Grand jury returns indictments

By: Katie Stallcup Staff writer | Opelika Auburn News
Published: May 15, 2008

The two Smiths Station men arrested and charged in January in connection with burning three churches and vandalizing another were indicted this week on arson and burglary charges related to one of those fires.

This week’s Lee County grand jury indicted Geoffrey Tyler Parquette, 21, and James Scott Clark, 21, each on charges of one count of second-degree arson and third-degree burglary, District Attorney Nick Abbett said Wednesday.

The three churches - Greater Peace and Goodwill AME Church in the Crawford community in Russell County, Greater Bethelpore Baptist Church in Salem and Woodland Baptist Church in the Ladonia community in Russell County - burned between Jan. 1 and 4.

The indictments are in connection with the Jan. 3 burning of Greater Bethelpore Baptist Church in Salem.

Parquette and Clark called themselves spiritual Satanists, according to law enforcement at the time of the men’s arrests.

The district attorney’s office presented 363 cases to the grand jury, which convened May 5. The proceedings took seven days, and the grand jury returned 296 indictments, Abbett said.
Trial dates have yet to be set.

Other indictments include:

- Deaudry Butler, 44, of Auburn, was indicted for manslaughter. Butler was arrested in April and charged with first-degree domestic violence after his housemate, Melvin Grady, 38, sustained head injuries at their house. Grady later died as a result of those injuries.

- Thomas Edward Howard was indicted on charges of first-degree robbery after he allegedly robbed Jet Pep on Wire Road at gunpoint in early March. No one was injured in the incident.

- Billy Ray North, 42, of Opelika was indicted on four counts of first-degree robbery, including allegedly robbing a Subway restaurant on West Magnolia Avenue, Hungry Howie’s and Tenda Chick in Auburn. North made it look like he had a handgun of some type, Auburn police Assistant Chief Tommy Dawson said. North was arrested in March and charged with two counts of armed robbery.

- Bonnie Faye Sellers, 46, of Opelika, was indicted on two counts of attempted murder after she allegedly shot her ex-husband and a woman at a trailer park in Opelika in early February, Opelika police Capt. Allan Elkins said.