Second man gets life sentence for role in Alabama hatchet murder

Published 4:27 pm Monday, November 18, 2019

A second man has been found guilty of capital murder in the death of an Alabama man killed with a hatchet.

AL.com reports jurors deliberated for 45 minutes Monday before convicting 26-year-old Clifton Ridgeway of two counts of capital murder in the slaying of 51-year-old Myron Brian Beavers. Ridgeway was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors say Ridgeway and Justin MacNeill broke into Beavers’ home in July 2015. Prosecutors say MacNeill struck Beavers in the head with a hatchet and then pushed Beavers’ body underneath a bed with Ridgeway’s help.

MacNeill and Ridgeway were later arrested in an unrelated police chase, and Ridgeway tipped officers off to the crime. Officers then found Beavers dead from blunt force injures.

MacNeill was sentenced to life without parole in May 2018.