Gravitt v. State

Carley, Justice.

In 2000, Lewis Cecil Gravitt, Jr. confessed to the Sheriff of Walker County that, ten years earlier, he killed Bryan Barnes by shooting him 14 times, and buried the body in a shallow grave on the Gravitt family farm. According to Gravitt, he did so in order to prevent a drug dealer, whom he refused to identify, from killing him and members of his family. This threat allegedly was made in retaliation for a theft of approximately $150,000 and a quantity of cocaine, in which the drug dealer erroneously believed that Gravitt and the victim participated. Recovery of the victim’s…