May 21, 2013
An accused killer from the Wiregrass is at the center of a lawsuit filed against the Alabama prison system.
Eugene Eutsey is still waiting to stand trial for capital murder in the death of 42-year-old Melva Johnston of Montgomery.
He allegedly committed the crime while on work-release, and the victim's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Department of Corrections.
Johnston worked for a company that hired state inmates and was killed while supervising a work-release crew cleaning up a Montgomery movie theater in may of last year.
The suspect had been serving time for theft and burglary out of Barbour County when he was placed on work release.
But the lawsuit claims prison officials misclassified Eutsey as a minimum security inmate even though he had escaped before and should not have been on work-release.
The case is set for trial in February of next year in Montgomery.
