By Walter Geiger A Monroe County jury deliberated less than two hours May 17 before finding David Lewis McGuire guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and three counts possession of a firearm during commission of a felony stemming from Sept. 15, 2016 shooting death of his mother Elaine Brown McGuire at her Liz Acres Road home here. After the verdict was returned, Judge Bill Fears sentenced McGuire to life in prison without parole plus five years, noting the convicted killer would die in prison. The first attempt to try McGuire ended in a hung jury in Lamar superior court on Oct. 27, 2017. Earlier this year, the defense was granted a change of venue. In his closing statement, public defender Doug Smith argued that Elaine McGuire was the initial aggressor in the incident and the first shot in the conflict was fired by her at David McGuire while she was seated on the edge of a tub. ’David did not have a malicious heart. He loved his mother. This is not a malice murder. This is not a felony murder. This is a voluntary manslaughter situation. That’s what it is; a crime of passion,’ Smith told the jurors. Chief district attorney Elizabeth Bobbitt eviscerated that argument, noting Elaine McGuire suffered two fatal wounds. ’She had a bullet through her brain and a bullet through her aorta and lungs. But someone wanted people to think this was a suicide. David McGuire wanted people to think his mother shot herself. He put the gun in her hand. He staged the scene. He had his faculties about him. He killed her. The defense wants you to believe she went into the bathroom and shot at her son who she tried to help all his life,’ Bobbitt argued. A key piece of evidence in the retrial was a transcript of a phone call David McGuire made from the jail to his wife Kim. All inmate calls are recorded and the callers are twice warned about that fact. In the call, David McGuire virtually admitted his guilt. Kim McGuire says, You’re in there ‘because of some dumb s’”t because you wouldn’t damn listen. You done it.’ McGuire replies that he has to love with it. ‘Yeah, I mean, I mean, no matter, God done forgave me for, you know, what I did. But I still got that guilt, you know, I don’t know if it will ever go away. The psychiatrist say it will in time but, I mean, I don’t know. We, next couple of weeks, we got to try some hypnosis’¦’ Bobbitt reminded the jury of the call in her closing, emphasizing it with a power point slide. She also highlighted the mismatch between the victim and the assailant. ’Elaine McGuire was holding a cell phone in her hand when she died not a gun. A cell phone is no match for a .32 caliber revolver. The gun is going to win every time. He shot her six times. At least two shots were fired into her from within two or three inches. That is not passion. That is evil,’ Bobbitt concluded.
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