Alvin Andrew Kelly

For the duration of his stay on death row, Kelly maintained that he was innocent and repeatedly filed appeals to the state courts, all of which upheld his convictions. He eventually exhausted all of his appeals and was scheduled for execution on October 14, 2008.

Before the start of the trial, one of Kelly's court-appointed attorneys, Harry Heard, filed a 24-page motion to Justice Alvin Khoury, requesting that the county establish a trust fund so they can pay the trial expenses for him and the other attorney, Elizabeth Ann Fulton. At the pre-trial hearings, Kelly and Wilson maintained their innocence, while their respective attorneys requested that they be granted written statements from Cynthia, which was denied by prosecutors, who maintained that she would act solely as a witness. When this request was denied, Heard filed a motion to have her testimony suppressed on the grounds of confidential privilege between spouses. When this did not work out either, Heard filed yet another motion to delay the trial, claiming that he wanted to locate a witness, known only as "Turtle", who he claimed could disprove Cynthia's claims, but this was, again, denied. The jury was officially sequestered on in early September 1991.

Between 1984 and his arrest on March 31, 1990, Kelly was imprisoned several times for minor crimes. Upon his latest release, he adopted the alias of "Doyle Gilbreath" and moved to Durant, Oklahoma. A break in the case came in when a local reported finding a rusted handgun which, upon examination, was determined to have been purchased by Ford only weeks before his death. Utilising this tip, authorities conducted further investigation and finally charged Kelly with the murder. He later pleaded guilty and was given a 35-year prison sentence, to be served concurrently with a separate 25-year prison sentence for sexual assault, concerning Kelly sexually abusing two teenage inmates while awaiting trial at the Gregg County Jail.

At the time of the crimes, Kelly worked as a debt collector for Walter "WW" Shannon, a drug trafficker based in Kilgore. After somehow acquiring information that 30-year-old Jerry Glenn Morgan and his 25-year-old wife Brenda, who were reserve marshals for the city of Longview, were providing information about their illegal activities, Kelly drove to the family's mobile home in late April 1984 together with his brother Steven and 27-year-old drug dealer Ronnie Lee Wilson. While Steven remained in the car, Kelly and Wilson went inside, where an argument erupted between Kelly and Jerry Morgan. Kelly then pulled out a gun, tackled Jerry to the ground, and started beating him with the gun, claiming that he could kill him whenever he wanted. Before the situation escalated further, he noticed that Steven was peeking through the window and ordered him to go back to the car, with Kelly and Wilson following him soon after.

The Morgans' bodies were discovered on the next day by a concerned relative, who went to their trailer after they failed to return her phone calls. After finding their bodies, she flagged down a passing motorist and told him to call the police, saying the whole family had been murdered. After doing so and checking the bodies to make sure they were dead, the police arrived and started investigating the crime scene. Despite gathering every possible clue, questioning neighbors, and sending out a bulletin for the Morgans' missing car, a blue 1978 Pontiac Catalina, authorities were initially unable to determine a motive or with what weapon the victims had been shot.

On June 9, a passer-by walking around the northern section of Lake Cherokee, discovered the severely decomposed body of a man lying face up in some shrubbery. After notifying a nearby construction worker about his discovery, the man called the police, who traveled to the area and examined the body for possible identification. As the decedent had no such documents on him, the body was sent to a forensics lab in Dallas. On the next day, using the man's fingerprints, coroners identified him as 32-year-old John Eugene Ford, a resident of Jefferson, who had been shot multiple times with a small-caliber pistol. After his identification, Ford's murder was quickly linked to that of a burned 1974 Ford Ranchero found in Longview a week prior, which was found to belong to his father.

Alvin Andrew Kelly (March 14, 1951 – October 14, 2008) was an American serial killer who committed four drug-related murders in Longview and Lake Cherokee, Texas from May to June 1984, killing two reserve marshals, their infant son, and later his roommate. Convicted and sentenced to death for the infant's murder, he was executed in 2008.