CA, Misskelley Trial (1/27-2/5/94)

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Harry	CA, Misskelley Trial (1/27-2/5/94)	Lead	[-]
Posts: 27 (02/27/2001 6:58 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL 2 BOYS DROWNED, THIRD BLED TO DEATH, MISSKELLEY JURY TOLD INVESTIGATOR GIVES TEARFUL TESTIMONY OF MUTILATION Date: Thursday, January 27, 1994 Section: News Page: A1 Illustration: photo (5) Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal Dateline: Edition: Final Two of three 8-year-old boys received skull fractures and were drowned, and the other was cut in the genitals and bled to death, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday at the trial of Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. The most difficult murder case in West Memphis history began when frantic parents called police on the evening of May 5 last year, then stayed up all night searching the streets and woods of their neighborhood, according to the victims' mothers, police and a neighbor who testified Wednesday. West Memphis Police Detective Bryn Ridge choked back tears as he described pulling the bodies of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore from the water. Some of more than 40 photographs placed in evidence show the nude bodies of the Weaver Elementary School second-graders found submerged in a murky, trash-strewn ditch less than a mile from their homes. Misskelley, charged with three counts of capital murder, was arrested 28 days after the bodies were discovered after making a 27-page taped statement to police in which he implicated co-defendants Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, and Damien Wayne Echols, 19, in the murders. He said he watched as one boy was killed, helped subdue another, then ran in disgust from the woods known as Robin Hood Hills. Deputy Prosecuting Atty. John N. Fogleman told the jury of seven women and five men that they will find that Misskelley "or an accomplice" caused the boys' deaths. Fogleman suggested evidence will show Misskelley attempted to minimize his role in the grisly murders when he talked to police June 3. The state is seeking the death penalty. Echols and Baldwin will be tried next month in Jonesboro. Misskelley's trial was separated from theirs because of his statement implicating them. Misskelley, 18, chewed gum but did not stand or look at the jury when his attorney, Daniel T. Stidham of Paragould, introduced him to the panel Wednesday. Throughout the day, he assumed the posture he has taken through eight months of court proceedings - staring into his lap. In his opening statement, Stidham said he agreed with the prosecution that the murders were "horrible and senseless," but that "the proof is going to show (Misskelley) did not have anything to do with this awful crime." "There was a public outcry for police to solve this crime," said Stidham, noting that a reward fund had reached $35,000 by the day Misskelley, Baldwin and Echols were arrested. Stidham said the West Memphis police had "Damien Echols tunnel vision . . . They had him picked out from Day 1; he was the prime suspect from the very, very beginning." Misskelley has an alibi that will place him 40 miles from the woods where the boys were found just after noon the day after they disappeared, Stidham said. He also has a three-part explanation for why his client made what he characterized as a "false" statement to police. "We're going to answer the question that's in your mind: Why did Jessie Misskelley tell this wild story?" Stidham told jurors one reason is he's mentally handicapped, another is he's "very suggestible." The third reason: "The psychological police tactics and the interrogation techniques . . . rendered him completely incapable. They broke his will. They scared him beyond all measure," he said. "They played a tape of a little boy's voice in a real eerie tone saying, 'Nobody knows what happened but me,' and it terrified him." Fogleman said Arkansas State Crime Lab reports indicate all three boys received fractured skulls, that Branch received a serious wound to the lower left part of his face and that Byers was sexually mutilated. Moore and Branch were still breathing when they were put in the water, Fogleman said. "Chris Byers didn't drown," said Fogleman. "He bled to death." In the days after the discovery, an unidentified woman who was a friend of the Moore family "played detective" to find out more about the case, ultimately leading police to question Misskelley about his alleged participation in cult activities with Echols, Fogleman said. Police have said all three defendants were members of a satanic cult, but nothing about its possible link to the murders was mentioned Wednesday. First to testify Wednesday was Diana Moore, Michael's mother, who said she last saw her son alive about 6 p.m. He was wearing a Cub Scout hat and shirt and was riding with friends Chris Byers and Steve Branch, who shared Steve's new bike. They were riding toward the woods, and Moore said she asked her daughter Dawn to run after them and tell Michael it was dinnertime. She never caught up. Mrs. Moore said she looked around the neighborhood for her son. "Then I went back home and waited for him," she said. "He didn't come back." She reported him missing at 8:10 p.m. Melissa Byers, Christopher Byers's mother, said she last saw her son in the carport around 5:45 p.m., later calling him into the house. "I went outside hollering for him, and he was gone," she said. In one of the more dramatic moments Wednesday, Police Detective Sgt. Mike Allen described how he bent into the ditch to retrieve some tennis shoes floating on the surface, and fell in. "I raised my right foot up and a body floated to the surface," he said. It was Michael Moore. The other two boys' bodies were found in the ditch within 32 feet of where Michael was found. Nearby, he testified, there was an area of woods that had been cleared of debris. Detective Ridge was required to describe the injuries suffered by the boys, and was visibly upset through much of the testimony. He described Byers's mutilation, saying, "It looked as though his penis had been removed and there were stab marks around the area of his penis." As Ridge testified about how the boys were found - two face down, nude and bound hand-to-foot with their clothes pushed into the mud or floating nearby, - the front two rows of the victims' families left the courtroom. Later, Todd Moore, Michael's father, came back and sat by himself in the front row. The first witness to testify today is expected to be Dr. Frank Peretti from the Arkansas State Crime Lab.
