Coley Lewis McCraney is an Alabama truck driver and church bishop who was convicted in April 2023 of capital murder for the 1999 killings of two seventeen-year-old girls, J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett. A Dale County jury found him guilty on four counts of capital murder after forensic genetic genealogy linked his DNA to evidence recovered from one of the victims nearly two decades after the crime. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.1Alabama Attorney General. Convicted Capital Murderer Coley McCraney Sentenced in 1999 Murders of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett
The 1999 Murders in Ozark, Alabama
On the night of July 31, 1999, Beasley and Hawlett, both students at Northview High School, left Dothan, Alabama, to attend a party in the nearby town of Headland. They could not find the party. They stopped at a convenience store in Ozark to ask for directions, and security footage recorded them there around 11:20 p.m. Hawlett called her mother from a payphone to say they were lost but knew how to get back to Dothan. That was the last time anyone heard from either girl.2ABC News. DNA Match Leads to Arrest of Minister Decades After Murders
The next morning, August 1, 1999, officers found Beasley’s black Mazda sedan parked on the side of a road in Ozark, less than a mile from the gas station. The car appeared undisturbed. The teens’ purses, wallets, and keys were still inside. When officers opened the trunk, they found both girls dead, each shot in the head.2ABC News. DNA Match Leads to Arrest of Minister Decades After Murders A 9mm shell casing was recovered from Beasley’s body. An autopsy identified semen on Beasley’s clothing.3Oxygen. Where JB Beasley and Tracie Hawlett’s Killer Coley McCraney Is Now
The semen produced a DNA profile, but early testing returned no match in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. Two false leads came and went: an Ozark resident confessed to being at the scene, but his DNA did not match and he admitted he had fabricated the story to claim reward money. A Michigan man also allegedly confessed, and his DNA did not match either.3Oxygen. Where JB Beasley and Tracie Hawlett’s Killer Coley McCraney Is Now The murder weapon was never found. The case went cold for two decades.
How Genetic Genealogy Cracked the Case
In April 2018, California investigators publicly identified the Golden State Killer using forensic genetic genealogy, a technique that compares crime-scene DNA against public genealogy databases to find distant relatives of an unknown suspect. Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker, who had worked the Beasley-Hawlett case since 2009 as a Dale County Sheriff’s Office investigator, saw the news and decided to try the same approach before the twentieth anniversary of the murders.4WSFA. New Details to Be Released After Arrest in Alabama Cold Case
Walker’s department enlisted Parabon NanoLabs and its chief genetic genealogist, CeCe Moore. The crime-scene DNA was uploaded to GEDmatch, a public genetic database. By identifying second, third, and fourth cousins and reverse-engineering family trees from those matches, the team narrowed the results to one family and then to one individual: Coley McCraney.5Montgomery Advertiser. Genetic Genealogy Helps Alabama Investigators Find Cold Case Killing Suspect Coley McCraney
Walker contacted McCraney and asked him to provide a DNA sample voluntarily. McCraney’s wife encouraged him to cooperate, and he agreed. The Alabama state crime lab confirmed his DNA matched the semen found on Beasley’s clothing. Walker later testified that McCraney was the first and only person from the genealogy-derived list his department tested.6WDHN. Former OPD Chief Recounts What Led to McCraney’s Arrest
McCraney was arrested on March 15, 2019, and a Dale County grand jury indicted him on five counts of capital murder and one count of first-degree rape.7WVTM 13. Man Indicted on 5 Capital Charges in Slayings Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall noted that McCraney had no prior criminal record, which explained why his DNA had never been entered into CODIS.8Alabama Attorney General. Attorney General Steve Marshall Statement on Arrest of Suspect in Murders of Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley
Who Coley McCraney Is
Born in Quincy, Florida, McCraney grew up in the Ozark area and graduated from Carroll High School before serving in the U.S. Navy in Biloxi, Mississippi.9WTVY. Who Is Coley McCraney He worked for years as a long-haul truck driver and served as a bishop at a local church in the Dothan area.10WREG. Truck-Driving Preacher Charged With Killing Alabama Teens He was married to Jeanette McCraney and had children and grandchildren. His defense attorney, David Harrison, described him as an “outstanding community member.” At the time of the 1999 murders, McCraney lived on Lisenby Drive in Ozark, roughly one mile from where the victims’ car was found.
