Clayton News Daily

By Linda Looney-Bond

lbond@news-daily.com

Jury selection is scheduled to continue today, followed by opening arguments, in the trial of the second of four men accused in the 2006 torture-murder of a Morehouse College student.

The trial of former Morehouse student, Breylon Garland, began Monday in Clayton County Superior Court.

Garland is accused of participating in the beating, stomping and stabbing of Carlnell Walker, 23, at Walker's Riverdale home.

Prosecutors say Walker was also bound, gagged, doused with a flammable liquid, and left to die in the trunk of a car in his garage. His body was discovered there July 8, 2006.

On Aug. 28, a Clayton County jury found co-defendant and former Morehouse student, Miles Jonathan Allen, 24, guilty of participating in the attack.

Clayton County Superior Court Judge Deborah Benefield sentenced Allen to two life terms in prison, plus 70 years.

During Allen's trial, prosecutors played a videotape of a Clayton County Police interview of Allen. In the interview, Allen said the motive for the attack was to get money from Walker.

According to prosecutors, Walker had apparently bragged that he was expecting a settlement from a March, 2006 automobile accident.

Garland is charged with murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, kidnapping, burglary, and armed robbery, according to court records.

Two other co-defendants in the case, Keith Roberts and Theodore Holliman, will also be tried separately, according to Clayton County Executive Assistant District Attorney Jason Green.

Roberts is also a former Morehouse student, police said.