Murder case involving Marbury man headed to trial in July
Published 5:50 pm Wednesday, April 30, 2014
A case involving a Marbury man charged with murder in the death of a Clanton woman will go to trial in July.
Lum Abner Gill, 63, faces a murder charge and a domestic violence charge in the first degree for the death of Calvin Ann Cooper Sartain, 52, of Clanton.
Gill was arrested June 9, 2013, and taken to the Chilton County Jail where he was later released on a $150,000 bond.
Gill has pleaded not guilty.
The shooting happened around 5 p.m. June 9 at Gill’s residence in Lily Hill after two Chilton County Sheriff’s deputies had responded to a disturbance call earlier that afternoon.
Chilton County Sheriff Chief Deputy Shane Mayfield said at the time that Gill and Sartain were dating and got into a fight early Sunday morning at Sartain’s home on Westlyn Avenue in Clanton.
The fight escalated at Gill’s home in the Lily Hill community.
“Deputies responded to a call about a disturbance,” Mayfield said at the time. “They went down to Gill’s home and found no physical injuries or no threats made.”
Mayfield said the deputies were on the scene serving as the “peacemakers” between the couple.
After working to calm both parties down, deputies allowed Sartain go back inside the residence.
Mayfield said the deputies did not perceive the situation to be dangerous, and when Gill asked to go inside to retrieve his cigarette lighter, no one thought it would be a problem.
Once inside, with one deputy standing in the exterior doorway of the home, Gill retrieved a shotgun from behind a door and shot and killed Sartain.
The second deputy was outside at the time of the shooting filling out the police report.
Gill was taken into custody at the scene.
Gill’s trial is scheduled for July 28 at 8:30 a.m. at the Chilton County Courthouse.