Jury trials are set to resume in Mobile County next week following a summer hiatus, with a high-profile murder case topping the docket.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of Aubrey Pate, a Wilmer man charged with murder in connection with a fatal traffic collision on Rangeline Road in September 2022.
Prosecutors allege Pate had marijuana in his system when he collided head-on with Victor Birch, a postal worker and member of the Blue Bell Bombers running group. Birch was killed in the crash.
The case has moved through an unusually long path to trial, having been presented to three separate grand juries. The first grand jury declined to indict Pate. A second grand jury later returned a manslaughter indictment. A third grand jury subsequently upgraded the charge to murder, which is the charge Pate now faces as jury selection begins.
Pate’s case is not the only one scheduled for trial as Mobile County courts resume jury proceedings this week. Also on the docket is the trial of Devanta Hall, who is accused in a June 2023 shooting at the Pride Gas Station on St. Stephen Road that killed 22-year-old LeCharles King. Additionally, Desiree Holiday is scheduled to stand trial on charges that she killed her boyfriend on Seabreeze Road in 2024.
Manslaughter vs. Murder
Under Alabama law, a person can be charged with murder without intending to kill if, under circumstances showing extreme indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct that creates a grave risk of death and causes someone’s death. Manslaughter, by contrast, covers reckless killings that do not rise to that level of extreme indifference. Manslaughter is a Class B felony, while murder is a Class A felony, the most serious felony class under Alabama law.
