This article is 1994 THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
STATE'S GRILLING PROBES ECHOLS'S CALM EXTERIOR
Date: Friday, March 11, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
Prosecutors knocked holes in Damien Wayne Echols's placid exterior Thursday, asking him about a suicide attempt and the accuracy of his guesswork about the murders of three West Memphis boys when he was questioned just days after they occurred.
Also, a former West Memphis ice cream man testified outside the presence of the jury that he falsely told police in California that he killed the three 8- year-olds last May.
The witness, 20-year-old Chris Morgan, was later given a court-appointed lawyer to advise him before he is recalled to the witness stand Monday.
Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, are on trial for capital murder in the deaths of West Memphis second-graders Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. Co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. was convicted on Feb. 4 in Corning of first- and second-degree murder in the deaths.
The eighth day of testimony began with Echols again on the stand for the continuation of a cross-examination by Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis.
Davis immediately sought to cast doubt on Echols's calm demeanor during questioning Wednesday.
When defense lawyers objected to Davis's attempt to ask their client about an incident in which Echols allegedly tried to pull someone's eyes out, Davis, too, objected.
"Your honor, they put on evidence yesterday about him being a quiet, passive, peace-loving Wiccan," Davis said. The state wanted to ask him about mood swings and a tendency to violence.
Echols testified Wednesday that he takes the prescription drug imipramine for manic depression. Davis asked him what the effect was when he was deprived of his medicine, and Echols said he would get headaches. He later agreed with Davis's suggestion that he would feel "invincible" during the manic phases of his illness.
Testimony Wednesday indicated Echols went to the doctor and later to a pharmacy on the afternoon of May 5. Prosecutors contend the prescription was dropped off on May 5 but not picked up until the next day - after the murders.
Davis also asked Echols about an incident that occurred while he was in Oregon in 1992. In the incident, Davis asked, did Echols threaten to "eat your father alive"?
Echols said the police were called because he had locked his door and was about to commit suicide. He had been drinking that night, he said. He denied the incident occurred because his medication was, in Davis's words, "out of whack."
Next, Davis asked Echols about his interrogation May 10 by West Memphis Detective Bryn Ridge. Echols said Ridge asked a lot of leading questions, to which he simply agreed.
But Echols acknowledged he told Ridge about what he'd expect to find at the site of a ritualistic satanic murder. Among the items Echols listed was candles. Davis asked him about earlier testimony that one victim had candle wax on his shirt.
Q - Why do you think there was candle wax on that little victim's shirt?
A - It could have been whoever killed him did it. He could have got it before he left home. I don't know.
At another point, Davis asked Echols about his statement to Ridge that the killer would have considered the killing "funny" and wouldn't care about getting caught. Echols said that it appeared to be "common sense" that the perpetrator killed for pleasure because he wasn't forced to do it.
Q - So did you also tell him (Ridge) that the killer would want to hear the kids scream?
A - If he got off on killing people, he'd probably want to hear them scream.
Q - And is it also part of the common sense that whoever kills 8-year-olds would feel good and whoever kills 8-year-olds would like to hear them scream? Is that part of your common-sense philosophy?
A - I figure they must have, if they did it.
One of Echols's attorneys, Val P. Price, asked Echols how he knew some details of the murders that occurred on May 5 as early as May 10, when he was brought in for eight hours of questioning. Echols said he saw it on television and in the newspaper.
After Echols's testimony, his attorneys called Morgan to the stand. Morgan said he spent the day of May 5 either at work, at the Mr. Pride Car Wash on Poplar in Memphis, or jumping off sand dunes on the Mississippi River. That night, he went to Red Square, a club on Madison. He left for California three or four days after the murders occurred.
He was questioned about the case on May 17 by the Oceanside, Calif., police after his parents called him and told him to talk to authorities, he said. He was arrested in December on federal charges of LSD possession.
Under questioning by Echols's other attorney, Scott Davidson, Morgan asked for an attorney after he was asked about his statement, videotaped during 17 hours of interrogation over two days. Morgan, who knew the victims and sold them ice cream in their neighborhood, said he left for Oceanside with three other people after quitting his car wash job.
