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Obscuregawdess
 Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:01 pm |
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CA3/15/94 Defense to challenge boy (Aaron)
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2696
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
March 15, 1994, Tuesday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 8A,
LENGTH: 571 words
HEADLINE: Defense planned to challenge boy on stand
BYLINE: By Marc Perrusquia, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
Defense attorneys planned to question the credibility of a young
boy who told police he witnessed satanic activities connected to the
murders of three classmates, transcripts of jury selection show.
The prosecution has not called 8-year-old Aaron Hutcheson to
testify during the triple-murder trial of Damien Wayne Echols and
Charles Jason Baldwin. Yet defense attorneys made it known early on
that they would scrutinize his testimony.
The transcripts also show defense attorneys feared widespread
publicity in the case, while prosecutors screened potential jurors for
their ability to look at graphic photographs of the murdered children.
Lawyers for The Commercial Appeal obtained the transcripts after
the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled a judge had erred when he excluded
the public and press from jury selection in the trial of Echols, 19,
and Baldwin, 16.
The Supreme Court ruled two weeks ago that Circuit Judge David
Burnett exceeded his authority in ordering the closed-door questioning
of prospective jurors. The Commercial Appeal obtained tape-recordings
of the questioning, and recently completed transcribing the tapes.
Echols and Baldwin are accused of murdering 8-year-olds Steve
Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore last May. The defense
rested Monday, and the judge expects the case to go to the jury
Wednesday.
During jury selection, Echols's attorneys repeatedly asked
potential jurors if they could fairly assess the credibility of a
child who ''may testify in this case,'' transcripts show.
''If a child testifies, could you judge the credibility of that
child just as you would anybody else?'' attorney Scott Davidson asked
prosective jurors at one point, later adding: ''And do you agree with
me that using . . . common sense that children can be persuaded and
exaggerate and embellish from time to time?''
A prospective female juror answered: ''Over the course of time,
they can be made to say what you want them to say.''
The questioning may provide insight into why the prosecution has
not called Aaron, who could still be called as a rebuttal witness.
Aaron and his mother, Victoria Hutcheson, 30, played key roles in
a police investigation of the murders last year, but credibility
questions have surfaced.
A police detective testified last week that Aaron had seen five
people with two of the victims ''and saw what he described as satanic
activities.'' Police have said the boy identified all three
defendants, leading to widespread speculation he may have witnessed
the murders.
A police tape-recording of Aaron's voice saying ''Nobody knows
what happened but me'' sparked a confession from Jessie Misskelley
Jr., leading to the arrests June 3 of him, Echols and Baldwin.
Misskelley, 18, received life plus 40 years last month after a jury
convicted him in the slayings.
Yet Aaron has told several versions of his story to police,
sources said.
Defense and prosecution attorneys had argued against opening jury
questioning to the public, saying the nature of the case required them
to ask sensitive questions about sexual abuse and child molestation.
Several hundred pages of transcripts revealed one instance related to
abuse, in which a potential juror said she once was sexually abused by
a cousin.
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:02 pm |
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CA3/13/94 Tempers kept in check at trial
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
March 13, 1994, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO, Pg. 1B,
LENGTH: 794 words
HEADLINE: Tempers kept in check at Ark. slaying trial
BYLINE: By Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
The second full week in the capital murder trial of Damien Wayne
Echols and Charles Jason Baldwin produced plenty of tension and raised
voices as one victim's father and one defendant took the witness
stand.
Circuit Judge David Burnett has held most of the high feelings in
check with a mix of wit and stern asides. But he's not averse to
pulling the leg of a reporter or two. In the room set aside for the
scribblers last week, he asked, ''Did you see (co-defendant Jessie
Lloyd) Misskelley downstairs?''
Misskelley was not in the building.
The trial may end this week but reporters groaned when a schedule
of pool camera technicians was posted last week that goes through the
end of the month.
Day 10 starts Monday. 'Subtle' calls
Burnett's parenthetical remark that there is a ''subtle difference
between Wiccans and the occult, but what it is, I couldn't tell you''
produced several calls to this newspaper from practitioners of the
goddess-based Wicca creed.
Burnett also received a faxed invitation at the Craighead County
Courthouse from a Wiccan in Washington state, offering to provide an
explanation of what some refer to as ''white witchcraft.'' All he
wanted was airfare.
A Wiccan is a witch. A judge's knife
Two knives a commando-type survivalist's knife and a folding
knife have been introduced as evidence and sit a few feet from the
jury at the court reporter's desk.
During Monday's testimony by Lisa Sakevicius of the Arkansas State
Crime Lab, Baldwin's lawyer, Paul N. Ford, asked to see the microscope
slides on which clothing fibers were mounted to make a comparison with
fibers found at the crime scene. Try as she might, Sakevicius couldn't
get a box containing the slides open.
''Does anyone have a knife?'' she asked to an uneasy silence.
Finally, Burnett offered his. Defining 'occult'
The state decided early in the week that, with little physical
evidence, it might have to emphasize motive if it wants a conviction.
Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman said the state will attempt to
establish that Echols is involved in the occult.
Burnett asked for a definition.
''Can anybody define 'occult?' It sounds like something bad, but
I'm not sure what it is,'' he said.
According to The Random House Unabridged Dictionary: Occult, as a
noun, is ''the supernatural or supernatural agencies and affairs
considered as a whole (usually preceded by the).'' Looking it up
Dictionaries and encyclopedias got thumbed several times in
testimony last week as witnesses began to talk of ligatures,
pentagrams, the Egyptian ankh symbol, Beltane and Walpurgisnacht,
glyphs, upside-down crosses, blood sacrifices, the Ordo Templi
Orientis and the goat-headed figure Baphomet. What's this for?
In a book of potions, incantations and prayers Echols wrote in a
funeral home visitors book, there is a love charm, a cure for worms, a
few key words for improving your chances of success, a text from The
Gospel of the Witches and a ''sacrifice addressed to Hecate . . .
goddess of the crossroads.''
In the Hecate prayer, the goddess is referred to as ''you who
rejoice to hear the barking of dogs and see the blood flow, you who
wander among tombs in the hours of darkness, thirsty for blood.''
The only really practical spell seemed to be the one for improving
the memory, but for it you'll need ''the heart, eye or brain of a
lapwing or plover.'' When you've found one of them, it says, you hang
it around your neck. Not by the book
A search of Echols's trailer home in June produced the book Never
on a Broomstick. Echols's lawyers said the jury should not just look
at the cover of the book and reach a possibly prejudicial conclusion.
They said they might want to have the whole book read into the record.
''I think that would fall under the area of a filibuster,'' said
Burnett. 'Safe' Metallica
The heavy metal band Metallica got a left-handed compliment from
defense witness Robert D. Hicks, author of In Pursuit of Satan: The
Police and The Occult, on Friday. He said the music ''does not cause
the kind of harm that's sometimes imputed to it.'' Lunar objection
The moon was full on May 5, the day the boys disappeared. There
really is no question about it, except as a legal issue. Baldwin's
attorneys objected when state prosecutors asked to put a copy of a
newspaper weather page, showing sunrise and sunset and moon phases,
into the hands of jurors.
Asked Burnett: So are we going to agree the moon was up, or not?
Ford: No, your honor.
Burnett: Objection sustained.
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2764
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:02 pm |
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CA3/8/94 Prosecutors seek to link occult in deaths
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2766
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
March 8, 1994, Tuesday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 1A,
LENGTH: 1548 words
HEADLINE: Prosecutors seek to link occult in 3 boys' deaths
BYLINE: By Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
Prosecutors said Monday they will attempt to prove that the West
Memphis triple-murder case was an occult killing, and they presented
evidence that Damien Wayne Echols is a Wiccan with a pentagram tattoo
on his chest.
West Memphis Police Detective Bryn Ridge testified outside the
presence of the jury that signs at the crime scene and his own
research indicated the murders were the work of a satanic cult.
The fifth day of testimony in the capital murder trial of Echols
and Charles Jason Baldwin saw Echols himself take the stand briefly to
testify he asked three times for a lawyer while being questioned four
days after the 8-year-olds' bodies were found.
