MOULTON — Lawrence County Circuit Court Judge Mark Craig sentenced Lonnie Oneal Bailey to life without the possibility of parole Friday for killing Melvin Key, 71, of Wren.

A 12-member jury returned a guilty verdict after less than two hours of deliberation.

“The sentence was fair,” said Joyce Watkins, the ex-wife of Melvin Key and mother of Key’s son, Steve Key. “He got what he deserved.”

Bailey’s family declined comment.

Prosecutors said Lonnie Bailey and his brother, Harold Wayne Bailey, forced their way into Melvin Key’s house in Wren in January 2004 during a home-invasion robbery.

According to testimony in separate trials for the Baileys, Harold Bailey shot Key in the chest with a shotgun after Key wouldn’t put down a gun.

Harold Bailey is serving life without parole for the murder.

Defense

Defense attorneys John Mayes and Chris Malcom said during closing arguments Friday that a lack of evidence left reasonable doubt that Lonnie Bailey had a role in Key’s death. Mayes said the state had no evidence that the Baileys knew anything about Key and no physical evidence that Lonnie Bailey was involved in Key’s death.

He also questioned the motives of the state’s witnesses.

On Thursday, Earnest Lee Parker Jr., the second cousin of the Baileys, testified Lonnie Bailey told him he and Harold Bailey broke into Key’s house and Harold Bailey shot Key. On Wednesday, Tiffany Terry Parsons testified she overheard her former common-law husband, Bobby Joe Reeves, and the Baileys talking about where the Baileys could find money, and that Reeves lent the Baileys a gun used to kill Key.

The night of Key’s death, the Baileys brought the gun back to the mobile home in which Parsons and Reeves lived, she said. Parsons said she heard Lonnie Bailey tell Harold Bailey to pull himself together, and Harold Bailey replied, “I had to do it.”

Mayes said Parker, Parsons and Reeves cooperated with investigators only because they had something to gain months after Key’s death.

All were facing criminal charges and received lenience from authorities in exchange for testimony or information, Mayes, Parker and Parsons all testified.

“You can’t buy the truth,” Mayes said. “If you have to pay for it, what you get may be the opposite of the truth. ... These individuals were bought and paid for by the state.”

Mayes questioned why the Baileys, who are from a community outside Hackleburg in Marion County, would come to Lawrence County to rob someone without bringing their own gun, and why they would drive back to Moulton to return the gun after the shooting.

Gun

He questioned why Reeves would let them borrow his shotgun to rob someone, and said Reeves’ gun was the murder weapon because Reeves killed Key.

Reeves sold the gun because he wanted to get it out of his house, Mayes said.

Parsons is “not a very nice person,” who lied when she testified that authorities gave guns back to her after searching her home and finding drugs, Mayes said.

Parsons also seemed unconcerned about Reeves’ drug charges when the defense asked if the charges were a reason she cooperated with investigators in the case, he said.

“The average person cares about what happens to their spouse, unless you’re just a despicable person,” he said.

Malcom told the jury that if they wouldn’t bet the lives of their sons or daughters on the prosecution’s case, they shouldn’t bet Lonnie Bailey’s.

District Attorney Jim Osborn opened his closing argument by saying he found it sickening to listen to days of “garbage” presented by the defense.

He criticized suggestions that Melvin Key’s son, Steve Key, reacted inappropriately to his father’s death, and said Bailey is nothing like the sons or daughters of jurors.

“If you think about your sons or daughters, think about them sitting in their house when this man comes in and blows them away,” he said.

Bedroom death

Osborn encouraged jurors to think about Key asleep in his bedroom the night he died and “the horror at how he died, with somebody in his bedroom, in the dark, shooting him.”

The prosecution referenced an audio recording of Reeves and the Baileys in Reeves’ home in December 2004, planning a robbery in Morgan County.

On the recording, the group talks about stealing a four-wheeler and Reeves says they don’t need to get into another shootout because the last one caused a “drama.”

Assistant District Attorney Bob Lang said Lonnie Bailey slipped when he said “good” in response to Reeves saying investigators were still trying to charge Steve Key with his father’s death, and that Harold and Lonnie Bailey replied that they didn’t know what Reeves was talking about when they realized they might be discussing something they shouldn’t.

Nothing more was said about a “shootout” on the recording.

Lang and Osborn said the Baileys had a similar reaction when Moulton police officer Chris Waldrep drove them to the courthouse in a patrol car in March 2005.

On the way, the Baileys saw Reeves, and Harold Bailey told Waldrep to give him his gun and he would show him what to do with it, Waldrep testified.

Harold Bailey said he wanted to say hi to Reeves and the brothers laughed, but the mood quickly changed, Waldrep said. Lonnie Bailey then said they hadn’t killed anyone and didn’t want to start then, Waldrep said.