Q - In your statement did you say, 'Well, maybe I freaked out or blacked out and killed the three little boys, then (sodomized them), or something' ? Did you say that?
A - Yes.
Q - And did you say, 'Maybe I could have. There's no telling what happened' ?
A - Yes.
The state objected to allowing the jury to hear about Morgan's alleged confession, which he'd made after asking police if they wanted him to lie to them. He repeatedly told police that his comments about killing the boys were untrue.
Burnett later asked Morgan if he had anything to do with the murders, and he said no.
Baldwin's lawyers joined Echols's in asking Burnett to allow the jury to hear Morgan's statement, including an acknowledgement that he told police he may have killed the boys.
"Jessie Misskelley denied that he did it, denied that he did it, admitted that he did it, denied it, denied it - and he's in prison," said Baldwin's lawyer, Paul N. Ford, in a rising crescendo. "This may be the same thing."
Burnett said he will allow Morgan to testify after a court-appointed Jonesboro lawyer, Jim Lyons, reviews his legal situation. He is scheduled to testify Monday.
After the day's testimony Thursday, Burnett said he had considered the state's objection to allowing the testimony, but would admit it. "Even though it may be prejudicial to the state's case, it may become relevant."
Price and Davidson have argued from the outset that "police ineptitude," including instances in which they failed to pursue legitimate suspects, resulted in their client being singled out for arrest.
The West Memphis police "ruled out" Morgan as a suspect, according to Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman.
On Thursday afternoon, Burnett called a brief halt to proceedings after receiving a complaint that testimony in the technology-clogged courtroom was being picked up by police radio scanners. He asked for an explanation from technicians, but none was available.
West Memphis Police Inspector Gary Gitchell, in the unenviable position of a defense witness, was asked to testify about possible police miscues in the case.
He acknowledged police lost evidence taken from the Bojangles restaurant in West Memphis where a suspicious black man smeared blood on the walls of the women's restroom on the night of May 5 just a mile from the crime scene.
He also testified that police wired the trailer home of Victoria Hutcheson, a key witness in the Misskelley case, in order to overhear Echols conversing with her.
Gitchell also was unable to locate a copy of the consent form Hutcheson signed, and he said it was "impossible" to transcribe what police heard of the surveillance. "The quality was such - with the music in the background - you just couldn't hear any of the voices," he said.
Gitchell also testified about getting a knife by Federal Express from the Creative Thinking International Ltd. film crew doing a documentary on the case. Earlier testimony indicated Christopher Byers's father, John Mark Byers, gave the knife to the film crew.
It later tested positive for a blood type that matches both Byers and his victim son.
Gitchell also testified that Hutcheson was working with police during their investigation of Echols. He said an 8-year-old, identified at the Corning trial as Hutcheson's son, Aaron, had provided help to police "in regards to cult activity that he states he has witnessed."
Hutcheson, who has outstanding warrants pending against her for allegedly writing bad checks, testified as a prosecution witness in Misskelley's trial and that she attended a satanic esbat meeting from which Echols drove her home. Echols testified Wednesday he doesn't drive.
Also testifying in Echols's defense Thursday were his parents' close friends and their two daughters, who provided a partial alibi consistent with one Echols's mother and sister gave Wednesday.
Stacy Sanders, 12, said Echols, his parents and sister came to her West Memphis home while she was watching television on May 5. She testified they were there during the show Beverly Hills 90210, which began at 7 p.m. Echols's mother and sister testified to the same thing Wednesday.
Sanders also testified that her parents were at Splash Casino in Tunica, Miss., the night Echols and his family came over.
Defense lawyers also presented a witness, Gail Sharp, who won $10,000 that night in Tunica and recalled seeing Sanders's parents.
"I played $20 and won $10,000. And yes, I filed it on my taxes," she said to guffaws.
Testimony resumes this morning at 9:30. In a related development, Burnett denied Misskelley's request, filed this week in Corning, for a new trial.
