Christie Bray Scott's Road to Death Row

It was almost two-thirty on the morning of August 16, 2008, when screams accompanied by loud pounding awakened Jennifer Davidson. She rushed to the front door of her 216 Signore Drive home in Russellville, Alabama, to find her neighbor Christie Scott. Scott, who lived at 180 Signore Drive, held her four-year old son Noah, while screaming hysterically that her house was on fire.

Davidson immediately called 911; the call reached the switchboard at 2:31 a.m. Firetrucks arrived at the burning residence within ten minutes, but it was almost five minutes more before Scott, 31, informed the firefighters that her six year-old son Mason was still trapped inside.

Scott indicated the location of Mason's bedroom, an area that was already totally engulfed in flames. The responders looked at the flames broaching the roof and windows and knew that little could be done to save the child from the inferno, yet they worked swiftly to quell the fire, and by 4:00 a.m. responders were able to enter the dwelling. Franklin County Coroner Elzie Malone pronounced Mason Scott dead at the scene.

Christie Michelle Bray Scott was too upset to answer the investigators' questions coherently, but they did learn that Noah Riley Scott had been sleeping in the bed with her while her older son, a victim of Asperger's Syndrome, slept at the other end of the house. Scott's husband Jeremy, 32, an executive with CB&S Bank, was away on business.

Russellville Fire Marshal Bobby Malone surveyed the charred refuse that had been the Scott's home. It was normal protocol to inform the Alabama Department of Human Resources when a child under the age of 18 died. He also decided to call in the State Fire Marshal; Christie Scott had been involved in five fires within the past eight years.

Three days after the death of Mason Scott, pieces of the puzzle that surrounded his last minutes were already falling into place. Russellville Fire Marshal Bobby Malone had called in the Russellville Police Department, the Alabama Fire Marshal's office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

State Fire Marshal Ed Paulk utilized an accelerant-sniffing dog to determine that the fire was not accidental in nature, but ultimately stated only that the blaze had originated around six-year old Mason's bed. Could the mildly autistic child have been playing with chemicals that some how ignited? Could an arsonist have known that Jeremy Scott was out of town and used that opportunity to settle some real or imaginary score? The third scenario seemed even more bizarre to authorities: Christie Michelle Bray Scott had herself started the blaze that claimed the life of her older son.

It had been less than three years since a fire had destroyed the family's former home at 35 Steel Frame Road in Russellville. There were no injuries in that fire, and Christie had blamed a Glade air-freshener plug-in for the blaze, while investigators had theorized the fire had been intentionally set using cardboard boxes. There had been no physical injuries related to the previous fire, the second within two days; but the home had been insured, and both Christie and her father Don Bray were insurance agents.

The investigation into the previous two fires had been perfunctory at best and intentionally sabotaged at worst. No one wanted to listen to the investigator's theories of arson and pyromania. Christie was a native of nearby Haleyville, the daughter of Don and Kathy Bray, both leading citizens in the small town. Her husband Jeremy S. Scott was an Information Technology specialist for CB&S, a locally owned bank that had been a Russellville institution for over 100 years. Yet the fires on Steel Frame Road had raised suspicions among many in the community--Christie had been involved in two fires at her family home in Haleyville. Now a fifth fire had claimed not only the young couple's new home, but their child.

Mason had started the first grade at Russellville's West Elementary School on August 4. Less than two weeks later he was dead. Many who had observed Christie and Mason together characterized the mother as uncaring. Others in the community were surprised that Scott showed so little emotion during her son's funeral at Russellville's Calvary Baptist Church and in the days that followed.

Christie Scott returned to live with her parents in Haleyville, while her husband Jeremy took their younger son to his parents' home in Russellville. The young father also took out a protection from abuse order against his now estranged wife after Mason's autopsy showed large amounts of sedative in his system, but physicians admitted to prescribing at these dosages in order to calm the hyperactive child. On October 26, Franklin County Judge Terry Dempsey issued a warrant for Scott's arrest after her indictment by a grand jury. Information presented during the hearing indicated that Alfa Insurance agent Christie Scott had taken out an additional life insurance policy in the amount of $100,000.00 on her son the day before his death.

As Christie Scott turned herself in, Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing and Russellville Police Chief Chris Hargett held the obligatory news conference and photo op. The bearded Rushing reiterated the basic facts of the indictment--three alternative accounts of capital murder, after which the often beleaguered Hargett mumbled over the sadness of it all, failing to remember if Mason was in kindergarten or first grade.

