Stacey Gray’s fate is now in the hands of a Muscogee County Jury after closing arguments Tuesday November 25, 2025. Gray is on trial for the rape and murder of Renee Eldridge in July of 2015. Angela Dillon, Gray’s public defender made a motion to dismiss the counts of malice murder, felony murder and rape because of the state’s failure to prove venue she said. Dillon told Judge “Tippi” Burch there was no actual evidence that the murder occurred in Muscogee County. Eldridge went missing from her home in Columbus and her body was found three days later in a Valley, AL creek.
The judge denied the motion, but Dillon continued to press the issue of venue in her closing arguments. Dillon told the jurors if you don’t believe the murder happened in Muscogee County then “it’s not guilty”. Dillon’s most stunning claim came when she tried to explain why Stacey Gray’s DNA was found inside Renee Eldridge. “DNA is only conclusive of one thing: sex…the sex was consensual. He was dating her mother, but it wasn’t impossible, the DNA is not the end of the story” Dillon told the jury.
Don Kelly fired back in his closing stating “we have a mountain of evidence” against Stacey Gray. “The truth is Stacey Gray murdered his girlfriend’s daughter on July 4, 2015. That’s the truth,” Kelly said as he went down a list including DNA evidence, Renee’s stolen gun found in Stacey Gray’s possession, surveillance video showing Gray’s SUV traveling down Renee Eldridge’s street at the time of the murder and witnesses placing him on the Hopewell Bridge in Valley. There was phone evidence indicating Gray was never in Opelika where he said he was and the confession he made in a jailhouse letter.
“This isn’t a who done it case,” Kelly told the Jury. “Today is the family’s day to get justice” he said. The jury deliberated for about three hours before court recessed for the night. The jury will get back to work Wednesday morning November 26, 2025.
