Wilmer Grandfather Killed in Shooting After Neighbor Dispute, Deputies Say
A Wilmer man is dead and his neighbor is jailed on a murder charge after a shooting that happened while the victim's grandchildren were in the car.
WILMER, Ala. — A dispute between neighbors over property damage ended in gunfire on a rural Mobile County road Thursday night, leaving one man dead and a suspect behind bars, according to the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies responding to a call on Glenwood Farms Lane West around 7:40 p.m. found Billy Joe Earnest bleeding behind the wheel of a pickup truck that had crashed after he was shot. Earnest’s grandchildren were riding with him at the time but were not physically injured, according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Lori Myles.
Investigators say the call came from Terry Wayne Poole, 53, who told deputies on the scene that he had shot Earnest. According to Myles, a preliminary investigation pointed to a long-simmering conflict between the two men over destruction of property as the motive behind the shooting.
Poole was arrested and booked into Mobile County Metro Jail early Friday morning on charges of discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle and murder. A Mobile County judge ordered later that morning that he be held without bond, meaning Poole will remain in custody at least until his case is reviewed further by the courts.
Court records show Poole has been arrested on six other occasions dating back to 1988. His most recent brush with the law came in 2012, when he faced a harassment charge; he was ultimately acquitted.
What happens next
Murder is a Class A felony in Alabama, carrying a sentence of up to life in prison, and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle is a separate Class B felony. Felony cases in Mobile County typically begin in district court, where a judge can hold a preliminary hearing on whether there is probable cause, before a grand jury decides whether to return an indictment that sends the case to circuit court for trial.
