Shubert Murder Trial Continues
By MJ Kneiser, WLHR Radio, Lavonia
The Brent Shubert murder trial continues in Franklin County.
It started Monday in Superior Court in Carnesville.
Shubert’s trial is a bench trial, meaning it is being heard by a judge, who will deliver the verdict instead of a jury.
Shubert is charged with malice murder, felony murder, and concealing the death of another in connection to the 2013 death of Shubert’s fiancée, Bonnie Anne Cooner.
During opening statements, Northern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Parks White told the court investigators found evidence of the murder in Shubert’s auto shop behind their house.
White said hair and blood belonging to Cooner were found on the shop floor and in the pick up truck Shubert allegedly used to dispose of her body.
Also, White said GBI investigators found parts of an earring on the shop floor that matched one on Cooner when her body was found two weeks later down an abandoned well.
According to White, Shubert allegedly killed Cooner in a drunken tirade.
A key witness in the murder trial is Cooner’s 14-year old son.
However, Shubert’s defense attorney argued in opening arguments that the son’s testimony would be quote, “unreliable, untrustworthy, and unbelievable.”
The defense claims the son, who will be not be named in this story because he is still a juvenile, changed his story several times when interviewed by the GBI and hated Shubert because he and Cooner had a violent relationship.
Cooner’s son was the first witness for the prosecution.
Now 14, he told the court Shubert was often drunk and would fly into violent rages when he was drinking and beat his mother.
Cooner’s son says his mother and Shubert had been fighting the day before she disappeared.
He said the night of the murder, his mother tried to get Shubert to come home for dinner but he refused.
He testified Shubert came home later drunk and asked Cooner to come out to the shop to quote, “see something” telling her they also had to talk.
Cooner’s son testified he told his mother not to go with Shubert because but she told him it would be OK, stating that was the last time he saw his mother alive.
The prosecution also called Shubert’s alleged accomplice, J.D. Canady, who was given immunity in exchange for his testimony.
Canady told the court he and Shubert were working on cars in Shubert’s shop when Shubert came in with Cooner.
Canady said while he worked on a car he heard a scuffle and looked up to find Shubert on the ground with Cooner, strangling her.
Canady testified he helped Shubert dispose of Cooner’s body because Shubert allegedly threatened to kill him and his family if he didn’t and if he told anyone.
It was Canady who later led investigators to the abandoned well where Cooner’s body was found.
On Tuesday, the court heard from two of the investigators in the case.