WINONA – The sixth murder trial for a man accused of killing four people 14 years ago began Friday in Montgomery County. Curtis Giovanni Flowers, 40, has been convicted three times for those murders and his last trial, in September 2008, resulted in a hung jury.
Jury selections for this trial began Friday, June 4 at the Montgomery County Courthouse, with more than 600 potential jurors being pooled. The selection will resume on Monday, June 7.
Flowers has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death three times for the execution style murders of Tardy Furniture store owner Bertha Tardy, 59; and store employees Derrick Stewart, 16, Carmen Rigby, 45 and Robert Golden, 42.
Those convictions were later overturned on appeal because of prosecutorial errors.
Reportedly, on July 16, 1996, a retired employee of Tardy Furniture, Sam Jones, Jr., came to the store around 9:45 a.m. to train Golden and Stewart on how to load and unload furniture. When he entered the store, Jones reportedly found all four victims shot in the head. Jones then ran to a nearby business and asked an employee to call the police.
During the investigation, police learned that Flowers was a former employee of Tardy Furniture and been fired a week prior to the murders.
Prosecutors said Bertha Tardy kept Flowers’ last paycheck as payment for golf cart batteries damaged in his care. Prosecutors also said that bloody footprints found at the scene matched the type of athletic shoe owned by Flowers.
The prosecution will again seek the death penalty.
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