In the nearby courtroom, Circuit Court Judge Terry Dempsey refused bond in the case, even though both Scott's father and husband, with whom she was now ostensibly reconciled, testified that the former ALFA representative was no flight risk. Adorned in an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs, Scott was returned to the Franklin County Jail where she remained.

Don Bray, a successful Woodmen of the World insurance agent in Winston County and self-proclaimed world's greatest chef, arranged for Huntsville defense attorney Robert Barry Tuten to represent his daughter. Tuten, a summa cum laude graduate of Jones School of Law, specializes in capital murder cases and has in the past represented such defendants as Natashay Ward, the Huntsville woman accused of starving her three children to death, as well as Andrew Pakhomov, the UAH physics professor tried for the murder of his wife.

Tuten also asked for a change of venue, another request denied by Judge Dempsey. Dempsey stated the jury pool for Scott's trial would be increased by 300, bringing the total to 500 individuals in hopes of selecting a fair and open-minded jury. Tuten announced the jury selection process might take as long as five days.

Franklin County is no stranger to murder cases in which a young child was the victim; however, this was perhaps the first case involving someone of Christie Michelle Bray Scott's socio-economic standing in the community. Her family's money and position bought her the best defense attorney; but it remained to be seen if such factors would influence jurors from provincial Franklin County after they saw the photos of Mason's charred body.

After a trial lasting two weeks, a Franklin County jury convicted Christie Bray Scott of three counts of capital murder. During the trial, the prosecution produced evidence of insurance fraud and an emotional affair with long-time family friend William Markham, a former insurance agent who agreed to hold personal items for Scott the day before the fire.

In his closing statements, Joey Rushing said convicted murderess Christie Michelle Bray Scott should die. Joey Rushing, as usual, said a lot of things. The Franklin County District Attorney was quoted in the TimesDaily as stating: There's nothing worse than a mother murdering a child for insurance and because they didn't want him.

We're not sure to whom the word "they" refers. Observers said Christie couldn't handle the child. Friends said Jeremy was more interested in work and possessions than he was his own son. William Markam, the man who admitted on tape to being Christie's emotional lover said he didn't care for the child, a child he thought should have been "whooped" more.

Surely, these others in Mason Scott's life deserve some of the blame for his death. No, they didn't murder him, but they apparently made no attempt to intervene in what was obviously a pathological situation, a textbook dysfunctional family.

Joey Rushing requested that Judge Terry Dempsey sentence Christie Scott to death by lethal injection, an Old Testament eye for a eye. Surely spending the rest of her natural life in the hell hole that is Tutwiler Prison would have been enough punishment for this sick, sick woman. Despite the jury's recommendation of life in prison without the possibility of parole, on August 5, 2009, Judge Dempsey sentenced Scott to die by lethal injection.

Louise Harris from Montgomery, Tierra Gobble from Houston, Shonda Johnson from Walker, and Patricia Blackman from Houston--all prisoners at Tutwiler with a "Z" before their Alabama Inmate System Number, all women who expect to die in prison, all females sentenced to death for heinous crimes. Now, Christie Michelle Bray Scott of Franklin County will join them.

In less than 30 days, the State of Alabama will forward paperwork to the Franklin County Jail ordering deputies to transport Scott south to Elmore County, home of the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. In all probability, Scott's journey will take place at night. Unannounced, a female jailer will enter her cell, command her to dress, shackle her, and escort her to a waiting transport. Marked police vehicles are allowed to speed down the state's roadways, and Scott should reach Tutwiler shortly after dawn.

Most transfers are shuttled into a holding pen outside the prison, but a prisoner with a death sentence should be given special escort into the building. There Scott will be told to disrobe and shower. Prison workers will delouse Scott, a barber will cut her hair to collar length, and she will be handed a unisex white uniform along with a minimum of toiletries. Now Scott is ready to be taken to her new home--a small cell measuring approximately 10' x 10'.

There are only four death row cells at Tutwiler, currently all full. It's likely Scott will be placed in one of the adjacent segregation cells. It's also likely prison personnel will make it clear to Scott that she is a burden to them, since she is only adding to their time-consuming death row routine.

