Alabama County Commissioner Charged in Murder of Alleged Mistress

Alabama's Mobile County Commissioner was indicted Monday for the murder of his alleged mistress, CBS News reports. Stephen Nodine is charged in the May 9th shooting death of Angel Downs, a woman with whom he had reportedly been having a rocky extra-marital affair. CBS News said that Downs was shot once in the head in the driveway of her Gulf Shores, Ala., home.

Nodine, whom police named as their only suspect in the slaying, is also accused of abusing Downs during their affair. "There was a history there," Baldwin County Sheriff Huey "Hoss" Mack told reporters. "I think it escalated that night. I think the evidence is going to show that there was a confrontation, and the result of that confrontation ended in Ms. Downs being shot and subsequently dying. I think that the state will be able to prove that."

Just five days after the murder, Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine ran into another kind of trouble when he was indicted for ethics violations. A grand jury recommended that Nodine step down as Commissioner after a laundry list of offenses were presented. Surprisingly, the alleged abuse of Angel Downs was actually named in the indictment, according to the Mobile Press-Register. Nodine is also accused of misusing county property and funds and fraudulently purchasing more than 2,400 Lortab painkillers from nine pharmacies in four states.

Source:
CBS News. Stephen Nodine, Alabama County Commissioner, Charged in Alleged Mistress Angel Downs' Murder. May 26th, 2010.
Mobile Press-Register. Sheriff believes death of Angel Downs resulted from ongoing domestic violence. May 26th, 2010.