Bio

Donnie Allen Hulett Jr., known as "D.J.," was born on April 16, 1981. In the summer of 2002, he became acquainted with the teenage daughter of a family in Georgia, spending time at their home along with some of her other friends. Sometime late on July 20 or in the early morning hours of July 21, 2002, Hulett left the family's home, and their daughter's white Chevrolet Cavalier disappeared with him. The family also discovered a Smith & Wesson .30-06 rifle, a shotgun, and ammunition missing from their home, and reported the vehicle stolen.

Murder Story

On July 22, 2002, Larry Phelps and Arvine Phelps went to the Mountain Top Boys Home property in Walker County, Georgia. They were retired educators and brothers who had volunteered to help clear land for a new building at the home. Between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., the assistant director of the home saw the brothers arrive in Larry Phelps’ red Ford F-150 pickup truck.

At about 10:30 a.m., the assistant director and several boys from the home passed a white Chevrolet Cavalier parked on the side of the road a few hundred yards past the home’s driveway. They saw a white male near the vehicle. Two boys had seen the same car the previous evening and noticed steam coming from the open hood, indicating that the car had broken down.

The Chevrolet Cavalier was later found to have been stolen. Its owners reported that their daughter’s new acquaintance, Donnie “D.J.” Hulett, had disappeared from their home during the late hours of July 20 or early hours of July 21. They also reported that several items were missing, including a Smith & Wesson .30-06 rifle, a shotgun, and ammunition. Georgia Bureau of Investigation testing later matched fingerprints found on the hood of the Cavalier to Hulett.

The evidence showed that the Phelps brothers were about 20 yards apart and were cutting trees when Hulett fired from a hill about 65 to 70 yards away. Arvine Phelps was shot multiple times with a high-powered rifle. Larry Phelps, apparently not knowing where the shots came from, put down his chainsaw and ran to help his brother. Blood on Larry’s jeans indicated that he knelt beside Arvine and used his own shirt as a makeshift bandage.

Hulett then came down the hillside toward the brothers. At some point, Larry Phelps saw him and ran toward his truck, but Hulett shot him from above. After the shootings, Hulett approached both men, beat them about the head, took their wallets, and left in Larry Phelps’ pickup truck.

The medical examiner testified that Arvine Phelps had been shot in the upper back, arm, and thigh. He also suffered severe blunt-force trauma to the head while still alive. Larry Phelps was struck by a single projectile that entered near his neck, fractured ribs, crossed through his lung, fractured his spinal cord, and exited through his back. He also had a blunt-force injury to the head. The medical examiner stated that the blunt-force injuries to both victims were consistent with being struck by a rifle butt or a sledgehammer.

After the murders, Hulett was seen by several acquaintances in middle Georgia driving a truck matching Larry Phelps’ truck and bearing Larry’s license plate. Witnesses also saw him with a Smith & Wesson .30-06 rifle and a large amount of cash. The GBI later learned from one of Hulett’s acquaintances that he had fled to Arizona.

On August 2, 2002, authorities arrested Hulett in a grocery-store parking lot near Phoenix, Arizona. At the time, he was sitting in Larry Phelps’ truck, which displayed a stolen Georgia license plate. After the arrest, detectives found a handwritten note in a mileage log inside the glove compartment of the truck. The note stated that Hulett had committed the murders at Mountain Top Boys Home and was signed “Donnie Hulett, aka, D.J.” A GBI handwriting examiner concluded that Hulett wrote the note.

Hulett was indicted by a Walker County grand jury on November 5, 2002, on two counts of malice murder, six counts of felony murder, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was reindicted on the same counts on March 2, 2004. The State filed notices of intent to seek the death penalty.

Jury selection began on April 12, 2004. On April 22, 2004, the jury found Hulett guilty on all counts. Hulett then waived his right to have a jury decide the sentence for the murders, and the sentencing phase was held as a bench trial before the judge on April 28 and April 29, 2004. On April 29, 2004, the trial court sentenced him to death for each malice murder conviction.

The trial court found several aggravating circumstances. For Larry Phelps’ murder, the court found that the killing was committed during other capital felonies, was committed for money or another thing of value, and was committed to avoid lawful arrest. For Arvine Phelps’ murder, the court found similar aggravating circumstances and also found that the murder was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman because it involved torture, depravity of mind, or aggravated battery.

Hulett appealed his convictions and sentences. On October 20, 2014, the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and death sentences. The court did identify sentencing errors involving how some non-murder counts had been merged, so it vacated part of the sentencing order and remanded the case for resentencing on certain non-murder counts. However, the court affirmed the death sentences for the murders.

Donnie Allen Hulett Jr. remained on Georgia death row. On October 1, 2017, correctional officers at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson found him unresponsive in his cell at about 5:00 a.m. Prison medical staff tried to revive him, and he was pronounced dead at 6:45 a.m. by the Butts County Coroner. The Georgia Department of Corrections announced that his death was being investigated as an apparent suicide.