Mobile man convicted of fatal stabbing, but authorities have no idea of motive
In letters to judge, defendant referred to himself as ‘Aten Sun God of Atenism’
MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - A jury on Wednesday convicted a man of injuring his uncle and fatally stabbing another man, but prosecutors say they still are at a loss for why he did it.
The Mobile County Circuit Court jury found Rodney Finklea guilty of murder. Prosecutors also had sought an attempted murder conviction for the stabbing of the defendant’s uncle, but the jury opted for the less alterative of first-degree assault.
Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Coy Morgan said that although prosecutors are confident the evidence correctly pointed to Finklea’s guilt, they cannot explain what sparked the violence.
“It’s an odd case,” he told FOX10 News. “We don’t have a motive.”
According to testimony, police responded in March 2020 to the 1600 block of Katye Street in Trinity Gardens, where Finklea lived with is uncle. Officers found two stabbing victims, including 38-year-old Kalvin Matthews, who was dead on the kitchen floor.
Finklea, 53, initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defense. In handwritten letters to the judge, he refers to himself as “Aten the Aten Sun God of Atenism.” In those letters, he denied the allegations.
“Rodney Finklea NKA: Aten. The Aten Sun God of Atenism harm in this case and suppression; of: The United Nations $13 Trillion Dollar Medical Bill, alone is insufficient to prvovied a full remedy of the consequences of the due process violation,” he wrote in one letter in January.
In a letter a few days later, Finklea asked the judge to “grant my $13 Trillion Dollar request due to my unability to promote Atenism during my incarceration of almost 3 years.”
Initially, Finklea’s lawyers sought a verdict of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. But they withdrew that plea after a psychiatric evaluation indicated that Finklea was both competent to stand trial and sane at the time of the offense.
Then in October, the defense asked a judge to dismiss the charge on grounds that prosecutors took 15 months to inform the attorneys about a cell phone found at the scene. Prosecutors contended that it was an honest mistake and that the phone, which belonged to one for the victims, didn’t have any relevant information.
Morgan said Finklea told police he had worked at a Mardi Gras barn on the day of the stabbing, went to a party and then went fishing at Three Mile Creek. He said there was a trail of blood matching Finklea’s DNA from the house to a park and down a dirt road.
“He had no explanation for how that blood got there,” Morgan said. “He said he cut his finger fishing. There’s no fishing pole; there’s no glass. He said to cut it on a piece of glass. He provided no explanation whatsoever for how that blood trail got there.”
Ordinarily, Finklea would face a sentence of 10 years to life in prison. But with four prior felony convictions in the Washington, D.C., area, a life prison sentence is mandatory. The only question before Mobile County Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Youngpeter is if that prison term will be with or without possibility of parole.
Morgan cited the “ssinisterness of this act,” as reason for recommending the more severe option.
“I mean, this is a unprovoked stabbing in the back of someone, of two people,” he said. “It just is, in our eyes, a very sinister crime, and we see life without parole as being the only just sentence.”
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