Harry	Day 2	#1	[-]
Posts: 27 (02/27/2001 6:59 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL DETECTIVE SAYS MISSKELLEY CONFESSED HEARING PALS' PLOT TO 'HURT SOME BOYS' Date: Friday, January 28, 1994 Section: News Page: A1 Illustration: photo (2) Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal Dateline: Edition: Final Charles Jason Baldwin told Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. on the day before the murders of three West Memphis boys that he and someone named Damien "were going to go out and get some boys and hurt them," a detective testified Thursday. Misskelley revealed the phone call from Baldwin under interrogation June 3, the day Misskelley, Baldwin and Damien Wayne Echols were arrested for the murders, said West Memphis Detective Bryn Ridge. Also during the questioning, Misskelley said he was a member of a satanic cult that met around the state of Arkansas on Wednesday nights, held sexual orgies and killed and ate animals, Ridge said. The detective also said Misskelley told him that Baldwin called again the night after the murders, asking why Misskelley had left the scene where 8- year-olds Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers were killed, and Byers was sexually mutilated. During that call, Misskelley told Ridge, he heard Echols in the background saying, "We did it. We did it. What are we going to do if somebody saw us?" The second day of testimony in Misskelley's capital murder trial produced a series of bombshells as jurors and spectators finally heard what police have known since May 6, when the boys' nude bodies were found hog-tied in a drainage ditch near their homes. Misskelley, 18, is being tried separately because his statement implicates both Baldwin, 16, and Echols, 19. They will be tried next month in Jonesboro. Following along with typed transcripts, the jury listened to two tape recordings of the interrogation of Misskelley. In one he admitted watching the boys murdered after he chased down Michael Moore when he tried to escape. Police had received tips and were working with a theory that the murders were the doings of a satanic cult the day Misskelley was asked to come in for questioning on June 3, Ridge testified. At first, Misskelley said he knew nothing of the crimes. But by that afternoon, under questioning by both Ridge and Police Insp. Gary Gitchell, Misskelley began to yield detailed information about the cult, and later about the phone calls from Baldwin. Gitchell testified that, in order to keep the conversation going, he played a tape of an 8-year-old acquaintance of Misskelley's saying of the crime, ''Nobody knows what happened but me." The statement led to Misskelley's admission that he had been present when the boys were killed, Gitchell said. The unidentified child's one-line commentary, and its alleged effect on the defendant, has led to rampant speculation there was an eyewitness to the murders. When Misskelley told police he would tell them what happened, detectives switched on the tape recorder for the statement played in court Thursday. But before that, according to Ridge, Misskelley told him intriguing facts about the cult, including a list of its members. Under questioning by Deputy Prosecuting Atty. John N. Fogleman, Ridge referred to his notes taken during the interrogation with Misskelley, and told jurors that Misskelley told him he was a member of a cult that had recently met in Turrell, Ark. Ridge quoted Misskelley saying the group met at night, "that boys along with girls would attend; that there would be sessions of sex - orgies, as he called them - that dogs and animals had been killed; and, in fact, portions of those animals had been eaten by the members." Misskelley also said that Echols had been "stalking" the boys in the days before they were killed and that he'd seen a picture of the boys at a cult meeting. Whether the meeting occurred before or after the murders was unclear. Misskelley for the most part kept his head down, avoiding eye contact with the jury, while his statements were played in the hushed courtroom. In the first statement, Misskelley says he was present when Baldwin and Echols "beat (the boys) up so bad so they can't hardly move," and watched as they were cut with a knife and tied up. At one point, he says Michael Moore almost escaped, running back toward his house. "I chased him," Misskelley says. "I chased him, I grabbed him and brought him back." Misskelley says he did not beat, rape or kill any of the boys and left before the ordeal ended. According to a transcript of the testimony handed out to the jury, Gitchell then asked: Q - But you saw them cutting on the boys? A - I saw them cutting on them, and then - Q - So what else left is there, after that? A - They laid the knife down beside them and I saw them tying them up and then that's when I left. At another point in the transcript, Ridge asked Misskelley what should become of Baldwin and Echols: Q - So what do you think ought to be done to them for killing these boys? A - They need to be put away for a while. Q - Put away for a while. Do you think they are sick or just mean? A - I think they are sick. Defense lawyer Daniel T. Stidham of Paragould has maintained the confession is a false statement coerced by police and that Misskelley has an alibi for the period police believe the murders occurred. Stidham asked Circuit Judge David Burnett to postpone his cross-examination of Gitchell until this morning. During his questioning of Ridge, Stidham asked repeatedly what evidence the police had that the murders were the result of cult activity. "Was there anything found at the crime scene that would indicate this was a cult killing? Any upside-down crosses, carvings on the trees of 666? Anything that would make it look like a cult killing?" he asked. Ridge said he was not an expert in occult crimes. But when Stidham asked if Ridge had "any confirmation that there was a cult or that Jessie was a member of a cult," the detective said yes, and named one man listed as a potential witness in the case and another resident of Memphis police have been unable to contact. Ridge said he had talked to several people Misskelley named as cult members who denied any participation. During the morning session Thursday, an associate Arkansas State Crime Lab medical examiner testified that all three boys were severely beaten with blunt objects and may have been forced to perform oral sex. As the wails of parent Pam Hobbs penetrated the courtroom doors and invaded an already uncomfortable quiet, Dr. Frank J. Peretti described the force of blows that shattered the skulls of all three youths. Burnett allowed prosecutors to show the jury pictures taken of the boys as they lay nude and hog-tied with shoelaces before Peretti's autopsies in Little Rock. Peretti described in clinically graphic detail injuries to two boys' sexual organs, including the mutilation of one with a sharp object. Peretti said the blows each boy received were consistent with injuries that would be given by clubs like the ones introduced into evidence by prosecutors Wednesday. But under cross-examination by defense lawyer Stidham, Peretti noted that none of the victims appeared to have been choked and, although each received injuries to his anus, there was no physical evidence of sodomy. That evidence could do further damage to the credibility of Misskelley's statement to police, in which he said the boys were choked into unconsciousness and that he'd seen Echols and Baldwin "screwing" two of them. Only John Mark Byers and Melissa Byers were able to sit through Peretti's presentation, but they did not stay for the afternoon session. The other parents sat through a description of some of the worst injuries but exited quickly when Peretti - over strenuous defense objections - said that, in his opinion, injuries to the boys' ears and mouths were consistent with their being forced to perform oral sex. Testimony is expected to begin this morning with a cross-examination of police Inspector Gitchell.
