“MR. ‘X’ “ KILLER GOES TO TRIAL

Killer Targeted Victim, Left Calling Card on Body

Atlanta- Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr. announces the start of trial in the murder case against Michael Harvey, 49. Harvey is charged with Murder, Felony Murder (three counts) Rape, Aggravated Sodomy and Aggravated Assault in the 1994 strangulation death and rape of 39-year old Valerie Payton.

Payton’s nude body was discovered at the corner of Wylie and Flat Shoals Avenue in Southeast Atlanta on October 19, 1994. She was strangled, sexually assaulted and her body carved post-mortem with a note saying, “I’m back Atlanta, Mr. X.” Ms. Payton was killed during the height of several unsolved murders targeting Atlanta prostitutes in the early ‘90’s. Her case went unsolved for more than a decade until there was a CODIS DNA hit linking Michael Harvey to the crime in 2005.

Jury selection in State vs. Michael Harvey is scheduled to begin at 9:30 on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 in Fulton County Superior Court with Judge Constance Russell presiding.

Media Contact: Yvette Brown, 404-224-0560/404-392-8867, yvette.brown@fultoncountyga.gov