THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
ECHOLS TAKES STAND, DENIES KILLING BOYS, ANY PART IN SATANISM
Date: Thursday, March 10, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Damien Wayne Echols took the witness stand Wednesday and repeatedly denied any part in the deaths of three West Memphis boys or any participation in satanism or human sacrifice.
"I'm not a satanist. I don't believe in human sacrifices, or anything like that," said Echols, the surprise third witness called after his lawyers began presenting his defense at 10:52 a.m.
The state rested its case after two West Memphis teenagers testified that they heard Echols say before his arrest that he killed the three boys and intended to kill two more and then turn himself in to authorities.
Testifying in a calm voice and never looking flustered or confused, Echols said he has had an avid interest in several world religions, studying Roman Catholicism and considering the priesthood before taking up the Wicca religion of witches who glory in nature.
In a dramatic series of questions asked by his lawyer, Val P. Price, Echols denied a role in the murders and said he has been alternately angry, sad and scared as he awaited the opportunity to give his version of events. Among his explanations for his arrest on capital murder charges was that the police have ''made up a lot of stuff."
Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis asked Echols if he was testifying under the influence of any drugs, and Echols said he was taking a prescription antidepressant.
Wednesday's seventh day of testimony in the case was played out in an overheated, packed courtroom. During one exchange, Price asked his client point-blank about the crimes.
Q - On May 5, did you kill Michael Moore?
A - No, I did not.
Q - On May 5, did you kill Steve Branch?
A - No, I did not.
Q - On May 5, did you kill Chris Byers?
A - No, I did not.
Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, face execution by lethal injection if the state convinces a Craighead County jury of eight women and four men that the two teens killed the three 8-year-old second-graders.
No one had expected Echols to testify so early in his own defense. He testified earlier in the week during a hearing outside the presence of the jury about being denied access to his lawyer during a police interrogation May 10. Many suggested that would be his only in-court testimony.
Echols testified for an hour and 35 minutes, elaborating on most of the mysteries about his interest in the occult, his wearing of black, his name change to Damien - from Michael - at age 16, and his friendship with co- defendant Baldwin.
Under the friendly questioning by Price, Echols said he is an avid reader with little interest in sports, and that his favorite authors were horror writer Stephen King, gothic horror novelist Anne Rice, and fantasy science- fiction writer Dean Koontz.
He said he studied Roman Catholicism at St. Michael's Church in West Memphis before switching to an interest in the Wiccan religion. Price asked him to explain Wicca.
"It acknowledges a goddess in a higher regard as a god because people have always said we are all God's children and men can't have children," he said. ''It's basically like a close involvement with nature.
"I've read about all different types of religions because I've always wondered, like, how do we know we've got the right one? How do we know we're not messing up?" he said.
Echols explained that he changed his name when his stepfather, Jack Echols, adopted him at age 16 and that he changed his first name because he was inspired by the 19th Century Belgian Catholic missionary Father Damien. Father Damien, whose given name was Joseph de Veuster, ministered to a leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai until his death in 1889.
Asked about some items taken from his bedroom in May 1992 - a year before the murders - Echols had ready explanations.
A retired Ohio police captain, Dale W. Griffis, testified Tuesday that some of the items, especially a picture of a robed figure with a goat's head, involved black witchcraft.
Price asked Echols about whether he held satanic beliefs.
"Some things I might have in common, like they say some satanists may be arrogant, conceited, self-important - things like that. I might be that," he said. "But I'm not a satanist. I don't believe in human sacrifices, or anything like that."
A home journal he kept two years ago was also entered into evidence Wednesday and included statements, quotations and poetry from a variety of sources and Echols's own thoughts. One Echols poem was titled Poison Was the Cure.
Price asked Echols about one fatalistic line in the journal from a song by the heavy metal rock band Metallica on an album titled "Injustice for All."
"It talks about how warped the court systems are, and stuff like that," Echols said, evoking laughter in the courtroom.
About a dog's skull that a Crittenden County sheriff's investigator seized from his room in 1992, Echols said he and his stepfather found it and bleached it.
Price asked if it had any "satanic meaning," "cult meaning," or ''occult meaning." Echols said it did not.