West Memphis second-graders Steve Branch, Michael Moore and
Christopher Byers were found dead, hogtied, and thrown into a watery
ditch on May 6. Byers was sexually mutilated.
Ridge testified that his readings on occult crime indicated that
there were ''several indications'' at the crime scene of a link to the
occult.
''Early on in the investigation, elements were there that pointed
to an occult killing,'' Ridge said.
Among the indications, Ridge said, were that the boys were the
victims of ''overkill''; one boy's penis ''a symbol of power'' was
removed but never recovered; that they were thrown into water, which
has ''satanic symbolism;'' and that the victims' stab wounds fit a
pattern and may have been produced for ''bloodletting.''
Ridge also said an 8-year-old possible eyewitness, Aaron
Hutcheson, had seen five people with two of the victims ''and saw what
he described as satanic activities.''
A witness last week said Baldwin told him he sucked the blood from
one victim after mutilating him.
Circuit Judge David Burnett said he will not allow the jury to
hear Ridge's conclusions, which at one point he labeled ''garbage.''
At one point, thunder from a passing storm shook the courtroom,
adding unneeded dramatic effect to Ridge's testimony that a tree at
the crime scene was marked with the letters ''ME.''
Prosecutors today are expected to present a former Ohio police
officer and expert in the occult.
With the jury present, Ridge read from a ''subject description
form'' filled out during a May 10 interview with Echols. The form
indicated Echols is a member of the Wiccan religion of witches, that
he has a tattoo of a pentagram on his chest and another of an Egyptian
ankh.
Pentagrams, according to The Encyclopedia of Witches and
Witchcraft, are the most important symbols in witchcraft. The ankh, or
looped cross, is the Egyptian symbol of life, the universe and
immortality.
Echols was asked about the murders beginning at 11:54 a.m. on May
10, Ridge said. In the course of the questioning, he told Ridge and
Lt. James Sudbury that he imagined the murders were a ''thrill kill,''
and noted that ''the penis was a symbol of power in his religion,
known as Wicca.''
Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman asked Ridge a series of
questions from notes he took during the interview.
Fogleman: ''Did he say anything about the fact the children were
young?''
Ridge: ''He said the younger the children, the more innocent they
would be; in turn, the more innocent that person would be, the more
power would be derived by that killing.''
Later, Fogleman asked if Echols had commented on the screaming
such murders would have created, and Echols allegedly told him, ''they
probably wanted to hear it the person doing the murder.''
'' 'The person who did the murder probably thinks it's funny,' ''
Ridge continued, reading from his interview notes. '' '(He) didn't
care if he got caught, and probably wouldn't get caught.' ''
Echols also told Ridge during that first interview that his
favorite author was Anton LeVey, author of The Satanic Bible and that
he liked Stephen King novels ''because they're scary.''
Baldwin's lawyers, Paul N. Ford and George Robin Wadley Jr.,
objected to any testimony from Ridge about occult activities and asked
Burnett to heed a ruling he made in a pretrial hearing in Osceola last
month that references to the the occult and satanism would first be
explored in a hearing outside the presence of the jury.
The jury heard about Echols's tattoos and Echols's alleged views
that the murders were a ''thrill kill,'' that three is ''sacred'' in
Wiccan religion and that the penis is a symbol of power. It also heard
that Ridge felt early on that there was a possibility the murders were
related to the occult, but did not hear why he thought so.
Echols's lawyers, Val P. Price and Scott Davidson, on the other
hand, sought to elicit testimony about an occult motivation for the
crime, which they say they can refute.
Outside the jury's presence, Burnett asked Fogleman whether the
state would attempt to prove a motive and whether that motive would
involve the occult.
''I believe we haven't made a final, firm decision, but I'd say at
this time, yes,'' Fogleman said.
Monday's testimony and arguments outside the jury's hearing
produced a series of revelations and showed that the two defense teams
have sharply divergent attitudes toward evidence of the occult.
Baldwin's lawyers renewed a request to separate the trials again
Monday and asked Burnett to remind jurors that testimony about
Echols's beliefs pertain only to Echols.
Echols's lawyers introduced an affidavit for a search of Echols's
Crittenden County Library records that showed a municipal judge was
told ''the murders appear to be related to occult beliefs or
religion.''
''I understand there's some subtle difference between the Wiccans
and the occult, but now what it is I couldn't tell you,'' Burnett
said. ''From what I've read in the newspaper, one disavows the other,
whatever that means.''
Echols took the stand in his own behalf Monday morning, in a
hearing outside the presence of the jury, to say he'd asked for a
lawyer during police questioning May 10. Echols also said police
detectives cussed at him and told him to confess.
Echols's lawyers asked for the hearing in an effort to suppress a
statement Echols allegedly gave to West Memphis Detective Bill Durham.
Durham testified that, after administering a lie-detector test
which Echols allegedly failed, Echols ''made the statement, 'I'll tell
you all about it if you let me talk to my mother.' ''
Echols had already waived his right not to talk to police and had
signed and initialed forms waiving his right to have a lawyer present,
Durham testified.
Price called Echols to the witness stand shortly after 9 a.m. He
testified for about 10 minutes.
Price first asked if Echols had been questioned by Ridge and
Sudbury for about two hours beginning at 11:54 a.m. Echols said yes,
that at first he'd been asked a series of 32 prepared questions.
Price: Tell the judge the manner in which they were questioning
you during this period of time.
Echols: During these questions right here (the first 32), they
were pretty nice. After that, God! After I'd been there a while, they
started cussing me, telling me they knew I did it, they were going to
fry my ass, I might as well go ahead and confess now.
Later, Price asked his client:
Q During that time, did you ask for an attorney?
A Three times.
Echols said that when he asked for an attorney the first time,
''He told me I didn't need to bring him back there because he was just
going to cost us a lot of money and that in the end he was going to
quit anyway.''
Echols confirmed that he told Durham that he would ''tell all I
know'' if he were allowed to atlk to his mother.
Fogleman asked Durham what happened after Echols made that
statement.
Q Did he go ahead and tell you like he said he would - tell you
all about it?
A No, sir. After his mother left, he again denied any
involvement in these murders.
Also Monday, Echols's former girlfriend, Deanna Holcomb, testified
she saw Echols in 1991 or up to May 1992 with a knife similar to the
one Arkansas State Police divers retrieved from the lake behind
Baldwin's trailer home in November. Holcomb said the knife, which
Echols carried in his trench coat pocket, was the same as the lake
knife except that it had a compass on the handle, and the lake knife
does not.
Fogleman next called James Parker, a knife collector and dealer
from Chattanooga, who testified from a 1987 knife catalog that the
model of knife found in the lake would have had a compass in the
handle when it was sold.
The state also presented inconclusive fiber evidence that certain
rayon and cotton fibers found at the crime scene were
''microscopically similar'' to fibers found in a search of both
Baldwin's and Echols's trailers on June 3. But the witness, Lisa
Sakevicius also said she could not determine the source of any of the
fibers. A search of Michael Moore's home in December also turned up
fibers similar to those found at the scene.
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:03 pm |
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Mystery, intrigue, bad-check charges (V. Hutch.)
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
March 7, 1994, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 1A,
LENGTH: 1720 words
HEADLINE: Mystery, intrigue, bad-check charges follow 'cult' witness
BYLINE: By Marc Perrusquia, The Commercial Appeal
BODY:
Victoria Hutcheson alarmed colleagues two years ago when she
complained of a brain tumor and suddenly left her clerical job in a
northwest Arkansas law firm.
Her former associates became concerned again recently when
Hutcheson resurfaced on the other side of the state as a high-profile
witness in the West Memphis triple-murder case. Hutcheson testified in
Jessie Lloyd Miskelley's trial that she saw him and co-defendant
Damien Wayne Echols at a satanic esbat meeting, and her 8-year-old son
Aaron could be called as a witness in the trial of Echols and Charles
Jason Baldwin, which resumes today.
