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Donnie
Allen HULETT
A.K.A.: "D. J."
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Robbery
Number of victims: 2
Date of murder:
July 22,
2002
Date
of arrest:August 2,
2002
Date of birth:
April 16,
1981
Victims profile: Larry Phelps, 62, and Arvine
Phelps, 69 (brothers)
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Walker County, Georgia, USA
Status: Sentenced to death on April 29, 2004
Hulett was sentenced to
death for robbing, shooting and beating Larry Phelps, 62, and Arvine
Phelps, 69, on July 22, 2002. The two brothers were clearing brush near
the Mountain Top Boys Home, a residence for teenagers who have been in
juvenile court. Hulett then stole Larry Phelps' pickup truck. He was
arrested on Aug. 2, 2002 in Casa Grande, Ariz.
A Walker County Superior Court
judge on Thursday sentenced convicted murderer Donnie Allen “D.J.”
Hulett to death
05-01-2004
In Georgia, death row inmates die by lethal injection.
“The court fixes the sentence of death on both (murder)
counts 1 and 2,” Judge Jon “Bo” Wood read from his ruling.
Wood set Hulett’s execution between June 1 and June
8, although it will not likely occur at that time.
“There will be many appeals, I’m sure,” Lookout
Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert “Buzz” Franklin said.
“I’ve speculated that our grandchildren will be going
to appeals,” said Sue Phelps, widow of murder victim Arvine Phelps.
Hulett was convicted last week for the shooting and
bludgeoning death of Arvine, 69, and his brother, Larry Phelps, 62,
while they were clearing brush at the Mountain Top Boys Home in Villanow
on July 22, 2002.
Larry Hill, a LaFayette attorney representing Hulett,
tearfully read a statement prepared by his client before Wood made his
ruling.
“If I only had one wish, it would be for my life to
be better than it was,” he said. “Soon it will be time to end the life.
“My mother don’t want me. My dad don’t want me,” he
said. “The only people that have ever cared for me are either dead or
can’t help me.”
Both families laid blame for the deaths and death
penalty on “the system.”
“It’s (Hulett’s behavior) been predictable since
probably the third grade,” Sue Phelps said. “The system didn’t do its
job.”
“If they had put a hold on him, he would still be in
jail, the Phelps brothers would be alive, and he wouldn’t be on death
row,” Jerry Langston said. It’s not that we want him in jail, but we
sure didn’t want this.”
Langston is Lynn Harrell’s fiance, wh o is Hulett’s
mother.
Relatives of the convicted murderer took the stand on
Thursday during the second day of a sentencing hearing.
Hulett Jr. fought back his tears as he listened to
his mother and father dig through their past filled with drugs, booze
and constant moving around south Georgia.
Lynn Harrell, Hulett’s mother, testified she smoked
marijuana and cigarettes during her preg-nancy with her son. He would be
her second child after having a daughter in a previous marriage.
“When he was little, D.J. would get mad if you didn’t
turn the joint around and let him lick the paper,” Hulett’s mom said.
“It (drugs) was a way of life in our neighborhood,”
Donnie Hulett Sr. said, adding he met Harrell at a “little beer store.”
Both parents testified they fought and struggled in
front of Hulett while he was growing up.
The couple began raising their son with his parents,
Hugh and Betty. Harrell was not fond of her baby’s grandparents.
“He (Hugh Hulett) was supposed to be a preacher, but
he sat around drinking every day,” Harrell said.
“My dad was an educated man, but he was an alcoholic,”
Donnie Hulett Sr. said. “He was an ordained minister who let alcohol
take over his life.”
Hulett Sr. said his father would sometimes “go on a
bender” when he would drink until he ran out of money or places to find
liquor. There were several times he had to be admitted to the hospital
to “dry out.”
Despite their flaws, Donnie Hulett Jr. and his
grandparents loved each other, Hulett Sr. said. They died a year apart
from each other while he was about 12 years old. That is when he started
getting into trouble.
Hulett Sr. said he was concerned about his son’s
cruelty to animals, arson, “huffing” gas, be-ing a bully to smaller
children and getting marijuana from his friends. Hulett Sr. attributed
the problems to Hulett Jr.’s way of dealing with his grandparents’
deaths.
“He started getting into trouble,” Hulett Sr. said.
“I wasn’t real concerned at first. I figured he would straighten out.”
School officials began reporting that Hulett Jr. was
skipping school at 12 years old, and once he ran away to live in a
relative’s cabin for several days. That landed him in a youth detention
center.
“He seemed not to care any more,” Hulett Sr. said.
“We’ve carried him to a psychiatrist sev-eral times.”
When Hulett Jr. was 14, he swallowed his father’s
blood pressure medicine after fighting with his current wife, Barbara
“Cookie” Hulett.
Barbara Hulett described Hulett Jr.’s relationship
with his mother as a “love-hate relation-ship,” adding he wanted to see
his mother but she was not there for him.