Harry	Day 3	#2	[-]
Posts: 27 (02/27/2001 7:00 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL MISSKELLEY FRIEND SAYS THEY ATTENDED CULT EVENT HUTCHESON 'PLAYED DETECTIVE' IN SLAYINGS, COURT TOLD Date: Saturday, January 29, 1994 Section: News Page: A1 Illustration: photo (2) Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal Dateline: Edition: Final A friend and neighbor of Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. testified Friday that she "played detective" and attended a meeting of a satanic cult with Misskelley and Damien Wayne Echols in the weeks after three West Memphis boys were killed last May. Victoria Hutcheson, whose 8-year-old son Aaron was in the same Cub Scout troop as the victims, said she had become close to Misskelley after moving to the Highland Trailer Park near Marion in April. Prior to that, she lived just a few houses from one of the murder victims, and all four boys had played together, she said. Hutcheson's testimony linking Misskelley to the occult came in the third day of the 18-year-old's capital murder trial. It was moved to Clay County Circuit Court in this town of 3,323 west of Missouri's Bootheel because of pretrial publicity. Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, are scheduled to be tried on the same charges next month in Jonesboro. Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers, all 8 years old, were killed and Byers was sexually mutilated shortly after they disappeared while riding their bikes on May 5. Also Friday, Byers's mother, Melissa, testified that a mystery man dressed in black had taken her son's picture about six weeks before he was killed. After the slayings occurred, Hutcheson said, she began hearing rumors that Echols was involved, and asked her friend Misskelley to introduce them. She also asked a Marion police detective to show her what she described as ''satanic books" that she said would normally be off-limits to minors. She said she did not inform the West Memphis Police of her amateur sleuthing. "Those boys I loved and I wanted their killers caught," she testified. She never suspected Misskelley and said he slept in her trailer the night before his arrest. Under questioning by Deputy Prosecuting Atty. John N. Fogleman in court Friday, she said that after she'd been introduced to Echols she took the books and spread them out on her coffee table "like they were everyday reading." Q - For what purpose? A - If Damien were into witchcraft, naturally he's going to be curious why I have all this stuff, I thought. Q - At some point, did Damien invite you to some meeting? A - Okay, he said on a Wednesday night, there's an esbat . . . Q - Esbat? E-S-B-A-T? Did you learn what that means? A - I had to look it up . . . It's a cult, satanic meeting. Q - Did you go to this meeting? A - Yes. Q - Who went with you? A - Jessie. Hutcheson said about 15 people attended the meeting, and that Echols drove. At some point during the session, she asked to leave, Hutcheson testified, and Echols drove her home. Misskelley stayed. She did not testify about where the meeting occurred or what happened there. Hutcheson also revealed the identity of the child's voice that police Insp. Gary Gitchell played during an interrogation of Misskelley the day he confessed to being present when the boys were killed. As played in court Thursday, the child's statement - "Nobody knows what happened but me" - has led to speculation that police have an eyewitness to the slayings. Hutcheson said the voice belongs to her son, Aaron. It was not immediately clear why Fogleman had Hutcheson testify that the voice was her son's, and although Aaron is listed as a potential witness, it is not known if he will testify. Before the jury was allowed to hear Melissa Byers's testimony, Circuit Judge David Burnett for the first time in the trial asked the seven women and five men to leave the courtroom so that he could make a ruling on its admissibility. Defense lawyers Daniel T. Stidham and Gregory L. Crow of Paragould argued Byers's testimony should not be permitted. They were overruled. Byers testified that about mid-March, after she and her husband had returned home from a fast trip to a corner grocery to buy cigarettes, their son Christopher told them a man dressed in black had parked his green car in the driveway and snapped his picture, then driven away. The boy had run inside and locked the door. West Memphis Detective Bryn Ridge testified Thursday that Misskelley told him he had seen a photograph of the boys during a meeting of the cult. According to Ridge, Misskelley told police he was a member of a cult that held sexual orgies on Wednesday nights and killed and ate animals. With Misskelley's 32-minute confession now in the hands of the jury, some speculated that additional testimony about satanism has been introduced to provide an explanation or motivation for the kind of brutality found at the crime scene. Evidence seized in a June 3 search of Echols's house was also introduced Friday, including two pairs of black boots owned by Echols and Baldwin that match Misskelley's description of the shoes both wore on the day the boys were killed. A book, Never On A Broomstick by Frank Donovan, seized at Echols's home, was also shown to the jury. The book begins with a chapter titled "Naked Power: Witchcraft still alive as a secret religion." Another chapter: ''Horned Gods and Mother Goddesses." Friday afternoon's testimony centered on physical trace evidence on the victims' clothes, and was mostly inconclusive. Lisa Sakevicius, a criminologist at the Arkansas State Crime Lab, testified she found that the material used to hogtie each of the victims had distinctive square and half-hitch knots. Only the knots used to tie the victim Byers were all of the same kind. In all three cases, shoestrings were used. Sakevicius also testified she found some fibers on Moore's Cub Scout hat that were microscopically similar to a shirt found in Echols's house, and another fiber found on the victims' clothing was similar to some clothing recovered at Baldwin's house. Under cross-examination by Stidham, Sakevicius also noted that a "negroid hair fragment" was found in the sheet used to wrap Byers when he arrived at the Crime Lab in Little Rock. Evidence of a black person at the crime scene could buttress what is expected to be a defense claim that a strange black man, covered with blood, seen at the Bojangles restaurant in West Memphis the night of the murder, might have been a suspect police never found. Michael DeGuglielmo, a forensic geneticist from North Carolina, testified that possible semen stains found on the victims' clothing sent to his laboratory by Arkansas authorities definitely belonged to a higher primate but could not be linked to a suspect in the case. The courtroom was packed for Friday's testimony, unlike the first two days when townspeople lounged in the back rows with plenty of space between them. Among the spectators were 17-year-olds Andrea Banks and Ellen Pyle, who skipped a day of school at Corning High to attend their first-ever trial. Both have been reading about the case. "I didn't know about the shoestrings," Pyle said after Sakevicius testified. "That was kind of disturbing." Both said their day in court would probably figure in a class discussion when they get back to school. So far, 20 witnesses have testified in the first three days of the trial, including two detectives who have been called to the stand more than once. Burnett said he expects the state to rest its case by noon on Monday. Stidham said he expects to complete the defense's case by the end of next week.
