Once there, spectators had to walk through a metal detector before entering the courtroom.
The trial began when special prosecutor Barbara Whaley gave her opening statement. She recounted the events that took place in the early-morning hours of Jan. 14, 2005. She told jurors that Crews had gone to the Kentucky Burley Tobacco Warehouse at 149 Marimon Ave. where Maddox was the night watchman.
Whaley, an attorney with the state attorney general's office, said Maddox opened the large warehouse door so Crews could back his truck into the warehouse, apparently believing Crews was going to deliver tobacco to be sold, but there was no tobacco on the truck and an argument ensued.
She said Crews hit the victim on the head and shot him, the bullet entering low on his back and exiting higher up on his torso.
Bullet found across the street
The bullet was found on the porch of a house across the street where Maddox went for help. Whaley recounted the events following the shooting as the prosecution sees it, saying a police officer found Crews walking down Marimon Avenue. When Crews was arrested, he was carrying a hammer and flashlight and three firearms in his pockets as well as ammunition.
When he was taken into custody, Crews is quoted as saying, "I'm at the end of my rope."
Maddox was taken to James B. Haggin Memorial Hospital where he later died.
When it came George's turn to recount the events of that night and early morning, his version was different.
He said Crews and Maddox were in the back of the warehouse where they encountered five Hispanic men who struck Maddox over the head with a pipe that usually sits next to a soft drink machine inside the warehouse.
They knocked Crews to the floor, and a handgun was fired so close to Crews that his ear still is ringing, George said. The five men took Crews' trucker's wallet that contained, George said, between $900 and $1,200. Neither the wallet nor the pipe were ever found.
Crews lost his eyeglasses and was unable to see well enough to call 911 on the warehouse phone and he, too, went across the street to call for help, according to George.
At the beginning of his statement, George said Crews had no financial problems, and his hobbies alone would count for about $500,000. He said Crews collected firearms and has more than 400 of them.
Trial resumes today
Crews also collected farm tractors, owning 23 of them at the time Maddox was killed. He would have had no motive to steal tobacco, George said. Crews went to the warehouse that night to ask if anyone could tell him where he might get someone to help him strip his tobacco. George said Crews has had health problems and was using a cane at the time of the event.
The first witness to testify for the prosecution was Carolyn Morris of the Farm Service Agency, who said Crews had failed to meet his quota of tobacco he was allowed to sell in the two years prior to the 2005 selling season. She also said he had sold no tobacco that year.
Johnny Johnson, the night watchman at Freeman's Tobacco Warehouse, said he saw Crews get out of his truck at about 12:25 a.m. Jan. 14 and about 20 minutes later he heard a gunshot.
Court was scheduled to resume today.
