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Clockwise: Carlos Pearson, Johnathan Pitts, Frank Sealie, Aaron Cory Thrift and John Nealy.

(Jefferson County Jail)

Five men have been indicted in unrelated slayings that happened last year in Jefferson County.

A Jefferson County grand jury returned the indictments on March 10, and those indictments were made public Friday.

Carlos Pearson, 41-year-old convicted felon, is charged with murder in the March 29, 2016 shooting death of Desmond Cortez Burton in Tarrant. Early that Sunday, several people heard gunshots near the 1100 block of Sloan Avenue. Tarrant police officers responded to the scene about 12 a.m. and the 31-year-old Burton was pronounced dead a short time later.

Pearson was convicted in 1995 of second-degree assault, first-degree burglary, intimidating a witness, first-degree robbery and attempted murder, court records show. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison on the assault, burglary and intimidation charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on the robbery and attempted murder charges. He is out of jail on $75,000 pending trial in Burton's death.

John Nealy, 36, is charged with capital murder in the Aug. 9, 2016 slaying of 21-year-old Calvin Foster. The shooting happened about 5:10 p.m. that evening in the 600 block of Earline Circle at the Oaks at Springville complex. Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said an East Precinct officer was on patrol when he saw Foster lying on his stomach bleeding from the back of his head.

It appeared the victim had suffered a gunshot wound, Edwards said, and Birmingham Fire and Rescue pronounced him dead at the scene. According to the indictment, Nealy shot Foster with a pistol during the robbery of a cell phone, drugs or other unknown property.

Johnathan Pitts, 19, is charged in the slaying of his mother, whose charred remains were discovered in an abandoned Birmingham apartment. The body of his mother, 41-year-old Cheryl Harrell, was found burned beyond recognition on Aug. 7, 2016.

East Precinct officers responded to the apartment in the 1000 block of Sunhill Road at 7:40 a.m. Sunday on a report of a missing person. When they arrived on the scene, a man told police his girlfriend - Harrell - was missing and he wanted to file a report. While police were taking the report, the boyfriend and another person began looking for Harrell, Edwards said. The boyfriend found what appeared to be the charred human remains of a black female inside the apartment. Pitts was charged several days later. He remains jailed with bond set at $150,000.

Frank Sealie, A 27-year-old Birmingham man who was freed from prison in 2015 year when his murder conviction was dismissed at the request of prosecutors, is charged with murder in the October 2016 shooting death of Marquest Allen. The shooting happened shortly after 11 p.m. that Saturday night in the 2000 block of Avenue P. When police arrived on the scene, they found the 26-year-old Allen on the ground with a gunshot wound. Allen was pronounced dead on the scene at 11:25 p.m. Authorities said both Sealie and Allen were visiting a woman when the shooting happened.

Sealie, also charged with capital murder in an unrelated Brighton killing, in 2014 began serving a life without parole sentence in the 2012 shooting death of a Brighton street vendor. However, he was ordered freed a year later when Bessemer Cutoff Assistant Jefferson County District Attorney Lane Tolbert took the rare step of having investigators take a second look at the evidence.

Sealie had been convicted in the 2012 death of Amaju Coles. Tolbert later told the judge that after Sealie was sentenced, he had three investigators go back and look at evidence and re-interview witnesses after one witness' testimony gnawed at him from the trial. Two key witnesses at his trial said they weren't sure Sealie was in the car from which the fatal shots were fired.

Sealie was released from prison on March 15, 2015. One year and 15 days later, authorities say, he fatally shot 26-year-old Hondre Dejuan Vann in Lipscomb and then Allen. He has been held without bond since October.

Aaron Cory Thrift, 21, is charged with murder in the September 2015 shooting death of one of his friends. Thrift and 20-year-old Coy Lynn Bartlett grew up together and graduated from Mortimer Jordan High School together in 2014.

On the Saturday night of the shooting, the friends were at Thrift's home in the 400 block of Park Avenue in Kimberly. That's when, according to authorities and friends, Thrift grabbed a rifle and shot Bartlett in the head. Bartlett was taken to UAB Hospital, where he was pronounced dead hours later. He is out of jail on $100,000 bond awaiting trial.

No trial dates have been set for any of the suspects.