The Washington County man accused of burying a 2006 Hummer H2 to collect insurance money appeared in court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing that turned into a mini-trial and an attack on the investigation.
Gene Parnell is accused of burying the Hummer on property in the Tibbie Community in 2016. A tip led investigators to the vehicle, which Parnell had reported stolen six years earlier. Investigators testified that Parnell told a friend he was going to make the Hummer disappear and not to ask questions.
During the roughly three-hour hearing, defense attorney Blane Dolbare asked the judge to dismiss all charges on a technicality, called Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer as a witness, and encouraged another witness to invoke his Fifth Amendment right while on the stand. Dolbare argued his client could not have buried the Hummer because he was in Mobile when it was reported stolen.
In the end, the case was bound over to a grand jury. Judge Jerry Turner issued a gag order and dismissed two of the three charges against Parnell. Only the first-degree insurance fraud charge remains.