Now, Christie Scott is alone, alone with four books, a television if any of her family should desire to provide her one, and possibly a small animal. Yes, Scott will have the luxury of a bird or a cat, as long as her family provides its upkeep. She will also get to shower every other day and walk for one hour each day in a small private garden. Even her meals will be delivered to the small cell that will become her home.

For 30 days, Scott will be allowed no visitors. After that period, immediate family may make arrangements to visit during approved hours. Then Christie Scott will be alone again, alone in a cell where all lights are turned off at ten o'clock at night, alone with her thoughts and her guilt.

This is the life for which Christie Michelle Bray Scott traded her son Mason. Let us all pray for her family.

*****

Update: Flash forward to 2011 and the plot steams up. There was a great deal of he said/she said. There were also a lot of alleged threats from prison officials. It's anyone's guess what the truth may be, but we will attempt to present the alleged affair as the State of Alabama did in it's case against a Department of Corrections employee.

Picture Christie alone most of the day in a 6' x 9' cell. She has a television set, a microwave, and an ice bucket. She probably had some books also, but these aren't mentioned in trial accounts. Someone like Christie must have been sorely in need of someone to care...or someone to manipulate. Enter the night shift supervisor Matthew Hall.

Christie Scott & Matthew Hall

Hall was 31 and in an unhappy second marriage when he delivered Jeremy's divorce petition to Christie in March 2011. She broke down; he consoled. Fill in the blanks.

Christie claims that encounter produced their first kiss. Over the course of the next weeks, more kisses brought the two unhappy individuals together. Christie states they never had sex, but mainly discussed Hall's unhappy marriage in which his wife "made" him strip for her friends. Hall also made the routine pat downs interesting enough that Christie was brought to new heights in friendship and the sergeant openly spoke of buying her a home when she eventually won her release.

How long this relationship would have gone on is open to speculation, but apparently another death row prisoner became aware of the interaction. Did Christie just have to brag or were the pat downs that scream-inspiring? No matter how she knew, the inmate sent word to the warden, a warden who was not above threatening Christie to confess, at least according to her.

She may have loved Hall, but she obviously valued the ice bucket, microwave, and television more. Christie made a full confession. So did Hall. The confessions (Scott's was 11 pages long) were reported to match; however, at his trial in June 2014, Hall recanted and stated he had been coerced. The warden who had initiated the probe had retired, and the prosecution stated the jury apparently had issues with Scott's credibility. The jury took half an hour to find Hall not guilty, and his wife stood by him.


The preceding account was taken from Shoalanda Speaks columns published between June 6 and August 5, 2009. On August 7, 2009, Christie Michelle Bray Scott was transported to Julia Tutwiler Prison where she remains waiting an appeal. Update originally published March 20, 2015.

The Keith McGuire Rape Case

"He stated he had a problem." - Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely speaking of Keith McGuire

We expect those in the teaching profession to care for our children as their own and we should expect no less. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is always the John Mark Karr or Debra Lafave. When any teacher takes a sexual interest in his or her student, we are just that more wary of them all, sometimes judging them wrongly.

How do we know the difference between an innocent touch and something more sinister? How can we judge the intent of a teacher we barely know? More importantly, what happens if we're wrong? When there's two, or perhaps three, sides to every story, how can we discern the truth from fiction?

Such is the case of Brian Keith McGuire, a Lauderdale County native, now free on bond of $125,000.00 and facing a 1st Degree Rape trial in December. The son of Bobby and Jo McGuire of Lexington, Keith attended Lexington School for 12 years. By all accounts he was an average student and better than average athlete. His parents had helped establish the Lexington Rescue Squad, and his mother was held in high esteem by the community. Bobby, the current mayor of the small Lauderdale County town, was a strong presence in both the town and his own home. Those familiar with the family generally acknowledged that the soft-spoken Jo deferred to her husband.

Keith, as his parents called him, also deferred to his father, but adolescence brought changes in the youth. Physically resembling his mother, Keith boasted a shock of red hair and an outgoing personality. Sometime after elementary school, Keith began to call himself Fox, a name that still follows him. Whether because of his auburn coloring or his fancied desirability to the opposite sex, Keith was well-pleased with this new persona. Many in the Lexington community describe him as the all-American boy, but others began to see a darker side as McGuire grew to manhood.

Graduating from Lexington High School in 1978, Keith McGuire seemed at loose ends. No longer the high school jock, he began a career as a barber, but was always dissatisfied away from the lime light of athletics. Ending one's education after high school was not unusual in the rural atmosphere of Lexington, but other things about McGuire troubled some in the small town. Still others saw nothing wrong with boys being boys or sewing a few wild oats.

