A preacher's son and convicted felon has been sentenced to life in prison for bludgeoning to death his first wife and burying her under a pile of sticks on a remote Alabama hillside 18 years ago.
Barry Whitton, 46, received the maximum punishment from Jackson County Circuit Judge John Graham following a nearly two-decades-long investigation into the killing of Michelle Whitton.
Mrs Whitton's body was discovered under the mass of sticks and rocks on a craggy hill in DeKalb County. 100 miles northeast of Birmingham, on January 20, 1998 - her son Ethan's birthday.
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Life behind bars:Barry Whitton (pictured in 2008), 46, has been sentenced to life in prison for bludgeoning to death his first wife, Michelle, and burying her under a pile of sticks on a remote Alabama hill 18 years ago
Evidence showed she had been killed by a blow to the head, delivered with the butt of a shotgun, about six weeks earlier. She had vanished from her home a few weeks before Christmas 1997.
Last December, Whitton was finally charged with his wife's murder following the 18-year police investigation. At the time, he was serving a 10-year prison sentence for possessing firearms.
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Share 14 sharesAnd yesterday, Judge Graham sentenced him to life in prison for the killing, AL.com reports.
'This is an extraordinary case. It's the oldest cold case our office has handled that has resulted in a conviction,' Attorney General Luther Strange told AP in an interview after the hearing.
Meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General Leigh Gwathney, who prosecuted the murder case, said Mrs Whitton had been beloved by her relatives, who had suffered a 'tremendous amount of loss'
The sentence was delivered amid fears that Whitton was involved in the disappearance of his second wife, Kimberly Whitton, and her 11-year-old daughter, Haleigh Culwell, in 2007. Above, Jackson County Sheriff's Deputy Dennis Blevens, center, stops motorists near Whitton's house following the pair's disappearance
The sentence was delivered amid fears that Whitton was involved in the disappearance of his second wife, Kimberly Whitton, and her 11-year-old daughter, Haleigh Culwell, in 2007.
Dozens of officers spent days searching for signs of Kimberly Whitton - who had married Whitton seemingly unaware that he had beaten to death his former spouse - and her daughter on the property where they lived with Whitton in a rough log home on Sand Mountain, but found nothing.
At the time, investigators said Whitton was a suspect.
However, no remains were ever found and Whitton was not charged in the disappearances.
Still missing: Whitton's stepdaughter, Haleigh (above), and her mother have never been found
The murderer was feared among the community.
Strange said officials hope that now Whitton has been jailed for life, someone with knowledge about the whereabouts of his second wife and stepdaughter may come forward with information.
'That investigation is definitely ongoing,' Strange said. 'Our investigators are certainly energized to solve that case as well.'
In 2007, investigators found five firearms during the search of the Whittons' secluded cabin and acreage where they kept goats, milk cows and a bull.
Having served time for receiving stolen property in 1988 and 1991, Whitton was arrested and pleaded guilty to a charge of a felon possessing firearms.
During a hearing where a judge sentenced Whitton to 10 years on the gun charges, authorities depicted the man as a menace.
They said he talked in a secret jailhouse recording about ways to skin and mutilate people and their animals; how to remove hands from arms; how to smash a skull and teeth and scatter the bits along the interstate and how to feed body parts to pigs.
Whitton was still serving his federal sentence when he was charged with Mrs Whitton's slaying.
Evidence in his two-week trial shed no light on the whereabouts of his second wife and Haleigh.
Whitton still faces charges of witness intimidation and criminal coercion after allegedly contacting potential witnesses in his murder trial. In July, he was charged with promoting prison contraband amid allegations officers found potential escape tools in his jail cell in Jackson County.
Whitton pleaded not guilty to all of those charges.
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