In the predawn hours of August 19, 2020, Christine LeTourneau Summers, a 53-year-old female truck driver, was navigating Interstate 59/20 near the Valley Road exit in Fairfield, Alabama. While on the phone with her husband, she mentioned that she might have hit someone or something on the road. Concerned, she pulled her 18-wheeler over to the shoulder to investigate. After ending the call with her husband, she dialed 911 to report the potential incident.
The events that unfolded next were tragically captured on that emergency call, as the dispatcher heard Summers scream, 'Get away from me.'
Shortly after 3 a.m., a fellow truck driver noticed Summers' rig parked on the side of the interstate and then saw a woman on the ground nearby. He stopped to check on her, but she was unresponsive. When law enforcement arrived, Christine Summers was pronounced dead at the scene, having been brutally beaten to death. The investigation into her homicide was quickly taken over by the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation.
Within an hour of the discovery of Summers' body, the Hueytown Police Department received a call about a man standing in a nearby street. They located Charles Levester Gipson, then 39, and took him into custody. Gipson was subsequently charged with the murder of Christine Summers. While in custody, he also faced additional charges for assaulting two police officers and destroying property by intentionally flooding his jail cell.
During a preliminary hearing, testimony revealed disturbing details about Gipson's alleged statements to the arresting officers. He was also reportedly too unstable to appear in the courtroom. His legal team requested a mental evaluation, stating that he was unable to recall the details of the offense. Gipson is currently being held at the Jefferson County Jail as a pretrial inmate, with his most recent booking on these charges listed in February 2022. The case is awaiting trial, and there have been no convictions to date.
