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Michael W. Bryant Jr. (right) sits with one of his attorneys after jury selection in the first day of his murder trial. Testimony also began Monday.
ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF |
Edith Ann Haynes was excited about Nov. 15, 2000, the day she expected a long-due $25,000 payment and a lunch celebration with the co-worker who was buying her home, a friend testified Monday.
"She was very happy that she was going to get her money," Carol Hall told a Richmond County Superior Court jury. "That was the night before she was murdered."
Michael W. Bryant Jr., 32, has pleaded innocent to charges of murder, arson and burglary in Ms. Hayes' Nov. 15, 2000, death at Windsor Court Mobile Home Park. His trial began Monday.
Mr. Bryant was the only person who had the expertise with fire, the motive and the opportunity to kill 57-year-old Ms. Haynes, District Attorney Danny Craig told the jury in his opening statement.
He killed her, the prosecutor said, because he did not have the final $25,000 payment for Ms. Haynes' Smith Drive home. Mr. Bryant had already recorded a bogus deed for the home without Ms. Haynes' knowledge, a fraud that would have been revealed Nov. 15, 2000, if Ms. Haynes was not paid that day as she demanded, the prosecutor said.
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Testimony continues today in the murder trial of Michael W. Bryant Jr., an Evans man accused of strangling a co-worker to death and setting a fire to cover up the crime.
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Three days earlier, Ms. Hall testified, she relayed a message from her friend to Mr. Bryant. Ms. Haynes intended to sell the Smith Drive house to someone else unless Mr. Bryant came up with the money as promised, Ms. Hall said.
On Nov. 9, 2000, Ms. Haynes told her that she was injured when boards fell on her head as she and Mr. Bryant put in shelves in the mobile home where Ms. Haynes intended to live, Ms. Hall testified. Ms. Haynes thought it was an accident, but as the days passed without Mr. Bryant's agreement that Ms. Haynes could cash the personal check he gave her Nov. 9, Ms. Haynes began to suspect it was intentional, her friend testified.
Ms. Hall testified that Nov. 15, 2000, she saw Mr. Bryant at Ms. Haynes' trailer about 11 a.m. and again at 2:45 p.m.
Ms. Haynes' body was found face-down in her bathroom the same day, after firefighters put out the fire about 8:30 p.m. An autopsy revealed that Ms. Haynes was strangled to death.
Defense attorney Maureen Floyd stressed in her opening statement to the jury that Mr. Bryant has proof that he was at a dinner and then a movie at the time of the fire. He had always intended to pay Ms. Haynes the $25,000, the attorney said, and he did pay the money to Ms. Haynes' estate when a request was made a year later.
"My client loved Edith Ann Haynes and cared for her deeply," Ms. Floyd told the jury, noting that Mr. Bryant was a pallbearer at her funeral.
Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or shodson@augustachronicle.com.
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