Jimmy "Orion" Ellis - Death

Death

Ellis was gunned down in his Alabama Pawn Shop on December 12, 1998. He was standing before the display counter in his Jimmy's Pawn and Package Store just after noon Saturday when the gunman burst in and shot Ellis and his ex-wife, Elaine Thompson, killing them both. An employee, Helen King, suffered minor injuries.

"Mr. Ellis never had time to do nothing or say nothing," Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman Jr. told APB News. "He just opened fire in seconds and hit Mr. Ellis in the side."

The gunman, whom police believe is Plantersville resident Jeffery James Lee, then fired twice more in an attempt to blast Ellis a second time as he struggled to find a haven behind a computer desk, Huffman said.

The shot missed, and then Lee allegedly turned his attention to the cash register, which he knocked off the counter after he could not open it, Huffman said. He then dropped the gun, fled the store and drove off in a car with two accomplices, authorities said.

Huffman said King, who played dead, was treated and released from a hospital for her hand wound. Ellis died in his store about 10 minutes after the attack, Huffman said.

Later that day, sheriff's deputies caught up with the two alleged accomplices, Andre Darren Lee, 19, who is the alleged gunman's brother, and Jerry Dewayne Johnson, 17, who is his cousin. Police later found Lee holed up in a motel about 30 miles outside Atlanta. All three are being held without bail and are facing the possibility of the death penalty on two counts of capital murder, authorities said.

Ellis was buried at New Live Oak Cemetery in Selma (Dallas County) Alabama.