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Trial set for Dustin Coulter in 2005 murder of Futch couple
COULTER DUSTIN JAMES.cam
Dustin Coulter - photo by FILE
    Dustin James Coulter, 25, is slated to be tried Nov. 10 for the fall, 2005 murder of a Bulloch County couple, according to Bulloch County Clerk of Courts records.
    Coulter is one of three suspects arrested in  the Nov. 21, 2005, murders of  Jack  and Paula Futch.  The couple were the father and stepmother of Coulter’s wife, Alexandria Elizabeth Futch Coulter.
    Ms. Coulter, 24, and another suspect, Jerry James Easters, 23, each pleaded guilty in June to the murders, agreeing to testify about the murders in exchange for sentences of life without parole instead of the death penalty.
    Coulter opted to have a jury trial. Court records show jury selection for Coulter’s trial is slated for Nov. 6, with the trial to begin Nov. 10 before  Bulloch County Superior Court Judge John R. Turner.
    The couple were found dead in their Windmere Drive home off Ga. 46 less than a mile from Kennedy Pond.  Jack Futch suffered from terminal cancer.
     During a preliminary hearing in 2007, investigators described finding Paula Futch’s body in an upstairs bedroom, Jack Futch’s body in a downstairs bedroom, and Alexandria Coulter “tied up on the couch in the living room.”
     Investigators told jurors they detected discrepancies in testimony after questioning Dustin Coulter and Easters, whom they said took a van from the Futch home and abandoned it off Interstate 16 and Nevils-Groveland Road.
    Further investigation led to all three suspects being taken into custody and charged in the deaths.
    Ms. Coulter and Easters each testified in June, admitting guilt regarding the deaths. Ms. Coulter admitted planning the murders, and recruiting Easters, a friend of hers and her husband’s, to actually commit the murders.
    In court, Easters admitted in detail how he stabbed each victim to death.
    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in Coulter’s case.

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