CULLMAN, Ala. – Four defendants officially pleaded guilty Wednesday, Aug. 19, in the Hanceville Police Department corruption case, with former Officer Jason Scott Wilbanks ordered to serve three years in state prison and former Reserve Officer Eric Michael Kelso ordered to serve four months.
Former Hanceville Police Chief Jason Shane Marlin and Donna Reid Kelso, Eric Kelso’s wife, received suspended sentences and probation under their negotiated plea agreements.
Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker announced details of the cases during a 3 p.m. press conference Wednesday, joined by Cullman Police Chief Joey Duncan, Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry and Special Agent Jamie King of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation. King was the lead investigator on the case.
The pleas represent the most significant movement yet toward resolving a case that began with the August 2024 death of a Hanceville Police Department dispatcher and ultimately resulted in six indictments, the dismantling of the police department and the dismissal of dozens of unrelated felony cases.
Crocker clarified Wednesday that Wilbanks will serve three years. Separate portions of Wilbanks’ sentence will run concurrently, resolving conflicting accounts published earlier Wednesday concerning the amount of time he would actually remain in custody.
Wilbanks had originally been indicted on two counts of computer tampering, two counts of use of office for personal gain, tampering with physical evidence and two counts of solicitation to commit a controlled substance crime.
The allegations against Wilbanks included using law enforcement databases to obtain information about individuals for others, using a department-issued cellphone to solicit controlled substances, traveling to a hospital while on duty to receive an anabolic steroid injection and soliciting anabolic steroids and hydrocodone.
Prosecutors also accused him of removing or mishandling evidence from the Hanceville Police Department evidence room.
Eric Kelso was originally charged with four counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance and two counts of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute a controlled substance.
According to the indictments, Eric Kelso was accused of delivering anabolic steroids to Wilbanks and then-Officer Cody Alan Kelso, Adderall to another individual and hydrocodone to Wilbanks.
Prosecutors also accused Eric and Donna Kelso of conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids to Wilbanks and Cody Kelso.
Donna Kelso was originally indicted on two counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance and two counts of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute a controlled substance.
Marlin, who served as Hanceville police chief, was indicted on two counts of failure to report an ethics crime and one count of tampering with physical evidence.
Prosecutors alleged Marlin failed to report alleged ethics violations involving Wilbanks and Cody Kelso after being notified by the State Bureau of Investigation. He was also accused of removing or mishandling evidence from the department’s evidence room.
Crocker said Wednesday that five of the six defendants have reached agreements with the State, although only four entered guilty pleas Wednesday.
The fifth defendant with an agreement is former Hanceville Police Officer William Andrew Shelnutt, who was indicted on one count of tampering with physical evidence. Prosecutors alleged Shelnutt removed or mishandled evidence from the Hanceville Police Department evidence room.
Shelnutt was not among the four defendants who appeared Wednesday to enter guilty pleas. Crocker did not announce the disposition or sentencing details of Shelnutt’s case during his discussion of Wednesday’s pleas.
The case against former Officer Cody Alan Kelso remains pending.
Cody Kelso was indicted on two counts of computer tampering, solicitation to commit a controlled substance crime, use of office for personal gain and tampering with physical evidence.
The allegations included accessing records from a Cullman County murder investigation, obtaining vehicle registration information for Eric Kelso, soliciting anabolic steroids, traveling to a hospital while on duty to receive a steroid injection and removing or mishandling evidence from the Hanceville evidence room.
Because Cody Kelso’s case remains unresolved, he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
An investigation that began with a death
The criminal investigation grew out of the death of Hanceville Police Department dispatcher Christopher Michael Willingham, 49, who was found dead in his office at police headquarters Aug. 23, 2024.
According to an Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences autopsy and toxicology report, Willingham died from the combined toxic effects of fentanyl, gabapentin, diazepam, amphetamine, carisoprodol and methocarbamol. His death was ruled accidental.
Willingham’s death prompted an investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation that expanded well beyond the circumstances surrounding the death itself.
A Cullman County grand jury subsequently examined the department’s operations, evidence-handling practices and conduct of individual officers.
What emerged was an extraordinary condemnation of a law enforcement agency.
The grand jury found there was a “rampant culture of corruption” within the Hanceville Police Department and said the department had recently operated “as more of a criminal enterprise than a law enforcement agency.”
It found the department had abused public trust through failures of oversight, leadership, training and hiring.
The grand jury also concluded the department failed to account for, preserve and maintain criminal evidence to such a degree that evidence had become unusable.
Investigators found the evidence room itself was not properly secured. Previous Tribune reporting detailed allegations that individuals could gain access by using a broomstick through a hole in an exterior wall to manipulate the door.
The grand jury went further, finding Willingham’s death was the direct result of the department’s “negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence and disregard for human life.”
No individual was charged with causing Willingham’s death.
The grand jury recommended that the Hanceville Police Department be immediately abolished and that another law enforcement agency assume responsibility for protecting the city.
Five Hanceville law enforcement officers and one officer’s spouse were ultimately indicted: Marlin, Wilbanks, Cody Kelso, Eric Kelso, William Andrew Shelnutt and Donna Kelso.
The consequences did not stop with those six cases.
The same grand jury later reconvened and voted to no-bill 58 felony cases because of illegal conduct by former Hanceville officers and problems affecting the integrity of evidence and prosecutions.
Crocker said at the time that most of those cases involved drugs, although some involved crimes with individual victims.
“One dismissal is too many, but the Grand Jury had no other recourse,” Crocker said when those dismissals were announced.
The fallout ultimately transformed law enforcement in Hanceville, with the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office assuming responsibility for police services as city leaders dealt with the consequences of the investigation.
Wednesday’s four guilty pleas, combined with Shelnutt’s agreement, mean five of the six cases have now moved toward resolution.
But they do not completely close the Hanceville Police Department investigation.
Cody Kelso’s case remains pending.
Previous Cullman Tribune coverage
Hanceville dispatcher’s cause of death revealed; 3 officers reportedly arrested — www.cullmantribune.com/2025/02/19/hanceville-dispatchers-cause-of-death-revealed-3-officers-reportedly-arrested
Grand jury calls for abolition of Hanceville PD; 6 arrested — www.cullmantribune.com/2025/02/19/grand-jury-calls-for-abolition-of-hanceville-pd-6-arrested
What happened to the Hanceville Police Department? — www.cullmantribune.com/2025/02/26/what-happened-to-the-hanceville-police-department
Hanceville Council votes to suspend police department — www.cullmantribune.com/2025/03/10/hanceville-council-votes-to-suspend-police-department
DA: 58 cases dismissed due to Hanceville PD’s illegal actions — www.cullmantribune.com/2025/05/07/da-58-cases-dismissed-due-to-hanceville-pds-illegal-actions
2 more defendants reach plea agreements in Hanceville Police Department corruption case — www.cullmantribune.com/2026/08/14/2-more-defendants-reach-plea-agreements-in-hanceville-police-department-corruption-case
