A more than decade old murder case in west Alabama has been cleared. 30-year-old Wendell Graham has pleaded guilty to the 1996 murder of Monroe Aust.

Investigators say Aust died after being brutally beaten at the Last Chance convenience store, which he owned, in Geiger.

Sheriff Johnny Hatter said there is a good reason why it has taken so long to get to this point.

"It was a slow go. In the neighborhood, the neighbors there were scared to testify," said Hatter. "They had been threatened by what would happen to them and they had been threatened that they would use voodoo on them if they testified and tell what happened. And it took us a long time to build this case, a little bit at a time."

For the guilty plea, Graham has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.