Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 27, 1994, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: METRO, Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 1048 words
HEADLINE: Grisly accusations ignite emotions of Baldwin friends, kin
BYLINE: Marc Perrusquia, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: MARION, Ark.
BODY:
A yellow ribbon hangs from the front door of Jason Baldwin's
trailer home.
Police swarmed through this rust-pocked trailer one night last
June, confiscating a red bathrobe. Later, they found a knife in a lake
behind the backyard.
Prosecutors this week will try to prove Baldwin, 16, and a
co-defendant murdered three young boys, possibly as part of an occult
ritual.
That allegation still stirs passions at the Lakeshore Estates
trailer park where Baldwin, a shy, artistic teenager with flowing
blond hair, was largely known as a polite and courteous youngster.
''He played with my kids quite a bit,'' said neighbor Pam
Hollingsworth, 40. ''As he was growing up, he never struck me to be no
mean kind of kid.''
People here knew Baldwin as a good student and a well-behaved boy
who owned a slew of snakes, lizards and other exotic pets. He listened
to rock music and liked to hunt and fish.
Yet trouble swirled around him. His mother was temporarily
hospitalized for a mental illness. And a couple years ago Baldwin
befriended a teen named Damien Echols, who spooked neighbors with talk
of killing cats and worshiping the devil.
''I told my son to stay away from him,'' said Larry Baldwin,
Jason's father. ''He (Jason) has always been a good kid in my eyes.
This whole thing just blows me away.''
Baldwin and Echols, 19, are on trial in Jonesboro, Ark., facing
three counts of capital murder for the May 5 deaths of West Memphis
8-year-olds Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. A jury
was seated last week and testimony is to begin Monday.
A jury earlier this month convicted a third defendant, Jessie
Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18.
Baldwin's alleged role in the murders is spelled out in statements
Misskelley gave police June 3, leading to their arrests that night.
Baldwin telephoned Misskelley before the murders, telling him
Baldwin and Echols planned to ''hurt some boys,'' Misskelley told
police. In a woods that night, Baldwin and Echols beat and killed the
boys, and Baldwin cut one in the face with a knife, Misskelley said.
''That boy can't even stand the sight of blood,'' said Larry
Baldwin, 38, who said he often went hunting with his sons, Jason and
Matt, 14. Baldwin said his sons were no help when it came to cleaning
the kill. ''Those boys, they'd be squeamish gutting a deer.''
Baldwin's childhood was troubled with family separations. His
parents divorced when he was a young child and his mother, Angela Gail
Grinnell, and stepfather, Terry, recently parted ways.
Larry Baldwin, who lives in central Arkansas, said he and Angela
Gail are second cousins who married in 1977 following a platonic
friendship.
''We really shouldn't have got married,'' Baldwin said. ''I love
her as a friend. (But) she can't handle pressure.''
Under a judge's order, Angela Gail Grinnell was involuntarily
admitted to the East Arkansas Regional Mental Health Center in 1992
for a period not to exceed 45 days, Crittenden County probate records
show.
The Feb. 5, 1992, order cited ''paranoid delusions,'' noting
Grinnell had been seen four times that January in the emergency room
at Crittenden Memorial Hospital where she was treated for
self-inflicted injuries that included razor slashes to her neck and
arms.
Grinnell told authorites she suffered ''hallucinations of a male
voice'' and feared she was dying of AIDS.
Grinnell, 36, a waitress and cashier, had been abusing drugs since
she was a teenager, records said. Efforts to reach her at her trailer
home last week were unsuccessful.
Baldwin was the only one of the three teen defendants who was
still in school at the time of the arrests. A student at Marion High
School, Baldwin sat quietly when students discussed the May 5 murders
of the three boys and the recent suicide of a classmate.
''He just sat there. He never said anything,'' classmate Roni
Hendrix told reporters who gathered outside the West Memphis Municipal
Court building last June 3 when Baldwin, Echols and Misskelley were
arrested. ''He was real quiet.''
At school, Baldwin often wore black boots, a green trench coat and
T-shirts with the logos of heavy-metal bands.
He exhibited artistic skill, drawing pictures of eagles, owls and
other animals. He also drew pictures of snakes, skeletons and macabre
images.
''In my heart of hearts I don't believe he did it. He was always
respectful. He was always, yes ma'am, no ma'am,'' said Lakeshore
resident Kela Marshall, who once babysat Baldwin. ''The only thing I
ever found weird about him was he drew a little skull with a knife in
it,'' she said, saying Baldwin also drew two cats with knives in them
once. ''He could draw pretty good, though.''
Experts in teen experimentation in the occult say sensitive,
artistic teens from troubled homes often are vulnerable to serious
involvement with youngsters practicing their own brand of satanism.
The prosecution has subpoenaed experts on teen satanism and may use
that testimony to explain a motive for the murders.
Baldwin's defense could rely in part on witness accounts that
Echols was seen walking near the crime scene the night of the murders
with his girlfriend Domini Teer, 17. Prosecutors maintain the
witnesses are confusing Teer with Baldwin because both were thin and
had long, light-colored hair.
But defense attorneys have suggested Teer, not Baldwin, was there
that night and that Echols may be protecting his girlfriend. Echols
and Teer lived last year in a trailer not far from Baldwin's home. The
unmarried teen couple has an infant son, Seth.
''I believe Jason's going to take the blame for that girl,'' Pam
Hollingsworth said.
Domini's mother, Dian Teer, rejects the claim, saying her daughter
was home in bed that night.
Larry Baldwin said his son adamantly denies murdering the boys.
''He looked me square in the eye and told me he didn't have
anything to do with it period,'' the elder Baldwin said. ''He told
me he was innocent and he'll be glad when this @#%$ trial is
over.''