Harry	Day 4	#3	[-]
Posts: 27 (02/27/2001 7:01 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL TESTIMONY SUPPORTS MISSKELLEY DEFENSE YELLOW RIBBONS ADORN WITNESSES Date: Tuesday, February 1, 1994 By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal Defense witnesses, most wearing yellow ribbons emblazoned with "Jessie Jr.," provided alibi testimony Monday in Jessie Misskelley Jr.'s murder trial, accounting for much of his time the day three West Memphis 8-year-olds disappeared. The defense called 11 witnesses as to Misskelley's whereabouts from early in the morning of May 5, through parts of the afternoon, and until 7:15 p.m. One woman said she'd seen him late that evening, between 11 p.m. and midnight. No eyewitnesses to his whereabouts between 7:15 p.m. and 11 p.m. testified, although several witnesses said they believed he went wrestling with friends in Dyess, Ark., during those hours. The three murdered boys - Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore - were last seen shortly after 6 p.m. on May 5, riding their bikes near the Robin Hood woods less than a mile from their homes. They were found dead the next day - nude, assaulted and hogtied - in a drainage ditch. The state rested its case at 10:45 a.m. Monday after calling its 21st witness, Jerry Driver, Crittenden County's chief juvenile officer. Driver said he had seen Misskelley and co-defendants Damien Wayne Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, on Nov. 15, 1992, all dressed in long black coats and carrying staffs, or long sticks. Testimony last week suggested the three were members of a satanic cult. After Circuit Judge David Burnett held an hourlong hearing outside the presence of the jury and public, the defense presented a series of Misskelley's friends and neighbors, including his 15-year-old girlfriend and the woman for whom he babysat regularly. Among Misskelley's alibi witnesses were his father, also named Jessie, who said he saw his son shortly after 7:15 p.m. that night when the class he had to attend for a drunken driving conviction let out early. When he drove into the trailer park, Misskelley Sr. noticed some police cars just leaving, he testified. "I got scared that they were going to get me for driving with a suspended license, so I hurried on home," he said. Misskelley Sr. testified that, on the day his son was arrested, a West Memphis police detective joked with him about collecting on a $40,000 reward in the case. "If they got convicted, (Detective Sgt. Mike Allen) said Jessie'd get the $40,000 reward and could buy him a new truck," Misskelley Sr. said. " 'No, I'm not either,' he said. 'I'm going to buy my daddy a truck and I'm going to take his old one.' " Under cross-examination, Misskelley Sr. acknowledged that in early June he told television reporters that his son might have been present but was not involved in the murders. "That was before I found out; that was before I went to work on the case and found out that he was not there. I didn't have proof or anything and said, 'He may have been there; I do not know.' I said, 'But if he were there, he didn't have anything to do with killing those boys.' " Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis riled the senior Misskelley when he asked if he were a convicted felon. "Am I on trial here?" he demanded. Burnett told him to answer the question, and he said, "That's right." Court records show Misskelley was sentenced in May 1987 to 10 years in prison, five of it suspended, for possession of illegal drugs. The defendant kept his head down or looked at a wall opposite the jury as his friends and acquaintances testified in his behalf. Davis and Deputy Prosecuting Atty. John N. Fogleman asked each witness wearing the yellow ribbons what the decoration signified, and each said they were supporters who want to see Misskelley come home. Witness James 'Jim' McNease, a diesel mechanic and owner of the repair shop where the senior Misskelley works, testified he talked to the younger Misskelley the night the 8-year-olds disappeared. Misskelley was getting ready to go to Dyess to wrestle. Outside the courtroom after his testimony, McNease said Misskelley was carrying a black mask like the ones worn by professional stage wrestlers that night. There are others on the defense's witness list who may testify later that they went wrestling with Misskelley. In the morning session, Stephanie Dollar, the defense's first witness, said Misskelley babysat for one of her three children between 2 and 4 p.m. the day before the victims were killed. She said Misskelley also was present in the Highland Trailer Park at 6:30 p.m. when she called the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department after a neighbor struck her child and knocked him from a bicycle. Josh Darby, an 18-year-old friend of Misskelley's, testified through a large wad of chewing gum that he and the defendant had been on a roofing job from 9 that morning until between 12:30 and 1 p.m., but hadn't seen him again until the day after the boys' bodies were found. Misskelley's girlfriend, 15-year-old Susie Brewer, said she visited Misskelley at Dollar's trailer after getting home from Marion Junior High the afternoon of May 5. She last saw him at 7 p.m., and later heard from neighbors that Misskelley had gone to wrestle in Dyess, as he did regularly Wednesday nights. Another witness, Jennifer Roberts, 16, said she saw Misskelley earlier in the day, then again at 11 p.m., when he arrived home from wrestling. Davis asked each alibi witness if he or she had an independent recollection of the date or had been coached with answers supplied by others. Roberts at first said she had not discussed her testimony, then said, "I might have," then ''I'm not for sure." The defense is expected to rest its case Wednesday.
Harry	Day 5	#4	[-]
Posts: 27 (02/27/2001 7:02 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL TESTIMONY CONFLICTS IN MISSKELLEY DEFENSE Date: Wednesday, February 2, 1994 Section: News Page: A1 Illustration: photo (2) Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal Dateline: Edition: Final Four witnesses said Tuesday that Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. was in Dyess, Ark., the night three West Memphis boys were killed last year, but cross- examination by prosecutors raised doubts about their testimony. They were among nine defense witnesses, including the former manager of the Bojangles restaurant in West Memphis who testified about a man covered with mud and blood who entered the business the night the boys were killed. Police showed no interest in the incident until after the boys' bodies were discovered, he said. By then, the mystery man's mess had been cleaned up, and he'd disappeared. In late afternoon of Misskelley's capital murder trial, an expert in police interrogations testified that the defendant's alleged confession lacked essential elements that would make it credible. And he suggested that police detectives supplied Misskelley some of the details he included in his statement. The testimony of Warren D. Holmes, a former Miami Police Department detective and now a lecturer in police techniques, was the first the jury has heard attacking the reliability of a 32-minute statement Misskelley gave police on June 3. In his taped statement played to the jury last week, Misskelley said he was present when the boys were killed. "It's extremely difficult for the average person to believe that someone would confess to a crime he did not commit," Holmes said of Misskelley's statement. But he said that, while he did not want to impugn the integrity of the officers involved, "in a case of this importance and national significance, they had a vested interest" in using the confession despite glaring discrepancies between it and facts known to the police. Under cross-examination, Holmes conceded that, in his experience, 99 percent of those who recant their confessions are in fact guilty. Misskelley, 18, is charged with capital murder in the May 5 murders of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, found nude and hogtied in a ditch less than a mile from their homes. Co-defendants Damien Wayne Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, are to be tried on the same charges later this month in Jonesboro. About a mile from