Three people have been indicted in the death of a 43-year-old man who was stripped, bound, and tortured before he was fatally gunned down outside an east Birmingham home two days before Christmas 2023.

A Jefferson County grand jury on July 19 issued the indictments against Dustin Harry Stanfield, 43, of Hoover, Joshua Corey Guthrie, 33, of Fairfield and Brittany Patterson, 34, of northern Jefferson County. The indictments were made public this week.

They are charged with capital murder in the death of David Nicholas. Nicholas’s girlfriend was also stripped, beaten, and held against her will for roughly 12 hours after watching Nicholas die.

Nicholas’s girlfriend was the ex-girlfriend of Stanfield. She was rescued by police in the parking lot of Walmart in Leeds.

They are also charged with kidnapping in the girlfriend’s abduction.

All three suspects remain held without bond in the Jefferson County Jail.

The trio earlier this year went before a judge for preliminary hearing.

Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Shawn Allen is prosecuting.

Standfield is represented by attorney Bret Gray, Guthrie by attorney Chris Daniel, and Patterson by attorney Jeffery Dummier.

Birmingham police homicide Det. Nicholas Clark was the lone witness in the hearing and described an ordeal that sounded like a made-for-TV movie.

Birmingham 911 received call at 11:58 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23, from a resident of Lake Lane N.E. who reported that she had heard several gunshots.

The caller said a man with his hands bound behind his back had been injured and was in her carport area. She tried unsuccessfully to remove Nicholas’s restraints.

The caller said Nicholas was asking for help. He also asked the woman to call his estranged wife and he spoke with her over speaker phone.

The wife asked Nicholas if “Dustin had shot him,’’ the detective testified. The dying victim told her he had, and that he had his girlfriend.

Nicholas was pronounced dead at 12:53 a.m.

The detective said Nicholas had been bound with black tape and some kind of strap.

The detective then explained what led up to the shooting.

Nicholas and Nicholas’s girlfriend had been staying at a house next door to the woman who called 911.

There were multiple people at the home that night and three of them had left to go to the store. When they returned, Patterson told them, ‘’We have a surprise for you inside.”

Nicholas’s girlfriend had been asleep in a bedroom. Stanfield, according to testimony, went into the room with a gun.

Another man who had dozed off in a chair while watching a movie was forced by Patterson to strip, and she bound him, Clark testified. A fourth person at the home was also bound.

Witnesses told police they could hear a “commotion” coming from the bedroom where Stanfield was with Nicholas’s girlfriend.

When they emerged from the bedroom, the witness told police, Nicholas’s girlfriend was also naked and covered in a red substance that was later deemed to be some kind of cleaning chemical.

Clark testified that Stanfield then ordered Nicholas to kneel and bite a filing cabinet and told Patterson to kick Nicholas in the back of his head and stick the knife in his buttocks.

Patterson kneeled behind Nicholas and witnesses heard him scream but did not see what she did with the knife.

Testimony showed that Patterson led Nicholas’s girlfriend and Nicholas outside to a car, where the trunk was open.

When Nicholas realized he was about to be put in the trunk, he began to resist and started to run away, and that’s when Stanfield fired multiple shots at him.

Nicholas was struck three times. An autopsy later showed Nicholas also had sustained numerous cuts and bruises.

Nicholas’s girlfriend had already been put in the car. The other two men were being led out to the car when the shooting began. Patterson was distracted by the gunfire, and they were able to get away from her.

They told the detective they “knew if they in the car they were likely to be killed,’’ Clark testified.

Those who were able to get away fled the scene.

Nicholas’s girlfriend was taken to a home where Patterson had been staying. Stanfield and Guthrie also were there.

Once there, she was led to a bathroom and told shower, but couldn’t do so because the chemical poured on her began to burn when it came in contact with the water.

Stanfield tried to get her to eat some food, testimony showed, and she again tried to shower.

Police quickly got a description of their vehicle and issued a lookout bulletin.

Hoover police Sunday morning got a “hit” on a license plate reader, and notified Leeds police that the vehicle was apparently heading that way.

Leeds police found the vehicle Sunday morning at the Walmart Leeds, with Guthrie and Nicholas’s girlfriend inside. Guthrie was taken into custody.

Nicholas’s girlfriend, the detective said, was still unclothed but had found an Amazon jacket to drape over her shoulders. Officers went into Walmart and bought her some clothes.

Stanfield was not found at that time, but Clark said it’s possible he was inside Walmart when police descended on the vehicle and fled. They are awaiting footage from the store.

Stanfield was taken into custody the following day.

Clark said police immediately interviewed Nicholas’s girlfriend, who he said, “Couldn’t remember much.”

She was then taken to the hospital where she was treated for her injuries, which included a concussion. Investigators later interviewed her again.

Patterson was taken into custody a week later in Woodlawn.

A trial date has not yet been set.