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
STATE'S GRILLING PROBES ECHOLS'S CALM EXTERIOR
Date: Friday, March 11, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
Prosecutors knocked holes in Damien Wayne Echols's placid exterior Thursday, asking him about a suicide attempt and the accuracy of his guesswork about the murders of three West Memphis boys when he was questioned just days after they occurred.
Also, a former West Memphis ice cream man testified outside the presence of the jury that he falsely told police in California that he killed the three 8- year-olds last May.
The witness, 20-year-old Chris Morgan, was later given a court-appointed lawyer to advise him before he is recalled to the witness stand Monday.
Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, are on trial for capital murder in the deaths of West Memphis second-graders Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. Co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. was convicted on Feb. 4 in Corning of first- and second-degree murder in the deaths.
The eighth day of testimony began with Echols again on the stand for the continuation of a cross-examination by Second Judicial District Prosecuting Atty. Brent Davis.
Davis immediately sought to cast doubt on Echols's calm demeanor during questioning Wednesday.
When defense lawyers objected to Davis's attempt to ask their client about an incident in which Echols allegedly tried to pull someone's eyes out, Davis, too, objected.
"Your honor, they put on evidence yesterday about him being a quiet, passive, peace-loving Wiccan," Davis said. The state wanted to ask him about mood swings and a tendency to violence.
Echols testified Wednesday that he takes the prescription drug imipramine for manic depression. Davis asked him what the effect was when he was deprived of his medicine, and Echols said he would get headaches. He later agreed with Davis's suggestion that he would feel "invincible" during the manic phases of his illness.
Testimony Wednesday indicated Echols went to the doctor and later to a pharmacy on the afternoon of May 5. Prosecutors contend the prescription was dropped off on May 5 but not picked up until the next day - after the murders.
Davis also asked Echols about an incident that occurred while he was in Oregon in 1992. In the incident, Davis asked, did Echols threaten to "eat your father alive"?
Echols said the police were called because he had locked his door and was about to commit suicide. He had been drinking that night, he said. He denied the incident occurred because his medication was, in Davis's words, "out of whack."
Next, Davis asked Echols about his interrogation May 10 by West Memphis Detective Bryn Ridge. Echols said Ridge asked a lot of leading questions, to which he simply agreed.
But Echols acknowledged he told Ridge about what he'd expect to find at the site of a ritualistic satanic murder. Among the items Echols listed was candles. Davis asked him about earlier testimony that one victim had candle wax on his shirt.
Q - Why do you think there was candle wax on that little victim's shirt?
A - It could have been whoever killed him did it. He could have got it before he left home. I don't know.
At another point, Davis asked Echols about his statement to Ridge that the killer would have considered the killing "funny" and wouldn't care about getting caught. Echols said that it appeared to be "common sense" that the perpetrator killed for pleasure because he wasn't forced to do it.
Q - So did you also tell him (Ridge) that the killer would want to hear the kids scream?
A - If he got off on killing people, he'd probably want to hear them scream.
Q - And is it also part of the common sense that whoever kills 8-year-olds would feel good and whoever kills 8-year-olds would like to hear them scream? Is that part of your common-sense philosophy?
A - I figure they must have, if they did it.
One of Echols's attorneys, Val P. Price, asked Echols how he knew some details of the murders that occurred on May 5 as early as May 10, when he was brought in for eight hours of questioning. Echols said he saw it on television and in the newspaper.
After Echols's testimony, his attorneys called Morgan to the stand. Morgan said he spent the day of May 5 either at work, at the Mr. Pride Car Wash on Poplar in Memphis, or jumping off sand dunes on the Mississippi River. That night, he went to Red Square, a club on Madison. He left for California three or four days after the murders occurred.
He was questioned about the case on May 17 by the Oceanside, Calif., police after his parents called him and told him to talk to authorities, he said. He was arrested in December on federal charges of LSD possession.
Under questioning by Echols's other attorney, Scott Davidson, Morgan asked for an attorney after he was asked about his statement, videotaped during 17 hours of interrogation over two days. Morgan, who knew the victims and sold them ice cream in their neighborhood, said he left for Oceanside with three other people after quitting his car wash job.