“It seemed to be a normal relationship,” Harrell’s
fiance Jerry Langston said.“
When Donnie Hulett Jr. was about 18 months old,
Harrell left him with a friend to leave town with a traveling carnival.
Donnie Hulett Sr. took that opportunity to reclaim his son, and said his
mother did not see him again until he was 12 years old.
Hulett Sr. said when he brought his 18-month-old son
home, he only wanted to eat cold food out of cans, and was able to open
the cans be himself.
The United
Methodist connection is reeling across North Georgia following the
senseless and brutal murders of two church members working on a mission
project under the auspices of United Methodist Men.
Brothers
Larry Phelps, 62, a member of Trinity UMC in Dalton, and Arvine Phelps,
69, a member of Dalton First, were shot at point-blank range by a gunman
who robbed them and stole Larry Phelps' truck as the two men were
clearing land at the Mountain Top Boys Home in Walker County.
The United Methodist Men of the North Georgia Conference are providing
labor for the construction of two homes and a chapel at the home, which
serves as an alternative placement center for boys aged 14-17 who have
been sent there by the court.
The first
home is under construction, and the men were clearing land for the
second home, according to Burt Bridges, a member of the Mountain Top
board and of Peachtree Road UMC in Atlanta which has given a great deal
of support to the home.
"It's a tragedy in the first word," Bridges said. "Here are two good
people, who were retired and could be doing anything they wanted, just
trying to do good work for mankind and help us at the boys' home do
something good for troubled boys, and their life gets snipped out by an
irresponsible person or persons."
Walker
County police identified Donnie Allen Hulett, 21, as the suspect in the
case, and a manhunt was on for him as the Advocate went to press July
26.
Both victims were retired teachers-Arvine Phelps taught mathematics at
Dalton Junior College and Larry Phelps was an elementary school teacher
in Whitfield County.
Both were active in their churches and were always willing to extend a
helping hand when the need arose, said their pastors and others.
"Arvine was
just really committed to the Lord and the work of the church," said the
Rev. Steven Lyle, pastor of Dalton First. "He loved helping folks, but
he did it quietly and didn't put the spotlight on himself. ... He left
us in the midst of doing God's work, and to me that is a great testimony
to Arvine."
Likewise, the Rev. Randy Healan, pastor of Trinity, described Larry
Phelps as being "really active in the church, from being an usher to
United Methodist Men to helping out doing things. He was always helping
people."
Larry
Phelps, Bridges noted, not only worked on the Mountain Top grounds as a
volunteer but also spent time with the residents. "He got to know the
boys, and the boys got to know him. He would come and have breakfast
with them and fellowship with them. He was just a good man."
Following the murders, the Mountain Top residents were sent to their
respective homes for about a week. Upon their return July 28, a
memorial service was held at the home.
Funeral
services for both men took place on July 26 at their respective churches
a few hours apart.
United
Methodist Men's commitment to the construction project at the boys home
is unwavering, said Tom Lowery, Dalton District president, and Joe
Kilpatrick, conference president. UMM plans to build a memorial to the
slain brothers on the home's grounds, Lowery said.
"I don't think the men will be defeated, discouraged by this,"
Kilpatrick said, "but they will respond with renewed dedication to honor
the Phelps brothers ... by continuing their tradition of service."
He said the
slayings point to the need for the services the home provides and that
the murders might have been prevented had the perpetrator been helped as
a child to overcome his problems. "This demonstrates why redemption is
so necessary, why the church has such an important role to play. We
hope that Mountain Top work and the work of redemption that goes on
there will be in place for the new generation of boys."
The home is operated by an independent board of directors but has always
received much United Methodists support. The nearly 500 acres of
heavily wooded land on which the facilities are located is owned by the
Atlanta-Marietta District, which rents the property to the home for a
token amount each year.
Presently
the home can accommodate up to 12 boys in one dormitory who attend
school on site and usually stay there from nine to 12 months. About 80
percent of the boys who are age eligible receive their GEDs at the
school, Bridges said.
Peachtree Road has been involved at the home for 10 or 12 years since
the church conducted its first Great Day of Service, when volunteers
fanned out to work in various mission projects in the area. When the
church conducted its Abundant Heart Campaign to raise a million dollars
to give away in conjunction with a building program at the church, the
congregation gave $175,000 to the home to be matched by other gifts.
"We have
matched that money with grants and other funding," Bridges said, which
is being used to help build the two new homes and chapel. Pews from the
remodeled chapel at Peachtree Road will be used in the Mountain Top
chapel.
The church has been involved in other ways, giving seed money for the
school and providing volunteer labor. Like Bridges, Peachtree member
Alton Conway serves on the board and has been involved in the
construction work at the home. The church's Boy Scouts have camped out
with the residents at the home and worked on projects there.
