A five-day trial has been scheduled for a Milan man charged with first-degree murder after his wife was found dead in May 2021.
Online court information shows the trial for 21-year-old Edward James Elijah “Eli” Withey is scheduled to begin in Sullivan County on October 31st. A pretrial conference is scheduled for October 11th.
Withey is also charged with the felonies of armed criminal action and abandonment of a corpse.
A probable cause statement says Withey’s wife, Mattie, was found on the floor in the couple’s apartment in the 300 block of North State Street in Milan with an apparent gunshot wound to her face.
Upon Eli Withey’s arrest, law enforcement observed red stains, which appeared to be blood, on the hooded sweatshirt he was wearing.
The probable cause statement notes that officers found a .22 caliber Savage rifle in the bedroom in which Mattie was found as well as a half-pint Ball jar with ammunition in the living room.
