Hattiesburg American
By Cathi Carr
Officer recounts apprehension of Centobie
WETUMPKA, Ala. – In a dramatic demonstration, Jackson County Sheriff Lt. Obie Wells showed jurors Thursday how he apprehended Mario Centobie on the morning of July 5, ending an odyssey that began with a plot to escape from the Mississippi State Penitentiary.Centobie, 33, and Jeremy Granberry, 20, accused in the death of Moody, Ala., police officer Keith Turner, 29, are on trial for capital murder in adjacent courtrooms in the Elmore County (Ala.) Judicial Building.
Juries in both trials could begin deliberations this afternoon, following expected testimony from Turner’s widow, 24-year-old Brandy Turner. Neither defense team expects to call witnesses.
Wells said: “I drew my weapon and the suspect got out of the van. He was walking towards me, slinging his hands like he had a mental problem. All the time I was ordering him to stop.”
Centobie then spotted two Harrison County deputies with their guns drawn and turned around to lift his shirt, exposing the .45-caliber handgun in his waistband, Wells said.
“All the time, I’m giving the same command to put his hands up and stop. He pulled the gun out, removed the clip and placed the gun on the grass. He then laid down and we apprehended him.”
Wells said he had received a bulletin that Centobie was riding in the van on Interstate 10 after leaving Daniel Alexander behind at the Mississippi Welcome Station. Alexander, a 32-year-old landscaper, testified that Centobie had forced him at gun point to drive the escapee to Mississippi. Alexander, who had just completed a Fourth of July visit with his family in Moody, said he was leaving a gas station pay phone when he was approached by a man wanting change for a dollar.
“I had change in a box in the floorboard,” Alexander testified. “When I looked up, I had a gun between my eyes. I could see the end of the barrel. He told me he’d blow my brains out.”
Alexander identified Centobie in his testimony and said Centobie made him drive toward Atlanta, before making him go to Mobile on Interstate 65.
“He told me if I swerved or did anything to draw the attention of the police, he would let them pull us over, and he would shoot the police through the window and then shoot me,” Alexander said.
In an interview with Alabama Bureau of Investigation agent Mike Manlief, Granberry said he and Centobie had plotted their escape while in the same cell block at Parchman.
“Both of us got together,” Granberry said in the statement. “Mario told me to write the attorney to get him down there.”
They were being transported on June 25 to Laurel, where Granberry was facing burglary charges and Centobie was to testify, when they escaped from Jones County Sheriff Maurice Hooks. Hooks was driving them in his patrol car, which was not equipped with a state-mandated Biddle cage, a protective partition between the back and front seats.
On the way, Hooks stopped for a rest break and when he returned to the vehicle, he was overcome by Centobie and Granberry, who were shackled at the ankles, but not handcuffed.
The pair drove the stolen patrol car to Tuscaloosa, Ala., where they are accused of wounding police Capt. Cecil Lancaster. There they reportedly stole another car and drove to Moody.
Turner was shot to death after making a traffic stop. Centobie and Granberry are accused of killing him and fleeing. Granberry was captured the same day near a lake in Moody.
Lancaster, in previous testimony, said that as he approached the stolen Jones County Sheriff’s car he had pulled over, the passenger leaned over the front seat and shot him through the rear window. He identified Granberry as the driver of that car and described the passenger as having dark hair.
Centobie, who has black hair, paid rapt attention to Alexander’s words. Throughout his trial, he has shuffled papers, taken notes and talked incessantly to his attorneys, paying little attention to witnesses unless they have identified him as a jail inmate or assailant.
Manlief also interviewed Centobie, who told him he went back to Mississippi because “he figured that was the last place law enforcement would look for him.
