An man serving a life prison sentence for killing his supervisor at the Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plant in Athens a decade ago appeared in Superior Court on Wednesday to ask for a new trial.

Nathaniel Brittian, 62, was convicted of murder for the 2004 shooting death of 52-year-old Christopher McDuffie in what was described at his trial as an "execution" because of the relationship both married men had with another employee at the Barber Street plant.

Brittian claimed in motions that he deserved a new trial because of judicial error and ineffective assistance of counsel.

Among other things, according to the motion, Judge Steve Jones erred by not swearing in a witness until after the witness testified and allowing testimonial evidence about previous threats Brittian had made toward McDuffie without giving McDuffie prior notice that the evidence would be allowed at trial. The motion notes that McDuffie's defense attorney provided ineffective assistance by failing to reject certain jurors during the jury selection process and for not objecting to hearsay evidence admitted in the trial.

Brittian appeared Wednesday before Western Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard with a new attorney, who argued for a new trial.

Haggard indicated he would rule on the motion at a later date.
During the trial, prosecutors said that on Nov. 2, 2004, McDuffie was sitting in the scale room of at Pilgrim's Pride poultry when Brittian came in, armed with a loaded Glock 9mm semiautomatic handgun, plus a magazine with an additional 17 rounds, under his work smock. After shooting McDuffie once in the temple, Brittian was said to have fired six more times.

District Attorney Ken Mauldin told jurors during the 2005 trial that McDuffie was already slumped in a chair in the scale room when Brittian pressed the gun's barrel to his chest and fired three of those six shots. After he killed McDuffie, Brittian told fellow employees, "I'm not crazy. I'm not going to kill anybody else," and removed the magazine from his pistol and handed it to another worker, Mauldin said.

The prosecutor called on the judge to give Brittian the maximum sentence because Brittian killed McDuffie in what amounted to a premeditated execution.

"He planned it, he talked about it and he carried it out," Mauldin said.

Judge Jones gave Brittian the maximum penalty of life plus five years in prison.
