The heat is climbing around Mobile Bay. May is past half-done and the summer has set in for good. The daily highs are in the mid-90s with 7-degree heat indices from the steamy air, a stifling brutal thing that can wring the life from all it touches. 

A season normally marked by an exodus to the water is now wracked with caution and fear. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill hovers. Anger builds, toward BP, toward the federal government, any direction it can flow. In a morbid trance, the culture sleepwalks through its annual patterns.

And amidst the tension of the unprecedented environmental disaster, flames are licking at Mobile County Commissioner Stephen Nodine as he ends the second week of a saga that has found him facing ethics, drug and murder charges on both sides of the bay.

Our last installment discussed Nodine’s surrender to authorities on drug charges, the progression toward impeachment of his elected office and his being named as the “one and only suspect” in the shooting death of Angela “Angel” Downs.

When it was revealed that Baldwin County investigators did no gun shot residue (GSR) tests on Nodine, public outrage rose.

I spoke with Andalusia, Ala. Chief of Police Wilbur Williams, a veteran of nearly four decades of law enforcement who left his 27-year career in the Azalea City while Chief of Detectives. He explained that the state labs don’t use it anymore due to its unreliability.

“They kind of rate it with junk science,” Williams said. “You can transfer it too easily. I could fire a weapon, shake hands with you and you have residue even though you’ve haven’t ever fired one.”

The chief also said the announcement from Baldwin County District Attorney Judy Newcomb conclusively tagging the death as a murder is entirely possible. Powder burns are highly indicative evidence when factored with the tension in “trigger pull.”

“The distance fired will be the key,” Williams repeatedly stressed.

Also that afternoon, an Internet posting from locally famous investigative reporter Eddie Curran painted a portrait of the Stephen Nodine that was apparent to anyone who entered his haunts on the western end of the downtown entertainment district. Seamy, delusional, arrogant and reckless was the sketch.

By mid-week, it was announced Nodine had dropped Matt Green as counsel and retained Dennis Knizley and John Williams. Knizley is known for not only defending DUIs but earning a few for himself. Williams is a Nodine “running buddy,” someone often found with the commissioner on escapades.

Friends and family of Angel Downs convened at the beach in Gulf Shores on Tuesday to remember and revere the slain 45-year-old realtor. It proceeded as planned, with friends together under a leaden sky and gathering winds. They pondered and prayed, the desolate beach fitting for the pensive mood. Media said family was in attendance but they chose to melt into the backdrop.

On Wednesday morning, Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson drove beneath the live oaks arching over Dauphin Street to a church in a lush neighborhood of historical homes. He was bound for a prayer breakfast, a weekly meeting of 200 or more of the city’s most influential men at a Methodist church.

While at the gathering – Outback they called it – Tyson spied Nodine there for the first time. After a motivational speaker finished, the leader asked Tyson if he would stand and pray for Nodine.

Tyson could hardly refuse without looking like he was defying the group’s ostensible precept of the leaving the secular outside.

The accused commissioner, the man under the gun, came forward.

The district attorney, the man pulling that trigger, bowed his head.

Together the adversaries closed their eyes.

Around 100 men came forward and “laid hands” on Nodine during the prayer. Some say tears flowed. Lips fluttered. Minds reeled.

The Baldwin County DA released reports that afternoon detailing the affidavits, lists and warrants for searches on Downs’ apartment and Nodine’s truck. Items taken from her place included a couple of cell phones (including a smart phone), a couple of laptops, a camera and some letters including a seven-page missive taken from her nightstand.

The evidence taken from Nodine’s truck included a Hilton hotel key card, some receipts, a shirt and swim trunks. Also included were nine swabs from the interior and some on the outside spurred by discovery of stains “consistent with blood.”

In the truck’s bed were a pair of spent shell casings from a .40 caliber handgun, presumably the weapon issued the commissioner by the county.

Thursday morning found Nodine in court, attended by his new lawyers. Nodine and Williams arrived 20 minutes early and gradually welcomed visiting defense attorneys and wishes of fortune.

Formal matters were brief. Written pleas denying all charges were accepted and it was over in less than ten minutes.