where frantic parents were searching their neighborhood for the missing children on the night of May 5, a group of amateur wrestlers were getting ready for the 40-mile ride to the wrestling ring. Four of Misskelley's burly buddies testified Tuesday he was with them that night, wrestling in a converted theater in Dyess. Two recalled that Misskelley banged his head in the ring and had to sit out that night. But under cross-examination by Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis and Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman, their stories appeared to collapse as two were confronted with their earlier statements to police. Like many of the 11 witnesses testifying for the defense on Monday, the four wore the distinctive yellow "Jessie Jr." ribbons favored by Misskelley's supporters. Dennis Carter Jr., 15, Misskelley's neighbor at the Highland Trailer Park, said he and the others went to the wrestling ring about 7:15 p.m. that night, driving in two cars. Under cross-examination, Davis asked him about a June 9 statement in which he made no mention of being with Misskelley that night, and a later statement in his own handwriting that cast doubt on Tuesday's testimony. Davis handed him a copy of the June 22 statement and asked him to read it to the jury. "I went to Dyess one or two times but it was after the three little boys was (sic) murdered," he read. "I have never went (sic) with Jessie to Dyess." Davis asked him to account for the difference in his version of events. "I wasn't thinking," he said. Testimony Tuesday was riddled with objections and conferences out of the jury's earshot. Fred Revelle, another wrestler and former Highland Trailer Park resident now living in Stuttgart, Ark., also said he was wrestling with Misskelley on the night on May 5. Revelle acknowledged that he had gone to the police June 9 and told them that Misskelley was with him the night he'd signed a contract with the owner of the wrestling ring, and had the receipt to prove it. "I later found out that was false," Revelle said, and later: "I might have jumped the gun." Under questioning by Davis, Revelle was asked to look at the receipt for $300 he received from the ring owner. "What date does that receipt show?" Davis asked. Revelle replied, "April 27" - eight days before the boys disappeared. The other two wrestlers, Roger Jones, 19, and Keith Johnson, 22, could not pin down for certain the May 5 date. "I think little Jessie was there," Jones said. Johnson, who did not go to Dyess because he had to attend a Search and Rescue Unit meeting in Crittenden County, testified that, before Misskelley's arrest, he had told Misskelley about the wounds the boys received, including the fact that one had been sexually mutilated. He said he got details from team members who'd participated in the search for the boys. One defense witness, Rhonda Dedman, was not allowed to testify Tuesday before the jury, but told the judge that Hutcheson told her she expected to receive reward money for her assistance in the case. Hutcheson testified last week that she had "played detective" and attended a satanic cult meeting with both Misskelley and Echols in the days after the boys were killed. Dedman may be permitted to testify today depending on how Hutcheson responds to the allegation when she is recalled to the witness stand today, Burnett ruled. Marty L. King, the former Bojangles manager, said a black man, muddied and bloody, spent half an hour in the women's restroom of the restaurant starting at about 9:30 on the night the boys disappeared. The man looked "disarrayed," King testified. After he left, King called police, and an officer drove up to the drive-through window. She did not bother to come in, he said. The next day, after the bodies were found, another officer came by and took some sunglasses found in the toilet. By then, blood stains on the bathroom's wall, a hallway wall and the floor had been cleaned up. The man has never been accounted for. Holmes, who testified in a pretrial hearing last month that police obtained a false confession from Misskelley, was not permitted to discuss his analysis of a polygraph examination police gave the defendant. Holmes testified police should have been concerned Misskelley was offering a false confession when he was unable to provide any information to police they didn't already know. The defense expects to rest after calling three witnesses this morning. Defense lawyer Daniel T. Stidham declined to say whether he will call his client to the stand. The case is expected to go to the jury early Thursday.
Harry	Day 6	#5	[-]
Posts: 27 (02/27/2001 7:03 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL MISSKELLEY MANIPULATED, JURY TOLD POLICE TACTICS SHAPED CONFESSION, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIST SAYS Date: Thursday, February 3, 1994 Section: News Page: A1 Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal Dateline: Edition: Final Police manipulated Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. into confessing to the murders last year of three 8-year-old West Memphis boys, a social psychologist testified Wednesday. After Misskelley told police that the boys died on the morning of May 5, police asked him another seven times about the time of day it happened, said Richard Ofshe, a sociology professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Police knew the second-graders had been at school at that hour. Eventually, Misskelley told police the victims came to the woods at about 7 that night. They were found dead the early afternoon of the next day. The defense has maintained that Misskelley's statement is false and that he made it because he has a mental handicap. Ofshe and psychologist William E. Wilkins of Jonesboro provided testimony furthering that theory over sometimes bitter cross-examinations by prosecutors. Ofshe's testimony buttressed the Tuesday testimony of a Miami, Fla., expert in police interrogations. Warren D. Holmes, a former Miami Police detective, said the detectives produced a false confession when they failed to get anything from Misskelley's statement that they didn't already know, and failed to clear up obvious discrepancies. Misskelley, 18, Damien Wayne Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, are charged with capital murder in the deaths of Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers. Echols and Baldwin are to be tried beginning Feb. 22 in Jonesboro. Ofshe said the police manipulated Misskelley by providing leading or suggestive details in their questions after an initial two-hour interrogation that was not tape-recorded. In a 32-minute tape at the heart of the case, played for jurors last week, Misskelley said he was present when the boys were killed. Ofshe was allowed to testify after almost an hour of legal wrangling over whether his area of expertise met Arkansas's standards for scientific courtroom evidence. His testmony was first offered outside the jury's hearing, and Circuit Judge David Burnett said he would not allow much of it to be considered by the panel. In testimony the jury did not hear, Ofshe said he interviewed Misskelley for three hours on Dec. 15, then attended a hearing last month in Marion and listened to the police officers give their version of how the confession occurred. Any mention of what Misskelley told him about the interrogation was ruled inadmissible. Misskelley had adopted a "strategy of simply parroting back to police what they told him in order not to displease them and not be subject to additional pressure," he said. Misskelley believed he was being asked to provide information vital to the poice and didn't understand the consequences when he allowed his answers to conform to what police had told him, Ofshe testified. He also said there was no evidence to suggest an "occult element" in the murders, attributing the allegation to "satanic hysteria." After the jury was recalled, defense lawyer Daniel T. Stidham asked him a question approved by Burnett - whether police interrogation techniques used on Misskelley were suggestive and led to his confession. "Yes," said Ofshe, "and . . . the contents of that statement were shaped by those techniques." The abbreviated statement was followed by a lengthy cross-examination by Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis