The life of 18-year-old Gabriel Demorris Edwards was cut short in March 2024 in his hometown of Hueytown, Alabama. On the morning of Tuesday, March 26, police received a call around 6 a.m. about a person down near the intersection of Hueytown Road and Walker Avenue. When officers arrived, they found Gabriel’s body.
Investigators determined that Gabriel had been the victim of a hit-and-run the previous night. Evidence showed that around 11:30 p.m.
on Monday, March 25, he was walking north along Hueytown Road when a vehicle also traveling north struck him and fled the scene. The incident was captured on a nearby resident’s home security camera, which aided the investigation.
A crucial break in the case came from a seemingly unrelated traffic stop that occurred just after midnight on March 26, less than an hour after Gabriel was hit. A Hueytown police officer pulled over a pickup truck being driven erratically on the wrong side of the road near Allison Bonnett Memorial Drive and Brooklane Drive. The officer arrested the driver, 70-year-old Walter Lee Ellison of Fairfield, for driving under the influence. During the arrest, the officer noted that the front of Ellison’s truck had fresh damage.
A few hours later, after Gabriel’s body was discovered, investigators found car parts scattered at the scene of the hit-and-run. After speaking with officers from the previous shift, police realized the evidence could be connected to the DUI arrest. The parts collected from the scene were a direct match to the damage on Walter Ellison’s impounded truck.
Already in custody at the Hueytown City Jail, Ellison was charged with murder, felony leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, and driving under the influence. He was transferred to the Jefferson County Jail, where he was held without bond. The case proceeded to trial, where a Jefferson County jury found Walter Lee Ellison, then 73, guilty in Gabriel Edwards’ death. Following the conviction in August 2026, the case was closed.
