Witness Links Defendant to Truck Allegedly Used in Dragging Death

A former girlfriend of murder defendant John William King testified Wednesday she saw him and two companions drive off in the gray pickup truck that allegedly was used later that night to drag a black man to his death.

Keisha Adkins, 21, said she saw the men leave about 1:30 a.m. on June 7. Prosecutors say that about an hour later, 49-year-old James Byrd Jr. was chained to the truck and dragged nearly three miles until his body was torn to pieces.

King, a white 24-year-old unemployed laborer, could get the death penalty if convicted. Two other white men, Lawrence Russell Brewer, 31, and Shawn Allen Berry, 23, also are charged in the crime and will be tried later.

“If I remember right, Shawn was driving, Russell was in the middle and Bill was on the passenger side,” Adkins said.

Another witness has linked the primer-gray pickup to Byrd’s death. The truck was identified as belonging to Berry.

Adkins, who is married, said she has known King for nearly a decade and once had romantic feelings for him. She said he invited her to his Jasper apartment the night of June 6-7 and she spent about three hours with him before leaving about 1:30 a.m. She said the three men also left the apartment.