Copyright 1994, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 20, 1994, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 5A
LENGTH: 1159 words
HEADLINE: Second trial may explore motive in triple slaying
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
The state's case against the two remaining defendants in the West
Memphis triple murder trial, beginning here Tuesday, apparently will
delve more deeply into the alleged motivation for the crime, according
to witness lists filed this month.
Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, and Damien Wayne Echols, 19, are
charged with capital murder in the May 5 deaths of Christopher Byers,
Steve Branch and Michael Moore.
As lawyers prepared for the start of jury selection, it became
clear the Jonesboro trial will be more than a simple reprise of the
trial of co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., which ended earlier
this month in Corning, Ark.
One major difference is that, although he didn't testify in his
own defense, Misskelley may take the witness stand in Jonesboro to
implicate Baldwin and Echols.
Whether the state expects him to testify at the trial remained
unclear Saturday. But Misskelley apparently has spoken to prosecutors
since his Feb. 4 conviction on first- and second-degree murder
charges.
If prosecutors have persuaded Misskelley to testify in exchange
for a promise to try to reduce his sentence of life plus 40 years, he
could be expected to describe a night of horror that ended with the
three 8-year-old Cub Scouts hogtied and beaten to death.
The three were found May 6 submerged in a trash-strewn ditch
leading to Ten Mile Bayou.
Misskelley told police in June that he, Baldwin and Echols were
part of a cult, and that Baldwin called him the day before the murders
to say he and Echols were planning to ''get some boys and hurt them.''
Three hundred prospective jurors have been called to the Craighead
County Courthouse this week. The lawyers and Circuit Judge David
Burnett will try to seat 12, plus at least two alternates. But there
are some who are saying Misskelley's widely publicized conviction
could doom hopes of finding an impartial panel in northeast Arkansas.
''I'm starting to wonder whether they can get a fair trial
anywhere in the United States,'' said Arkansas State University
sociology professor Lawrence M. Salinger.
Among the more than 100 potential witnesses the state has
subpoenaed are a former Ohio police captain who lectures police
departments nationwide on cult activity and two mental health experts
who have treated patients involved in satanism.
But Dr. Paul King, a Memphis psychiatry professor who wrote a book
that delves into youthful interest in satanism, said he will not be
testifying at the trial on the advice of lawyers.
''I have expertise in this area and would certainly have wanted to
help the state, but I can't'' because of a professional conflict, he
said. During his evaluation of a patient brought to him by Arkansas
juvenile authorities, ''one of the defendants' names came up,'' he
said.
Defense attorneys for Baldwin have asked Burnett to prohibit
testimony pointing to an alleged ritualistic purpose or satanic motive
for the killings unless the state can prove a basis for it.
''Allegations of satanic activity create panic,'' Baldwin's
lawyer, Paul N. Ford, said last week.
Howard B. Eisenberg, dean of the law school at the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock, said Burnett will be instructing jurors
throughout the trial to distinguish between evidence that bears on the
guilt or innocence of each defendant separately. Ford said the state
has no proof Baldwin was a member of a satanic cult.
In Misskelley's trial, the state presented testimony from a former
Fayetteville legal secretary, Victoria M. Hutcheson, who said she
attended a satanic cult meeting with Echols and Misskelley. Echols,
she said, drove her home. She is listed as a witness again.
Defense lawyers can be expected to counter with the testimony of a
University of California social psychologist Richard J. Ofshe. Ofshe,
an expert on cults, testified at Misskelley's trial that the West
Memphis Police Department's suggestion of an occult motive was the
result of ''satanic hysteria.''
Hutcheson's old boss from Fayetteville is also on Echols's witness
list.
But if Misskelley testifies, prosecutors could ask about his
earlier statement that he and Baldwin and Echols were part of a cult
that killed and ate dogs and held orgies. The statement would be
inadmissible if he does not testify because of a 1968 U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that such statements prevent those implicated by a
co-defendant from exercising their right to confront and cross-examine
their accusers.
As the week ended, whether Misskelley had turned state's evidence
was the single most important question about the second trial. But
there are other potential bombshells.
One major loose end was whether the state will put Hutcheson's
son, 8-year-old Aaron, on the stand. West Memphis Police Insp. Gary
Gitchell played a snippet of Aaron's taped police interview at the
Corning trial. In it, the youngster said, ''Nobody knows what happened
but me.''
Some speculate Aaron Hutcheson was an eyewitness to the murders,
although the credibility of some of his statements is apparently in
doubt.
According to Echols's lawyer, Val P. Price, at a hearing
Wednesday, Aaron Hutcheson may have told police what he saw in the
woods, but also said ''a Mark Byers was present at the time of the
murders.''
Christopher Byers's stepfather, John Mark Byers, 36, has said of
the youngster's statement, ''As far as him saying he saw me out there,
that's a bald-faced lie.''
Defense lawyers can be expected to make use of testimony at the
first trial about a bloodied black man who stumbled into the Bojangles
restaurant in West Memphis on the night of the murders. The
restaurant's former manager testified he couldn't get police
interested the night of the incident and by the time they got
interested, ''Mr. Bojangles,'' as prosecutors derisively named the
phantom suspect, was long gone.
The state likely will introduce the same physical evidence jurors
saw in the first trial, including tree limbs prosecutors say were used
to beat the boys, the boys clothes' found stuck in the mud, and crime
scene and Arkansas State Crime Lab photos of their injuries, which
included cracked skulls and Byers's castration.
New evidence in the second trial may include a knife found in the
lake behind Baldwin's home on Nov. 17. It was unclear whether a
painted club police recovered last week in Echols's former trailer
home will become evidence in the second trial.
