Bio

Phillip D. Hallford was born on March 22, 1947. By the mid-1980s, he was living in Dale County, Alabama, with members of his family. Court records and trial testimony showed that Hallford had sexually abused his daughter, Melinda, from the time she was a child. By 1986, Melinda was 15 years old and pregnant. She was romantically involved with 16-year-old Charles Eddie Shannon, also known as Eddie Shannon.

The prosecution argued that Hallford was jealous and angry over Melinda’s relationship with Shannon. This jealousy became the motive for the killing.

Murder Story

During the night of April 12 and the early morning of April 13, 1986, Hallford forced Melinda to call Eddie Shannon and lure him to a secluded bridge near the Choctawhatchee River in Dale County, Alabama.

Hallford drove to the bridge with Melinda and his stepson, Sammy Joe Robbins. Hallford and Sammy hid nearby while Melinda waited in the vehicle. Around 1:00 a.m., Shannon arrived and began speaking with Melinda.

Hallford then approached Shannon, turned him around, and shot him through the roof of the mouth with a .22-caliber handgun. Shannon was still alive after the first shot and asked why he had been shot. Hallford then dragged him toward the bridge.

As Shannon cried and pleaded, Hallford took him toward the river. Hallford shot him two more times in the head, once near the left ear and once in the forehead. He then threw Shannon’s body over the bridge and into the water.

After the killing, Hallford returned to the scene with Sammy before daylight and washed blood from the bridge. He later returned again with a shotgun to check whether Shannon’s body had floated to the surface.

The next day, Hallford burned Shannon’s wallet and its contents in a drum in his yard. Witnesses testified that the wallet contained identification connected to Shannon. Hallford also tried to destroy the .22-caliber pistol by melting it with a torch. The remains of the weapon were later recovered.

Court testimony also stated that Hallford drilled holes in the spent shell casings from the murder weapon and made them into a necklace. He forced Melinda to wear it so she would “remember.”

Shannon’s badly decomposed body was discovered in the river by fishermen on April 26, 1986. An autopsy found three .22-caliber gunshot wounds to the head. Any of the wounds could have been fatal.

When the investigation began focusing on Hallford, he fled Alabama with Melinda. He was arrested in Escambia County, Florida, on May 23, 1986, and later returned to Alabama.

Hallford was indicted on July 10, 1986, for capital murder during a robbery. Prosecutors argued that the robbery element was based on the taking of Shannon’s wallet. On March 4, 1987, a Dale County jury convicted Hallford of capital murder. The jury recommended death by a vote of 10-2, and the trial court imposed a death sentence.

Hallford maintained that he did not kill Shannon, but his children’s testimony and physical evidence connected him to the crime. His appeals were denied over the following decades.

On November 4, 2010, Phillip D. Hallford was executed by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. He declined to make a final statement and was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m.