Three High Profile Cases Hit Walton County Court Docket This Spring
By: Stephen Crews
Updated: January 27, 2011
The Walton County court docket is packed for the spring. Thursday’s pretrial conferences put three high profile murder trials in the next few months.
The cases have the State Attorney’s office working overtime.
“It is somewhat unusual for the number of homicides to stack up like this, but it’s not the first time and it won’t be the last time,” said Prosecutor Bobby Elmore. He has three murder cases on his plate.
Danny Roy Baker will head to trial in March. He’s facing the death penalty for the murders of two Chilean exchange students in 2009. There has been debate about whether he would go to trial because he was originally deemed incompetent. But two evaluations later, psychologists say he’s fit to stand trial.
Also in March, Teresa McKee is on trial for the first degree murder of Stephanie Lockwood in August 2009. This trial has been a long time coming—and has been continued several times.
In June, Thomas McCoy will stand trial for first degree murder. He’s already been convicted in Tampa of shooting at a police officer. He now faces another murder charge for killing Curtis Brown at Northwest Florida State College in DeFuniak Springs.
Ira Randall also had pretrial conference Thursday for first degree murder case. He’s accused of dumping a body in Holmes County. They have not yet set a court date.