Co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., found guilty of first- and second-degree murder Feb. 4 in Corning, Ark., said he was a member of a cult that killed and ate dogs and held orgies. He is serving a life sentence plus 40 years.
Price at one point asked about a book of spells, potions and incantations introduced as evidence Tuesday, including some that appear to accompany sacrifices.
Q - Did you ever practice any of those spells?
A - Not that I know of.
Q - Did you ever use any of that material to conjure up any evil, or anything like that?
A - No.
Echols said he liked to wear black, including a long black trenchcoat, even in summer, because "I was told I looked good in black. I was real conscious of the way I dressed. If I'm not dressed the way I like it, I get a headache because I worry about it all the time.
"If I dressed in black, I didn't really have to worry about it 'cause I always looked the same."
He said reports that he had a pentagram tattoo on his chest were true and that he'd put it on himself, using India ink, a razor and needles. He also put a cross tattoo on his hand.
What was its significance, Price wanted to know.
"There were a lot of people at school that were getting them that year," Echols said.
Echols said he had never seen and never owned a knife like the one Arkansas State Police pulled from the lake behind Baldwin's trailer in November.
Under cross-examination by Davis, Echols was asked about his knowledge of satanism and the occult.
Specifically, Davis wanted to know if Echols was familiar with Aleister Crowley, the turn-of-the-century founder of the Ordo Templi Orientis, a group devoted to black magic and sexual magic. He died in 1947.
Q - Aleister Crowley is a guy who, based on his writings, believes in human sacrifice, doesn't he?
A - He also believed he was God.
Q - He also had writings that indicated that children were the best type of human sacrifice, correct?
A - Yes.
Q - Now, Aleister Crowley doesn't have a particular significance for you?
A - I know who he is. I've read a little about him, but I've never read anything by him.
Next, Davis asked Echols to look at two pages in unspecified alphabets which included a list of names. Echols said he'd written in the alphabets "so that nobody could read" them. On one page, Echols had listed his name, Baldwin's name, his newborn son, Damien Seth Echols, and Aleister Crowley's.
Echols acknowledged he wrote the list while in jail.
Both defense teams objected to the state's efforts to enter the list into evidence and Burnett sustained their objections.
Price demanded that the prosecutors explain how they had come to have his client's personal property and demanded an investigation by the Craighead County sheriff's office or the Arkansas State Police.
Price also moved for a mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct, which Burnett denied.
The state rested its case at 10:48 a.m. after calling two West Memphis softball players and one of the girls' mothers to the stand.
Jody Medford, 15, said she was standing near the concession stand at the Girl's Club softball fields in West Memphis when she heard Echols talk about the murders.
"I heard Damien Echols say that he killed the three little boys and, before he turned himself in, that he was going to kill two more, and already had one all picked out," said Medford. She said that after her game was over, she told her mother on the ride home. After Echols was arrested, she gave a statement to police.
Under questioning by Echols's other attorney, Scott Davidson, Medford was asked to repeat what she'd overheard. She said, "He said, 'I killed the three little boys and, before I turn myself in, I'm going to kill two more and I already have one of them picked out.' "
Davidson attempted to raise questions about why Medford had not reported the incident to a police officer that evening. Also during cross-examination, Medford said she had never seen Echols before that evening but has seen him many times since, "on television."
Medford's mother, Donna Medford, said her daughter reported the incident as they drove home.
Mrs. Medford said he knew immediately who her daughter was talking about when the girl described Echols as the "weird-looking boy" with long black hair.
Also testifying Wednesday was Christy VanVickle, 12, who said she also heard Echols tell a group gathered at the ball fields that "he killed the three little boys." After she heard Echols's alleged statement, she went and told her mother, who was not called as a witness.
After the three witnesses testified, Deputy Prosecutor John Fogelman asked Burnett to allow him to read an Echols poem to the jury.
" 'I have always been in the black and in the wrong,' " Fogleman read. " 'I tried to get into the white but almost destroyed it because the black tried to follow me. This time I won't let it. I will be in the middle.' "
Echols later explained the poem was written "in one of my manic-depressive phases."
Also testifying for the defense Wednesday were Echols's mother, Pamela J. Hutchison, and his sister, Michelle Echols. Both said he was at home with them all evening on May 5.
Testimony is to resume this morning at 9:30. Echols may return to the stand.
