife went with him. Walker asked him if he knew about the two girls. “Yeah, everyone does,” McCraney responded. Walker asked for DNA to “help fill out the family tree.” McCraney testified that he knew it was about the murders and he volunteered his DNA.
10:07 a.m. Harrison asked McCraney if he had “started putting two and two together.” McCraney said he did not. McCraney said that Walker called him again to come back and help with the names. McCraney made arrangements to come in because he was on the road again. McCraney explained that he tried to call Walker’s office number several times to let him know he was back in Alabama but could not get in contact with him.
10:10 a.m. McCraney detailed his arrest in Daleville. He said he was shocked and they did not tell him why he was being arrested. Harrison asked if he was handcuffed and put in an interrogation room. McCraney said yes and that he was “terrified.” He said he was wondering if he was being charged with the murder of JB and Tracie. Harrison asked why he didn’t tell investigators that he knew the girls. He said that he was scared and that once they put the handcuffs on him he “figured they had already made up their minds.” Harrison had McCraney detail his time in the interrogation room. McCraney testified that he slept on the floor. He also said that any time someone would come in that they would ask if he was ready to talk.
10:13 a.m. Harrison asked about the conversation he had with Walker at the station. He said that Walker took him outside of the interrogation room and that they talked about high school. McCraney said that Walker told him they didn’t have to talk about the case if he didn’t want to.
10:14 a.m. Harrison asked if McCraney raped Ms. Beasley. He said no. He asked if he murdered Ms. Beasley. McCraney said no. He asked if he murdered Tracie Hawlett. McCraney said, “No, I did not.”
10:15 a.m. Steve Marshall began cross examination. Marshall asked if McCraney was “mistreated” in the interrogation room. McCraney said no. Marshall said that he reviewed the videos of McCraney in the interrogation room. He broke down the video by time. Marshall asked if he had never publicly told anyone that he had met those girls. McCraney said that after he asked for a lawyer, he didn’t talk to anyone about it. Marshall continued breaking down the video by timestamp, asking McCraney if the times sounded right.
10:19 a.m. Marshall asked if once the table and chairs were removed from the room, there was more space. McCraney said yes. Marshall asked about the mat they brought in and McCraney said that they did bring a mat and blankets. McCraney testified that he was brough food multiple time, including breakfast from McDonald’s. McCraney said he did not eat until someone asked him what he wanted. He said he didn’t want anything, but that they wanted him to eat. He asked for Arby’s fries.
10:22 a.m. Marshall brought up the lights. He asked if they were bright “heat lamp” type lights. McCraney said no. Marshall gestured to the florescent lights in the courtroom and asked if the lights in the interrogation room were like those. McCraney said that they were. McCraney explained how his trucking schedule worked. “It’s one load at a time,” McCraney said. He also said that it was usually two to three weeks per trip.
10:25 a.m. Marshall asked how JB knew to call his mother’s house. McCraney said that she would know if he were going to be home, it would be on the weekend. McCraney testified that JB had to call on any given weekend and hope he was there. Marshall asked if he told his mom that a girl would be calling for him but not to tell Jeanette. McCraney said no because people called for him all the time. He said that he was “single but dating.” McCraney also testified that he didn’t tell anyone about a possible relationship with JB.
10:59 a.m. Judge Filmore called for a break.
