THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
WITNESS: BALDWIN SAID HE TASTED BOY'S BLOOD
Date: Thursday, March 3, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Illustration: photo (2)
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
Charles Jason Baldwin confessed in August to sucking blood from one of the children he is accused of murdering, a teenager who spent time with Baldwin in a detention center testified Wednesday.
The testimony of Michael Carson, 16, came on the third day of the capital murder trial of Baldwin, also 16, and Damien Wayne Echols, 19, charged in the May 1993 deaths of 8-year-olds Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers of West Memphis.
Also Wednesday, a forensic pathologist called by the state testified under cross-examination that, in his opinion, the boys died between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on May 6.
It was unclear whether the testimony will correspond to either defendant's
alibi, but it differed from testimony at co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley's trial in Corning. There, the same pathologist, Dr. Frank J. Peretti, said he could not give an opinion on the time of death.
Peretti's testimony prompted Misskelley's lawyer, Daniel T. Stidham, to say he is debating asking for a retrial.
Prosecutors asked Peretti if he was comfortable making a time-of-death determination based on the limited facts available, and he said no. Making the determination "is more an art than a science," he said.
Under questioning by Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis, Carson said he was judged a delinquent for burglarizing a home while looking for guns and met Baldwin in August on the third day of a five-day stint at the Craighead County Juvenile Detention Center.
Baldwin has been in the Jonesboro center since his June 3 arrest.
Circuit Judge David Burnett held a hearing in chambers before allowing Carson to testify before the jury. The hearing was barred to the press and public, Burnett said, because Carson is a juvenile and his testimony involved his juvenile criminal record.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Burnett should not have questioned potential jurors in private chambers away from the public. The case
went to the high court after The Commercial Appeal challenged the closed-door sessions.
During his testimony in open court, Carson acknowledged that, before his August arrest, he had burglarized his grandparents' lake cabin. On his first two days in the center, Carson testified, he was in a cell by himself and talked to no one.
On the third day, he was invited to play spades with Baldwin and two other inmates. During the game, Carson said he asked Baldwin about his involvement in the murders, and Baldwin denied it.
But the next day, Carson again asked Baldwin. "I asked him, 'Just between you and me, did you do it?' " And Baldwin offered what Carson called "the gory details."
"He told me how he dismembered the kids . . . He sucked the blood from the penis and scrotum and put the balls in his mouth," Carson said. Carson said he returned to his cell, stunned.
Carson said he did not go to authorities until he saw the grieving families of the victims during Misskelley's trial in Corning.
"I didn't really want to get involved in it; I'd just gotten out of jail," he said. But after seeing the Corning trial coverage, "I got a soft heart; I couldn't take it." Carson said he called Davis while the Corning trial was still under way and later gave a statement to an Arkansas State Police detective.
Carson told police that, in one conversation with Baldwin, the defendant made reference to Misskelley.
"He said he was going to kick his ass," Carson said. "He said he (Misskelley) messed everything up."
Baldwin also predicted "he was going to go scot-free," Carson said.
During Carson's testimony, Baldwin sat still and wore the same look of disappointment he's had throughout the trial. It appeared that Carson and Baldwin never made eye contact.
On cross-examination, Carson's memory was tested by Baldwin attorney Paul N. Ford, who asked him to name the prosecuting attorney, the deputy prosecutor and the names of his last burglary victim. Carson couldn't, and called Davis ''Bill."
Ford then asked with an air of incredulity whether it was his testimony that Baldwin confessed "in the second conversation you all had ever had." Carson stuck to his story.
Ford also asked why it took so long for him to step forward with his tale.
Peretti's testimony about the time of death came in another Ford cross- examination Wednesday morning.
Peretti testified Tuesday that injuries to the boys' mouths and ears were consistent with injuries he'd seen on victims forced to perform oral sex.
On Wednesday, Peretti said the injuries were also consistent with other activities. Peretti also said the boys had not received the kinds of injury that would establish they had been sodomized.
The testimony is important if Misskelley does decide to testify, because he said the boys were forced to perform oral sex and that two were sodomized.
Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesman Alan Ables said Wednesday that Misskelley returned to the Pine Bluff diagnostic unit at 3:15 p.m.
