Douglas DA: Dewey Green Case 'Shook Very Core of Community'

Douglas County District Attorney Brian Fortner said justice was served for victim’s family in the guilty verdict and sentencing of Dewey Green in the murder case that “shook the very core of our community.”

Green, of Pelham, Ala., was sentenced Monday by Judge David T. Emerson to a sentence of life in prison without parole plus an additional 40 years for running over and killing Douglas County grandmother Janice Pitts, 53, on June 25, 2014 on Ga. Highway 5 near Interstate 20.

Prosecutors said Green rammed into Pitts’ vehicle several times, pinned her against her vehicle and then ran over her.

The woman’s daughter and grandchild were in the car at the time of the incident.

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Last Friday, a Douglas County jury convicted Green on all charges against him, including one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and three counts of aggravated assault.

“This case shook the very core of our community,” Fortner said in a statement posted on Facebook. “Janice Pitts was doing nothing but driving down the road with her family before the defendant killed her. In the days that followed, he acted as if nothing had happened. He showed absolutely no remorse for taking a life that meant so much to many people. The life of Janice Pitts mattered. I am thankful that we were able to obtain justice for her and her family.”

Green was traveling from the Birmingham area in a Chevrolet Silverado and exited I-20 at Highway 5 shortly after 2 p.m. on June 25, 2014, when prosecutors say he came up behind Pitts’ slow-moving Lincoln Navigator SUV and began to repeatedly bump the SUV until Pitts pulled over and got out of her vehicle.

From Douglas County District Attorney’s Office release:

Pitts daughter Iesha Davis, who was in the front passenger seat of the SUV, testified that Pitts finally stopped her vehicle after the final strike because she thought the defendant had shattered the back seat window where Pitts’ 4 year old grandson was sitting. Upon exiting the vehicle, she realized the defendant shattered her driver’s side tail light and she stepped around the vehicle to inspect the damage.

Davis, along with multiple other eyewitnesses on scene, testified that the defendant reversed his truck allowing Pitts to step between the two vehicles and inspect the damage. Pitts then began gesticulating towards the defendant and yelling about the damage he caused to her SUV when the defendant accelerated his vehicle and pinned her body between his truck and her SUV. The defendant accelerated and pushed her vehicle with her pinned between the two approximately 35 feet down Highway 5 before various eye witnesses described the defendant either reversing his vehicle again and running over Pitts’ fallen body or simple pushing through her vehicle and forcing her body to the ground where he then ran over her.

Prosecutors used multiple eyewitness accounts and cell phone video footage to argue that Green steered his pickup truck to drive around Pitts’ vehicle when he ran over her body. Once he passed Pitts’ vehicle, prosecutors said Green drove up a steep embankment near a Walgreen’s store and steered away from several concrete poles to avoid colliding with them.

Prosecutors further argued that video surveillance showed Green applied brakes as he waited for another car in the right-hand lane of Hwy 5 to pass.

“The defendant then attempted to drive down the hill and complete a U-turn to drive northbound on Highway 5 back towards Interstate 20,” the DA’s Office release stated. “As the truck rolled down the hill, trial testimony showed that the defendant’s truck cut off. One eye-witness testified she observed the defendant attempted to crank the truck as it rolled down the hill as if the truck had flooded.”

Eye witnesses then took the keys away from Green and told him not to move, prosecutors said. Police said Green said “Oh my God. What did I do?,” but later reportedly told an officer the wreck had already occurred when he arrived and that he did not hit anybody.

Green, who reportedly plans to appeal, insisted he suffered a seizure from a mild traumatic brain injury, was unconsious and doesn’t remember the incident happening. “This was absolutely not intentional,” he said in a statement during Monday’s hearing.

But prosecutors used numerous expert witnesses to dispel Green’s claim, arguing that the initial collision wasn’t severe enough to cause a brain injury, the air bag was not deployed, and a person suffering a seizure would not have been able to make the intentional driving actions he made. They also presented evidence that showed medical tests on Green were all normal.

Prosecutors argued Green showed no remorse after the incident.

“The Defendant was seen casually sitting on the median at the scene of the murder, smiling and making faces hours later while at the Sheriff’s Office, and dancing and doing the worm on jail video visits only days after killing Pitts,” the DA’s office release stated.

The case was prosecuted by Chief Assistant District Attorney Ryan Leonard and Assistant District Attorney David Emadi.