The Trial
McCraney’s first trial in August 2022 ended in a mistrial when a jury could not be seated. A retrial began in April 2023 in the 33rd Judicial Circuit in Dale County, with Judge William “Bill” Filmore presiding. Attorney General Steve Marshall personally led the prosecution. Defense attorneys David Harrison and Andrew Scarborough represented McCraney.12WTVY. Coley McCraney Murder Trial
The Prosecution
The state’s case rested heavily on the DNA. An expert testified that the odds of the profile found on Beasley’s clothing occurring in a random, unrelated African American man were 1 in 122 nonillion.11WSFA. What’s Happening at the McCraney Trial Day 5 Prosecutors pointed to soil stains on the inside and outside of Beasley’s jeans, arguing the physical evidence pointed to a sexual assault on the ground rather than a consensual encounter in a truck cab. Prosecutor Jimmy Thomas told the jury McCraney “shot these girls because he didn’t want to be responsible for raping JB.”13WDHN. Closing Arguments Underway in McCraney Murder Trial The state acknowledged that no murder weapon was ever found and no eyewitnesses placed McCraney with the victims.
The Defense
McCraney took the stand. He testified he had met Beasley at a mall roughly a month before the murders and obtained her phone number. On the night of July 31, 1999, he said, his semi-truck broke down at a gas station around 11:30 p.m. He claimed the victims happened to be there and offered him a ride to his truck stop, where he and Beasley had consensual sex in his truck cab. He said the girls then dropped him off near his home and he was back with his wife by 12:45 a.m.14WDHN. McCraney Says He Had Sex With Murder Victim, Recounts What Happened the Night of the Murder Jeanette McCraney corroborated his account, testifying that neither of them left the house again that night.
Harrison emphasized the absence of physical evidence beyond the DNA: no fingerprints in the car, no confession, no weapon, no video, no audio.13WDHN. Closing Arguments Underway in McCraney Murder Trial The defense also drew on forensic testimony that the absence of physical trauma did not prove rape, and argued the prosecution was asking the jury to assume a crime from the DNA alone.15WSFA. What’s Happening at the McCraney Trial Day 5 In rebuttal, Marshall pointed out that McCraney had initially told investigators in 2019 that he did not know the victims at all, a claim he abandoned when he testified to knowing Beasley for roughly two months.
Conviction and Sentence
On April 26, 2023, the jury found McCraney guilty on four counts of capital murder: capital murder during the commission of a rape, capital murder for the deaths of two or more people, and two counts of capital murder involving a death in a motor vehicle.16WSFA. Coley McCraney Sentenced to Life in Prison for 1999 Double Murders The jury recommended life without parole rather than death. Judge Filmore formally imposed the sentence on June 15, 2023.1Alabama Attorney General. Convicted Capital Murderer Coley McCraney Sentenced in 1999 Murders of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett
Appeals
After the conviction, the defense moved for a new trial, alleging juror misconduct. Harrison claimed at least three jurors had posted on social media during the trial, including one who did so during deliberations, in violation of the judge’s instructions.17WDHN. McCraney’s Defense Team Alleging, Investigating Juror Misconduct in Murder Trial A Dale County judge quashed subpoenas that would have compelled the jurors to testify about the allegations, and Judge Filmore denied the motion for a new trial on July 28, 2023.18Alabama Attorney General. Attorney General Marshall: Motion for New Trial Denied for Convicted Capital Murderer Coley McCraney
McCraney appealed to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, arguing judicial misconduct and contending that Judge Filmore showed prejudice by telling the defense during trial that they were attempting to confuse the jury. On September 20, 2024, the appeals court upheld the conviction.19WDHN. McCraney’s Capital Murder Conviction Upheld by Alabama Appeals Court The Alabama Supreme Court refused to hear the case on December 13, 2024.20WSFA. Coley McCraney’s New Trial Hopes in Teen Murders Dealt Devastating Blow Harrison said the team intends to petition the United States Supreme Court.21WDHN. State Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Coley McCraney Capital Murder Appeal