ECHOLS TAKES STAND, DENIES KILLING BOYS, ANY PART IN SATANISM
Date: Thursday, March 10, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Damien Wayne Echols took the witness stand Wednesday and repeatedly denied any part in the deaths of three West Memphis boys or any participation in satanism or human sacrifice.
"I'm not a satanist. I don't believe in human sacrifices, or anything like that," said Echols, the surprise third witness called after his lawyers began presenting his defense at 10:52 a.m.
The state rested its case after two West Memphis teenagers testified that they heard Echols say before his arrest that he killed the three boys and intended to kill two more and then turn himself in to authorities.
Testifying in a calm voice and never looking flustered or confused, Echols said he has had an avid interest in several world religions, studying Roman Catholicism and considering the priesthood before taking up the Wicca religion of witches who glory in nature.
In a dramatic series of questions asked by his lawyer, Val P. Price, Echols denied a role in the murders and said he has been alternately angry, sad and scared as he awaited the opportunity to give his version of events. Among his explanations for his arrest on capital murder charges was that the police have ''made up a lot of stuff."
Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis asked Echols if he was testifying under the influence of any drugs, and Echols said he was taking a prescription antidepressant.
Wednesday's seventh day of testimony in the case was played out in an overheated, packed courtroom. During one exchange, Price asked his client point-blank about the crimes.
Q - On May 5, did you kill Michael Moore?
A - No, I did not.
Q - On May 5, did you kill Steve Branch?
A - No, I did not.
Q - On May 5, did you kill Chris Byers?
A - No, I did not.
Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, face execution by lethal injection if the state convinces a Craighead County jury of eight women and four men that the two teens killed the three 8-year-old second-graders.
No one had expected Echols to testify so early in his own defense. He testified earlier in the week during a hearing outside the presence of the jury about being denied access to his lawyer during a police interrogation May 10. Many suggested that would be his only in-court testimony.
Echols testified for an hour and 35 minutes, elaborating on most of the mysteries about his interest in the occult, his wearing of black, his name change to Damien - from Michael - at age 16, and his friendship with co- defendant Baldwin.
Under the friendly questioning by Price, Echols said he is an avid reader with little interest in sports, and that his favorite authors were horror writer Stephen King, gothic horror novelist Anne Rice, and fantasy science- fiction writer Dean Koontz.
He said he studied Roman Catholicism at St. Michael's Church in West Memphis before switching to an interest in the Wiccan religion. Price asked him to explain Wicca.
"It acknowledges a goddess in a higher regard as a god because people have always said we are all God's children and men can't have children," he said. ''It's basically like a close involvement with nature.
"I've read about all different types of religions because I've always wondered, like, how do we know we've got the right one? How do we know we're not messing up?" he said.
Echols explained that he changed his name when his stepfather, Jack Echols, adopted him at age 16 and that he changed his first name because he was inspired by the 19th Century Belgian Catholic missionary Father Damien. Father Damien, whose given name was Joseph de Veuster, ministered to a leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai until his death in 1889.
Asked about some items taken from his bedroom in May 1992 - a year before the murders - Echols had ready explanations.
A retired Ohio police captain, Dale W. Griffis, testified Tuesday that some of the items, especially a picture of a robed figure with a goat's head, involved black witchcraft.
Price asked Echols about whether he held satanic beliefs.
"Some things I might have in common, like they say some satanists may be arrogant, conceited, self-important - things like that. I might be that," he said. "But I'm not a satanist. I don't believe in human sacrifices, or anything like that."
A home journal he kept two years ago was also entered into evidence Wednesday and included statements, quotations and poetry from a variety of sources and Echols's own thoughts. One Echols poem was titled Poison Was the Cure.
Price asked Echols about one fatalistic line in the journal from a song by the heavy metal rock band Metallica on an album titled "Injustice for All."
"It talks about how warped the court systems are, and stuff like that," Echols said, evoking laughter in the courtroom.
About a dog's skull that a Crittenden County sheriff's investigator seized from his room in 1992, Echols said he and his stepfather found it and bleached it.
Price asked if it had any "satanic meaning," "cult meaning," or ''occult meaning." Echols said it did not.
Co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., found guilty of first- and second-degree murder Feb. 4 in Corning, Ark., said he was a member of a cult that killed and ate dogs and held orgies. He is serving a life sentence plus 40 years.
