Brown and Justice mugs

Gustavius Brown, 43, and Jeffery Justice, 37, are charged with capital murder in the death of 71-year-old Linda Allbritton.

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Two men charged in the stabbing death of an Avondale woman intended only to rob her to continue a crack binge that had lasted more than a week, a Birmingham police detective testified.

Gustavius Brown, 43, and Jeffery Justice, 37, are charged with capital murder in the death of 71-year-old Linda Allbritton. Birmingham police officials said Justice lived near Allbritton and had befriended her.

The co-defendants appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Laura Petro.

Birmingham police arrived at Allbritton's home in the 600 block of 39th Street South about 6 p.m. Aug. 31.

Several people tried to get in touch with Allbritton that day. When they couldn't reach her, they went to check on her and found that a screen on the back door had been sliced open, Birmingham police Detective Ivor Sanders testified.

They called police when they found Allbritton lying on the hallway floor. An autopsy showed that she was stabbed four times in the neck and at least once in the back, and also had several broken ribs. Her apartment was ransacked, and her vehicle had been stolen.

Allbritton's credit card was used at a gas station on Arkadelphia Road around 2 a.m. Sept. 1. Officers found her car - a gold Buick Park Avenue - at the nearby apartment complex where Brown and Justice lived on Third Avenue South.

When investigators searched their apartment later, they found stains that looked like blood on a pair of pants, a chair and a steak knife.

Skin found under Allbritton's fingernails was sent to the Department of Forensic Sciences for analysis.

Investigators noticed scratches all over the front and back of Justice's neck. He was in possession of Allbritton's car keys when officers took him into custody.

Brown initially was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant for theft of property and later charged with capital murder.

Both defendants gave statements to police, each saying the other man went inside Allbritton's apartment. Brown told investigators that Justice planned to burglarize her home because they were "on a nine-day crack binge and ran out of money," Sanders testified.

Brown said he acted as a lookout while Justice went inside.

Deputy District Attorneys Mike Anderton and Amanda Kistler represented the state. Justice is represented by Don Colee and Ken Gomany. Brown is represented by Bill Myers and Jeffrey Wallace.

Myers noted that neighbors identified each of the men by looking at a single photo instead of being presented with a photo lineup.

He asked that Brown be bound over on a burglary charge instead of capital murder. He and Colee also asked the judge to set bond in the cases.

Petro bound the cases over to a grand jury and declined to set bond.

Court records show Justice has multiple prior arrests on drug and property crimes. He was convicted of criminal mischief and burglary in 2004 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Justice was convicted of possession of a control substance in 2008 and ordered to serve one year of a 75-month sentence.