Witnesses: Accused killer claimed to have shot man in face

PORT ST. JOE — Random Matthew Jackson kept telling people he killed Justin Jay Curcie in the months and years after Curcie’s death, according to several witnesses for the prosecution.

However, the way Jackson allegedly did it, according to witnesses in his first-degree murder trial, does not match up with the forensic evidence available in the case.

Adam Nixon, a friend of Jackson’s, testified earlier this week that Jackson told him about a conversation Curcie and Jackson had in the moments before Jackson shot Curcie in the head. The way Nixon repeated it would seem to suggest that Curcie was facing Jackson when he was shot.

On Thursday, Steven Tims, an inmate who spent time in prison with Jackson, testified Jackson told him he was “face to face” with Curcie when he shot him. However, according to the medical examiner’s office, Curcie was shot in the back of the head. Curcie’s remains were found in Gulf County in a wooded area near Muskogee Cemetery in September 2005. The 19-year-old had been missing since late June 2005.

The state is not seeking the death penalty; Jackson, 23, faces life in prison if convicted as charged.

Tims testified he and Jackson became friends because he spoke up for Jackson to the other inmates. Jackson began confiding in him about his legal troubles and eventually told him he had shot and killed Curcie, Tims said. At one point, Jackson talked about the case with Tims moments after they both saw a news report about it on television, Tims testified.

Despite their friendship, Tims said Jackson told him he had better not tell anyone what he had said.

“I got your address and phone number, and I know where your kids stay,” Tims recalled Jackson saying.

Despite the alleged threat, Tims sent a letter to the attorney general’s office and met with investigators on several occasions. Jackson’s attorney, Paul Komarek, suggested Tims found out about the case by sneaking into Jackson’s locker and reading his personal documents. Komarek also suggested Tims first heard about the case from television news reports and not from Jackson.

“You wrote the letter after you had seen it on TV?” Komarek asked.

He also said Tims was trying to get his five-year sentence reduced. Tims’ sentence has not been reduced, and he is scheduled to be released from prison in 2011.

Tims said he was trying to get moved to a prison facility closer to his children and that he only had heard details about the case from Jackson and not from any other source. Komarek suggested Tims’ testimony was just another “hustle” by a convicted felon.

“No, I ain’t never hustled the police,” Tims said at one point.

“You trying to hustle us today?” Komarek asked.

But the point Komarek tried to drive home the most was that Tims was testifying that Jackson said he shot Curcie point-blank in the forehead.

“You didn’t make a mistake?” Komarek asked.