Burnett said he had not been informed whether Misskelley planned to testify against his co-defendants, but "as it stands right now, I guess not."
Peretti also was asked for his opinion of a time of death, based on when the children were last seen and the coroner's report of the appearance of the bodies when they were discovered on the afternoon of May 6. Peretti performed an autopsy May 7.
Peretti said he estimated the time of death at between 1 and 5 a.m., ''based on the facts that I know." Under further questioning, he said those facts would include that the bodies lay for some hours in 60-degree water and that the Byers boy had bled to death.
In the most gruesome testimony presented so far, Ford asked Peretti to describe Byers's genital mutilation. Byers received superficial gouging wounds to his thighs, and the top of his penis and his scrotum and testicles were cut off.
Under more questioning by Ford, Peretti said the cuts were made with skill and precision by someone with a knowledge of anatomy. He said to do the same thing would have taken him 10 minutes under laboratory conditions and would have been "quite difficult" to do in the woods in the dark.
Peretti's time-of-death estimate could affect the relevance of testimony presented in Misskelley's Corning trial. Tabitha Hollingsworth said she saw Echols and his girlfriend walking at about 9 p.m. on May 5 near the woods where the boys were found.
The state argued in Corning that the girlfriend could have been mistaken for Baldwin, who had long blond hair at the time he was arrested. Peretti also said it was plausible the murders occurred somewhere other than where the bodies were found because of the lack of blood found at the crime scene.
The state called a series of police officers to the witness stand to testify about their observations at the crime scene. West Memphis Detective Sgt. Mike Allen was called to describe how Arkansas State Police divers found a survivalist knife in the lake behind Baldwin's house on Nov. 17.
Wednesday's testimony began with Echols's lawyer Val P. Price cross- examining Peretti about a knife turned over to the West Memphis police by representatives of a documentary film crew making a movie for Home Box Office.
According to a transcript of a pretrial hearing held Feb. 16, John Mark Byers gave the knife to one of the film crew members, who later turned it over to police. According to Peretti, the knife blade contained a small piece of red fabric which was turned over to the Arkansas State Crime Lab's trace evidence department.
WITNESS: BALDWIN SAID HE TASTED BOY'S BLOOD
Date: Thursday, March 3, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Illustration: photo (2)
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
Charles Jason Baldwin confessed in August to sucking blood from one of the children he is accused of murdering, a teenager who spent time with Baldwin in a detention center testified Wednesday.
The testimony of Michael Carson, 16, came on the third day of the capital murder trial of Baldwin, also 16, and Damien Wayne Echols, 19, charged in the May 1993 deaths of 8-year-olds Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers of West Memphis.
Also Wednesday, a forensic pathologist called by the state testified under cross-examination that, in his opinion, the boys died between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on May 6.
It was unclear whether the testimony will correspond to either defendant's
alibi, but it differed from testimony at co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley's trial in Corning. There, the same pathologist, Dr. Frank J. Peretti, said he could not give an opinion on the time of death.
Peretti's testimony prompted Misskelley's lawyer, Daniel T. Stidham, to say he is debating asking for a retrial.
Prosecutors asked Peretti if he was comfortable making a time-of-death determination based on the limited facts available, and he said no. Making the determination "is more an art than a science," he said.
Under questioning by Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis, Carson said he was judged a delinquent for burglarizing a home while looking for guns and met Baldwin in August on the third day of a five-day stint at the Craighead County Juvenile Detention Center.
Baldwin has been in the Jonesboro center since his June 3 arrest.
Circuit Judge David Burnett held a hearing in chambers before allowing Carson to testify before the jury. The hearing was barred to the press and public, Burnett said, because Carson is a juvenile and his testimony involved his juvenile criminal record.
The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Burnett should not have questioned potential jurors in private chambers away from the public. The case
went to the high court after The Commercial Appeal challenged the closed-door sessions.
During his testimony in open court, Carson acknowledged that, before his August arrest, he had burglarized his grandparents' lake cabin. On his first two days in the center, Carson testified, he was in a cell by himself and talked to no one.
On the third day, he was invited to play spades with Baldwin and two other inmates. During the game, Carson said he asked Baldwin about his involvement in the murders, and Baldwin denied it.
