By By Kerry Whipple Bean
An Atmore man charged with murdering a witness in a 2001 case against him confessed to killing Woodrow “Token” Allen, but said it was an accident, officials said this week.
Bruce Day, 42, is being held on $250,000 bond after his arrest Oct. 8 at his father’s house in Atmore. Day had eluded law enforcement officials earlier that week when they went to arrest him at his workplace in Pensacola, Fla.
Day served a year in prison in connection with a separate shooting incident involving Allen, who was driving in a car with his niece when gunfire shattered the window in the vehicle.
Day was initially charged with attempted murder in that case. A month after the December 2000 shooting incident, Allen disappeared.
Day went to trial on the attempted murder charge but was convicted of reckless endangerment. He also served six months after pleading guilty to unrelated drug charges, according to court records.
Earlier this month, sheriff’s officials said they had found enough evidence in the case of Allen’s disappearance to charge Day with murder. They attempted to arrest him at a power plant in Pensacola where he was working for a contractor, but Day fled before deputies could even speak to him.
Three days later, Day surrendered at his father’s house after his father called Sheriff Grover Smith to come to the Atmore residence. Smith testified at a court hearing for Day Thursday that Day told him the second shooting was an accident while they were driving to the jail in Brewton.
Allen’s body has not been found, Lambert said Friday.
The Press-Register reported Friday that witnesses have told investigators that Day wrapped Allen’s body in chains and threw it in the Alabama River.