A Cobb County businessman, serving a life prison sentence for killing a trespasser, might soon be free.

A Baldwin County judge has granted the habeas appeal of John McNeil.  The state attorney general's office has 30 days to appeal the ruling.  If they do not, McNeil will be released.

The case stems from an incident in December, 2005, at McNeil's Kennesaw home.

McNeil received a call from his teenage son who told him that a man, he did not know, was in their backyard.  When the boy went outside and asked the man to leave, Brian Epp, according to the son, pulled out a knife, waved it in his face and said, "Try and make me leave."

John McNeil heard Epp's voice and recognized it as the man he had hired to do work on his house.  When that work was not up to quality, Epp was fired by McNeil and told not to return to his property.

When McNeil heard Epp over the phone he told his son to go into the house and that he was heading home.  McNeil then called 911.

According to witnesses who saw the events, when McNeil pulled into his driveway, Epp was sitting in his truck in the driveway next door.  Witnesses saw Epp put his hand into his right pocket, and walk onto McNeil's property. 

McNeil got his gun from his car's glove compartment, loaded it, and told Epp to leave.  When Epp kept approaching, McNeil backed up, and then fired a warning shot into the ground. Witnesses say Epp then "accelerated" toward McNeil, who fired a shot, killing Epp.

Police arrived minutes later and found Epp lying dead.  They found a utility knife in Epp's right pocket.

Cobb County police investigated the incident and ruled it self-defense. 

But, 274 days after the shooting, the Cobb District Attorney filed murder charges against McNeil. 

At McNeil's trial, the lead detective testified for the defense, saying there was no case against McNeil.  A couple testified that they, too, had fired Epp from a job and he became so violent that they bought a gun "as a precaution."

McNeil was convicted of felony murder in 2006 and sentenced to life in prison.

The case was appealed to the Baldwin County courts because the prison that housed McNeil at the time of the appeal is in Baldwin.

The NAACP has taken on McNeil's case, claiming the trial was unfair because John McNeil is black and Brian Epp was white.