Man found guilty in murder of roommate

BAY MINETTE, Ala. (WALA) - UPDATE: Shaun Carmadelle was found guilty of capital murder in the death of his roommate, Steven McCullough. The state agreed to drop the death penalty in return for life without parole and no appeal.

Arguments over a key piece of evidence have put a Baldwin County murder trial on hold. Shaun Robert Carmadelle is accused of choking his Daphne roommate Steven McCullough with an electrical cord last year. Wednesday in court, a taped confession made to police became a point of contention.　

DAPHNE MURDER

 Shaun Robert Carmadelle is on trial In Bay Minette charged with a horrendous crime. Daphne Police say he was on crack cocaine last February when he strangled his roommate, Steven McCullough, with an electrical cord. Police then say he stole McCullough's car and money before heading to Mobile to buy more drugs.

Carmadelle's week-long trial for capital murder was on its way to wrapping up Wednesday afternoon when a major piece of evidence, a taped confession to police, became hotly contested. 

Carmadelle's defense attorney, Pascal Bruijn said, "It's a key piece of evidence that we were able to keep out and now they're trying to get it back in and the judge is considering getting it back in."

 AUDIO EVIDENCE CREATES DELAY

 The confession, presented by prosecutors, was a shortened version played from a hard drive. The original, which the defense hasn't been able to review, is on hours of DVDs. The prosecution and the defense spent much of the day arguing over the admissibility of that audio evidence. Eventually Judge Langford Floyd suspended the trial and gave the defense until tomorrow morning to review the hard copy of the police interview.

 "We'll have to review the original tapes now and make our appropriate objections," Bruijn said.

 Once that's dealt with, closing arguments can get underway and the jury will get their chance to decide Carmadelle's guilt or innocence.

 TRIAL CONTINUES TOMORROW

 We will be following the Carmadelle trial Thursday and we'll let you know how it turns out.