Ex-cop testifies against former lover in murder trial

A former police officer said Wednesday that he gave up everything for the woman he loved — including his freedom — when he gunned down her husband in a trucking company parking lot.

Charles Allen Smith, 50, testified Wednesday against his former lover, Allene Skinner, who is on trial in Clayton County Superior Court for murder. Smith pleaded guilty several months ago to the June 2007 shooting death of her husband, Donald Ray “Bubba” Skinner, and is serving a life sentence.

Defense attorney Malcolm Wells said his client is not guilty. He did not present any witnesses on her behalf. Clayton Executive Assistant District Attorney John Turner ended the state’s case Wednesday.

Allene Skinner was legally married to Bubba Skinner, a long-haul truck driver, when she exchanged marriage vows with Smith in November 2006 in his parents’ Young Harris living room. Not long after the ceremony, Smith testified, Allene Skinner began hounding him to kill the trucker.

“Mrs. Skinner asked me four or five times over a three-month period to kill him,” Smith testified. “She told me he knew too much about an undercover drug operation she was involved in, that he running his mouth and needed to be taken out.”

Smith said he learned after the death that she was lying about the undercover operation.

At the time of Skinner’s death, Smith had been evicted for not paying rent and was sleeping in his truck and on the floor of the state Farmers Market Police Department in Forest Park, he said. Although he had a job, Smith was giving nearly all his salary to Allene Skinner.

“She was my wife and I loved her, I was taking care of her,” he said. “I was feeding her, buying her cigarettes and giving her money. After that and paying my bills, I had no money left.”

In reality, Allene Skinner lived a double life, Smith said. He later realized she was staying with friends and Smith during the week and with her legal husband on weekends.

Smith said he was at such a low point in his life that Allene Skinner’s plan to kill Bubba Skinner made sense to him at the time.

“I had never been down so low in my life before,” Smith said. “I thought once he was removed, things might get better because she said she would come into money.”

Bubba Skinner’s sisters cried during Smith’s emotionless description of the night he killed their brother. Allene Skinner displayed no emotion but stared directly at Smith, who testified in a red jumpsuit and shackles, during his entire time on the stand.