Man convicted of stabbing Gadsden family during robbery

GADSDEN (AP) — An Etowah County jury has convicted Michael Reynolds of capital murder in the robbery slayings of a North Gadsden family in 2003.

Reynolds was convicted Friday in the stabbing deaths of 38-year-old Chuck Martin; his 31-year-old wife, Melinda; and 8-year-old daughter, Savanah, at the Martins’ home on Tidmore Bend Road on May 25, 2003.

“The Tidmore Bend community has cried until it can’t cry anymore,” District Attorney Jimmie Harp told jurors in closing arguments. “They’ve grieved until they can’t grieve anymore. We don’t want crying anymore. We want justice to be served.”

Harp said the victims can’t speak, but “the evidence can speak loudly.”

Reynolds said he did not kill the family and was trying to cover up for his former girlfriend who witnessed the killings. Reynolds said she would not tell him who killed the family.

Marcie West, Reynolds’ former girlfriend, testified Tuesday that she and Reynolds went to the Martin home to get money and it was Reynolds who killed the family. West said she was stabbed when she tried to stop him from stabbing Melinda Martin.

Jurors found Reynolds guilty on five counts of capital murder: three counts of murder during a robbery for the deaths of three people; one count for the murder of two or more people; and the other for a victim less than 14 years old.

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