THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
ECHOLS ATTY. LINKS KNIFE BYERS HAD TO SON'S WOUNDS
Date: Wednesday, March 2, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Illustration: photo (2)
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
A knife that a documentary film crew sent to police after receiving it from the father of one of the three West Memphis murder victims is consistent with some of the injuries found on his son, a forensic pathologist testified Tuesday.
The knife, which has not been introduced as evidence, was sent from New York by a representative of Creative Thinking International Ltd., which is making a documentary on the child murder case for Home Box Office.
Scott Davidson, a lawyer for defendant Damien Wayne Echols, said at a Feb. 16 hearing that the film crew member received the knife from John Mark Byers, father of victim Christopher Byers. Byers, who has been attending the second trial of his son's alleged murderers, said Tuesday he would have no comment.
The development occurred on the second day of testimony in the capital murder trial of Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, and Echols, 19, charged in the May 5 deaths of West Memphis 8-year-olds Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore.
As things heated up in court, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. continued to be a specter at the trial, with a lawyer appointed by Circuit Judge David Burnett saying Misskelley will have to decide soon whether he will turn state's evidence.
Burnett said after testimony ended that he had not heard whether Misskelley intends to testify with a grant of immunity.
During one of several dramatic moments Tuesday, Echols's defense lawyer Val P. Price demanded a mistrial in open court when West Memphis Detective Bryn Ridge, testifying about a stout stick found at the crime scene, mentioned Misskelley's June 3 confession to police.
Price asked Ridge about the circumstances by which police took the stick into evidence on July 1, almost two months after the bodies were found.
Price asked, "You all did not take that stick into evidence at the time you recovered the bodies?"
"No, sir," said Ridge. "I didn't take this stick into evidence until the statement of Jessie Misskelley."
Price moved for a mistrial.
Burnett sent the jury out and Price told the judge, "The question I asked the officer did not call for him blurting out the fact that Jessie Misskelley gave a confession. The whole purpose for our trial being separated from Mr. Misskelley's trial in the first place was the confession of Jessie Misskelley."
Burnett said that Ridge "shouldn't have volunteered" the comment, but didn't declare a mistrial.
"I suggest, gentlemen, that there isn't a soul up on that jury or in this courtroom that doesn't know Mr. Misskelley gave a statement," Burnett said.
The jury was also asked to leave the courtroom after Price attempted to cross-examine Ridge about a May 8 police report. In that, a witness reported seeing two black men and a white man coming out of the Robin Hood Hills woods about 6 p.m. on May 5, 1993, the night the boys disappeared.
Reading from the report, Price said: "The officer also adds his own conclusion. 'Has been mentioned that during cult activities, some members blacken their faces.' "
Price said he wanted to ask Ridge about the conclusion. "It's our conviction that police from day one were alleging this was a cult-related killing, but there's no evidence it's a cult-related killing."
Burnett said Ridge's response to any questions along that line would not be admitted into evidence unless the state decides to try to establish as a motive that the killings were related to a cult. Misskelley told police that he belonged to a cult that killed and ate dogs and held orgies. He also said the cult met on Wednesday nights. The killings occurred on a Wednesday night.
Burnett noted that he hadn't heard any testimony or a reference to occult activity in the second trial. Deputy Prosecuting Atty. John N. Fogleman jokingly suggested that "if Mr. Price and Mr. Davidson want to stipulate that Damien Echols was involved in satanism and devil worship, we don't have any objection." They declined.
Again Tuesday, defense attorneys sought to discredit the police investigation of the murders, asking Ridge about a bloodied black man who stumbled into the Bojangles restaurant on Missouri Street the night the murders occurred. Ridge said police returned to the restaurant the night after the boys' bodies were found and took scrapings from marks the man had left on the walls.
Q - What is the date that you sent the blood scrapings off to the Crime Lab to be analyzed?
A - They were never sent.
Q - Where are the blood samples at this time?
A - I don't know. They're lost . . . If they were blood, they were lost. That's my mistake. I lost a piece of evidence.
Testimony about two knives also took place outside the presence of the jury. The state asked its forensic pathologist, Frank J. Peretti, if a wicked- looking survival knife found in the lake behind Baldwin's house Nov. 17 was consistent with wounds found on two of the victims.
"There are injuries consistent with this type of serrated pattern," Peretti said of the knife, which also has not been entered into evidence.
Under cross-examination by Price, Peretti also said injuries on Christopher Byers were consistent with what Price called "the John Mark Byers knife" received from the film crew.
During the most graphic parts of Peretti's testimony, Byers and his wife, Melissa, retreated to the hallways outside the courtroom, and John Byers watched a television monitor set aside for the news media.
Peretti testified, as he did at Misskelley's trial, that all three boys were beaten and suffered fractured skulls that alone would have killed them. Moore and Branch drowned, and Byers, who was castrated, bled to death.
During Tuesday's recesses, Echols, wearing blue jeans and black combat- style boots, rocked on his chair inside the courtroom rail and answered selected questions. Asked what he thought of the charges against him, he said, ''They're bullshit."
He said the proceedings, in which the state is seeking the death penalty, are "pretty boring, most of the time." Asked about his attorneys' efforts to have a mistrial declared, he said: "I don't want a mistrial, because I want to hurry up and get this over with."
