Convicted Geneva County killer receives life sentence

GENEVA COUNTY, Ala (WDHN) — A Geneva County man found guilty of a 2020 murder will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Judge William Filmore brought down the order sentencing Michael Shane Paul to life in prison on Wednesday, January 24. He also declared Paul must pay a $5,000 fine to the court.

In December, Paul was found guilty of murdering Brett Grantham in August 2020.

According to Geneva County District Attorney Kirke Adams, Grantham’s murder originally started as a missing person’s case in 2020 until the Geneva Police Department received a tip that Grantham had been murdered and buried across state lines in Holmes County, Florida.

Geneva County authorities told WDHN that after an investigation into the tip, Grantham’s body was found on Paul’s property on Peak Road in Holmes County.

Police said Grantham was killed in Alabama before his body was transported to Holmes County to be buried.

During Paul’s three-day trial, he claimed Grantham was killed in self-defense, but after the jury, comprised of four women and eight men, deliberated for over an hour on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 6, they brought back the guilty verdict.

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