One determined and well-groomed man seemed to bear a vendetta for the commissioner, glaring at him from the first row of the gallery. He told media that he wanted to be “where he (Nodine) can see my face when he turns around.”

As the hearing ended and the defense team sought a rear chamber for quick counsel, Mr. First Row stood.

“Why don’t you face it like a man, Steve?” First Row barked clearly.

He repeated it for investigators afterward. They talked with him briefly then handed him business cards.

“You’ll hear more from me during the trial,” he told reporters before clamming up.

Trial is set to begin June 8.

Nodine’s attorneys are unsure of a course. “The state has chosen to file criminal actions against him as well as an impeachment action against him at the same time,” Knizley said. “It puts him in a precarious position of having to weigh his constitutional right not to testify against his ability to defend himself by waiving that right in an impeachment proceeding.”

Speak up to defend the impeachment and what Nodine said could be used in the murder trial. Knizley also said a decision on possible resignation couldn’t come until they were further into the process.

It was known through a lot of Mobile circles that Nodine was friends with attorney Mark Erwin. The commissioner had steered business Erwin’s way, sending a quarter million dollars of it into Erwin-associated shops. They were both local GOP heavies, Erwin having been its chair at one point.

Mark Erwin entered the 2010 race for Mobile County DA after Tyson received flack from various quarters. Tyson bowed out of a future bid and longtime assistant prosecutor Ashley Rich stepped in. The fight for the slot was tight and fierce.

Then Erwin’s name began to crop up in recent discussion of Nodine. His race seemed weakened.

The last part of the week saw Erwin come forward and answer media questions about his relationship with Nodine, denying anything much more than a professional relationship with the commissioner. He said he knew nothing of Angel Downs. He said he wasn’t a Nodine social regular. 

Cell phone records show Nodine called Erwin on the night of the murder, when he was sitting in the bar of a Baldwin County restaurant not long after the time of Downs' death. 

Erwin said commission personnel were worried about Nodine when he failed to make the May 10 meeting, the day after Downs’ death. Rumors were swirling about the commissioner’s involvement in the slaying. Erwin said Nodine sent a 9 a.m. text message for county attorneys Jay Ross and Mark Erwin to come to the Nodine household immediately.

Upon arrival, they found the commissioner in an erratic emotional state, vacillating from sobbing to catatonia. The teenaged son was gone and the wife also distraught.

Erwin asked if there were guns in the house. The Downs death and Nodine’s questioning by authorities were common knowledge. Then this man who wants to be district attorney took weapons that could be part of a crime – a pair of handguns and some rifles – from the house and gave them to then-Nodine attorney Matt Green. It was said he then delivered them to Baldwin County authorities.

When asked if he thought of the fact he might be tampering with evidence, Erwin portrayed the situation as being too dire for such concerns. If Nodine was the basket case Erwin claims, why then didn’t they seek help for him?

At best, Erwin showed a lack of foresight or deliberation. At worst, he was operating in a conspiracy.

 Mobile DA Tyson said on Friday they have over three dozen witnesses for the impeachment prosecution at this point. More could be supplemented.

 Baldwin County authorities are wrapping up their case for the grand jury presentation on Monday, May 24. Tentative deadline for investigative reports was Saturday afternoon. Sheriff Huey Mack has described their evidence as “voluminous” which includes possible footage of the crime from surveillance cameras once thought to have been on the blink.

I’ve yet to see a case that moves a news cycle like this one has. Developments have surfaced several times a day for two weeks now and interest has only heightened.

Word among reporters at the courthouse is that several instances of public abuse were squelched, some by the commissioner, some by the mistress. But there's still the matter of supposed photos of the abuse. The details of the impeachment case cite physical abuse that ended in "medical treatment." 

And Erwin? He’s one in a coterie of known Nodine cronies. While he might not have gallivanted with the same gusto as the outrageous commissioner, he certainly reaped the benefits of the friendship. Nodine smoothed the way for almost a million dollars of business to slide Erwin’s way.

Scuttlebutt from other sources claim Nodine is likely to resign. Impeachment is a civil matter in which the commissioner can be compelled to take the stand, testimony that, once on record, could be used against him in the murder trial. The only way to avoid it would be abdication.

But there's no way to abdicate murder charges. All you can do is try and handle the heat.