In the autumn of 1992, McGuire returned to college at Athens State University, receiving his teaching degree two years later. Now married to a young woman from a well-respected Waynesboro, Tennessee, family, McGuire used family influence to secure a coaching job at Clements High School, just across the county line in Limestone. Here Keith McGuire taught Physical Education, but some students began to report that his style of teaching was just too physical, especially where young women were concerned.

It was early in 2002 when Robin Greene’s 12 year-old daughter came to her with a story of being touched by her physical education teacher. Coach McGuire had touched her breast while they were playing one-on-one basketball and she knew it wasn’t right. Soon a 16 year-old girl came forward with a similar story concerning the Clements coach.

Clements, a rural school in western Limestone County, was a tight knit institution. Such things didn’t happen at the sprawling school where Keith McGuire had access to girls in the 7th through 12th grades. The school board called a special meeting and convened behind closed doors on March 7, 2002, to accept McGuire’s resignation.

The board stressed that McGuire, who had not retained an attorney, had taken a polygraph with inconclusive results. No charges were filed against the teacher even though according to Sheriff Mike Blakely, McGuire stated that he had “a problem.” The board also agreed to take no further action on the Clements coach’s teaching license on the condition he agree to counseling. Keith McGuire attended one session.

McGuire soon returned to the hamlet of Lexington where his father was a member of the town council. The town’s water department was in need of a meter reader, and Bobby McGuire made sure the job was offered to his son. Keith McGuire’s salary at the financially strapped water department was barely enough to meet his basic needs, and he began searching for another teaching position.

Without any official black marks on his record and a still valid teaching license, McGuire found work in the nearby Haleyville school system. He began coaching at the Winston County school in September 2002, but the problem of his mounting debts remained. Not eager to give up his job with the town of Lexington, but unable to fulfill his obligations on his free weekends, he sought an assistant to help with meter reading and related duties. Soon his friend Lloyd Hayes, a former Florence City Fire Marshal and convicted sex offender, joined McGuire in the field. It wasn’t long before residents realized the two men spent an inordinate amount of time working around one local entity--Lexington High School.

When board members of the Lexington Water Department heard of the job sharing agreement between Keith McGuire and Lloyd Hayes, they too met behind closed doors. Even though Hayes was not an official employee of the town, such an arrangement was ill advised. McGuire gave up his job with the town, but once again many questioned his actions. Was Keith McGuire determined to insinuate himself into a position of familiarity with young girls, or just a man attempting to make a living during a difficult period in his life?

McGuire taught at Haleyville High School for two years, with ostensibly no complaints. In the fall of 2004, McGuire moved to J. F. Shields High School in Beatrice, a small Monroe County town in South Alabama. After a year at Shields, McGuire moved again, this time to Jackson High School in Clarke County, even farther from his Lexington home. By this time, McGuire was divorced from his wife Tammy, who had taken their children and moved to Waynesboro. While it’s not unusual for some coaches to move frequently, many found it odd that each relocation moved McGuire farther from his family.

McGuire publicly blamed any problems on Robin Greene of Limestone County. After the physical education teacher left Clements High School without any official sanctions, Mrs. Greene took it upon herself to warn Keith McGuire’s new employers of his past record. According to Mrs. Greene, she had collected the names of 50 students at various schools, all alleging to have been molested in some manner by McGuire. On February 14, 2006, McGuire filed a slander suit against Robin Greene, claiming her campaign to discredit him had hurt his reputation and brought undue hardship on him. The wheels of justice grind slowly, and this suit is still pending in Limestone County; however, McGuire also initiated a restraining order against Mrs. Greene, preventing her from contact with any school at which he is employed.

With the Clements charges now seemingly behind him, Keith McGuire began to make a reputation for himself at Jackson High School--this time a good one. Besides his duties as assistant coach, McGuire taught Physical Education, Drivers’ Education, and Health. In the autumn of 2006, the National All-Star Football Association chose McGuire to coach a regional game in Cookville, Tennessee.

Keith McGuire was finally receiving the kind of success and attention he thought he deserved. Then a Shoals area woman filed rape charges.

