By CASSANDRA MICKENS / Associate Editor

COLUMBIANA — The cases of two men charged with murder in the shooting death of a Calera man last month will be heard by a grand jury.

Jessy Charles Hoyt, 24, of Calera, and Russell Ray Thomas, 32, of Helena appeared in Shelby County District Court for their respective preliminary hearings Dec. 18.

According to court documents, Shelby County District Court Judge Dan Reeves bound their cases over to the next available grand jury session.

Hoyt and Thomas are each being held on $1 million bond in the Shelby County Jail. The men allegedly shot and killed 46-year-old James Edward Sherwood of Calera Nov. 22.

Sherwood’s body was discovered shortly before 10 a.m. Nov. 24 by a man walking in an underdeveloped, wooded area off Elvira Road, or Shelby County 269, in Hoover. Hoover police spokesman Capt. Jim Coker said in a news release Nov. 26 that the homicide occurred at a residence in Calera, and Sherwood’s body was disposed in Hoover.