By By Marianne Todd/The Meridian Star
March 1, 2001
Mary Ann Adams, convicted on Feb. 10 of killing her best friend and co-worker, Mary Ann Woolf, has filed a notice to appeal her case to the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Adams' attorney, Charles Wright, had filed a motion for acquittal two days after a jury convicted her and her brother, John Barrett, of murder. That motion was denied by Circuit Judge Larry Roberts.
Wright has requested all clerk's papers, motion and trial transcripts and exhibits to be considered by Mississippi Supreme Court justices during their review.
Roberts also denied Barrett's motion for acquittal, filed Feb. 15. In that case, Barrett's attorney, Stewart Parrish, filed a motion claiming the court erred in denying his client a directed verdict of not guilty and also erred in not granting his client severance in the case.
Barrett and Adams were convicted of planning and carrying out Woolf's murder in order to collect on a life insurance policy, which carried a double indemnity for accidental death. Woolf's body was found in a shallow creek off Hookston Road in June 1998. After officials investigated what appeared to be a car accident, they learned Woolf had died of fresh water drowning.
Testimony in the week long trial revealed Barrett's fingerprints were found on seven different areas of Woolf's car, a car that had been washed by her son three days prior to her death. The trial also included testimony from one of Adams' previous friends, Sherron Walters, who said she learned Adams had a life insurance policy on her after she was nearly killed in a bizarre train-car collision.
Adams was transferred on Feb. 22 to the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, a holding and classification facility in Pearl, and will likely be transferred soon to Parchman Penitentiary.
Marianne Todd is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail her at mtodd@themeridianstar.com.