Ala. man charged in Southern Union shooting pleads not guilty

 

OPELIKA, Ala. (AP) - A man accused of killing his estranged wife's mother at Southern Union State Community College in April has pleaded not guilty to charges against him.
Authorities say Thomas May III pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to two counts of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder on Friday. He was indicted by a Lee County grand jury last month.
May is charged in the shooting death of 62-year-old Brenda Marshall Watson of Opelika. He is charged with the attempted murder of his estranged wife, 36-year-old Bethany May, her grandmother, 93-year-old Maude Ethell Marshall, and the couple's 4-year-old daughter.
Police say May fired on a car containing the family at the Southern Union campus and then fled. He later turned himself in to authorities.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.