Man accused in Craigslist double slaying appears in court for death penalty hearing

Ronnie “Jay” Towns, the Telfair County man who made international headlines two years ago for his alleged role in killing a Marietta couple in a supposed Craigslist scam, was in court Thursday for a first-appearance hearing in the death penalty case against him.

Towns, who turned 30 in November, wore a green plaid shirt and beige pants and said little at the largely procedural, 40-minute hearing in Telfair Superior Court.

The only time he spoke was to say, “Yes, your honor,” when Judge Sarah Wall asked him a question about the team of lawyers representing him, attorneys who include Franklin J. Hogue and Travis Griffin, of Macon.

Towns’ arraignment was set for April 19, when Hogue said his client would plead not guilty.

The case will probably go to trial sometime next year.

Prosecutors contend that Towns bought a so-called “burner” cellphone at some point early in winter 2015 and used it to contact people who were in the market for automobiles and other items.

Towns was arrested on Jan. 26 that year, the day Elrey “Bud” Runion, 69, and his wife, June, 66, turned up dead with gunshot wounds to the head.

The authorities have since described Towns as being desperate for cash after losing his job at a tree-removal service in the weeks before the Runions were slain.

Towns faces charges that include murder and armed robbery in the killings. The Runions were shot and killed after traveling from their Cobb County home on Jan. 22, 2015, to meet someone about buying a vintage car near the south-Telfair County town of Jacksonville.

Bud Runion had previously posted a Craigslist ad because he was looking to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang.

Authorities have said Towns fooled the Runions into thinking such a car was for sale.

A prosecutor in the case, at a hearing in April 2015, said that Towns, in the days before the Runions were slain, “was also communicating with other individuals, trying to arrange for them to come and see vehicles that he did not possess.”

The Runions’ bodies were found along a dirt road not far from where Towns’ parents live on a 300-acre farm south of McRae-Helena. The slain couple’s 2003 GMC Envoy had been ditched in a nearby pond.

Phone records apparently showed that the couple was in contact with someone on a cellphone that Towns had recently purchased.

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Man accused in Craigslist double slaying appears in court for death penalty hearing."