in which Ofshe's role in a Washington rape case was reviewed. Ofshe worked for the defense in a case in which a man had come to believe he had led a satanic cult for 17 years, Ofshe said, and had committed crimes for which there was no evidence. Ofshe's part in the man's defense was to suggest a fabricated crime to which the suspect confessed, in detail, in a written statement. That confession was evidence of a false confession, Ofshe suggested. A court refused to overturn the man's previous guilty pleas. An expert in cult groups, Ofshe shared the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for public service as a consultant to The Point Reyes Light in Northern California. The newspaper won the prize for its stories on Synanon. Ofshe said he typically charges $300 an hour for his courtroom testimony but seldom receives it because he often works in behalf of indigent defendants such as Misskelley. The late afternoon testimony followed statements by the Jonesboro psychologist in the morning who, after testing Misskelley over 19 hours last year, concluded that he was on the borderline of intellectual functioning, suffered from the consequences of drug abuse, and often could not tell fantasy from reality. Psychologist William E. Wilkins also testified that Misskelley would have been highly "suggestible" to police pressure. His testimony came after Burnett ruled that he would not be permitted to testify about the results of a ''suggestibility scale" devised by a clinical psychologist named Gisli Gudjonson. Burnett said the test lacked a scientific basis or, if it had one, Wilkins was not qualified to administer it. Wilkins testified he had never used the test before Misskelley's case. Pictures Misskelley drew of a tree, house and a person were entered into evidence after Wilkins said they indicated a laundry list of personality traits, including "abnormal or low levels of inferiority, insecurity, a tendency to low self-assurance . . . a need to demonstrate masculinity . . . and some preoccupation with phallic symbols." Wilkins's qualification to offer expert testimony was also contested by Davis and Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman. In addition to the two experts, a fifth wrestler, Johnny Hamilton of Knoxville, testified he was with Misskelley in Dyess, Ark., wrestling, on the night the three boys disappeared before they were found dead. Four other wrestlers testified Tuesday that Misskelley went with them to the wrestling ring. The sixth day of the trial was expected to conclude early but the long day of hearings and proffered evidence went well past the usual 5 p.m. end of proceedings. Much of the morning session was taken up with the state's efforts to discredit Wilkins. Davis asked Wilkins about the disciplinary actions that led to his being placed on probation by the Arkansas Board of Examiners in Psychology. Davis asked Wilkins about the probation and about the ongoing requirement that he operate with supervision and refrain from practicing in the area of neuropsychology. Prosecutors were also able to establish that Wilkins only last week wrote to the board of examiners that he intends to practice forensic psychology. The defense expects to call at least one more witness Thursday and the state plans to call some rebuttal witnesses. The case could go to the jury late this afternoon. It is not known if Misskelley will testify.
Harry	Day 7	#6	[-]
Posts: 27 (02/27/2001 7:04 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL ARK. JURORS WEIGH FATE OF MISSKELLEY TRIAL IS FIRST IN SLAYING OF THREE BOYS Date: Friday, February 4, 1994 Section: News Page: A1 Illustration: photo (2) Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal Dateline: Edition: Final The jury in the Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. capital murder trial went home at 12:10 this morning without reaching a verdict. This morning at 9:30 they will resume deliberating whether Misskelley is guilty in the killings last year of three West Memphis boys. Circuit Judge David Burnett sent the jurors to deliberate at 4:17 p.m. and ordered them dinner. At 10:57 p.m. they asked to hear a tape of a witness's testimony from last week. Notebooks in hand and watched by lawyers and the judge who had long since shed their more formal courtroom attire, they listened to two minutes of tape, then returned without comment to the jury room. Misskelley was charged last June with the May 5 beating deaths of 8-year- old second-graders and Cub Scouts Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers. His codefendants, Damien Wayne Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, are scheduled to stand trial Feb. 22 in Jonesboro. Misskelley stood trial separately because he gave police a statement implicating Echols and Baldwin. The trial was moved to Corning from Crittenden County because of publicity. Misskelley, 18, did not take the witness stand and hung his head through more than 2 1/2 hours of closing arguments, as he has throughout the trial. Prosecutors said that, at the least, Misskelley's own words in the 32-minute taped statement to police make him guilty as an accomplice to the slayings. In a riveting moment during his summation, Prosecutor Brent Davis walked over to the defense table and held above Misskelley an 8 1/2-by-11-inch school picture of Michael Moore in his Scout uniform. "See this picture?" he said to the jury. "This defendant - who won't look up, won't look at you - but this defendant's action, if you think about, if this defendant does not chase down Michael Moore, if he does not run through the woods and chase him down and bring him back, Michael Moore lives. Michael Moore gets to go home to his parents. But because of what Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. did, and what he told you about in his taped statement, Michael Moore doesn't get to go home." Davis said that if Michael Moore had been able to escape, the others might have been saved. "But Jessie Misskelley Jr. didn't let Michael Moore get away," Davis said. "He chased him down like an animal and brought him back and, as a result of his actions, Michael Moore is dead, Stevie Branch is dead and Chris Byers is dead." Davis's remarks drew a request for a mistrial from defense lawyers Daniel T. Stidham and Gregory L. Crow, who said it unfairly pointed out to the jury that Misskelley had not testified in his own defense. The judge denied the motion. In his closing argument, Stidham concentrated on a list of 12 "reasonable doubts." Stidham said Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman's hourlong closing appeared to put the defense team's expert witnesses on trial "because they don't have a case against Jessie Misskelley." Among what he called weaknesses in the state's case, Stidham noted that Misskelley's confession - which he characterized as a "wild story" - didn't make sense and is at odds with crime scene and other evidence. He said the elements of the statement - including disputed evidence the boys were sodomized, the idea Misskelley mentions it happened at noon, that he said the boys were tied with rope instead of shoestrings, and that the boys weren't choked although Misskelley says they were - proved that his client was not at the murder scene that day. Stidham also noted that five people placed Misskelley 40 miles away at a wrestling ring at the time the murders occurred, that there was never any physical evidence of Misskelley's presence at the crime scene, and that a suspicious black man covered in blood, who entered the Bojangles restaurant not far from the woods where the boys were killed, was never found. Stidham said that, despite police efforts to link the crimes to a satanic cult, "there's no evidence this was a cult homicide." "My client, Jessie Misskelley, is an innocent man," he said in closing. ''I would ask you to bring back a verdict you can live with for the rest of your lives." Fogleman spent much of his time disputing the testimony of the defense's expert witnesses, Warren D. Holmes of Miami, and Richard J. Ofshe, a social psychologist from the University of California at Berkeley. Holmes testified Tuesday that police may have produced a false confession, suggesting the taped statement does not provide any more information than police already