Teacher testifies at capital murder retrial: boy beaten to death cried after conduct report

By William Thornton | wthornton@al.com AL.com

Gadsden, AL

A 5-year-old boy whose beaten body was later discovered in the trunk of a car wrapped in a blanket cried when his teacher gave him a conduct grade, she testified today in court.

Kelly Page, the teacher of Geontae Glass, told jurors in an Etowah County court that the boy received a conduct grade in the form of a face with a straight mouth - not a smiley face, nor a frown. This grade meant satisfactory borderline behavior, basically a warning.

Glass, Page testified, cried a few tears. "My daddy's gonna spank me when I get home," he said. Page never saw the boy alive again.

Kevin Andre Towles, accused of capital murder in the 2006 death of Geontae, sat a few feet away. Prosecutors say Towles beat the child as punishment, then staged a faked kidnapping with the boy's mother in hopes of disposing of the child's body.

Towles was sentenced to die for the crime in 2009, but his conviction was overturned by the Alabama Supreme Court because of improper testimony. Towles' retrial began last week.

Under questioning from Towles' defense team, Page said despite the child's reaction to the conduct grade, she did not believe Geontae was in any danger. The boy always had what he needed in class and was usually dressed nicely.

"He was a typical little boy," she said. "He was very happy. He was usually singing all day."

Glass was reported missing Dec. 4, 2006, when his mother Shalinda Glass told Albertville police her car had been stolen from outside of a service station with Geontae in the backseat. She had gone inside the store with Geontae's older sister. Prosecutors say Towles went to the location in a truck, climbed inside Shalinda's Altima and raced from the store.

Shalinda Glass is currently serving time in prison for murder.

Testimony from people inside the service station recreated the scene. Ronnie Cook, who was in the store for a soft drink vendor, said he saw the blue Altima circle the parking lot several times before coming to a stop at a pump. He then saw Shalinda Glass and her daughter exit the car.

A few seconds later, he told the jury, he saw a man jump out of a Ford truck, get into the Altima and drive away. Another man, James Robbins, said he later encountered the Altima on Alabama 205 headed toward Boaz as he was driving into Albertville. The Altima was traveling straight toward him in his lane at a high rate of speed, he said.

The two vehicles swerved to miss each other, bringing their cars side-by-side and the two drivers face-to-face, Robbins said. He identified Towles as the driver of the Altima, and said Towles gave him a "hard, cold stare."

"He was like, 'What are you doing?'" Robbins testified. Towles then sped off.

Back at the service station, its clerk, Gina Keaton, saw Shalinda Glass mill around the store for several minutes with the child, Keaton testified.

"I felt like she was acting weird," Keaton said. "It was like she was distracting us from what was going on. If my child had been in the car, I would have been looking out the window."

Keaton said Glass went outside, then went to a payphone and began saying her car was missing with her boy in the backseat. Keaton said she offered to push the store's panic button, but Glass told her police were already on the way. They arrived shortly after.

Prosecutors played several minutes of surveillance footage from that day, showing Glass and the girl walk into the store, walk about, then outside before returning with police.

Keaton said she saw Glass crying as she made phone calls. Towles walked into the store thirty minutes to an hour later. Cook testified that when Towles entered the store, he told police the man he had seen jump into the Altima looked like Towles, only with different clothes.

Testimony stopped briefly during Cook's testimony when he was asked if he had seen the surveillance tape of that morning.

"Yes, during the first trial," he said, which prompted a conference at the bench with Circuit Judge David Kimberley. After a few minutes, Kimberley told the jury to "disregard the previous statement."

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