CHIPLEY — A change of venue is expected for the trials of two men indicted in the April 19 slaying of retired game warden James William Shores.
Zachary Taylor Wood, 23, and Dillon Scott Rafsky, 22, both of Geneva, Ala., will be tried separately on charges of premeditated murder, burglary while armed and robbery with a firearm.
Circuit Judge Christopher Patterson stated Washington County simply doesn’t have the facilities to hold a capital murder trial. The courthouse has been closed for months due to a mold problem.
“We don’t have the infrastructure,” said Judge Patterson when the suspects appeared in pre-trial Wednesday. “Washington County doesn’t have the courthouse to accommodate this kind of trial. The defendants have the right to be tried in the county in which the offense occurred, but I’ve done the research and could find no such instance of these serious charges where this has come up and there wasn’t a courthouse. We’re on new ground.”
Both Bay and Holmes counties were discussed as possible venues for the trials, with Holmes said to be the most likely candidate.
“Logistically, we need a case of this magnitude to be tried in (Holmes County),” said Judge Patterson.
Woods will face trial in January, and Rafsky’s trial is set for February.
A panel of senior prosecutors with the State Attorney’s Office will meet within the next few weeks to review the case and determine whether it meets the statutory requirements to pursue the death penalty.
Shores, 66, who is retired from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was found at his family’s 2842 Johnson Road homestead after the Alabama Bureau of Investigation notified the Washington County Sheriff’s Office that a vehicle connected to the April 19 shooting of an Alabama state trooper was registered to Shores. The trooper in that case, Marcel Phillips, was treated and released from a Dothan, Ala., hospital for injuries obtained during a gunfight that took place when he stopped the suspects for speeding.
Officers discovered Shores’ body while performing a welfare check of his property.
Investigators said Wood and Rafsky were “out mudding” in a Jeep stolen from Woods’ girlfriend when they bogged down near Shores’ home. The suspects allegedly ransacked the house in what Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock referred to as a “crime of opportunity” and were trying to free the Jeep when Shores arrived and told them to get off the property.
The two men then followed Shores to the back of the house, where they beat him with a garden hoe, bound his hands and feet, and left him face down in the grass, authorities report. After attempting and failing to light the still-living Shores on fire, the men allegedly killed him with a shotgun blast to the back of the head before stealing his 2011 Toyota Camry.