But the next day, Carson again asked Baldwin. "I asked him, 'Just between you and me, did you do it?' " And Baldwin offered what Carson called "the gory details."
"He told me how he dismembered the kids . . . He sucked the blood from the penis and scrotum and put the balls in his mouth," Carson said. Carson said he returned to his cell, stunned.
Carson said he did not go to authorities until he saw the grieving families of the victims during Misskelley's trial in Corning.
"I didn't really want to get involved in it; I'd just gotten out of jail," he said. But after seeing the Corning trial coverage, "I got a soft heart; I couldn't take it." Carson said he called Davis while the Corning trial was still under way and later gave a statement to an Arkansas State Police detective.
Carson told police that, in one conversation with Baldwin, the defendant made reference to Misskelley.
"He said he was going to kick his ass," Carson said. "He said he (Misskelley) messed everything up."
Baldwin also predicted "he was going to go scot-free," Carson said.
During Carson's testimony, Baldwin sat still and wore the same look of disappointment he's had throughout the trial. It appeared that Carson and Baldwin never made eye contact.
On cross-examination, Carson's memory was tested by Baldwin attorney Paul N. Ford, who asked him to name the prosecuting attorney, the deputy prosecutor and the names of his last burglary victim. Carson couldn't, and called Davis ''Bill."
Ford then asked with an air of incredulity whether it was his testimony that Baldwin confessed "in the second conversation you all had ever had." Carson stuck to his story.
Ford also asked why it took so long for him to step forward with his tale.
Peretti's testimony about the time of death came in another Ford cross- examination Wednesday morning.
Peretti testified Tuesday that injuries to the boys' mouths and ears were consistent with injuries he'd seen on victims forced to perform oral sex.
On Wednesday, Peretti said the injuries were also consistent with other activities. Peretti also said the boys had not received the kinds of injury that would establish they had been sodomized.
The testimony is important if Misskelley does decide to testify, because he said the boys were forced to perform oral sex and that two were sodomized.
Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesman Alan Ables said Wednesday that Misskelley returned to the Pine Bluff diagnostic unit at 3:15 p.m.
Burnett said he had not been informed whether Misskelley planned to testify against his co-defendants, but "as it stands right now, I guess not."
Peretti also was asked for his opinion of a time of death, based on when the children were last seen and the coroner's report of the appearance of the bodies when they were discovered on the afternoon of May 6. Peretti performed an autopsy May 7.
Peretti said he estimated the time of death at between 1 and 5 a.m., ''based on the facts that I know." Under further questioning, he said those facts would include that the bodies lay for some hours in 60-degree water and that the Byers boy had bled to death.
In the most gruesome testimony presented so far, Ford asked Peretti to describe Byers's genital mutilation. Byers received superficial gouging wounds to his thighs, and the top of his penis and his scrotum and testicles were cut off.
Under more questioning by Ford, Peretti said the cuts were made with skill and precision by someone with a knowledge of anatomy. He said to do the same thing would have taken him 10 minutes under laboratory conditions and would have been "quite difficult" to do in the woods in the dark.
Peretti's time-of-death estimate could affect the relevance of testimony presented in Misskelley's Corning trial. Tabitha Hollingsworth said she saw Echols and his girlfriend walking at about 9 p.m. on May 5 near the woods where the boys were found.
The state argued in Corning that the girlfriend could have been mistaken for Baldwin, who had long blond hair at the time he was arrested. Peretti also said it was plausible the murders occurred somewhere other than where the bodies were found because of the lack of blood found at the crime scene.
The state called a series of police officers to the witness stand to testify about their observations at the crime scene. West Memphis Detective Sgt. Mike Allen was called to describe how Arkansas State Police divers found a survivalist knife in the lake behind Baldwin's house on Nov. 17.
Wednesday's testimony began with Echols's lawyer Val P. Price cross- examining Peretti about a knife turned over to the West Memphis police by representatives of a documentary film crew making a movie for Home Box Office.
According to a transcript of a pretrial hearing held Feb. 16, John Mark Byers gave the knife to one of the film crew members, who later turned it over to police. According to Peretti, the knife blade contained a small piece of red fabric which was turned over to the Arkansas State Crime Lab's trace evidence department.