Q - In your statement did you say, 'Well, maybe I freaked out or blacked out and killed the three little boys, then (sodomized them), or something' ? Did you say that?
A - Yes.
Q - And did you say, 'Maybe I could have. There's no telling what happened' ?
A - Yes.
The state objected to allowing the jury to hear about Morgan's alleged confession, which he'd made after asking police if they wanted him to lie to them. He repeatedly told police that his comments about killing the boys were untrue.
Burnett later asked Morgan if he had anything to do with the murders, and he said no.
Baldwin's lawyers joined Echols's in asking Burnett to allow the jury to hear Morgan's statement, including an acknowledgement that he told police he may have killed the boys.
"Jessie Misskelley denied that he did it, denied that he did it, admitted that he did it, denied it, denied it - and he's in prison," said Baldwin's lawyer, Paul N. Ford, in a rising crescendo. "This may be the same thing."
Burnett said he will allow Morgan to testify after a court-appointed Jonesboro lawyer, Jim Lyons, reviews his legal situation. He is scheduled to testify Monday.
After the day's testimony Thursday, Burnett said he had considered the state's objection to allowing the testimony, but would admit it. "Even though it may be prejudicial to the state's case, it may become relevant."
Price and Davidson have argued from the outset that "police ineptitude," including instances in which they failed to pursue legitimate suspects, resulted in their client being singled out for arrest.
The West Memphis police "ruled out" Morgan as a suspect, according to Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman.
On Thursday afternoon, Burnett called a brief halt to proceedings after receiving a complaint that testimony in the technology-clogged courtroom was being picked up by police radio scanners. He asked for an explanation from technicians, but none was available.
West Memphis Police Inspector Gary Gitchell, in the unenviable position of a defense witness, was asked to testify about possible police miscues in the case.
He acknowledged police lost evidence taken from the Bojangles restaurant in West Memphis where a suspicious black man smeared blood on the walls of the women's restroom on the night of May 5 just a mile from the crime scene.
He also testified that police wired the trailer home of Victoria Hutcheson, a key witness in the Misskelley case, in order to overhear Echols conversing with her.
Gitchell also was unable to locate a copy of the consent form Hutcheson signed, and he said it was "impossible" to transcribe what police heard of the surveillance. "The quality was such - with the music in the background - you just couldn't hear any of the voices," he said.
Gitchell also testified about getting a knife by Federal Express from the Creative Thinking International Ltd. film crew doing a documentary on the case. Earlier testimony indicated Christopher Byers's father, John Mark Byers, gave the knife to the film crew.
It later tested positive for a blood type that matches both Byers and his victim son.
Gitchell also testified that Hutcheson was working with police during their investigation of Echols. He said an 8-year-old, identified at the Corning trial as Hutcheson's son, Aaron, had provided help to police "in regards to cult activity that he states he has witnessed."
Hutcheson, who has outstanding warrants pending against her for allegedly writing bad checks, testified as a prosecution witness in Misskelley's trial and that she attended a satanic esbat meeting from which Echols drove her home. Echols testified Wednesday he doesn't drive.
Also testifying in Echols's defense Thursday were his parents' close friends and their two daughters, who provided a partial alibi consistent with one Echols's mother and sister gave Wednesday.
Stacy Sanders, 12, said Echols, his parents and sister came to her West Memphis home while she was watching television on May 5. She testified they were there during the show Beverly Hills 90210, which began at 7 p.m. Echols's mother and sister testified to the same thing Wednesday.
Sanders also testified that her parents were at Splash Casino in Tunica, Miss., the night Echols and his family came over.
Defense lawyers also presented a witness, Gail Sharp, who won $10,000 that night in Tunica and recalled seeing Sanders's parents.
"I played $20 and won $10,000. And yes, I filed it on my taxes," she said to guffaws.
Testimony resumes this morning at 9:30. In a related development, Burnett denied Misskelley's request, filed this week in Corning, for a new trial.
