People key to the prosecution in the case have died.
Posted: February 4, 2011 - 12:00am
By Teresa Stepzinski
BRUNSWICK - A Florida man who admitted killing his Brunswick girlfriend nearly 18 years ago walked out of a Glynn County courtroom a free man Thursday because the deaths of several key witnesses forced prosecutors to make a plea bargain in the case.
James Edward Calhoun, 47, of Glen St. Mary pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of 34-year-old Janey Day, whose body was found Oct. 15, 1993, in a shallow grave in woods across from her Old Jesup Road home.
Showing no emotion, Calhoun told Superior Court Judge Anthony Harrison he was pleading guilty because it was in his best interest to do so. Calhoun offered no explanation or expression of remorse.
Calhoun had been scheduled to stand trial Feb. 14 on malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and seven other charges in Day's death.
Accepting the plea bargain, Harrison sentenced Calhoun to 10 years - one year in prison and the remainder on probation. Because he had already served 421 days in jail awaiting trial, Calhoun left the courthouse a free man. Harrison also sentenced Calhoun to pay $941 in restitution to Day's family to cover her funeral and burial.
District Attorney Jackie Johnson told Harrison prosecutors had little choice but to offer a plea bargain. The deaths of the Glynn County police detective in the case and other crucial witnesses rendered much of the state's evidence inadmissible. Without it, a murder conviction was unlikely, she said.
The remaining evidence, however, supported an involuntary manslaughter conviction, Johnson said.
Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Miller told Harrison that Glynn detectives Mike Owens, now retired, and Rickey Evans took up the cold case in 2008. Building on their predecessor's case work, their investigation showed Calhoun and Day had a volatile relationship.
Calhoun stalked Day and likely killed her at the home they shared on July 25,1993, then buried her body across the road. He gave conflicting accounts to Day's friends and police when asked about her disappearance, Miller said.
An autopsy could not determine how Day died, but it did not rule out strangulation, Miller told Harrison.
Saying he was reluctant, Harrison accepted the plea bargain but not before Day's sister, Tammy Huffine testified, and read aloud a letter from their mother, Susan Stack, who was too ill to travel from her Alabama home to Brunswick for the hearing.
Huffine testified their family understood and agreed to the plea bargain but that did not lessen the anguish of her sister's death.
"My sister was put in a grave less than 3 feet deep. My sister was always afraid of being put in the ground because she was scared of the dark. But that is exactly what happened to her," Huffine said.
Day loved her family and was robbed of the love and of the chance to love her grandchildren, nieces and nephews.
"Yes, she made some mistakes, but no one deserves what was done to her. She was a beautiful woman, and will always be beautiful to us," Huffine said.
Looking at Calhoun across the courtroom, Huffine said she is praying for him. Stack said in her letter she also prays for Calhoun.
"We know you cannot possibly conceive the anguish you have caused. ... I realize I have to forgive, and I pray for you. I'd like for you to pray for us, too. We pray for you and your family every day," Stack wrote.
It wasn't the outcome they wanted, Huffine said, but the family accepts it.
"We feel this is the best accountability, and the best way to resolve this for my mother to have some kind of peace," Huffine told Harrison.
teresa.stepzinski@jacksonville.com, (912) 264-0405
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