By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – A Columbiana man facing a capital murder charge for 18-year-old Haleigh Green’s death has filed a request to bar the death penalty in the case.

In a motion submitted by his attorneys in late January, Demarcus Means, 20, requests for the death penalty to be barred “because Alabama’s death penalty scheme is unconstitutional under Hurst versus Florida,” and “on the grounds that the current Alabama statute requiring the judge, and not the jury, to make the ultimate factual findings necessary to impose a death sentence,” according to court documents.

Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Dan Reeves denied Means’ youthful offender application filed in September 2015 after hearing arguments and testimony in a closed hearing lasting nearly 30 minutes Dec. 16, 2015.

During his arraignment, Means pleaded not guilty to the capital murder charge.

After discovery is completed, the case will be ready for trial, Reeves said.

According to his indictment, Means allegedly “did on or about July 5, 2015, intentionally cause the death of another person … Haleigh Green, by or through the use of a deadly weapon … shooting her with a gun, which was fired or otherwise used within or from a vehicle.”

In August, a murder charge against Means was upgraded to capital murder, which carries the possibility of the death penalty upon conviction.

Motions for change of venue and appointing additional counsel for Means also were filed in September 2015.

A motion for change of venue cited “extensive publicity” and media coverage of the crime as grounds for the change.

On Oct. 1, 2015, a motion to appoint additional counsel for Means was filed in circuit court.

Means is being held in the St. Clair County Jail on no bond.