Max Ellison's trial date may be selected Tuesday

Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said he hopes the next hearing in the state's case against Max Ellison for the 1979 murder of Debbie Martin will result in a trial date.

The case will be tried in New Madrid County, a court decided last month, and a trial setting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Ellison, 61, who pleaded not guilty to the charges of first-degree murder and first-degree armed robbery, was arrested in April at his home in Nixa, Mo.

Swingle said he expects the trial to take about a week.

"I'm ready to try it immediately," Swingle said.

Martin was found by one of her employees the morning of Sept. 16, 1979, on the first floor of the 605 Broadway building that housed both her residence and her business, the Mother Earth Plant Shop. She appeared to have been strangled and suffered several injuries from falling off the balcony, according to the forensic pathologist who reviewed the case.

At a preliminary hearing held in May before Cape Girardeau County Associate Circuit Judge Gary Kamp, the state highlighted its case against Ellison, presenting testimony from former Stoddard County sheriff Ralph Mouser that Ellison, a former deputy, confessed to killing Martin.

In a recent letter to the Southeast Missourian, Ellison said his confession, made when he called from a federal prison in 1985, was false.

"I actually tried to confess to every unsolved murder, bank robbery, in southeast Missouri," Ellison wrote.

"My motive was to get out of Leavenworth and escape from a county jail."

Ellison, who served a federal prison sentence for kidnapping, said county jails were not as secure back then, and he had a handcuff key in his possession.

According to a recording of the 1985 phone conversation, Ellison called to offer information about another unsolved murder in the area, and Mouser told him to admit to one he'd actually committed.

During Mouser's testimony, the former sheriff said he thought Ellison may have had designs on trying to escape during transport if he was moved to be tried on state murder charges.

Other evidence against Ellison includes the testimony of Ross Alan Milburn, who had dated Martin at the time of her death. Milburn testified that shortly after Martin's death he discovered $93,000 missing from a safe he kept in his sister's basement. The money was from drug deals, and only he and Martin knew the combination to the safe, he testified.

Milburn admitted he has a motion pending in federal court for a reduced sentence on his federal drug conviction in exchange for his cooperation in this case.

Ellison had used $80,000 in cash shortly after the murder to purchase certificates of deposit at a Sikeston, Mo., bank, a former bank employee who handled the transaction testified.

In his letter, Ellison said he's been interviewed by countless detectives about the case for the past 30 years and said he is in failing health.

"They want to close this case," he wrote.

He admitted to knowing Martin and said they had dated, but he denied being at her apartment that evening.

"I've done many thing in my life, but this wasn't one of them," Ellison wrote.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent addresses

605 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO