Rosemary Latrice Newsome, 30, who was tried and acquitted in 2008 of the murder of former Opelika-Auburn News dock worker James “Captain” Heard, has died after an extended illness.
Newsome was acquitted June 25, 2008, for the murder of Heard, who Newsome claimed was her common-law husband, although according to reports at the time, she was lawfully married to another man. Heard, a 57-year-old grandfather, was shot to death in the Alabama Highway 51 residence in Beauregard he shared with Newsome on Aug. 14, 2007, just hours after he left work at the newspaper office.
Newsome, who had four children at the time of the trial and, according to her obituary information, is survived by five, spent nearly 10 months in jail outside of Lee County awaiting trial. She was incarcerated in Russell County, and later Elmore County, because of an ongoing lawsuit she had filed against the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in 2002. According to federal court documents, in the lawsuit Newsome alleged she was assaulted at the Lee County jail while she was being held on a previous unrelated charge.
Newsome, who contended her innocence throughout the proceedings, died Thursday at the Bethany House in Auburn.
Pick up a copy of the Opelika-Auburn News for full obituary information.
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