On Monday, in Telfair County Superior Court, Ronnie “Jay” Towns admitted to murdering a Georgia couple nearly a decade ago after luring them with a phony offer to purchase a vintage car.

Bud and June Runion were tragically shot dead in January 2015 and ther bodies were later discovered near a country road. The couple had driven three hours from their home in Marietta to purchase a 1966 Ford Mustang from a person who responded to Bud Runion’s Craigslist ad.

Instead, they were ambushed and robbed before they were killed. Judge Sara Wall handed down a life sentence without parole to Towns – saving him from a potential death penalty had a jury found him guilty.

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Towns was apprehended shortly after and faced charges of armed robbery and murder. His trial experienced delays when Georgia courts invalidated his initial indictment due to issues with grand jury selection, leading to a second indictment in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic caused additional postponements.

The judge at Towns’ plea hearing remarked, “This has been an extremely long 10 years.” New evidence of the Runions’ deaths emerged unexpectedly last April when a person using a magnet to fish for metal objects in a creek discovered a. 22-caliber rifle and a bag containing a cell phone, driver’s licenses, and credit cards belonging to the Runions.

District Attorney Tim Vaughn of the Oconee Judicial Circuit stated that this new evidence bolstered his case against Towns. According to the Georgia Bureau of investigation, the items dragged up from the creek led investigators to obtain warrants to search a Telfair County home, where even more evidence was found.

Court proceedings have also been slowed down by prosecutors’ decision to seek the death penalty for Towns, which requires extra pretrial legal steps.

The Runions’ daughter, Brittany Patterson, told The Associated Press in 2015 that her father had traveled to Telfair County with hopes of buying a piece of his past – a 1966 Mustang convertible similar to one he had bought after returning from the Vietnam War decades earlier.

In their community north of Atlanta, the Runions ran a homegrown charity they named “Bud’s Bicycles” which donated refurbished bikes, school supplies, coats, blankets, and food to those in need.

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