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AL
August 25, 2014
A Birmingham man will serve prison time after pleading guilty to manslaughter more than 13 years after two women were found dead in a burned car.
In March 2012, Cameron Rayford was arrested and charged with capital murder in the November 2001 deaths of Kimberly Roy, 29, of Hueytown, and Sandie Lyn Mitchell, 28, of Midfield.
Rayford, now 30, appeared before Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Carpenter on Monday and pleaded guilty to provocation manslaughter and drug trafficking.
As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, he received a 20-year split sentence with four years of confinement. Rayford will get credit for the two years he has already served in the Jefferson County Jail awaiting a resolution of the case.
He will be put on probation for the trafficking charge.
Rayford’s attorney Emory Anthony said his client’s family is happy that he is no longer facing the death penalty.
“We’re glad it’s over with,” Anthony said. “I know that the family members of the two victims are not happy, but at least there’s closure with the case. My client thought it was the best thing for them to do rather than try to deal with possibility of death penalty or life without parole.”
Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Lane Tolbert prosecuted the case, which was settled because of witness issues.
“The (victims’) family understood,” Tolbert said. “Nobody was happy with it, but they understood. They were happy that (Rayford) had to answer for it in court, and he acknowledged his guilt.”
Rayford was arrested in March 2012, two months after someone came forward and helped investigators build a case against Rayford, Birmingham police said. A drug deal went awry and led to the two deaths, retired detective Jody Jacobs said at the time.
“It does go to show you that no matter how old a case is, somebody is still looking at it,” Tolbert said.
Kimberly Roy struggled with drug addiction for more than 10 years, but her father said at the time of Rayford’s arrest that she was a born-again Christian. Mitchell, her parents said, was survived by a daughter who was seven at the time of her mother’s death.
In May 2012, Rayford was released from jail after posting $150,000 bond. A year later he was arrested by sheriff’s deputies in Virginia for driving 100 miles per hour. Authorities learned that he was out on bond for capital murder and wasn’t supposed to leave the state of Alabama.
He was charged with reckless driving and as a fugitive from justice.