''We were worried sick,'' said Jim Rose, a Fayetteville, Ark.,
attorney. Rose said he last saw Hutcheson in August 1992 when she
requested a medical leave from his law firm, then moved away without
notice.
In her wake, Hutcheson left a string of arrest warrants for
allegedly writing hot checks.
''She told us that she had a brain tumor and that she had a
brother-in-law in Little Rock that was a brain surgeon,'' Rose said.
''We really felt sorry for her.''
Mystery and intrigue have surrounded Hutcheson since she testified
during the Misskelley trial about the cult meeting, which may have
been connected to the murders of three 8-year-old boys. Misskelley,
18, was sentenced last month to life plus 40 years in the murders.
Hutcheson is stirring more questions as the second week of
testimony begins today in Jonesboro, Ark., in the trial of two other
teenagers also charged with the brutal murders of West Memphis Cub
Scouts Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore.
Hutcheson, 30, and her son played key roles in a police
investigation that led to the arrests last June 3 of Misskelley,
Echols, 19, and Baldwin, 16. Echols and Baldwin are on trial in
Jonesboro and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Police said a tape recording of Aaron's voice saying, ''Nobody
knows what happened but me,'' sparked Misskelley's confession when it
was played to him. The recording has led to wide speculation that
Aaron, who was friends with the three murder victims, was at the
murder scene the night of the May 5 slayings. Police said Aaron
identified all three defendants, but they have released few details.
Hutcheson testified five weeks ago that Misskelley spent the night
before his arrest at her trailer. Hutcheson also testified she
''played detective'' in the month between the murders and the arrests,
luring Echols to her home with books on the occult and attending an
outdoor cult meeting with Misskelley and Echols.
Hutcheson's life since she left her job a year and a half ago in
the hilly college town of Fayetteville has been one of contrasts and
criminal allegations. She moved eastward across the state, settling
into the low-income trailer parks on the flat Delta outside West
Memphis.
Records show authorities in west Arkansas have at least six
outstanding arrest warrants for Hutcheson on misdemeanor charges for
allegedly writing bad checks and failing to appear in court. Since
moving to the West Memphis area, Hutcheson has been involved in at
least three incidents involving allegations of financial wrongdoing
but has not been formally charged, records show.
The Fayetteville Police Department has five outstanding arrest
warrants on misdemeanor charges involving Hutcheson, records show.
Three warrants were issued for allegedly writing hot checks totaling
$ 195 in 1992, while two warrants were issued in January 1993 for
failing to appear to answer the charges, records show.
The warrants were issued in the name of Victoria Ann Anderson, the
name she used at the time because of her marriage to Charles Anthony
Anderson.
Authorities in Rogers, Ark., have one outstanding warrant against
Hutcheson for failure to appear on misdemeanor charges of allegedly
writing three hot checks in 1992 totaling more than $ 102. Hutcheson
pleaded not guilty on July 7, 1992, but later failed to show up in
court that December, records show.
Hutcheson denies any wrongdoing. She said there are ''probably
more'' warrants for her arrest than the six located by a reporter last
week, but said a failed marriage and financial difficulties were
responsible for that.
Hutcheson also said she believed at one time she had a brain
tumor, differing with characterizations by Rose, her former boss who
now may be called to testify about her credibility.
Defense attorneys have indicated they may scrutinize Hutcheson and
her son to a much greater degree than was done in the first trial.
''The defense is going to fabricate anything they can,'' said
Hutcheson, a pale, auburn-haired mother of two. ''It doesn't matter
anymore. Whatever they want to say about me is what they can say.''
Hutcheson earned a reputation as an efficient employee over the
years. According to her resume, she has worked a number of secretarial
and cashier jobs since graduating from Bentonville (Ark.) High School
in 1981 and American College in Fayetteville in 1990.
''She was a good employee one of the best typists I've ever
seen,'' Rose said.
Yet along the way, several employers have raised questions about
her integrity.
''She's a very likable person . . . but she's untrustworthy,''
said Ruth Bolden, 50, a West Memphis photography studio operator who
said Sunday that she plans to fire Hutcheson and has changed the lock
on the door to her business. Bolden said her business has suffered
several discrepancies between receipts and cash recently.
Rose said he also noticed small cash discrepancies in client
accounts after Hutcheson left.
Records show Hutcheson worked nine days last April for the Delta
Express gas station and convenience store in Marion, leaving her job
amid controversy.
Marion assistant police chief Don Bray said a Delta Express
official informed police about a ''$ 200 error'' on a customer's credit
card. Bray said he interviewed Hutcheson and another employee who
worked the same shift, but could find no wrongdoing.
Hutcheson worked at Delta Express from April 13 until April 22 of
last year, according to personnel records at the company's Tulsa,
Okla., offices. A Delta Express representative said corporate policy
forbids releasing the terms on which employees leave the company.
''They (Delta Express officials) never did prove to me there was a
shortage,'' Bray said. ''To me, there never was any proof there was a
crime.''
Bray said he conducted his last interview with Hutcheson about the
credit card controversy on May 6, the day police found the bodies of
the three West Memphis boys.
Hutcheson visited the Marion police station that day, bringing her
son Aaron along. Bray said Hutcheson told him she held Aaron out of
school because three of his friends were missing.
Bray said he questioned Aaron for the first time that day,
touching off a series of police interviews and raising numerous
questions about what happened the night the three boys disappeared.
Aaron told police several versions about events the night of the
murders, sources said. Hutcheson has said she didn't learn her son was
at the murder scene that night until 10 days later. She said Aaron
spent that night with a babysitter and later failed to mention the
incident because he was afraid and confused.
Psychiatrists treating Aaron assert the boy has been ritually
abused, Hutcheson said. State prosecutors have subpoenaed his medical
records from the East Arkansas Regional Medical Center in West
Memphis. Prosecutors also called a witness last week who testified to
seeing four young boys walking near the murder scene about 6:30 p.m.
that day.
Authorities have suggested the murders were occult-related.
Hutcheson testifed that after the murders she saw Echols and
Misskelley among 10 to 15 people at a Wednesday night satanic esbat
meeting. Judge David Burnett limited details of Hutcheson's testimony;
she said later in an interview that she left the meeting after seeing
people painted black taking off their clothes.
Defense attorneys suggested at the first trial that Hutcheson's
involvement in the case was motivated by possible reward money for
solving the murders, but they provided few details to back up their
claims. Yet defense attorneys this time appear poised to launch a
full-scale attack on Hutcheson's credibility, and they have indicated
they also will closely scrutinize Aaron if he testifies.
Hutcheson has denied an interest in reward money. She told the
jury in the Misskelley trial: ''Those boys I loved and I wanted their
killers caught.''
Among several questions that remain unanswered in Hutcheson's
account is why she maintained close ties to both the victims and the
defendants. Hutcheson lived briefly in the West Memphis neighborhood
among the victim's families, then moved a couple of miles away about a
month before the murders to Highland trailer park where Misskelley
lived.
Bolden said Hutcheson often told customers in her photography
studio that Aaron was in the woods that night off Interstate 40.
Repeating an account that Hutcheson shared with a reporter after the
Misskelley trial, Bolden said Hutcheson has maintained Aaron saw John
Mark Byers, father of murder victim Chris Byers, in the woods that
night.
According to the account told to Bolden, Aaron was in a treehouse
waiting for his three companions to climb up when he saw Byers, who
''beats up on Chris and everything and then tells the other boys, the
big boys, Jessie and Damien,'' to finish the job.
Defense attorneys have been pointing a finger at Byers in open
court, but he has emphatically denied any involvement. Police Insp.
Gary Gitchell said Aaron identified the three defendants ''and no one
else.''
''I honestly don't know what to believe anymore,'' Bolden said.
''You just have to stand back and look at all this information, and
question all of it.''
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2765
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:04 pm |
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Fiber testimony may link defendants to scene
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2660
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
March 7, 1994, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO, Pg. 1B,
LENGTH: 723 words
HEADLINE: Fibers testimony may seek to link Ark. defendants to slaying scene
BYLINE: By Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
The fifth day of the capital murder trial of Damien Wayne Echols
and Charles Jason Baldwin is expected to start today with scientific
testimony that fibers found at the crime scene are ''microscopically
similar'' to some threads in clothing found at the defendants' homes.
