A jury trial has been scheduled for a Milan man charged with first-degree murder after his wife was found dead in May 2021.
The trial for 22-year-old Edward James Elijah “Eli” Withey is scheduled to begin in Sullivan County on August 28th. Four days have been set aside for the trial. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for August 9th. Withey is also charged with the felonies of armed criminal action and the abandonment of a corpse.
Withey continues to be held at the Daviess-DeKalb Regional Jail in Pattonsburg.
A probable cause statement says Withey’s wife, Mattie, was found on the floor in the couple’s apartment in the 300 block of North State Street in Milan with an apparent gunshot wound to her face. Upon Eli Withey’s arrest, law enforcement observed red stains, which appeared to be blood, on the hooded sweatshirt he was wearing.
Officers reported a 22-caliber Savage rifle was in the bedroom where Mattie’s body was found. There was a half-pint jar of ammunition in the living room.
