A Decatur man accused of gunning down his ex-wife two days after their divorce was finalized last month will face a grand jury in the case, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

Roger Dale Stevens, 64, is charged with murder in the Nov. 14 shooting death of Kay Letson Stevens. Roger Stevens had a preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon in Morgan County District Judge Brent Craig's courtroom.

Kay Stevens, 62, was shot and killed in front of her sister, Brenda Suggs, at the Corner Bakery & Eatery, the Somerville Road business the women owned together. Testimony on Tuesday indicated that Stevens was shot twice, the bullets causing fatal damage to her internal organs.

She also suffered head trauma in the attack.

"One of the witnesses described him taking her by the hair and beating her head on the concrete curb," testified Decatur Police Sgt. George Silvestri, a lead investigator on the case.

At least one spectator in the courtroom audibly gasped as Silvestri described Kay Stevens' death.

Roger Stevens, wearing eyeglasses and the striped uniform of the Morgan County Jail, listened quietly as Silvestri described how he allegedly chased his ex-wife through the bakery as he fired a volley of shots at her. Suggs described for the court how she tried grabbing at her former brother-in-law to stop him from going after her sister.

Suggs testified that her sister, who was married to Roger Stevens for 42 years, told her the morning of the shooting that Roger had threatened her life in a phone call the night before. When Suggs left to go to the bank around 9:30 a.m., she drove her sister's car in an effort to keep him from finding out Kay was alone in the building.

As she was leaving the parking lot through an alley, Roger Stevens arrived and parked next to her.

"I asked him what he was doing there and, in his foul language, he told me he was going to kill my sister," Suggs said. "And he lifted the gun and showed it to me. I said, 'Roger, you would go to jail.'"

Suggs said Stevens told her that Kay had "gotten everything" in the divorce and, at one point, referenced an affair he believed his ex-wife was having. Realizing she could not leave her sister alone, Suggs started back toward the bakery.

She and Roger Stevens got out of their respective vehicles, Stevens again saying he was going to kill Kay. Suggs said her sister at that point saw her ex-husband heading toward the building and tried to get away.

By the time Suggs got to her sister, she was already lying on the pavement, shot and bleeding, after being chased through the bakery.

"I just couldn't believe it," Suggs said, bursting into tears. "He had done it."

Silvestri testified that the first officers arrived at the bakery around 9:45 a.m. on Nov. 14, a Saturday. Kay Stevens was still alive at that point and was able to speak.

There was no testimony indicating what, if anything, she was able to tell officers about the shooting.

She was initially taken to Decatur Morgan Hospital, located right across the street from the bakery. She was later airlifted to Huntsville Hospital, where she died during surgery for her wounds.

Silvestri said investigators immediately began looking for Roger Stevens because Suggs and other witnesses had identified him as the shooter. Investigators went to Stevens' home at 1414 Regency Blvd. in Decatur, but he was not there. They also started looking for Stevens at his father's home and issued alerts for the vehicle that Stevens was driving.

He was ultimately tracked down that afternoon at his place of employment, Premier Transportation, located near the Target Distribution Center on Greenbriar Road in Limestone County. Stevens had barricaded himself inside the 18-wheeler he drove for the company.

Investigator Johnny Lowery testified about finding Stevens hiding in his truck that afternoon and trying to talk him into surrendering. Lowery said that he lied to Stevens and told him that his ex-wife had survived her injuries.

"I wanted him to think there was still hope and, basically, that everything was not over," Lowery said.

When asked how the standoff could be resolved, however, Stevens allegedly made a chilling statement.

"He told me I could take him to the hospital and let him cut that b---ch's throat and finish what he started," Lowery said.

Stevens also told Lowery he wanted his own throat cut.

After about two hours, Limestone and Morgan County investigators were able to talk Stevens into surrendering. He was booked on a murder charge and placed in the Morgan County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bond.

Stevens' attorneys, John Mays and Jacob Roberts, filed a motion earlier this week seeking to have that bond reduced, citing their client's strong community ties and his health, which they say includes high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a thyroid condition. Craig denied the motion, however, ruling that, as a district judge, he could not reduce a bond put in place by a circuit judge.

Stevens was returned to the jail following the preliminary hearing.