Man who murdered 92-year-old Montgomery woman gets 2 life sentences

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The man accused of brutally killing an elderly woman during a home invasion in 2017 has been found guilty and is going to prison.

A Montgomery County jury convicted Rodney McQueen, 33, on two counts of capital murder. The separate counts were for a killing during a burglary and a robbery. Circuit Judge J.R. Gaines sentenced him to life in prison without parole on both counts.

Mary Lou Gedel, a well-known and active member of the local senior community, was murdered in her home on Sept. 28, 2017. Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said the evidence proved McQueen broke into the 92-year-old’s home that night to steal from her so he could trade the stolen items for crack cocaine.

“He attacked and tortured Ms. Gedel, using a brass lamp to break multiple bones in her face, including her jaw in two places, and even going so far as to crush her voice box. McQueen also savagely ravaged the side of Ms. Gedel’s face with a beer bottle he brought into her home and sliced her ear off,” Bailey said in a news release.

Her German shepherd, Ollie-Lin, had to be put down after the killing due to its condition.

Rodney McQueen was convicted of two counts of capital murder for the killing of Mary Lou Gedel.(Source: Montgomery County Detention Facility)

Gedel was an active member of the Montgomery Area Council on Aging and her church. Bailey said her friends and associates expressed their appreciation to his office on the trial work.

“It breaks my heart to know that Ms. Mary Lou Gedel, a vibrant, active woman who selflessly helped her fellow seniors and other Montgomery County citizens in need, experienced such unfathomable atrocities during her last moments on this earth. The level of brutality inflicted upon her was senseless and heinously cruel. Rodney McQueen will spend the rest of his life behind bars, but he deserves to be put to death. Unfortunately, the current state of the law would not allow my Office to seek the death penalty,” Bailey said.

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