Unlike Jessie Lloyd Misskelley's trial, which ended a month ago,
four days of testimony last week produced only three prosecution
witnesses to make a solid case against Echols, 19, and Baldwin, 16.
The state's expected key witnesses supposed eyewitnesses to the
events of May 5 have yet to materialize. Meanwhile, Circuit Judge
David Burnett has commended the zeal of defense lawyers in raising
doubts about the prosecution's version of events while saying he will
not allow the jury to be misled by their intriguing red herrings.
The jury of eight women and four men has listened attentively to a
steady stream of evidence that three West Memphis 8-year-olds Steve
Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers were severely beaten and
were found hogtied May 6 in a drainage ditch.
But without Misskelley's June 3 confession, which was used as the
probable cause to arrest Echols and Baldwin, the court case against
the two defendants appears to be pretty thin. Misskelley's
confession, which made Baldwin and Echols alleged accomplices, can't
be used to place them at the crime scene unless he testifies. As of
Friday, that appeared unlikely.
The state's most damaging witness so far against Baldwin was
Michael Carson, a 16-year-old admitted burglar from Jonesboro who
testified Wednesday that Baldwin gave him a detailed description of
the crime, including how he sucked the blood from one of the victims.
The conversation allegedly took place while Carson and Baldwin
were together at the Craighead County Detention Center in August.
The most solid evidence yet against Echols comes from the
confusing stories of Narlene Hollingsworth and her son, Anthony. Both
said they saw Echols and his girlfriend who looks, arguably, a
little like Baldwin did in May near the woods where the 8-year-olds
were later found dead. But while Hollingsworth said the sighting was
at 9:30 p.m., as she became ill while driving, her son said he saw
Echols at 10:30 p.m.
Echols's defense lawyer Scott Davidson tried to establish that the
red Ford Escort in which seven people were riding to pick up an eighth
was not an ideal venue for making observations.
The other 17 or 18 witnesses have established that a crime
occurred, but not who might have been responsible. And many of them
have provided an opportunity to cast doubt on the police version of
events.
West Memphis Police Insp. Gary Gitchell testified Thursday that
John Mark Byers, the father of murder victim Chris Byers, was a
suspect as recently as Jan. 26 after a New York-based film crew turned
over to police a knife he'd given them. That testimony was never
solicited in Miskelley's trial in Corning.
Casting doubt on Gitchell's version of how Misskelley came to
confess was the major defense assault in the Corning trial, and it
clearly failed when that jury found Misskelley guilty of first- and
second-degree murder. But Gitchell can't talk about Misskelley's
statement in the second trial.
West Memphis Detective Bryn Ridge did mention the statement in
court, but the jury has been instructed to ignore it. Both defense
teams asked for a mistrial after Ridge's statement, but the requests
were denied.
Associate medical examiner Frank J. Peretti testified last week
about the boys' injuries, offering explicit details aided by
gut-wrenching photographs.
But under cross-examination by Baldwin lawyer Paul N. Ford,
Peretti said the boys probably died between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. May 6,
which, if true, could make Hollingsworth's testimony about seeing
Echols at 9:30 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. all but irrelevant.
Court was canceled Friday so Burnett and at least two of the
defense lawyers could attend an Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association
meeting in Fayetteville. Burnett spoke Saturday on the state's new
sentencing guidelines.
Testimony resumes this morning at 9:30.
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:05 pm |
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Cameras can't whir at Bald./Echols trial
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2747
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
March 6, 1994, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO, Pg. 1B,
LENGTH: 832 words
HEADLINE: Cameras can't whir at Baldwin-Echols trial
Journalists adapt to judge's rules
BYLINE: By Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
BODY:
Circuit Judge David Burnett says he wants silent cameras in the
courtroom or he will ban picture-taking in the Jonesboro, Ark., trial
of Damien Wayne Echols and Charles Jason Baldwin.
In an effort to comply with the directive, photographers from
regional newspapers have designed any number of attractive means to
silence their Nikons.
The reporter from the West Memphis Evening Times has hers wrapped
in a checkered dish towel.
A photographer from The Jonesboro Sun has his in a gold shoebox,
wrapped with rubber bands.
But by far the most elaborate is the contraption designed by the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of Little Rock. Its shooter has a Tupperware
cake box stuffed with foam plastic gleaned from the back seat of his
car. Witness's words need translation
The crowded courtroom picked up a new vernacular when the state
called Anthony Hollingsworth to the stand Thursday.
Hollingsworth testified he was one of seven passengers in a Ford
Escort, and saw Damien Echols and his girlfriend walking near the
woods where three boys were later found dead on the night they
disappeared.
Under questioning by Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman,
Hollingsworth was asked about the girlfriend's hair. How long was it?
Hollingsworth: About middle waist.
Fogleman: What do you mean?
Hollingsworth: It ain't real long but it ain't short, neither.
Fogleman: I understand what you're talking about. Could you run that by me again?
Hollingsworth, in a cross-examination by Echols's lawyer Scott
Davidson, also was asked whether seeing Echols and his girlfriend had
been a hot topic around his house.
Davidson: You all talk about this quite a bit around the house,
don't you?
Hollingsworth: No, not that much, why?
Davidson: Since this happened last year, you all have sat around
and talked about this, haven't you?
Hollingsworth: Not that much. Off and on. Very often. Separate trailers
Narlene Hollingsworth, Anthony's mother, told the jury she was
driving the Escort that night and was feeling ill. She pulled over
near the Robin Hood Hills woods because ''I sure didn't want to get
sick in the car.''
''Is all this relevant?'' Fogleman wanted to know.
On another Davidson cross-examination, she said her son lives in a
trailer separated from hers, but said she'd rather not say why.
''Well, he didn't kill anybody,'' she said. An education in reporting
Jonesboro, a city of 46,535, is the home of Arkansas State
University. Various classes of its department of Journalism have been
attending the trial.
Student Tisha Gilbert, managing editor of the student newspaper
The Herald, said she'd always heard there are no real surprises in a
real-life courtroom contest.
Thursday's testimony involving an alleged confession in the case,
she said, proved that wrong. ''I think that surprised everybody,'' she
said.
Journalism department chairman Joel T. Gambill said he plans to
send his graduate seminar in press problems to the trial Tuesday and
has already lectured on The Commercial Appeal's victory in the
Arkansas Supreme Court last week in an effort to have jury selection
conducted in public.
''I don't really think there would be a better lesson'' than the
courtroom action, he said. Relatives and irrelevancies
Narlene Hollingsworth was also asked about a witness subpoenaed in
the Misskelley case, named L. G. Hollingsworth. Davidson wanted to how
he is related to her.
Hollingsworth: I'm his aunt through marriage.
Davidson: You're his aunt by marriage but he's your ex-husband's
son?
Hollingsworth: I know it's confusing.
Davidson: L.G. is your ex-husband's son but you're his aunt by
marriage? How does that happen?
Judge David Burnett: Is that really relevant? Let's not try to
sort it out. TV film crew aid Take O
For weeks, there has been speculation about the father of one of
the victims in the case, John Mark Byers, who is a convicted felon.
On Thursday, the packed courtroom sat in rapt attention as the
chief detective in the case said Byers had been a suspect in the
murder of his son as recently as Jan. 26.
The testimony showed Byers gave a folding knife to a
representative of Creative Thinking International Ltd., a documentary
film crew making a movie about the case, and that the knife had been
sent to police on Jan. 8.
Traces of blood on the knife matched Christopher Byers's type.
Just before the detective's testimony, a technician with the film
company passed Byers a note.
After the testimony, the director offered him a Lifesaver candy.
Byers declined it. TV film crew aid Take T
When Jackie Hicks, grandfather of victim Steve Branch, needed a
battery for his hearing aid Wednesday, he was in luck. Creative
Thinking came through with the tiny device.
