Murder trial moved
Published 12:00 am Friday, November 30, 2012
By Billy Davis
The re-trial of murder defendant Antonio Cortez Glover has been moved to February in Sardis, Circuit Clerk Melissa Meek-Phelps said this week.
Glover’s attorney, John Keith Perry, filed a motion for continuance that was approved by Circuit Judge Smith Murphey.
District Attorney John Champion was present at the court hearing and did not object to Perry’s motion, said Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale, who was not present.
Earlier this summer, a sequestered jury convicted Glover of killing Tommy “Burnside” Moore in 2011, choosing that conviction over capital murder and manslaughter.
Perry asked for the continuance because a trial transcript has not been completed, said Hale.
Glover was also convicted of arson and kidnapping, and two counts of conspiracy, but the convictions were tossed out when it was learned a juror had committed perjury after lying about a drug conviction.
Glover was found not guilty on four counts, and the state is unable to retry him on those counts due to double jeopardy laws.
Champion announced at a November 9 pre-trial hearing he will try Glover for murder, arson, kidnapping, and conspiracy.
At that hearing, Murphey set a second murder trial for Glover for December 3 in Sardis.
Glover, a purported Como drug dealer, was facing the death penalty for killing his neighbor over missing marijuana.
Moore’s body was found May 6, 2011 in a drainage ditch on Paul White Road, not far from where his torched Buick was found on nearby Tom Floyd Road.
An autopsy revealed Moore was shot multiple times and died from gunshot wounds. He was 32.
Authorities have implicated others in Moore’s homicide or torching Glover’s home to cover up the crime, but claim Glover was the ringleader.