had. Ofshe, whom Fogleman characterized as "an expert at testifying" whose Pulitzer Prize was as relevant as the Heisman Trophy for expertise on scientific matters, said Misskelley was manipulated into making the statement and pressured to say what police suggested they wanted to hear. "What scientific basis could he give you that that statement was coerced?" Fogleman asked. He didn't give you any." Fogleman reminded jurors that Holmes had said the earmark of a true confession is that, when an interrogator makes a wrong supposition in a question, the suspect will correct it. Fogleman noted several examples in the taped statement where Misskelley disagreed with detectives who had asked leading questions. But he kept coming back to the fact that Misskelley was able to identify for officers the one boy who had been castrated, Christopher Byers, and the one who had received a serious cut on his face, Steve Branch. "The most significant details of the crime he gets right," he said. Both sides rested their cases at 11:12 a.m. The defense decided not to call Misskelley to the stand after a long debate and a decision Thursday morning, Stidham said. The state called eight rebuttal witness Thursday, including the two detectives who recorded Misskelley's disputed June 3 confession. Both officers, Insp. Gary Gitchell and and Detective Bryn Ridge, countered testimony offered by defense witnesses earlier in the week and said nothing in their interrogation technique that day was coercive or suggestive. Gloria Wilson, who teaches a drunken drivers' class, was called to contradict Misskelley's father's testimony that he returned home from Wilson's class just after 7 p.m. on May 5 and talked to his son before he left to go wrestling. Wilson said the class didn't end until 7:45 p.m. Marion Police Patrolman Jason Oliver and Cpl. Joe McCafferty were called to say they did not see Misskelley at the scene of an incident on the early evening of May 5 at the Highland Trailer Park, disputing several defense alibi witnesses who testified he was there. The officers said they left the scene at 6:59 p.m., raising further questions about Misskelley Sr.'s testimony that he saw police exiting the trailer park as he arrived home from the class. Prosecutors also presented the testimony of Keith Mercier, who signed a contract to use the wrestling ring in Dyess, Ark., where five defense witness have placed Misskelley on the night the boys disappeared. Misskelley also signed the contract. Mercier said the only time he went to the ring was before the boys were killed. The taped testimony the jury heard Thursday night was that of Tabitha Hollingsworth, who testified last week that she saw Echols and his girlfriend, Domini Teer, in the area of the murder scene at 9:30 the night the boys died. In all, prosecutors put 26 witnesses on the stand since the trial began on Jan. 26; the defense called 22 witnesses, including two out-of-state experts and a psychologist from Jonesboro. One witness, Crittenden County Sheriff's Deputy James Dollahite, who investigated the incident at the trailer park on May 5 and also testified he didn't see Misskelley there, was called by both sides. There were hundreds of pieces of evidence, from stout sticks found at the crime scene to clothing found in all three defendants' homes. Fogleman made it clear in his opening argument that Misskelley would prove to be guilty of murder or an accomplice in the killings by others. As a result, spectators whose numbers grew each day until the courtroom was packed all this week, got a glimpse of the case against Echols and Baldwin. Their lawyers - Val Price and Scott Davidson for Echols and Paul N. Ford and George Robin Wadley for Baldwin, all from Jonesboro - took turns on the bench behind the defense table through much of the trial. The town's biggest celebrity, 1991 Miss Arkansas USA Angela Rockwell, attended closing arguments in court Thursday. Grieving and some teary-eyed exits by the victims' families in the early days of the trial last week developed gradually into what appeared to be confidence - and, ironically, seemed to increase as the defense produced a series of witnesses wearing yellow "Jessie Jr." ribbons. Prosecutors were required to put all three of the victims' mothers on the stand to describe the last moments they saw their sons, riding bicycles toward the woods where they died. Crime scene detectives and technicians from the Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock spelled out in detail the victims' injuries from lacerations, to blows from blunt instruments. They testified Byers was sexually mutilated, that Branch was cut in the face, and that all were found hogtied with shoestrings and submerged in the trash-strewn water of a drainage ditch less than a mile from their homes. To most court observers, witnesses called on Monday, when the defense began presenting its case, did Misskelley more harm than good. And two wrestlers called Tuesday were shown on effective cross-examinations by prosecutors to have contradicted earlier statements to police. The adamant insistence as alibi witnesses to the wrestling matches in Dyess could overcome the very clear impression they were lying. The jury has been asked to consider verdicts for capital murder, first- degree murder and second-degree murder in the case. If they reach a guilty verdict, both sides will present evidence in a punishment phase and recommend a sentence to Burnett. Punishment ranges from five years in prison to the death sentence.
Harry	The Verdict	#7	[-]
Posts: 27 (02/27/2001 7:05 AM) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL MISSKELLEY GUILTY IN BOYS' SLAYINGS GETS LIFE PLUS 40; FREEDOM UNLIKELY Date: Saturday, February 5, 1994 Section: News Page: A1 Illustration: photo (2) Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal Staff reporter Marc Perrusquia contributed to this story. Dateline: Edition: Final A jury Friday found Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. guilty of murdering three 8-year-old West Memphis boys. A judge sentenced him to life plus 40 years, and only a governor granting clemency can give him a chance at freedom. The Clay County jury of seven women and five men deliberated for 10 hours and 17 minutes Thursday night and Friday before rendering its verdict on live television during noon newscasts in Memphis, Little Rock, and Jonesboro. The trial was held in this town of 3,233 west of the Missouri Bootheel after Circuit Judge David Burnett ruled pretrial publicity about the May 5, 1993, killings required a move from Crittenden County. Misskelley, 18, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Michael Moore, who, according to Misskelley's taped statement to police, was chased down by the defendant and brought back to where Christopher Byers and Steve Branch were being brutalized by co-defendants who will go on trial later this month. Misskelley received second-degree murder convictions for the other two boys' deaths. To convict on second-degree murder, the jury had to find that Misskelley exhibited "extreme indifference to the value of human life." The boys were second-graders at Weaver Elementary School and belonged to the same Cub Scout troop. After convicting Misskelley, the jury returned to consider the punishment. Deputy Prosecuting Atty. John N. Fogleman and Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis made succinct cases for the maximum penalties, which the jury recommended and Burnett imposed. "What we're talking about is responsibility," Fogleman told them. ''Nothing you do is going to make the families feel all that much better," but he said it might send a message. "It can stop this kind of junk," he said. "It can stop kids from doing such sick, stupid, crazy things." Exactly why the boys were killed didn't become clear during the trial, although the prosecution offered evidence suggesting it might have been a ritual killing. Davis said he realized that the horrible photographs and testimony the jury saw and heard during the trial was "something you're going to want to shut out of your memory" as soon as they left the courthouse. But he asked them one last time to "think a little bit about the agony and torture those boys went through that afternoon." The jury deliberated just 26 minutes on the punishment