A witness who the judge worried might be "bombastic or unpredictable" calmly told a Walker County jury on Wednesday that he did not kill his former girlfriend, Tammy Cropper.
Ms. Cropper's most recent boyfriend, Christoper Bullock, is charged with her murder, The former Seventh-day Adventist pastor declined to take the witness stand.
Instead the defense called from the adjacent Walker County Jail Tim Matthews, who the defense has said is a potential suspect in the Oct. 5, 2023, slaying at The Woodland apartments in Rossville.
Matthews, who was kept in handcuffs, said Ms. Cropper lived with him about eight years before moving out on April 2, 2023. He said he thinks she moved on to someone else because his trucking business suffered during the pandemic and he became short of money. Asked if he thought she began seeing someone else, he said, "Grandma said, 'When the dog keeps barking, then usually something's wrong.' "
Ashley Williamson of the Public Defender's Office noted that Ms. Cropper had taken out two Orders of Protection against him. He said after those incidents he had to move out and she and her family stayed in his home, but he said he mainly blamed Walker County for that.
In one incident, he said, "I threw some mustard and she threw some ice tea. I went to jail."
In another, it was claimed that he was firing a gun at the Cropper children. He said he was only shooting at a snake.
Matthews said he did believe Ms. Cropper had stolen from him, saying he sold a trailer and equipment for $17,000 to pay bills. He said that money disappeared, and Mrs. Cropper was the only other one with access to the money.
He described Ms. Cropper as tough, saying she worked 20 years as bar tender at a notorious Rossville bar. He said, "She had to be right on everything, and I mean everything."
He told the jury he never married her because "she wouldn't sign the pre-nupt."
Matthews said of the ex, "I loved her with all my heart. I thought we would grow old together. I thought we would be sitting by the campfire together."
However, he said he had no further contact with her after she left. He said, "Grandma said, 'Let it be if it's not to be.' "
He said his house burned down three days after she left him. He said he was inside at the time. He said he collected insurance.
Prosecutor Winston Franklin asked Matthews if he killed Ms. Cropper, and Matthews said no.
Paula Muir said Matthews could not have been the killer because he was working with her remodeling a house in Chickamauga all day on Oct. 5, 2023. She said there were four other workers there who could back that up.
She said they worked on the house "from daylight to dark."
Ms. Muir said the afternoon of the murder that Matthews got a call and looked bewildered. He told her, "I think Tammy's just been shot."
Rossville Police detective Dave Scroggins said concerning someone shooting both Ms. Cropper and Bullock, that he was advised that the front door was locked. The only other door was to a second-story balcony. He said, "I'm in pretty good health for an old man, but I couldn't climb up there." And he said the door to the balcony was locked.
GBI Special Agent Daniel Nicholson said he concluded that Bullock shot Ms. Cropper three times in her bedroom, then he went into the master bathroom and shot himself. She died at the scene, but he was not seriously hurt despite losing a large amount of blood.
The special agent said he happened to be at the Walker County Sheriff's Office when the call came in so he arrived at the house before the victim's body had been removed.
He said the name of Tim Matthews "came up the first day," but he said he interviewed him, Ms. Muir and the others at the remodeled house and ruled him out as a suspect.
Andrew Van Arsdale, a pastor friend of Bullock, called him "very loving, very expressive. He has the gift of affirmation. He's always trying to lift people up."
The witness, who attended Southern Adventist University with Bullock, said, "Never once have I seen him violent or abusive in any way."
He said he had lunch with Bullock on Oct. 4, 2023 - the day before the shooting. He said, "He was going through some rough times, but he was excited about a potential job."
The prosecution introduced numerous excerpts from conversations taken from Bullock's cell phone. He spoke about suicide in a number of references, including admitting to taking a large amount of pills in August 2021.
In some of the messages in the days just before the incident, he told his mother, son and friends how much he loved them.
In his last message at 10:10 a.m. on Oct. 5, 2023, he told his mother, "I'm sick. Don't call." A neighbor said she heard a sound like a nail gun, then a man sobbing sometime between 9:30 to 11 a.m.
The mother was visiting in town at the time, but Bullock did not arrange to meet with her.
It was testified that the last Internet search made by Bullock that day was for the song She Talks To Angels by The Black Crowes.
The jury at LaFayette was to begin deliberations on Thursday after hearing final arguments.