ECHOLS ATTY. LINKS KNIFE BYERS HAD TO SON'S WOUNDS
Date: Wednesday, March 2, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Illustration: photo (2)
Source: By Bartholomew Sullivan The Commercial Appeal
Dateline:
Edition: Final
A knife that a documentary film crew sent to police after receiving it from the father of one of the three West Memphis murder victims is consistent with some of the injuries found on his son, a forensic pathologist testified Tuesday.
The knife, which has not been introduced as evidence, was sent from New York by a representative of Creative Thinking International Ltd., which is making a documentary on the child murder case for Home Box Office.
Scott Davidson, a lawyer for defendant Damien Wayne Echols, said at a Feb. 16 hearing that the film crew member received the knife from John Mark Byers, father of victim Christopher Byers. Byers, who has been attending the second trial of his son's alleged murderers, said Tuesday he would have no comment.
The development occurred on the second day of testimony in the capital murder trial of Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, and Echols, 19, charged in the May 5 deaths of West Memphis 8-year-olds Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore.
As things heated up in court, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. continued to be a specter at the trial, with a lawyer appointed by Circuit Judge David Burnett saying Misskelley will have to decide soon whether he will turn state's evidence.
Burnett said after testimony ended that he had not heard whether Misskelley intends to testify with a grant of immunity.
During one of several dramatic moments Tuesday, Echols's defense lawyer Val P. Price demanded a mistrial in open court when West Memphis Detective Bryn Ridge, testifying about a stout stick found at the crime scene, mentioned Misskelley's June 3 confession to police.
Price asked Ridge about the circumstances by which police took the stick into evidence on July 1, almost two months after the bodies were found.
Price asked, "You all did not take that stick into evidence at the time you recovered the bodies?"
"No, sir," said Ridge. "I didn't take this stick into evidence until the statement of Jessie Misskelley."
Price moved for a mistrial.
Burnett sent the jury out and Price told the judge, "The question I asked the officer did not call for him blurting out the fact that Jessie Misskelley gave a confession. The whole purpose for our trial being separated from Mr. Misskelley's trial in the first place was the confession of Jessie Misskelley."
Burnett said that Ridge "shouldn't have volunteered" the comment, but didn't declare a mistrial.
"I suggest, gentlemen, that there isn't a soul up on that jury or in this courtroom that doesn't know Mr. Misskelley gave a statement," Burnett said.
The jury was also asked to leave the courtroom after Price attempted to cross-examine Ridge about a May 8 police report. In that, a witness reported seeing two black men and a white man coming out of the Robin Hood Hills woods about 6 p.m. on May 5, 1993, the night the boys disappeared.
Reading from the report, Price said: "The officer also adds his own conclusion. 'Has been mentioned that during cult activities, some members blacken their faces.' "
Price said he wanted to ask Ridge about the conclusion. "It's our conviction that police from day one were alleging this was a cult-related killing, but there's no evidence it's a cult-related killing."
Burnett said Ridge's response to any questions along that line would not be admitted into evidence unless the state decides to try to establish as a motive that the killings were related to a cult. Misskelley told police that he belonged to a cult that killed and ate dogs and held orgies. He also said the cult met on Wednesday nights. The killings occurred on a Wednesday night.
Burnett noted that he hadn't heard any testimony or a reference to occult activity in the second trial. Deputy Prosecuting Atty. John N. Fogleman jokingly suggested that "if Mr. Price and Mr. Davidson want to stipulate that Damien Echols was involved in satanism and devil worship, we don't have any objection." They declined.
Again Tuesday, defense attorneys sought to discredit the police investigation of the murders, asking Ridge about a bloodied black man who stumbled into the Bojangles restaurant on Missouri Street the night the murders occurred. Ridge said police returned to the restaurant the night after the boys' bodies were found and took scrapings from marks the man had left on the walls.
Q - What is the date that you sent the blood scrapings off to the Crime Lab to be analyzed?
A - They were never sent.
Q - Where are the blood samples at this time?
A - I don't know. They're lost . . . If they were blood, they were lost. That's my mistake. I lost a piece of evidence.
Testimony about two knives also took place outside the presence of the jury. The state asked its forensic pathologist, Frank J. Peretti, if a wicked- looking survival knife found in the lake behind Baldwin's house Nov. 17 was consistent with wounds found on two of the victims.
"There are injuries consistent with this type of serrated pattern," Peretti said of the knife, which also has not been entered into evidence.
Under cross-examination by Price, Peretti also said injuries on Christopher Byers were consistent with what Price called "the John Mark Byers knife" received from the film crew.
During the most graphic parts of Peretti's testimony, Byers and his wife, Melissa, retreated to the hallways outside the courtroom, and John Byers watched a television monitor set aside for the news media.
Peretti testified, as he did at Misskelley's trial, that all three boys were beaten and suffered fractured skulls that alone would have killed them. Moore and Branch drowned, and Byers, who was castrated, bled to death.
During Tuesday's recesses, Echols, wearing blue jeans and black combat- style boots, rocked on his chair inside the courtroom rail and answered selected questions. Asked what he thought of the charges against him, he said, ''They're bullshit."
He said the proceedings, in which the state is seeking the death penalty, are "pretty boring, most of the time." Asked about his attorneys' efforts to have a mistrial declared, he said: "I don't want a mistrial, because I want to hurry up and get this over with."
