From WEIS Radio & AL.com
Prosecutors will reportedly seek the death penalty if the man accused of killing eleven year old Amberly Barnett is convicted of the crime. Capital Murder in Alabama is punishable by execution or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Thirty-three year old Christopher Wayne Madison has been in the DeKalb County, Alabama Jail since being charged with Capital Murder in March.
DeKalb County Sheriff Nick Welden stated that the young girl’s lifeless body was found in a wooded area approximately 200 yards behind Madison’s home in Collinsville – around 6:30 on the morning on March 2nd. He is accused of strangling Barnett, then dumping her in the woods with a rope around her neck.
Barnett was from Polk County in Georgia; however, she had been living with her aunt and aunt’s boyfriend in the Mount Vernon community of DeKalb County since that summer. Madison was living with his girlfriend in the mobile home next door on County Road 822. Madison’s girlfriend and the boyfriend of Barnett’s aunt are brother and sister.
According to the testimony of an investigator – on the evening of March 1st, Barnett stayed home while her aunt and aunt’s boyfriend went shopping – and when the family returned it was discovered that Barnett was missing. When law enforcement was searching for Barnett, Madison claimed he already checked the woods behind his home without finding the girl. It was early the next morning that her body was found.
A trial date has yet to be set.
The next step will be presenting the case to a grand jury for consideration of indictment – and they will decide whether the prosecutors have probable cause to believe that Madison killed Barnett.
Madison is currently being held without bail in the DeKalb County Jail.