Earlier this week, Matthew Brian Kidd was sentenced to life in prison in the murders of Billy Morris and Christian Storey, which took place less than a month ago.
The short time frame brought up a lot of debate on social media over exactly what had happened in the legal process to cause it. According to Chief Deputy District Attorney Ashley Allen from DA Bubba Bramlett’s office, things just lined up right, timing-wise.
Morris, 36, and Storey, 31, were killed within a very short time span, and found two days apart. Kidd was arrested shortly afterward in a hotel in Brandon, and he confessed to detectives in the ensuing interviews.
Kidd was presented to the grand jury and indicted at the most recent meeting, which happened to be taking place in the days since Storey and Morris were killed. When Kidd came in to hear his indictment read to him, he elected not to wait on a trial date, and instead to go ahead and plead guilty.
“This doesn’t happen all the time, but it does occur sometimes when people know that they do not have any valid defense, they will go ahead and plead guilty instead of drawing things out,” Allen said. “This case just moved very quickly because law enforcement officers were able to solve the case, gather all the necessary evidence needed, and we had a grand jury meeting the next week so that we were able to get this case before them.”
Authorities say both Kidd and Storey were members of the Simon City Royals street gang. It is unknown if Morris was affiliated.
