No bond for Priceville man accused of killing ex-wife

For the Enquirer

A Priceville man who grabbed his ex-wife by the hair and shot her point blank in the head – according to an investigator’s testimony on Friday – will remain in jail without bond, a Morgan County judge ruled.

Zachery Allen Merriman, 33, is charged with murder in connection with the Oct. 20 death of ex-wife Kimberly Shaun Ricks. He appeared before District Judge Brent Craig on Friday for an Aniah’s Law hear-ing and a bench trial for a misdemeanor charge of violating a protection from abuse order.

Priceville police initially questioned Merriman and released him after Ricks’ death. After he was Mirandized, Merriman told police, “I was in fear of my life. I plead the Fifth,” according to testimony from assistant Priceville police Chief Jason Wilbanks.

Two days after the shooting, Lawrence County deputies arrested Merriman and charged him with several offenses, including assault and theft, relat ed to an alleged attempted motorcycle theft in September.

While Merri man was in the Lawrence County Jail, Priceville police secured a murder warrant for him on Oct. 24. Merriman was transferred to the Morgan County Jail Oct. 29. Meanwhile, Cullman County Circuit Court ordered Merriman’s bond to be revoked on a first-degree theft charge he faces there. He has also been charged twice with violating an ex parte protection from abuse order barring him from contacting his current, estranged wife.

Merriman and Ricks had three young children and divorced in 2019, according to court records. Prior to Ricks’ death, she attempted to modify the custody agreement. In May, Ricks petitioned Cullman County for a protection from abuse order against Merriman, claiming he had been stalking her. The petition was denied by Circuit Judge Gregory Nicholas.

Testimony Assistant District Attorney Joe Lewis called Wilbanks as the sole witness in Friday’s Aniah’s Law hearing. The barrel-chested and shackled Merriman sat opposite the state and was represented by attorney Phoenix Iverson.

Wilbanks said Morgan County 911 had received a call at 4:56 a.m. on Oct. 20 from a “subject” who “advised he had shot his ex-wife” at 28 Langley Private Drive, where Merriman lived in a camper behind his grandmother’s house. Wilbanks said the grandmother was not present during the incident.

Responding officers found a white SUV in front of the residence and an apparently shot woman lying next to it. “I knew she had been shot in the head,” Wilbanks said.

Ricks died in the back of an ambulance enroute to the hospital, according to Wilbanks. He said police later discovered that a third party was present at the time of the shooting, a witness who Wilbanks described as “bootycall-type friends” with Merriman.

The witness told investigators that Merriman woke her up that morning and asked her to take him to the hospital because he had pain and swelling in his knee. Wilbanks said Merriman then called Ricks twice – at 4:01 a.m. and 4:02 a.m. – and asked her to bring him over-the-counter medication, which the witness overheard on the speakerphone.

Security video Security video from a nearby business showed Ricks arriving at 4:35 a.m., Wilbanks said. The witness told investigators that Merriman answered the door of the camper, and Ricks handed him a bottle of pills. Merriman said they weren’t the pills he wanted, according to testimony.

Merriman then tried to introduce Ricks and the witness, according to Wilbanks, but Ricks declined and said, “No, I’m leaving.” “Merriman then took off after her,” Wilbanks said. “Then she (the witness) hears a gunshot. And then she hears another gunshot.” Wilbanks said the witness described a delay between the shots, and, afterward, Merriman reentered the camper, threw the bottle of pills on the floor, and said something she couldn’t make out before he went back outside.

Wilbanks said security video showed the headlights of Ricks’ vehicle flash when she arrived and flash again when she tried to leave at 4:40 a.m., which he said signaled the locking and unlocking of doors.

Wilbanks said the video only picked up bits and pieces of the incident because it was dark. “You see a shadow … followed quickly by another shadow,” he said. After that, he said the video showed the witness’s vehicle leaving at 4:51 a.m. He said the video corroborated the witness’s story but admitted that the witness had never called 911.

“She said she don’t know why he would have done it because she (Ricks) was just trying to help him,” Wilbanks said of the witness. The witness told investigators that Ricks’ demeanor had been “polite” and “soft-spoken.” Wilbanks said he attended Ricks’ autopsy in Huntsville, which determined “she was shot in the left forearm … and then she was shot in the head above the left ear.” The manner of death was ruled a homicide.

The doctor who conducted the autopsy, according to Wilbanks, described the gunshot wound to the head as “loose full contact.” Wilbanks explained this meant the barrel of the firearm was touching, but not pressed firmly, against Ricks’ head when it was fired. He said the arm wound was not “close contact.” Wilbanks also said investigators found a lot of hair on the exterior of Ricks’ vehicle. “There was loose hair all over the car,” he said, which led investigators to conclude “she was grabbed by the hair and pulled.” Investigators recovered a SIG Sauer 9 mm from Merriman at the scene, according to Wilbanks, and a Taurus 9 mm that was found on the floor of the home’s porch, roughly 80-100 feet away from Ricks’ vehicle.

Ricks’ and Merriman’s children – ages 6, 9 and 12 – were interviewed at a local child advocacy center. The oldest told authorities that “he had seen his dad punch and choke his mother, trying to kill her,” according to Wilbanks. “He stated that his father had threatened to kill him and his siblings with a gun and had actually pulled a gun on him.” Craig found the weight of evidence against Merriman strong, and, to protect the safety of the community, ordered him to remain in jail with no bond. After a brief recess, the bench trial for one of the protection order violations began.

Protection order Cullman County granted an ex parte protection from abuse order barring Merriman from contacting his current wife on March 6. Her petition for the order claimed Merriman had physically abused her multiple times and had threatened her with a pistol.

The wife and her best friend testified Friday morning that Merriman had driven to the best friend’s residence in the middle of the night on March 20, which was captured on security video the state entered into evidence. The wife had stayed with the friend for several months but was no longer living there.

Merriman came back to the residence two days later, according to the friend. “He kept saying, ‘Tell me where’s she at,'” she testified.

Iverson argued that the state failed to prove Merriman had violated the protection order, since the wife wasn’t physically at the residence when Merriman came looking for her. Craig disagreed and noted that the order barred Merriman from visiting any place that his wife frequents.

“I’m going to find him guilty,” said Craig. He added that Merriman could appeal his ruling and seek a jury trial if he wishes.

Craig sentenced Merriman to a suspended sentence of one year in jail, with two years of probation to be supervised by Morgan County Community Corrections.

“If and when you get out of jail, then this probation starts,” explained Craig. He added conditions to Merriman’s probation: Merriman must wear an ankle monitor for the first year, attend anger management and domestic violence counseling, and avoid contact with the victim. After the bench trial, Merriman’s wife said she was relieved that he is in custody, and the ankle monitor requirement, should he be released, is a small comfort.

Friday afternoon, Iverson moved the court to schedule a preliminary hearing in the murder case. For now, Merriman will remain in the Morgan County Jail without bond.