Attorney General Steve Marshall announced that the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the murder conviction of Kenneth Tyler Parker. 

Parker age 28 of Boaz, was convicted in Etowah County Circuit Court in October 2017 for the murder of Wesley Clifton.

Evidence at trial indicated that Parker and Clifton had both dated the same woman at different times during the five years preceding the murder. On June 8, 2016, Parker asked another woman, Amber McCoy, to lure Clifton to Parker’s house so Clifton could beat him up.  McCoy testified that she did so, and that when she and Clifton entered Parker’s house, Parker grabbed Clifton by the neck and Clifton made a gasping sound. After she left, Parker killed Clifton by cutting his throat and buried his body in a shallow grave. 

Etowah County District Attorney Jody Willoughby’s office prosecuted the case in circuit court. Parker was sentenced to 99 years’ imprisonment for the murder, and he appealed the conviction. Amber McCoy pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the murder and received a 20-year sentence, which was split to serve five years with the balance of the sentence suspended.

The Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division represented the State during Parker’s appeal, urging the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to reject Parker’s arguments and to affirm the conviction. On March 1, the court affirmed Parker’s conviction.

Attorney General Marshall commended Assistant Attorney General Tommy Leverette of the Attorney General’s Criminal Appeals Division for his successful work in this case.