Beth Shelburne

She has short white hair and is dressed in a white blazer and black pants.

After she's sworn in, Violet Ellison says that she knew the victim and followed the details about the murder and investigation by watching the news and reading the newspaper.

But despite all that, and despite the fact that information about the reward was all over the news, she is vehement that she didn't know about the reward.

She testifies that the first time she heard about the reward was after Taforist was sentenced to death in July of 2001, three years after he was convicted.

She says that's when someone from the DA's office contacted her and asked her to come in and sign papers for the reward money.

At the end of this five-hour hearing, Judge Pulliam says she's not going to make a decision that day.

She'll consider all of the evidence and then issue her ruling.

Tafora's mother, Donna, sitting next to me, bursts into tears.

After the hearing, I was going over my notes and noticed a big discrepancy between the state's story and Violet Ellison's testimony about what triggered the reward three years after Taforst was convicted.

In opening statements, the state lawyer said that Violet Ellison asked the DA's office about the reward, but on the stand, Violet said it was the other way around, that they contacted her.

This might seem like a minor detail, but knowing what triggered the reward payment is key in determining whether or not this is a Brady violation.

Who called who first?

How did this payment come about?

So I emailed the attorney general's office for some clarity, and they directly contradicted Violet Ellison's testimony again, writing, three years after the trial, Ellison requested the cash reward that had been offered by the governor.

And since then, Alabama's attorney general completely reversed the state's narrative.

The AG's office now claims that the prosecutor asked for the reward to be paid unbeknownst to Violet Ellison.

But former DA David Barber told me he wouldn't do that, that rewards were triggered by law enforcement or a witness themselves applying for a reward.

And Prosecutor Jeff Wallace said he had nothing to do with rewards.

Everyone I asked gave a different answer, pointing the finger in a different direction.

Nobody wanted to own up to triggering the payment.