December 26, 2009

JESUP, Ga. -- Officials are importing a jury from outside south Georgia for the Wayne County trial of a man accused of killing former longtime District Attorney Glenn Thomas in 2007.

Superior Court Judge E.M. Wilkes III ordered last week that the Feb. 1 death penalty trial for 48-year-old Bobby Rex Stribling be handled by a jury from outside the five-county Brunswick judicial district. Wilkes has not decided yet where the jury will come from.

Stribling is charged with murder in the beating death of the 74-year-old Thomas as he worked in his Wayne County law office during a lunchtime robbery in June 2007. Thomas was hospitalized and died two weeks later.

Stribling has pleaded not guilty to malice murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault with intent to rob, aggravated battery, burglary and theft by taking.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)