and returned with the life sentence and two 20-year sentences. A life sentence means life in prison unless an Arkansas governor at some future point reduces the sentence to a term of years and makes Misskelley eligible for parole. The verdicts and sentencing after seven days of often gruesome testimony ended a roller coaster ride for both the victims' families and Misskelley's. That ride went into one of its deepest troughs after midnight Thursday when Burnett let the jury go home after almost eight hours of deliberation with rumors of a hung jury or possible acquittal. The jury came back Friday and announced it had reached a verdict at 11:54 a.m. Before the three verdicts were read, Burnett cautioned the packed courtroom that no outbursts would be permitted, as four sheriff's deputies and three Corning police officers lined the rail between the defendant and spectators. Four Arkansas State Police officers stood against the back wall. "I am acutely aware that your feelings are on edge," Burnett said before reading the verdicts. "There's a great deal of emotion involved, but the court will not tolerate . . . any display of emotion." The defendant, flanked by his lawyers Daniel T. Stidham and Gregory L. Crow of Paragould, showed no emotion when the verdicts were read. He stared at the table top in front of him. At sentencing, Burnett asked Misskelley if he had anything to say, or any questions. Standing with his head cocked to the left, looking almost relaxed, he said simply, "No, sir." The victims' families took up the first four rows on the prosecution's side of the courtroom; Misskelley's father, stepmother and other family members sat on the first row on the defense side. There were no outbursts. Outside the courtroom, the victims' families expressed a range of emotions, from relief to renewed rage confirmed by the guilty verdicts. Misskelley's family quickly disappeared. "He took a life. He should give a life. I hope he never sees sunlight again," said John Mark Byers, whose son was sexually mutilated in the May 5 killings. "Life plus 40, that's fine with me." "That means Cummins keeps his dead ass for 40 years after he dies," he said referring to the state prison unit south of Little Rock. "The only way he needs to come out is feet first." State officials said Misskelley probably will serve his sentence at the Varner Unit near Grady. Todd and Diana Moore, who have been by far the most reserved of the victims' families, sat in court Friday with their Episcopal priest, Rev. Fred Tinsley. Todd Moore declined comment except to say "What do you think?" when asked if he was relieved at the outcome. Some victims' family members said they hoped Friday's verdicts would help prosecutors in the trial that begins later this month in Jonesboro for Misskelley co-defendants Damien Wayne Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16. Testimony at the first trial showed the two were the alleged masterminds of the deliberate plan to "hurt some boys," according to police. Misskelley told police he'd received a call from Baldwin the night before the murders in which the attack was discussed. Testimony last week also indicated prosecutors have some physical evidence linking Echols and Baldwin to the crime scene, unlike the first case. But they won't be able to tell a Craighead County jury about Misskelley's 32-minute confession in which their alleged roles are described. And Misskelley cannot be compelled to testify. Pam Hobbs, Steve Branch's mother, said she's hoping Misskelley's term of life in a prison population might be harder on him than a shorter period on death row leading to execution. "The healing process will go on forever," she said. "Even though the guy was found guilty, that won't bring Stevie back." Hobbs's father and the victim's grandfather, Jackie Hicks of Blytheville, commended the police for an outstanding investigation, but said he had lingering concerns they didn't catch everyone connected to the crime. West Memphis Police Insp. Gary Gitchell, whose investigation leading to Misskelley's confession was criticized by the defense's expert witnesses, said he was satisfied with the outcome and believes all suspects have been arrested. "I'm happy with this verdict," he said. "I feel our case is even stronger on the other two individuals." Gitchell said he wasn't bothered by attacks made by a Miami, Fla., expert in police interrogation techniques or a social psychologist from the University of California at Berkeley, who testified the confession he and Detective Bryn Ridge obtained was false or coerced. "I've been doing this for so long, I'm used to it," Gitchell said. "We don't take it personally." He called the case "a tragedy that has touched the entire community." Crow, who delivered an argument in the punishment phase in which he asked jurors "to consider Jessie's intent - what he himself intended," said he was disappointed in the verdicts. Stidham and Crow presented a Jonesboro psychologist, William E. Wilkins, who testified at the trial that Misskelley had a low IQ and personality problems, including low self-esteem. Crow asked that the mental handicap, plus his "family background," be weighed in his favor. Stidham said he was "obviously very glad the jury rejected capital murder" and the possibility of a death sentence. Both said they would review their clients' options before making more public comment. For the two 30-year-old law partners from Paragould, it was the first capital murder trial they've conducted on their own. Fogleman, citing the second trial, declined to comment on the verdicts. But he did say that, although initially he opposed having so much as still cameras in the courtroom, he may have changed his mind after seeing how smoothly the trial ran. A documentary film crew out of New York and two television cameras covered each instant of the trial. "I was concerned with the effect on witnesses, but I didn't see it," he said. More than 40 reporters covered the case, and many more are expected for the trial in Jonesboro. Burnett said that despite it being "a long and complicated trial," he was ''well-pleased" with the way it was handled by the news media. "It was a little extra nuisance, but it worked out," he said. The case drew such attention because of allegations the murders may have been inspired by a satanic cult. Testimony from police indicated they first sought to speak to Misskelley because he was known to associate with Echols, who was a suspect almost as soon as the boys' nude bodies, hogtied with shoestrings, were found in a drainage ditch less than a mile from their homes. A key state witness, Victoria M. Hutcheson, testified on Jan. 28 that, in order to meet Echols, she spread books on satanism on her coffee table, and later attended a satanic "esbat" session near Turrell, Ark., with Echols and Misskelley. But prosecutors made little mention of an occult connection to the crime beyond the few references in Misskelley's statement to police. In it, he said he belonged to a cult that killed and ate dogs and held sex orgies. The defense ridiculed the lack of hard evidence presented in court, and the University of California social psychologist, Richard J. Ofshe, attributed police allegations to "satanic hysteria." Police witnesses repeatedly noted that no blood was found at the crime scene, despite some terrible injuries to the boys. They said Byers bled to death after his castration; Moore and Branch drowned in the trash-strewn ditch after receiving blows to their heads, torsos and extremities, and after Branch was cut on his face. After the murders, the scene was cleaned and the boys' clothes stuffed into the mud beneath the knee-high water in the ditch, destroying its use as evidence. The prosecution stressed that Misskelley was the only person they talked to before the June 3 arrests who was able to identify which victim received which injuries. Defense testimony that the confession was coerced apparently was rejected by the jury. The trial's end is a relief to a quiet town of friendly people. Before the verdict, Fred Martin, who wrote an editorial for the weekly Clay County Courier this week defending Corning against media slights, said, "People have been really uptight; they'd like to see a decision."

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