Timothy Harville, 61, was convicted Wednesday of murdering his nephew’s wife, 46-year-old Angela Harville.
The conviction came after a fatal shotgun shooting at Angela’s home in the Hatton community of Lawrence County on Sept. 13, 2023, when Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call of an unresponsive woman in the 2300 block of County Road 161 at about 6:30 p.m. that day.
According to District Attorney Errek Jett’s account at trial, a confrontation broke out when Timothy went to his nephew’s property after searching for a lost cow in a pasture and then walking up to the house. There, he met Curtis West.
Timothy told investigators West was on the front porch with a gun when he arrived and believed his nephew was at work. Jett identified West as a friend of the couple.
The Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office said at the time of his arrest that witnesses told authorities Timothy shot Angela Harville in the head with a shotgun
Which according to Jett, a witness testified to allegedly hearing her words and then a gunshot.
Angela told Timothy: “Go ahead and blow my brains out.”
Timothy responded: “There you go, bitch,” Jett said. He fired the shot.
Recently, Timothy, who underwent chemotherapy for cancer before the Nov. 4 trial, will be sentenced in January.
After the trial Wednesday, Timothy’s bond has since been revoked until his sentencing, according to Jett.
The claim that Timothy knew his nephew was at work came solely from Jett’s account of the trial.
So, as the confrontation unfolded, Angela’s teenage son, who was also home at the time, tried to leave, telling investigators that Timothy had a shotgun in his vehicle and threatened to shoot out the tires of his car if he drove away. The son was outside when he heard the gunshot.
Meanwhile, West went inside the house, followed by Timothy. Angela told West to go into another room to cool things down.
The account of what led to the argument and the firing of the weapon after Timothy arrived remains unclear.
But court testimony revealed that Scott, Angela’s husband, was not at the house but was on the phone with her when she was shot.
At a December 2023 preliminary hearing, Lentz told the court Scott Harville, took about 10 to 12 minutes to drive home after hearing the gunshot on the phone, notified law enforcement after finding his wife’s body.
In Lt. Lentz’s own words, during his testimony, a search warrant at Harville’s home turned up a shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle. That conflicts with the defense claim of “no shotgun.”
Timothy’s attorney, Paula Bassham, has said said he continues to deny killing Angela and maintains that he left the house while she was still alive. “He says that he did not do this,”
“He says he left and she was alive and well.” Bassham argued that no physical evidence connected him to the killing. “No blood, no DNA, no shotgun, nothing,” added said.
Timothy had been out of prison on bond before the incident when Angela was killed, after a separate arrest in December 2022 on charges of shooting into an occupied dwelling with two counts of reckless endangerment.
In Alabama, murder is a Class A felony that carries a sentence of 10 to 99 years or life in prison, and state law sets a 20-year minimum where a firearm was used. His illness led to repeated delays of the trial.
