Verdict reached in Valley Head machete killing

Verdict reached in Valley Head machete killing

PHOTO: Daniel Beaty, 33, was found guilty in the 2014 murder of Daniel Thomas Fuller (Tyler Pruett | Southern Torch)

By Tyler Pruett, Managing Editor

tyler@southerntorch.com

FORT PAYNE, Ala. —  The jury continued deliberations through the storm today to convict a Valley Head man of murder regarding the killing of a man with a machete during a robbery.

On Wednesday, March 1, a DeKalb County Jury found Daniel Adam Beaty, 33, guilty of murder in the July 2014 killing of Daniel Thomas Fuller. He was indicted in November 2014 and denied bond. Beaty's sentencing date has been set for April of this year. 

Beaty's attorney initially argued that the only substantive evidence against him was the testimony of his girlfriend at the time of the crime and that his only prior criminal history was for misdemeanors.

DeKalb County Sheriff Jimmy Harris said of the verdict, “It was a heinous crime, and we put a lot of work into the investigation since the murder." 

Beaty was charged with murder in early September 2014, after Fuller's body was found in a wooded area near Ider. He was already being held in the DeKalb County jail on an unrelated forgery charges.

Fuller had been reported missing by his family a couple of weeks before his body was found. The family said at the time that he was known to disappear for stretches of time, but that he had never gone so long without contacting his relatives.

Beaty plead not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. His attorney, Jayson Carroll, said in an earlier motion that Beaty has a history of several head injuries and that his own investigation indicates that, around the time of the crime, Beaty was suffering from paranoia.

After the verdict, Beaty's attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.

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