By NICOLE LOGGINS / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – Timothy Dane Tillman, former pastor at Vincent Revival Center who was convicted of murder during a 2009 trial, has returned to Shelby County for a retrial.

According to the county circuit court office, the retrial has been set for April 3.

During the 2009 trial, Tillman was serving a life sentence for murder and an additional 10 years for forgery at Fountain Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala. before being transferred to the Shelby County Jail on Feb. 22.

Tillman was convicted of murdering his wife, Janet Lorita Tillman, in the parsonage of the Vincent Revival Center, where the family lived on Oct. 26, 2005.

Trial records show Tillman was carrying two firearms from the trunk of a car to the parsonage when a shogun fired hitting his former wife in the back, killing her.

Tillman was accused of depositing a loan solicitation check sent to Janet Lorita Tillman three months after she died resulting in an additional forgery charge.

According to previous reports, on Sept. 30, 2011, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Tillman was inappropriately tried for both murder and the possession of a forged instrument in a single trial.

The Attorney General’s Office filed a Dec. 27, 2011 petition with the Alabama Supreme Court asking the court to reverse the ruling and argued that the murder and forgery charge should not have been consolidated.