A Jones County man serving a sentence of life without parole plus 30 years was in Superior Court last week asking for his sentence to be vacated and for a new trial.
The result of his Aug. 22 Writ of Mandamus motion was not what Terrence Sanchez Burney had hoped, but he did win a small victory on a technicality.
Burney appeared in the courtroom via Zoom from Valdosta State Prison, where he has resided since 2015.
The petitioner was convicted by a Jones County jury May 1, 2015, for the murder of 76-year-old Joseph Kitchens. He was sentenced May 14, 2015, by Superior Court Judge Trent Brown to the maximum life sentence for the charge of armed robbery, the maximum 10 years for false imprisonment, the maximum 20 years for burglary and the maximum of life in prison without parole for the combined charges of murder and two counts of felony murder. The judge also stated that all the counts would run consecutively, which means one after the other.
Superior Court Judge Alison Burleson presided over the Aug. 22 proceeding.
Burney told her the sentence was illegally formed and was worded incorrectly. He said the sentences for murder and felony murder should not have been merged.
Burleson told Burney that he was correct, and the sentence did need to be fixed.
“It won’t change your sentence, but it would be a technical correction,” she said.
Burney was not pleased that the technical change would make no difference in his sentence or his situation.
“I didn’t do this,” he said. “There was no confession and no evidence.”
The judge told Burney he needed to stay on topic, but the petitioner went on to state he wanted to be retried on the charges.
Burleson explained to Burney that his motion was about a matter of law, not the underlying facts of the case. She said she did agree the wording of the sentence needed to be changed, but her order on the writ of mandamus declared the motion to be moot.
Assistant District Attorney Cara Fiore said Burney’s arguments were not valid.
She said he had a jury trial, and the wording of the sentence had been changed.
Burleson said she would sign the new sentence.
The new document sentences Burney to life imprisonment without parole for the crime of malice murder, life imprisonment for armed robbery, 10 years for false imprisonment and 20 years for burglary in the first degree. All counts are to run consecutively for a total sentence of life without the possibility of parole plus 30 years.
Burney’s parting statement to the court was that he was going to hire a lawyer and be back.
Brief history of the crime
The body of the 76-year-old victim was found at his residence on Hungerford Road by Jones County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Travis Douglas Oct. 27, 2008. The deputy was performing a welfare check initiated by the victim’s sister. While checking the residence, Douglas found the back door pulled open and evidence of foul play.
The deputy called for investigators and the coroner.
Burney, 18, and codefendant Tyrone Richardson, 20, both with addresses of Hungerford Road, were arrested a few hours later and charged in the murder.
Richardson pled guilty to his charges July 29, 2013, and was sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole after serving 30 years.
Burney’s murder trial took place April 28 to May 1, 2015, and gave all the horrible details of the victim’s death. At the sentencing hearing, the state presented yet another murder the two men are thought to be guilty of. That was the murder of Thomas Stanford Griffis, who was killed in his barbershop July 25, 2008, three months prior to Kitchens’ murder.
Burney and Richardson were indicted for both murders Feb.
7, 2011, but the Griffis murder was not taken to trial.