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:05 pm |
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Prosecutors take aim at 2 more in triple slayng
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2705
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 28, 1994, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 686 words
HEADLINE: Prosecutors in Ark. take aim at 2 more in triple slaying
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
Beginning today, the state of Arkansas draws a bead on its next
two suspects in the murders of three West Memphis Cub Scouts almost 10
months ago.
One young man already has been sentenced to life in prison in the
deaths of the three 8-year-olds, who were hogtied and thrown into a
muddy ditch in a wooded area near their homes.
The second trial will involve much the same gruesome physical
evidence as was introduced at the Corning trial of Jessie Lloyd
Misskelley Jr., and mothers of the boys can be expected, perhaps
today, to describe for the jury the moments when they last saw their
sons alive.
But a defense lawyer said he expects ''a whole different
ballgame'' from Misskelley's trial, which ended in a conviction Feb.
4.
Damien Wayne Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, go on
trial for capital murder with no clear idea yet whether Misskelley
will be testifying for the state that he saw them kill the boys.
If Misskelley's trial in Corning was a preview of the state's
case, it appears that without his cooperation prosecutors have little
more than a few microscopically similar fibers from the defendants'
homes linking them to the crime scene, and a few eyewitnesses who saw
Echols and his girlfriend not Baldwin near the woods the night the
murders occurred.
West Memphis Police Insp. Gary Gitchell said earlier this month
that he felt the case against Baldwin and Echols was stronger than it
was against Misskelley, but he and prosecutors haven't elaborated on
what evidence they might have held back in Corning.
Ron Lax, a Memphis private investigator assisting Echols's lawyers
said Sunday that he learned last week that witnesses he had talked to
were being asked by law enforcement officials to sign affidavits
saying that he attempted to intimidate them. Second Judicial District
Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis said Sunday he could not comment on
whether his office had sought an investigation of Lax.
If Misskelley doesn't testify, there is another potentially
dramatic witness waiting in the wings 8-year-old Aaron Hutcheson.
Hutcheson may have been an eyewitness to the terror in the woods. But
if he's called, prosecutors will have to work around a defense
bombshell lobbed Feb. 16 when Echols's lawyer Val P. Price said
Hutcheson made a statement in which he said ''a Mark Byers'' one of
the victims' fathers was there that night.
Circuit Judge David Burnett, prosecutors and lawyers for both
defendants spent four days last week picking a jury of eight women,
four men and two male alternates. Opening arguments to the panel begin
this morning at 9:30.
Misskelley's June 3 statement to the West Memphis police can't be
used unless he testifies because of the constitutional right of
defendants to confront and cross-examine their accusers.
Jonesboro attorney Phillip J. Wells, appointed by Burnett to
determine whether Misskelley understands the consequences of
testifying with an appeal pending, said Friday that he anticipated
negotiations for his testimony would go on all weekend. On Sunday
afternoon, he said no discussions had taken place.
Misskelley was convicted of first- and second-degree murder in the
deaths of 8-year-olds Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Steve
Branch. He is serving a life term plus 40 years.
If prosecutors could persuade Burnett to drop the life sentence in
exchange for Misskelley's truthful testimony, he could be paroled some
day on the 40-year sentence.
Misskelley could testify to what he saw in the Robin Hood Hills
woods less than a mile from the victims' homes on the night of May 5.
Misskelley told police he watched as Baldwin and Echols brutalized the
youngsters with stout sticks and castrated the Byers boy with a knife.
Burnett allowed Davis to offer ''use immunity'' to Misskelley,
meaning that whatever he might say in court can't be used against him
in any future legal proceeding, including an appeal.
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:06 pm |
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Grisly accusations ignite Baldwin friends, kin
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 27, 1994, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO, Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 1048 words
HEADLINE: Grisly accusations ignite emotions of Baldwin friends, kin
BYLINE: Marc Perrusquia, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: MARION, Ark.
BODY:
A yellow ribbon hangs from the front door of Jason Baldwin's
trailer home.
Police swarmed through this rust-pocked trailer one night last
June, confiscating a red bathrobe. Later, they found a knife in a lake
behind the backyard.
Prosecutors this week will try to prove Baldwin, 16, and a
co-defendant murdered three young boys, possibly as part of an occult
ritual.
That allegation still stirs passions at the Lakeshore Estates
trailer park where Baldwin, a shy, artistic teenager with flowing
blond hair, was largely known as a polite and courteous youngster.
''He played with my kids quite a bit,'' said neighbor Pam
Hollingsworth, 40. ''As he was growing up, he never struck me to be no
mean kind of kid.''
People here knew Baldwin as a good student and a well-behaved boy
who owned a slew of snakes, lizards and other exotic pets. He listened
to rock music and liked to hunt and fish.
Yet trouble swirled around him. His mother was temporarily
hospitalized for a mental illness. And a couple years ago Baldwin
befriended a teen named Damien Echols, who spooked neighbors with talk
of killing cats and worshiping the devil.
''I told my son to stay away from him,'' said Larry Baldwin,
Jason's father. ''He (Jason) has always been a good kid in my eyes.
This whole thing just blows me away.''
Baldwin and Echols, 19, are on trial in Jonesboro, Ark., facing
three counts of capital murder for the May 5 deaths of West Memphis
8-year-olds Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. A jury
was seated last week and testimony is to begin Monday.
A jury earlier this month convicted a third defendant, Jessie
Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18.
Baldwin's alleged role in the murders is spelled out in statements
Misskelley gave police June 3, leading to their arrests that night.
Baldwin telephoned Misskelley before the murders, telling him
Baldwin and Echols planned to ''hurt some boys,'' Misskelley told
police. In a woods that night, Baldwin and Echols beat and killed the
boys, and Baldwin cut one in the face with a knife, Misskelley said.
''That boy can't even stand the sight of blood,'' said Larry
Baldwin, 38, who said he often went hunting with his sons, Jason and
Matt, 14. Baldwin said his sons were no help when it came to cleaning
the kill. ''Those boys, they'd be squeamish gutting a deer.''
Baldwin's childhood was troubled with family separations. His
parents divorced when he was a young child and his mother, Angela Gail
Grinnell, and stepfather, Terry, recently parted ways.
Larry Baldwin, who lives in central Arkansas, said he and Angela
Gail are second cousins who married in 1977 following a platonic
friendship.
''We really shouldn't have got married,'' Baldwin said. ''I love
her as a friend. (But) she can't handle pressure.''
Under a judge's order, Angela Gail Grinnell was involuntarily
admitted to the East Arkansas Regional Mental Health Center in 1992
for a period not to exceed 45 days, Crittenden County probate records
show.
The Feb. 5, 1992, order cited ''paranoid delusions,'' noting
Grinnell had been seen four times that January in the emergency room
at Crittenden Memorial Hospital where she was treated for
self-inflicted injuries that included razor slashes to her neck and
arms.
Grinnell told authorites she suffered ''hallucinations of a male
voice'' and feared she was dying of AIDS.
Grinnell, 36, a waitress and cashier, had been abusing drugs since
she was a teenager, records said. Efforts to reach her at her trailer
home last week were unsuccessful.
Baldwin was the only one of the three teen defendants who was
still in school at the time of the arrests. A student at Marion High
School, Baldwin sat quietly when students discussed the May 5 murders
of the three boys and the recent suicide of a classmate.
''He just sat there. He never said anything,'' classmate Roni
Hendrix told reporters who gathered outside the West Memphis Municipal
Court building last June 3 when Baldwin, Echols and Misskelley were
arrested. ''He was real quiet.''
At school, Baldwin often wore black boots, a green trench coat and
T-shirts with the logos of heavy-metal bands.
He exhibited artistic skill, drawing pictures of eagles, owls and
other animals. He also drew pictures of snakes, skeletons and macabre
images.
''In my heart of hearts I don't believe he did it. He was always
respectful. He was always, yes ma'am, no ma'am,'' said Lakeshore
resident Kela Marshall, who once babysat Baldwin. ''The only thing I
ever found weird about him was he drew a little skull with a knife in
it,'' she said, saying Baldwin also drew two cats with knives in them
once. ''He could draw pretty good, though.''