In 1990, Jan Simpson* was 19 years old. According to Simpson, Keith McGuire raped and sodomized her at a Florence residence--it took 16 years before Simpson was emotionally able to report the crime. McGuire, who would have been 30 at the time of the incident, steadfastly denied that any force was involved in his encounter with Simpson. Allegations that a 30 year-old McGuire had sexual relations with a teenager obviously did nothing to bolster his claims of having no prurient interest in pubescent girls, and Jackson High School declined to renew his teaching contract.

The rape allegation was not McGuire’s only worry; at this time new reports of McGuire’s misconduct with Clements students surfaced, making their way to the Alabama Board of Education in Montgomery. The Board sought the revocation of Keith McGuire’s teaching license, and an inquiry was held at Clements on June 25, 2008. The Board stated that McGuire was guilty of “immoral conduct or unbecoming or indecent behavior.”

After five hours of testimony, including statements from some who had only recently come forward, the hearing ended. The moderator then had 30 days in which to consider the evidence brought forward; however, McGuire now had more serious problems in Lauderdale County. After a police investigation spanning almost two years, a Lauderdale grand jury indicted the former physical education teacher on charges of 1st degree rape, 1st degree sodomy, and 3rd degree sexual abuse, crimes that carry a mandatory sentence of 20 years to life. McGuire turned himself in to the Lauderdale County Detention Center on August 18. His bond was set at $125,000.00. The Clements charges were then placed on hold until after the criminal proceedings.

Knowing in advance that his bail would be substantial, the ex-teacher’s family had made prior arrangements, and McGuire left the detention center the same day. McGuire’s family in Lexington had also hired Florence criminal defense attorney Jeff Austin to defend the charges. Austin had previously represented Trey Wells, the Tuscumbia youth charged with the brutal deaths of both parents, and Dewon Jones who took part in a heinous liquor store robbery and murder. The attorney announced he was prepared to present a staunch defense of his client and was seeking an immediate trial.

Unfortunately, the McGuire family’s participation in the rescue squad and other Lexington civic endeavors had made them known to Lauderdale County judges, and the trial was moved back until a new jurist could be engaged. A trial date was set for the second week in December, with Judge Terry Dempsey of Franklin County presiding and Assistant State Attorney General Pamela Casey prosecuting the rape charges.

Pretrial/Status Call was to begin December 2; at that time McGuire could assert his innocence and the trial would proceed the next week, or he could accept a plea and be immediately sentenced and remanded to the Detention Center to await transfer to Kilby Prison in Montgomery for processing. For whatever reason, Jeff Austin, who had filed copious motions, requested a delay, and the pretrial was rescheduled for December 22. Legal machinations are often unfathomable to the lay person, but in this case it would seem the intent is to allow Keith McGuire to spend one last Christmas as a free man.

Such delays are always hard on the victim, but Jan Simpson has used her time to act as an advocate for other victims of sex crimes. One can only imagine how Keith McGuire has spent his days since his dismissal at Jackson High School, but his Classmates’ profile is revealing. In the popular website, he states he’s there to find Ms. Right and lists his principal occupation as “channel surfing.”

May justice be served, the guilty punished, and the innocent vindicated.

*****

On July 29, 2009, a jury of six men and six women, after deliberating over a period of three days, returned a "not guilty" verdict in the rape and sodomy trial of Brian Keith McGuire. It is doubtful the victim will initiate any civil proceedings against McGuire, who has not worked as a teacher in over a year.

The victim is hardly a total loser in the proceedings. Testimony in the trial revealed that McGuire had been diagnosed with an STD at least two years before his unprotected sexual encounter with the young woman and that during his divorce proceedings he initiated DNA testing on his children. Such tests proved him not to be the biological parent of the older child, perhaps one reason the Lexington native has distanced himself from his family over recent years.

However, McGuire still faces the loss of his teaching license due to allegations he fondled at least four students while teaching at Clements School in Limestone County. Robin Greene of Athens has stated she has the names of at least 50 young women McGuire has sexually touched over his teaching career. The former teacher is suing Greene for slander.

Within the next few days or weeks, Chief Administrative Law Judge Walter Turner will announce his ruling in the license hearing of Brian Keith McGuire. It's a verdict for which many have waited years and one in which we should all be interested. Our children deserve a good education. While we may not be able to provide the best educators in every classroom in the state, we should be able to provide those who have their students' best interests at heart. It's time Alabama made an effort to ensure that.

* The victim’s name has been changed for the purposes of this account. This account taken from columns originally published November 29-December 2, 2008, and July 29, 2009.