BEAUMONT, Texas — Jury selection began Monday for the trial of a Beaumont man accused of shooting and killing four men at an apartment complex in 2019.
Testimony is expected to be heard Tuesday in the trial of Lively James Stratton. Stratton is charged with four counts of murder and is facing trial for all four counts.
Stratton is currently being held in the Jefferson County Jail on a $1 million bond, according to jail records.
The deadly shooting took place on Sunday, September 29, 2019. A Beaumont patrol officer said he heard shots being fired while patrolling in the 4100 block of Highland Avenue shortly after noon, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The officer walked up stairs to an apartment and said he could hear moaning from the inside. When he entered the apartment, he found four men inside a bedroom who had been shot.
The victims were identified as Bobby Wyatt, 39, Shannon Sutton, 23, Alvin Lee Bellard, 32, and Elijah Rideau, 33, according to file stories.
Sutton and Bellard were pronounced dead at the scene. Wyatt and Rideau were still alive when the offficer arrived but later died.
The officer asked Rideau who shot him. In what the officer described as a "dying declaration," Rideau said "Lively," according to court documents.
The families of the four men who were killed said all they have left now are memories.
Shannon Sutton was the youngest of the four victims. His family said he would have been 24 in October of 2019.
"He's not here. I'm just so hurt," Roslyn Sutton, mother of Shannon Sutton, previously told 12News.
Family of Shannon Sutton said he had a then 3-year-old daughter and that his legacy will live on through her.
Kristopher Knighton, a childhood friend of Elijah Rideau, said he was a great friend and an even better father. Rideau had two sons.
"We learned a lot from each other, we have a lot of good memories. I really just hate to see he had to go because we had a lot to accomplish as fathers and as friends," Knighton previosuly told 12News
This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.
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