Experts in teen experimentation in the occult say sensitive,
artistic teens from troubled homes often are vulnerable to serious
involvement with youngsters practicing their own brand of satanism.
The prosecution has subpoenaed experts on teen satanism and may use
that testimony to explain a motive for the murders.
Baldwin's defense could rely in part on witness accounts that
Echols was seen walking near the crime scene the night of the murders
with his girlfriend Domini Teer, 17. Prosecutors maintain the
witnesses are confusing Teer with Baldwin because both were thin and
had long, light-colored hair.
But defense attorneys have suggested Teer, not Baldwin, was there
that night and that Echols may be protecting his girlfriend. Echols
and Teer lived last year in a trailer not far from Baldwin's home. The
unmarried teen couple has an infant son, Seth.
''I believe Jason's going to take the blame for that girl,'' Pam
Hollingsworth said.
Domini's mother, Dian Teer, rejects the claim, saying her daughter
was home in bed that night.
Larry Baldwin said his son adamantly denies murdering the boys.
''He looked me square in the eye and told me he didn't have
anything to do with it period,'' the elder Baldwin said. ''He told
me he was innocent and he'll be glad when this @#%$ trial is
over.''
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2634
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:08 pm |
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CA2/27/94 Echols not a killer, some say
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2609
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 27, 1994, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO, Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 1731 words
HEADLINE: Damien Echols may be troubled but he's not killer, some say
BYLINE: Marc Perrusquia, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: MARION, Ark.
BODY:
The legend of Damien Echols blows through the trailer parks and
flatlands around this Delta town like a brisk winter wind, chilling
listeners with tales of vampires, satanism and ritual murder.
Rumors have run wild since police found the nude bodies of three
8-year-old West Memphis boys last May in a water-filled ditch. From
the start, authorities received tips the murders were occult killings.
Echols, a quiet teenager who often wore a black trench coat and
talked about worshiping the devil, became a prime suspect within days.
A jury in Jonesboro, Ark., will try to separate fact from fiction
this week, when testimony begins Monday in the triple-murder trial of
Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16.
A third defendant, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, was convicted
earlier this month.
Prosecutors suggest Echols was a member of a cult that held sex
orgies and ate the hind legs of dogs.
Some people close to Echols agree he has a history of mental and
family troubles, but they dismiss sensational claims of satanism and
cult involvement.
''He liked vampire movies and vampire books, but I do too so
what?'' said Dian Teer, 44, whose teenage daughter, Domini, had a baby
last year with Echols. ''What really scares me is the one who really
(killed the boys) is still out there, and the cops are sitting there
patting themselves on the back.''
To some, Echols was just a shy, moody kid from the wrong part of
town.
''He was the quietest, most polite kid you ever saw,'' said Anna
Mettler, attendant at the Holiday Plaza Lanes bowling alley in West
Memphis, where Echols often shot pool and played video games.
Echols also enjoyed skateboarding and chasing girls. He
spray-painted graffiti under viaducts, got in his share of fights and
enjoyed heavy-metal rock music.
Yet rumor and mystery surrounded Echols even before the May 5
murders of West Memphis second-graders Christopher Byers, Michael
Moore and Steve Branch.
Echols left Marion public schools in the fall of 1992 and departed
on an extended family trip to the Portland, Ore., area.
When he returned to the trailer parks of Marion and nearby West
Memphis a few months later, Echols bounced between his father's home
and the trash-strewn Teer trailer in the Lakeshore Estate mobile home
park south of Marion.
Echols told some teens a satanic priestess had followed him from
Oregon to murder him or pull him back into a cult.
''It's the misconceptions of an ill mind,'' said West Memphis
teenager Murray Farris, who said he discussed the occult at times with
Echols.
Others noticed that the polite, well-behaved boy they once knew as
Michael Wayne Hutchison now was Damien Echols. Records indicate he
legally changed his name in 1990 when he was adopted by his
stepfather, Jack Echols of Marion, but it's disputed why he took the
name Damien.
Classmates said the name is patterned after the anti-christ figure
in The Omen movies. But family members said Echols, who attended
classes at St. Michael's in West Memphis a few years ago and
considered joining the Catholic faith, took the name from a 19th
Century Belgian Roman Catholic missionary named Father Damien.
At the Teer trailer, Echols slept on a mattress in a room with a
homemade Ouija board and a red light bulb hanging from the ceiling,
said friends who visited the trailer. He worked when he could, and
often was seen in his black trench coat walking along local roads
during daylight hours and at night.
''He wore that coat down to his knees if was 90 degrees,'' said Lakeshore resident Anita Brewer.
The Teers turned heads too. After the murders, a reporter found an
underground magazine outside their trailer called the Secret Order of
the Undead, or SOUND. The amateurish magazine, published by Domini's
cousin, Tammy Jo Teer, 23, of Upland, Calif., is aimed at teens and
young adults interested in vampires, tales of ghoulish murders,
macabre poetry and artwork, horror fantasy and other phenomenon.
Echols and Domini Teer, 17, last year had a son, Seth, out of
wedlock. Echols missed the boy's birth last September because he was
in jail.
''They were going to get married before all this started,'' Dian
Teer said. ''As far as I'm concerned, he's already had his punishment
by not being able to see his baby.''
According to Teer, Echols left for Oregon after he and her
daughter received treatment at Charter Lakeside hospital in Little
Rock for mental health reasons. Teer declined to discuss specifics,
but others have hinted that Echols has had a history of mental
problems.
Echols apparently attempted suicide in jail days after his June
arrest by taking an overdose of the prescription antidepressant
Amitriptyline, officials said.
What Echols was doing in Oregon is not clear. Echols rode there
with several relatives, including his young half-brother, Timothy
Hutchison, and their father, Eddie Joe Hutchison, who worked at
several gas stations in the Portland area.
Eddie Joe Hutchison, who lived off-and-on in Oregon for about
three years, married there twice, records show. Marriage licenses show
Hutchison remarried Damien's natural mother, Pamela, in Portland in
February 1993.
Eddie Joe and Pamela first married in 1973 when they eloped to New
Mexico as teenagers, records show. Eddie Joe, 37, has been married at
least four times; Pamela, 35, has been married three times, records
show.
After a few months, Echols returned to Arkansas following some
unknown trouble in Oregon. Timothy, now 8 years old, and the rest of
the family returned in March 1993, said Timothy's mother, Mary Esther
Hutchison, 30, who divorced Eddie Joe in 1988.
''What scares me is, it wasn't two months after I got my son back
that these other kids the same age show up dead,'' she said.
Rumors roared through Marion and West Memphis the day Echols was
arrested. He sacrificed babies, neighbors said. He covered one of his
girlfriends in blood and made love to her, others claimed.
''I've heard stories about him drinking Domini's blood and
(co-defendant) Jason's blood,'' Dian Teer said. ''I've heard so many
stories,'' most untrue, she said.
''This is one of the biggest nightmares in the world.''
Yet facts presented by authorities at times appear to be the
stranger than any rumor.
Among testimony at the Misskelley trial, Crittenden County chief
juvenile officer Jerry Driver said he saw Echols, Baldwin and
Misskelley one night in November 1992 at Lakeshore dressed in black
and carrying ''staffs.'' West Memphis police Det. Mike Allen testified
that Misskelley told him he saw a fight in which Damien ''wiped blood
off his nose and licked the blood.''
But witness Victoria Hutcheson painted an even darker picture. She
testified she attended an eerie outdoor cult meeting at night with
Echols and Misskelley in the weeks between the May 5 murders and the
June 3 arrests.
Hutcheson said she played detective and tried to gain Echols's
confidence by luring him with library books on the occult. Hutcheson
first met the pale teenager with slicked-back hair and dark, piercing
eyes in her home over a coffee table littered with books on
witchcraft, demons and black magic, she said after the trial.
''He was mysterious very mysterious, very scary,'' she said. ''I
asked him, 'How do you become a witch?' He just said, 'All in time,
Victoria. All in time.' ''
But, like other details on Echols, Hutcheson's account seems to
raise more questions than answers.
