Lawyers give insight into plea

After more than three years with a murder charge hanging over his head, Don Edward Ford was worn down.

The 78-year-old faced that charge after fatally shooting Kintae Omar James, 27, when James tried to rob Ford's Phenix City store March 8, 2005. Frank Martin, Ford's lead attorney, said prosecutors and defense attorneys had gone back and forth for years about a possible plea agreement. Last week, prosecutors offered the misdemeanor criminally negligent homicide charge and two years unsupervised probation that Ford pleaded guilty to Tuesday.

"He wanted to enter a plea and get it over with," Martin said. "It was sort of a decision that he felt was in his family's best interest to bring this thing to an end."

District Attorney Kenneth Davis said his plea agreement offer resulted from several factors, including motions to continue the case filed by the defense and a key witness being in Iraq for more than a year.

"My decision was based on what I believed was just, and what I believed might happen at trial," Davis said. "I realized from the beginning that a guilty verdict would be difficult."

Davis said he was prepared for trial and that Tuesday's plea wasn't hastened. Martin said his client didn't have to plead, but was instead given what he had asked for from Russell County Circuit Court Judge Albert Johnson -- a trial date.

"He decided to go ahead and take the latest plea bargain offer," Martin said..