A Calhoun County grand jury Thursday indicted an Anniston attorney for allegedly trying to arrange a man’s murder.
Matthew Walter Merrill, 32, was already being held on other charges. Merrill is charged with soliciting another man, Gerald Anton Griffin, to kill Patrick Thomas McCarroll.
Merrill’s involvement in the plot took place between Jan. 1, 2008, and April 1, 2014, according to the indictment.
Merrill was arrested Monday by Anniston police on charges including possession of a controlled substance, illegal possession of prescription drugs and public drunkenness, according to a police arrest report.
Circuit Judge Brian Howell set Merrill’s bond on the murder solicitation charge at $500,000. Merrill was still being held in the Calhoun County Jail on Friday morning.
The indictment states that conditions of Merrill’s release include having no contact with Patrick McCarroll, Lindsey Ghee or her immediate family. Ghee is a daughter of Anniston attorney and former state senator Doug Ghee.
Attempts to reach the Ghee family, McCarroll, and Merrill’s attorney, Joel Laird, for comment Friday were unsuccessful.
Calhoun County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Weems wrote in an email Friday that she could not comment on the case as it was still being investigated.
Anniston police issued a statement Friday saying that officers arrested Merrill on the drug charges Sunday — at odds with the arrest report — and discovered the murder plan. Officers investigated and found further evidence of the plot.
Griffin, 30, of Mount Meigs, pleaded guilty in 2012 to two counts of first-degree robbery, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Prison officials said Friday he was at the St. Clair Correctional Facility near Springville.
Griffin, formerly of Oxford, was indicted by a Calhoun County grand jury in 2008 in connection with the shooting death of Broderick Few in Hobson City on April 1, 2008. The state later declined to prosecute those charges against Griffin.
Merrill is scheduled to be arraigned July 24.