She provided few details about the satanic ''esbat'' meeting
because Judge David Burnett limited her testimony. After the trial,
Hutcheson said she couldn't identify anyone else at the meeting
because it was dark and some people were painted black. She said she
left when people started having sex.
Hutcheson also testified it's the voice of her 8-year-old son,
Aaron, that says ''Nobody knows what happened but me'' on a
tape-recording police used to spark a confession from Misskelley. It
is widely speculated that Aaron, who was friends with the three slain
boys, narrowly escaped death that day.
Police said Aaron identified Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin as
suspects.
But Misskelley attorney Dan Stidham suggested a $ 45,000 reward and
intense pressure to make arrests resulted in the charges against the
three teens.
''They had Damien Echols picked out as responsible for this crime
from day one,'' Stidham told jurors.
Under cross-examination, Stidham got Det. Bryn Ridge to say police
were unable to confirm that any names among a list of cult members
provided by Misskelley actually were in a cult because ''they all deny
it.''
Stidham suggested the supposed cult might just be teens out
partying.
Driver has said in interviews he's noticed an increase in teen
interest in the occult in Crittenden County over the past few years.
Evidence includes charred remains of bonfires, gutted animals and
graffiti with occult themes.
Several teens also have mentioned a mysterious ring leader known
only as Lucifer. ''I've been looking for Lucifer for 2 years,''
Driver said, but hasn't found him.
Crittenden County librarian Nelda Antonetti also has said she's
noticed more youths checking out books on satanism, the occult and
magic. One book checked out by Echols, Cotton Mather on Witchcraft,
had a dog-eared page that listed human fat in a recipe for a potion
enabling witches to fly and also mentioned the heart of an unbaptized
baby as a delicacy following a black mass.
The night of the arrests, police confiscated a book from Echol's
home, Never On A Broomstick by Frank Donovan.
Police, school and church officials, as well as family members,
declined to discuss Echols.
Anyone looking for what might be haunting Echols could start with
graffiti under a viaduct near Lakeshore:
''I'm Damien. Who are You?'' And across the railroad tracks, in
the same blue spray-paint: ''Planet earth sucks: I want off.''
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:10 pm |
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Jury selection for E/B, Misskelley mulls testifyng
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2648
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 25, 1994, Friday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 930 words
HEADLINE: Jury has 9 for trial of Echols, Baldwin
Misskelley mulls decision to testify
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
Nine jurors have been selected for a second West Memphis triple
slaying trial, including eight Thursday, as it appeared Jessie Lloyd
Misskelley Jr. is still reviewing his decision about testifying
against Damien Wayne Echols and Charles Jason Baldwin.
A lawyer appointed to represent the court said Misskelley's
situation is ''still dynamic,'' after meeting with him for almost two
hours Wednesday night in the Craighead County jail. No new offer to
seek a reduction in his sentence of life plus 40 years has been made
since an undisclosed deal was floated and apparently rejected Tuesday
night, said Jonesboro attorney Phillip J. Wells.
Echols, 19, and Baldwin, 16, went on trial Tuesday on capital
murder charges in the May 5 deaths of West Memphis 8-year-olds
Christopher Byers, Michael Moore and Steve Branch.
Circuit Judge David Burnett acknowledged it has been much more
difficult to find a panel of impartial citizens in Jonesboro because
of news media attention to the case. He said, however, that he was
hopeful a jury of 12 plus some alternates could be completed by today.
Also Thursday, Burnett, who also presided over Misskelley's case
in Corning, ordered The Commercial Appeal to turn over a roll of film
taken in the courtroom. He later acknowledged that he had been
misinformed about its nature and said it would be returned.
A single frame of the film depicted the cover sheet of what
appeared to be a 40-page deposition by convicted murderer Misskelley,
made last week in the offices of Clay County Deputy Prosecutor C.
Joseph Calvin in Rector.
Burnett said he had been told the newspaper had photographed each
page of the document, which an official court reporter transcribing
the trial had left on her desk in open court Thursday. After the
misunderstanding was clarified, Burnett said the film would be
returned.
The film issue arose in the lethargy of a jury selection taking
place, for the most part, behind closed doors. So far, Burnett, four
defense lawyers and two prosecutors have selected six women and three
men: a nurse, two housewives, a building contractor, a factory worker,
an Air Force airman, a bookkeeper and two others.
The process will continue today. The court is also expected to
consider this afternoon a Freedom of Information Act request from The
Commercial Appeal seeking access to the police investigative file
involving murder charges that ended in Misskelley's conviction Feb. 4.
Burnett demanded the film after receiving a complaint from court
reporter Barbara J. Fisher of Paragould, who is transcribing the trial
preliminaries for the court record.
Craighead County Sheriff Larry Emison confiscated the entire roll
of already-processed film from photographer Lisa Waddell after Burnett
held an impromptu press conference during a break in jury selection.
In the press conference, Burnett said he was demanding that the
film be turned over.
''I want that film back. I don't want you to report anything that
was in it,'' Burnett said. ''I don't want you to report anything that
was in that transcript.''
Burnett said reporting the contents of the document ''could cause
a mistrial.'' He agreed to return the film after he learned the
contents of the deposition had not been photographed.
The controversy arose after a reporter noticed the document on the
court reporter's desk Thursday morning. The document, which purports
to be an undated deposition of Misskelley's statement in the presense
of Calvin, Second District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis and
Misskelley's defense lawyers Daniel T. Stidham and Gregory L. Crow,
was the subject of a daylong hearing Tuesday.
Defense lawyers asked Burnett to rule that prosecutors had engaged
in misconduct when they obtained the statement after returning
Misskelley, now serving a term of life plus 40 years, from the
Arkansas Department of Corrections diagnostic unit at Pine Bluff on
Feb. 17.
They also asked Burnett to suppress the statement Misskelley did
make and to call for a special prosecutor from outside the Second
Judicial District to investigate their allegations. Burnett denied
their requests and found prosecutors had not acted improperly in
seeking Misskelley's testimony as a witness against his co-defendants.
Misskelley held another evening meeting Wednesday with Stidham and
Wells, a lawyer appointed by Burnett to determine whether Misskelley
is fully aware of his options and the consequences of testifying with
a grant of use immunity. The immunity would make anything he says in
court inadmissible in any future legal proceedings, including an
appeal.
The state has not made a new offer to request a reduced sentence
in exchange for his testimony, Wells said. The state made an offer
Tuesday, but its details have not been revealed.
Also Thursday, a spokesman for the Geraldo tabloid television show
in New York said that Pam and Terry Hobbs, the mother and stepfather
of victim Steve Branch; Jackie Hicks, his grandfather; and former
WMC-TV Channel 5 reporter Paul Morrison were to be videotaped for an
edition of the show.
The show will air in March, said spokesman Jeff Erdel. It
''focuses on a major case that these people are involved in,'' said
Erdel, who noted that the show can't been viewed on a Memphis
television affiliate, but is available on cable on WGN.
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:11 pm |
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CA2/24/94 Misskelley rejects offer to testify
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2639
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 24, 1994, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 850 words
HEADLINE: Misskelley rejects offer to testify
But 'anything's possible,' attorney says
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. has decided not to testify against his
co-defendants in the West Memphis child murders case, one of his
attorneys said Wednesday.
The decision apparently is not irreversible. Asked if he thought
Misskelley might change his mind, attorney Daniel T. Stidham said,
''Anything's possible.''
Misskelley apparently rejected an offer Tuesday night from
prosecutors who said they would seek a reduced sentence in exchange
for testimony at the trial of Charles Jason Baldwin and Damien Wayne
Echols.
Jury selection is under way for the trial of Baldwin, 16, and
Echols, 19, who are charged with capital murder in the May 5, 1993,
deaths of West Memphis 8-year-olds Steve Branch, Michael Moore and
Christopher Byers.
Misskelley, 18, was convicted this month of three counts of
murder. He escaped a death sentence, but received life plus 40 years.
