Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-NewsJay Thomas Burlison, 75, was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday for the 1984 shooting death of Earnest Griffin in Rocky Face, the shooting of Burlison's then-wife and pointing a gun at a convenience store clerk.

DALTON, Ga. — Judge Scott Minter said Tuesday that Jay Thomas Burlison had 34 years to hide from his actions and live a life of freedom.

“You tried to escape the consequences of your actions,” Minter said during the sentencing of Burlison, 75, who was convicted on Thursday by a jury of voluntary manslaughter for the shooting death of Earnest Griffin in 1984 and of aggravated assault for shooting his then-wife Mary Burlison, now Mary Mealer, four times.

“And now at this late date in your life, it is time to pay those consequences,” Minter said in Whitfield County Superior Court. “You will almost certainly spend the rest of your life behind bars, and that is exactly how it should be.”

Minter sentenced Burlison to 60 years in prison — the maximum sentence of 20 years for each of the three crimes for which Burlison was found guilty. He was also found guilty of aggravated assault for pointing a gun at a convenience store clerk.

Griffin died after being shot in the convenience store parking lot in Rocky Face in November of 1984. Mealer managed the store. Mealer and Burlison were separated, and Mealer and Griffin had begun a relationship.

Burlison was arrested in Tennessee earlier this year after he was discovered by an investigator with the district attorney’s office when his family filed for government benefits for the ailing Burlison. Burlison spent the trial and the sentencing in a wheelchair with oxygen draped around his face and needing specialized hearing equipment.

“It would be easy to look at you now, the way you are confined to that wheelchair, on oxygen and a catheter, and to forget who you were in 1984,” Minter said. “Looking at you now, some folks might forget the man who killed Earnest Griffin. Who tried his very best to kill Mary Mealer but failed. To forget the man who robbed Eric Griffin of his daddy forever.”

Eric Griffin spoke to the court before the sentencing and said he had forgiven Burlison long ago.

“My prayer always for Mr. Burlison is that he would admit his guilt and confess his sin and ask Jesus to come into his heart and save his soul,” Griffin said. “It appears his life is over. Whatever you decide today, there ain’t no winners. It can’t bring my daddy back. I ask you to think about my loss — 34 years of what could have been that never will be.”

Mealer said after the sentencing that she also hopes Burlison “finds the Lord.”

“The judge did what he had to do,” Mealer said. “I couldn’t ask for better than that. … He (Burlison) had his freedom for 34 years, he got what he deserved.”

Mealer read a statement to the court, and she and her daughter Ann Kendall spoke of living in fear that Burlison would someday return to Whitfield County and finish what he started that night.

Assistant Public Defender Micah Gates, who announced that he had already filed a motion for a new trial, asked Minter to sentence Burlison to two years in prison and allow him to return to his family in Tennessee. Gates argued that Burlison’s health care would be borne by the family rather than the state.

“The irony about this case, Mr. Burlison — you talk about wanting to go live with your family — the irony is had you stayed here in Georgia and faced the consequences of what you did, you almost certainly would be out of prison on parole by now,” Minter said.

Burlison’s motion for a new trial is on Minter’s calendar for Friday, but it will likely be postponed since court transcripts are not expected to be completed by Friday.