Opening statements are set to begin Tuesday in the trial of Tony Brooks Horne, accused of killing his brother and sister-in-law the day before Thanksgiving last year.
Horne, 47, is charged with fatally shooting his brother, William Lamar Horne, 49, and his brother’s wife, Carol McMillon Horne, 52, with a handgun at the home they shared.
The three as well as the Horne brothers’ father lived at a Mystic Lane mobile home in the Butler Creek mobile home park, according to court filings.
Authorities have not described a motive for the killings, but Carol Horne’s diary entries and text messages may offer clues. Assistant District Attorney Mahiva Patel sought in an earlier court filling to introduce the writings as hearsay evidence.
In messages sent a few days before the killings, Carol Horne tells her stepdaughter her grandchildren would not be safe at the home, and not to bring them over. She asks the stepdaughter to pick her and her husband up at the residence if Tony Horne got angry about the visit being canceled.
In an another purported entry from months earlier, Carol Horne writes that she is living with her husband, his father and brother. It wasn’t “bad,” except when Tony Horne “gets drunk and goes off on everyone in his path,” she said. “He has a gun and I’m trying not to get shot.”
Patel argues the hearsay statements have a presumption of trustworthiness, particularly the diary entries, in which the victim has no reason to lie.
