Bench Trial For Franklin Co. Murder Suspect

By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia

The death penalty is off of the table for a Franklin County man charged in the 2013 strangulation murder of his fiancée.

Northern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Parks White said that his office and attorneys for Brent Shubert have worked out a deal to hold a bench trial for Shubert.

That means Shubert’s case will be heard and decided by a judge, with no jury.

A jury trial could have cost Franklin County around $300,000, so officials said a bench trial will save Franklin County thousands of dollars in court costs.

Shubert was indicted on charges of one count of malice murder, one count of felony murder, and one count of concealing the death of another in connection to the death of Bonnie Ann Cooner.

Authorities said Cooner went missing in late January 2013 from the home she and her son shared with Shubert on Unawatti Road in Canon.

An intensive search was launched to find Cooner that involved Franklin County Sheriff’s Office investigators, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, friends, and relatives.

Cooner’s body was found two weeks after she went missing, in early February 2013, down an abandoned well near her home.

Shubert was arrested several hours later in Anderson, South Carolina after police there found his van in a restaurant parking lot.

He was returned to Franklin County and has been held in the Franklin County Detention Center without bond since then.