Price at one point asked about a book of spells, potions and incantations introduced as evidence Tuesday, including some that appear to accompany sacrifices.
Q - Did you ever practice any of those spells?
A - Not that I know of.
Q - Did you ever use any of that material to conjure up any evil, or anything like that?
A - No.
Echols said he liked to wear black, including a long black trenchcoat, even in summer, because "I was told I looked good in black. I was real conscious of the way I dressed. If I'm not dressed the way I like it, I get a headache because I worry about it all the time.
"If I dressed in black, I didn't really have to worry about it 'cause I always looked the same."
He said reports that he had a pentagram tattoo on his chest were true and that he'd put it on himself, using India ink, a razor and needles. He also put a cross tattoo on his hand.
What was its significance, Price wanted to know.
"There were a lot of people at school that were getting them that year," Echols said.
Echols said he had never seen and never owned a knife like the one Arkansas State Police pulled from the lake behind Baldwin's trailer in November.
Under cross-examination by Davis, Echols was asked about his knowledge of satanism and the occult.
Specifically, Davis wanted to know if Echols was familiar with Aleister Crowley, the turn-of-the-century founder of the Ordo Templi Orientis, a group devoted to black magic and sexual magic. He died in 1947.
Q - Aleister Crowley is a guy who, based on his writings, believes in human sacrifice, doesn't he?
A - He also believed he was God.
Q - He also had writings that indicated that children were the best type of human sacrifice, correct?
A - Yes.
Q - Now, Aleister Crowley doesn't have a particular significance for you?
A - I know who he is. I've read a little about him, but I've never read anything by him.
Next, Davis asked Echols to look at two pages in unspecified alphabets which included a list of names. Echols said he'd written in the alphabets "so that nobody could read" them. On one page, Echols had listed his name, Baldwin's name, his newborn son, Damien Seth Echols, and Aleister Crowley's.
Echols acknowledged he wrote the list while in jail.
Both defense teams objected to the state's efforts to enter the list into evidence and Burnett sustained their objections.
Price demanded that the prosecutors explain how they had come to have his client's personal property and demanded an investigation by the Craighead County sheriff's office or the Arkansas State Police.
Price also moved for a mistrial based on prosecutorial misconduct, which Burnett denied.
The state rested its case at 10:48 a.m. after calling two West Memphis softball players and one of the girls' mothers to the stand.
Jody Medford, 15, said she was standing near the concession stand at the Girl's Club softball fields in West Memphis when she heard Echols talk about the murders.
"I heard Damien Echols say that he killed the three little boys and, before he turned himself in, that he was going to kill two more, and already had one all picked out," said Medford. She said that after her game was over, she told her mother on the ride home. After Echols was arrested, she gave a statement to police.
Under questioning by Echols's other attorney, Scott Davidson, Medford was asked to repeat what she'd overheard. She said, "He said, 'I killed the three little boys and, before I turn myself in, I'm going to kill two more and I already have one of them picked out.' "
Davidson attempted to raise questions about why Medford had not reported the incident to a police officer that evening. Also during cross-examination, Medford said she had never seen Echols before that evening but has seen him many times since, "on television."
Medford's mother, Donna Medford, said her daughter reported the incident as they drove home.
Mrs. Medford said he knew immediately who her daughter was talking about when the girl described Echols as the "weird-looking boy" with long black hair.
Also testifying Wednesday was Christy VanVickle, 12, who said she also heard Echols tell a group gathered at the ball fields that "he killed the three little boys." After she heard Echols's alleged statement, she went and told her mother, who was not called as a witness.
After the three witnesses testified, Deputy Prosecutor John Fogelman asked Burnett to allow him to read an Echols poem to the jury.
" 'I have always been in the black and in the wrong,' " Fogleman read. " 'I tried to get into the white but almost destroyed it because the black tried to follow me. This time I won't let it. I will be in the middle.' "
Echols later explained the poem was written "in one of my manic-depressive phases."
Also testifying for the defense Wednesday were Echols's mother, Pamela J. Hutchison, and his sister, Michelle Echols. Both said he was at home with them all evening on May 5.
Testimony is to resume this morning at 9:30. Echols may return to the stand.