Prosecutors did make Misskelley an offer Tuesday night to ask
Circuit Judge David Burnett to reduce his life plus 40-year sentence
in exchange for his truthful testimony in the second West Memphis
triple-murder case, according to a Jonesboro lawyer present at the
negotiations.
Misskelley met with lawyers for 2 hours at the Craighead County
Jail Tuesday night, according to Phillip J. Wells, a Jonesboro
attorney appointed to evaluate his understanding of the legal issues
involved in testifying.
Wells said he could not reveal the prosecutors' offer.
Wells said it was his impression that Misskelley was under a lot
of pressure and that his decision Wednesday not to testify could
change. Misskelley asked to see his parents and was allowed to visit
with them briefly in the Craighead County Jail, he said.
Also on Wednesday, Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman labeled as
untrue a defense attorneys' assertion that Fogleman had offered
Misskelley a 40-year sentence in exchange for his testimony.
The defense motion filed Tuesday stated that Fogleman had talked
to Misskelley's father on Feb. 16 about the 40-year deal.
Dropping the life sentence would make Misskelley eligible for
parole eventually. A life sentence under Arkansas law can be reduced
only by the governor. Burnett has the authority to modify the sentence
for 120 days after it was imposed Feb. 4.
The second day of jury selection in Baldwin's and Echols's capital
murder trial proceeded more smoothly but only slightly more
productively than the first, which was taken up by long arguments over
prosecution efforts to elicit Misskelley's testimony over the weekend.
When court recessed, only one juror of the first 18 questioned had
been chosen for the panel. Burnett wants 12 jurors plus three
alternates for what is expected to be a three-week trial.
Burnett and the lawyers are questioning potential jurors in his
chambers away from the public and news media.
In preliminary questioning by Burnett in open court, the judge
dismissed two potential jurors who said saturation news coverage since
the boys' bodies were found May 6 had created lasting impressions that
would be hard to overcome.
Burnett also allowed defense lawyers to question privately a woman
who said in court that she could not in good conscience agree to
impose the Arkansas death penalty prosecutors are seeking.
Wells said he was appointed Tuesday afternoon to listen to
Misskelley and ''find out if he was aware of the options and
consequences'' of testifying against his co-defendants with a grant of
use immunity. Use immunity would prevent prosecutors from using
anything he said in court against him in any future legal proceeding,
including his appeal.
After Misskelley was summoned to the courthouse here Tuesday,
Wells was asked by Burnett to listen to Misskelley as he spoke with
Stidham and his other court-appointed lawyer, Gregory L. Crow.
''The judge was sensitive that, should he decide to testify, it
was an intelligent decision on his part,'' Wells said.
Wells said prosecutors met with Misskelley and made their offer
between 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. at the jail. Wells also said prosecutors
may consider modifying their offer.
Stidham left Wednesday afternoon for a vacation in Mexico and it
was unclear whether prosecutors will be given an opportunity to speak
with his client.
Burnett rejected a defense motion Tuesday that asserted
prosecutors engaged in misconduct when they brought Misskelley from
the Arkansas Department of Corrections diagnostic unit at Pine Bluff
to the deputy prosecuting attorney's office for Clay County last
Thursday.
Stidham, commenting for the first time publicly on the
prosecution's tactic, said he was ''very angry.''
The transfer was made after Burnett signed an order last week that
Misskelley was ''to be transported to Craighead County.'' A Department
of Corrections spokesman said he didn't know whether Misskelley was en
route back to prison Wednesday.
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"Bratty Mama Leci"
Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 11754
Location: Kentucky
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| Obscuregawdess
Posted:
Mon May 26, 2008 10:11 pm |
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Misskelley's talk w/ prosecutors valid,judge rules
http://westmemphisthreediscussion.yuku.com/topic/2663
Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 23, 1994, Wednesday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1458 words
HEADLINE: Misskelley's talk with prosecutors valid, judge rules
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
A judge ruled Tuesday there was no misconduct in prosecutors'
efforts to obtain another statement from Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr.
before the murder trial of co-defendants Charles Jason Baldwin and
Damien Wayne Echols.
Circuit Judge David Burnett also ruled that Misskelley ''may be
permitted to testify if he chooses to do so.''
Baldwin, 16, and Echols, 19, went on trial here Tuesday charged
with capital murder in the May 5 deaths of three West Memphis
8-year-olds. Misskelley, 18, was found guilty earlier this month in
Corning and is serving a life sentence plus 40 years.
Jury selection was put on hold while lawyers for both sides argued
about what prosecutors did, and Burnett appointed an attorney to talk
to Misskelley.
Defense attorneys say that prosecutors told Misskelley's father
that they would try to get the sentence reduced to 40 years in
exchange for his testimony. That would mean Misskelley eventually
would be eligible for parole.
Under his present sentence, parole is not possible unless a
governor grants clemency. Burnett would have to approve any agreement
about a reduced sentence for Misskelley.
Prosecutors declined comment on whether Misskelley will be called,
what he said over the weekend, or whether they will continue to seek
the death penalty for Echols and Baldwin.
Only 62 of the first 150 prospective jurors called to the
Craighead County Courthouse made the roll call Tuesday morning.
The first 12 called for individual questioning by lawyers were
told to go home when the issue stretched into the late afternoon.
Echols's mother and stepfather and Baldwin's mother attended most
of the proceedings Tuesday.
Of the victims' families, only Todd and Diana Moore, the parents
of Michael Moore, attended.
Prosecutors sought to speak to Misskelley on Thursday night in the
offices of Clay County Deputy Prosecutor C. Joseph Calvin after
obtaining an order from Burnett last Wednesday to have him transported
from the diagnostic unit of the Arkansas Department of Correction in
Pine Bluff.
In their motion and an accompanying brief, filed in the afternoon
after more than two hours of argument outside the presence of the news
media and public, defense attorneys said that Misskelley was asked to
testify despite repeated clear statements from his attorneys and his
father that he would not do so.
The defense attorneys argue that Misskelley's interests and
constitutional rights were violated when he was asked to testify over
the objections of his attorneys. They contend prosecutors had no right
to seek the statement when they knew he had been advised against
saying anything that could violate his Fifth Amendment right against
self-incrimination.
The defense attorneys Val P. Price and Scott Davidson for
Echols, Paul N. Ford and George Robin Wadley Jr. for Baldwin accused
Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis and Deputy
Prosecutor John Fogleman of a ''conscious, calculated and ongoing
attempt . . . to interfere with'' Misskelley's attorneys' effort to
represent their client.
A similar motion was filed in Clay County by Misskelley's
attorneys, Daniel T. Stidham and Gregory L. Crow. Misskelley's trial
took place at Corning in Clay County.
The motion filed in Jonesboro asserts that Fogleman on Feb. 16
told Misskelley's father that the the state would work to have his
son's sentence reduced to 40 years in exchange for his testimony, and
that Misskelley Sr. said his son would not take the deal. The
conversation took place one day after Stidham had advised Davis's
office that Misskelley would not testify at the second trial.
Burnett could reduce the sentence within 120 days of the Feb. 4
conviction. After that, only an Arkansas governor could reduce the
life sentence to a term of years with the possibility of parole.
One unidentified member of the Craighead County Sheriff's office
transporting Misskelley to Rector, Ark., on Thursday, ''promised to
bring Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr.'s girlfriend to the jail to visit
him,'' the defense asserted.
Misskelley had already begun talking with Davis and Clay County
Deputy Prosecutor Calvin by the time Stidham and Crow arrived at 7
p.m. Thursday from Paragould, the motion says. Prosecutors also talked
to Misskelley Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the motion says.
Burnett said on Saturday that he had been contacted several times
by telephone by prosecutors and defense lawyers arguing over whether
Misskelley could make a statement over the objections of his
attorneys. Burnett said he authorized the state to offer ''use
immunity,'' meaning anything Misskelley says cannot be used against
him in any future legal proceedings, including an appeal.
Misskelley's June 3 statement to West Memphis police detectives
was the centerpiece of the trial in Corning. In his statement,
Misskelley said he was present when Baldwin and Echols beat vic | |
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