Man Convicted of Killing Fort Stewart Soldier for Insurance Money

Jasper man convicted of beating soldier to death for insurance money 
The Associated Press
March 27, 2015

A federal jury took less than an hour to convict an Alabama man of murder in the 2013 baseball bat slaying of a Fort Stewart soldier found beaten on government property near the southeast Georgia Army post.

The U.S. District Court jury returned its guilty verdict Thursday against 43-year-old Carl Evan Swain of Jasper, Alabama. Prosecutors say Swain killed his brother-in-law, 29-year-old Army Spc. John Eubank, in a plot with the defendant's sister to collect $500,000 in life insurance and benefit payments from the soldier's death.

"He is penniless. He is desperate, and he is willing to kill her husband if she'll pay him," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Rafferty told jurors in his closing argument.

Swain didn't testify at during his trial, the Savannah Morning News reported. His defense attorney, Edward Tolley, asked jurors to consider Swain's statement to FBI agents after he was arrested in December 2013. read more here