A judge has sentenced an Alabama man to die for his part in the drug-fueled torture and murder of a friend in 2015.
Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge Brad Almond imposed the death penalty on 34-year-old Michael Belcher during a hearing Wednesday.
Belcher was convicted of capital murder last month after two hours of deliberations in the slaying of 29-year-old Samantha Payne, who authorities say was tortured to death and had her throat slit.
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Off to death row: Michael Belcher, 34 (left and right), is pictured on Wednesday arriving in court to have the death penalty imposed on him for a gruesome 2015 murder
Samantha Payne, 29, was beaten, tortured and knifed to death, then tied to a tree and left to rot in an Alabama forest
Evidence showed Payne was beaten for hours in November 2015 by people she considered her friends. Her throat was cut and she was tied naked to a tree and left in the Talladega National Forest.
Prosecutors say Belcher was the ringleader of a group of five people who killed Payne while they all were using methamphetamine. He is the only one who got the death penalty.
In December 2018, Alyssa Watson, 25, and Marcus George, 38, were sentenced to 30 years in prison for their roles in Payne's death.
Attorney Steve Money represented Watson and said that she and George were not present when Payne was killed and took no part in the kidnapping. A jury had found both guilty of kidnapping and murder. Both have appealed their convictions.
Belcher (left)is the only one who got the death penalty. Chylii Bruce (right) received a 20-year sentence, with only five years to be served in prison
Alyssa Watson, 25 (left), and Marcus George, 38 (right), were sentenced to 30 years in prison
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ShareDefendant Chylii Bruce received a 20-year sentence, with only five years to be served in prison, in exchange for her testimony against the others.
Steven George was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Belcher's defense team cried foul over what they characterized as a 'sentencing disparity' between the co-defendants, arguing that their client was no more culpable than the others, yet he was the only one being sentenced to die, reported Tuscaloosa News.
Police in Alabama said in 2015 that Payne left her parents' home in Maplesville on October 30 - her birthday - and was never seen alive again.
Court documents stated that she was brutally assaulted at the home of Belcher on Halloween weekend, WIAT reported at the time.
Payne, 29, was allegedly killed after becoming angry at her friends for stealing her car while high on meth
Investigators believe Payne was attacked after she became angry at her friends for stealing her car, which was later found burned.
Payne was then tied up and taken into the forest, where she had her hair and nails ripped out, and several teeth knocked out.
Hunters came upon Payne's disfigured and decomposing body in mid-November.
During a sentencing hearing last month, Belcher's mother and his attorney begged the jury for mercy and showed pictures of the defendant as a child.
They painted a picture of the convicted killer as a caring father to his 11-year-old daughter, an animal lover and a skilled mechanic who could have a positive impact on other inmates, if given a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
'Putting Michael Belcher to death is not going to bring Samantha Payne back to her family. Don't let the state of Alabama make you a killer,' defense attorney Nettie Blume said. 'Y’all can give mercy. It can’t be earned. It can’t be begged for. It can only be granted.'
But District Attorney Hays Webb argued that the defendants showed no mercy to Payne and reassured the jury the burden 'of destroying all the lives in the room' was not theirs to bear.
'He [Belcher] earned the death penalty,' the prosecutor stressed.
Belcher (left) spoke in court of feeling 'sorrow and grief,' but Samantha's mother, Sue Payne, (right), said the killer has never shown remorse
When given a chance to speak on Wednesday, Belcher, dressed in an orange prison garb, said: 'Words can’t come close to expressing my sorrow and grief.'
The victim's mother, Susi Payne, was unimpressed with Belcher's statement, saying that her daughter's killer has shown no remorse.
She later told reporters of Belcher's death sentence: 'I don’t really want to say it feels good, but justice is being served.'
Speaking to CBS 42, Hays Webb, the prosecutor, expressed hope that the conclusion of the trial would bring Payne's family some closure.
Belcher will become the 177th inmate on Alabama’s death row. The last person to have been executed in Alabama was Domineque Ray, 42, who was given a lethal injection in February 2019.
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