Tuesday, May 18, 2010

MAY 18 CONTINUED

News - North Carolina & Regional - Wire
Tuesday, May. 18, 2010
NC cold-case trial starts in slaying of Marine
The Associated Press JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- A North Carolina prosecutor has methodically laid out the case against a 57-year-old former small-town police chief accused of killing a Marine 37 years ago.

George Hayden faces first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the death of William Miller in a trial that opened in Jacksonville on Tuesday.

Onslow County prosecutors said Miller was killed by Hayden in an ambush triggered by a love triangle involving Miller's ex-wife Vickie Babbitt. Chief Assistant District Ernie Lee said in his opening statement that Hayden talked about how he had an M-16, the type of gun used in the crime.


Cold-case trial starts in NC in slaying of Marine a small-town police chief accused of killing a Marine is going on trial after prosecutors say new evidence links him to the murder 37 years ago in North Carolina.
Jury selection was to start Monday in 57-year-old George Hayden's trial in the death of William Miller in Jacksonville. A jury of 12 was seated, but two alternates are still to be selected. The trial resumes on Tuesday.
Hayden faces murder and conspiracy charges for what prosecutors say was an ambush triggered by a love triangle involving Miller's wife at the time. The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.

Prosecutors have said they think Babbitt faked car trouble to lure Miller to a secluded stretch of rural road in Jacksonville. They said Hayden was waiting in a ditch with an M-16 rifle and shot Miller in the temple and back.

Lee said Tuesday passing motorists found Miller's body September 16, 1972, near Camp Lejeune less than an hour after he left home. When police found the car, its engine was running, the headlights were on and Miller's pistol remained in the front seat, unfired.

Hayden's defense attorney, William J. Morgan, said that the state didn't have enough evidence 37 years ago to convict Hayden and still doesn't.

He told the jury that there was no evidence that Hayden actually owned an M-16.

"The case is no better now than it was in 1972. The state does not know who killed Bill Miller," Morgan said.

Babbitt and Hayden married four months after Miller's death, then divorced four years later. Hayden retired from the Marine Corps in 1989 and worked for the Carteret County Sheriff's Department before becoming chief for the Cape Carteret and Belhaven police departments.

The case remained unsolved until Miller's sister contacted a newspaper reporter looking into cold cases and the resulting investigation elicited new information from a 1970s baby sitter.

Hayden is the first person to go on trial in the killing and could face life in prison if he's convicted.

Babbitt, 58, and Rodger Gill, 56, an ex-Marine who was friends with the Babbitt and Hayden, have also been charged with murder and conspiracy. They will go on trial later this year.

Hayden's trial is expected to last a week.

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