All four defense lawyers Ford and George Robin Wadley Jr., for
Baldwin, and Price and Scott Davidson, for Echols have declined
comment on their defense theories, though they say they have alibis in
court documents.
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
February 20, 1994, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. 5A
LENGTH: 1159 words
HEADLINE: Second trial may explore motive in triple slaying
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan, The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: JONESBORO, Ark.
BODY:
The state's case against the two remaining defendants in the West
Memphis triple murder trial, beginning here Tuesday, apparently will
delve more deeply into the alleged motivation for the crime, according
to witness lists filed this month.
Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, and Damien Wayne Echols, 19, are
charged with capital murder in the May 5 deaths of Christopher Byers,
Steve Branch and Michael Moore.
As lawyers prepared for the start of jury selection, it became
clear the Jonesboro trial will be more than a simple reprise of the
trial of co-defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., which ended earlier
this month in Corning, Ark.
One major difference is that, although he didn't testify in his
own defense, Misskelley may take the witness stand in Jonesboro to
implicate Baldwin and Echols.
Whether the state expects him to testify at the trial remained
unclear Saturday. But Misskelley apparently has spoken to prosecutors
since his Feb. 4 conviction on first- and second-degree murder
charges.
If prosecutors have persuaded Misskelley to testify in exchange
for a promise to try to reduce his sentence of life plus 40 years, he
could be expected to describe a night of horror that ended with the
three 8-year-old Cub Scouts hogtied and beaten to death.
The three were found May 6 submerged in a trash-strewn ditch
leading to Ten Mile Bayou.
Misskelley told police in June that he, Baldwin and Echols were
part of a cult, and that Baldwin called him the day before the murders
to say he and Echols were planning to ''get some boys and hurt them.''
Three hundred prospective jurors have been called to the Craighead
County Courthouse this week. The lawyers and Circuit Judge David
Burnett will try to seat 12, plus at least two alternates. But there
are some who are saying Misskelley's widely publicized conviction
could doom hopes of finding an impartial panel in northeast Arkansas.
''I'm starting to wonder whether they can get a fair trial
anywhere in the United States,'' said Arkansas State University
sociology professor Lawrence M. Salinger.
Among the more than 100 potential witnesses the state has
subpoenaed are a former Ohio police captain who lectures police
departments nationwide on cult activity and two mental health experts
who have treated patients involved in satanism.
But Dr. Paul King, a Memphis psychiatry professor who wrote a book
that delves into youthful interest in satanism, said he will not be
testifying at the trial on the advice of lawyers.
''I have expertise in this area and would certainly have wanted to
help the state, but I can't'' because of a professional conflict, he
said. During his evaluation of a patient brought to him by Arkansas
juvenile authorities, ''one of the defendants' names came up,'' he
said.
Defense attorneys for Baldwin have asked Burnett to prohibit
testimony pointing to an alleged ritualistic purpose or satanic motive
for the killings unless the state can prove a basis for it.
''Allegations of satanic activity create panic,'' Baldwin's
lawyer, Paul N. Ford, said last week.
Howard B. Eisenberg, dean of the law school at the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock, said Burnett will be instructing jurors
throughout the trial to distinguish between evidence that bears on the
guilt or innocence of each defendant separately. Ford said the state
has no proof Baldwin was a member of a satanic cult.
In Misskelley's trial, the state presented testimony from a former
Fayetteville legal secretary, Victoria M. Hutcheson, who said she
attended a satanic cult meeting with Echols and Misskelley. Echols,
she said, drove her home. She is listed as a witness again.
Defense lawyers can be expected to counter with the testimony of a
University of California social psychologist Richard J. Ofshe. Ofshe,
an expert on cults, testified at Misskelley's trial that the West
Memphis Police Department's suggestion of an occult motive was the
result of ''satanic hysteria.''
Hutcheson's old boss from Fayetteville is also on Echols's witness
list.
But if Misskelley testifies, prosecutors could ask about his
earlier statement that he and Baldwin and Echols were part of a cult
that killed and ate dogs and held orgies. The statement would be
inadmissible if he does not testify because of a 1968 U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that such statements prevent those implicated by a
co-defendant from exercising their right to confront and cross-examine
their accusers.
As the week ended, whether Misskelley had turned state's evidence
was the single most important question about the second trial. But
there are other potential bombshells.
One major loose end was whether the state will put Hutcheson's
son, 8-year-old Aaron, on the stand. West Memphis Police Insp. Gary
Gitchell played a snippet of Aaron's taped police interview at the
Corning trial. In it, the youngster said, ''Nobody knows what happened
but me.''
Some speculate Aaron Hutcheson was an eyewitness to the murders,
although the credibility of some of his statements is apparently in
doubt.
According to Echols's lawyer, Val P. Price, at a hearing
Wednesday, Aaron Hutcheson may have told police what he saw in the
woods, but also said ''a Mark Byers was present at the time of the
murders.''
Christopher Byers's stepfather, John Mark Byers, 36, has said of
the youngster's statement, ''As far as him saying he saw me out there,
that's a bald-faced lie.''
Defense lawyers can be expected to make use of testimony at the
first trial about a bloodied black man who stumbled into the Bojangles
restaurant in West Memphis on the night of the murders. The
restaurant's former manager testified he couldn't get police
interested the night of the incident and by the time they got
interested, ''Mr. Bojangles,'' as prosecutors derisively named the
phantom suspect, was long gone.
The state likely will introduce the same physical evidence jurors
saw in the first trial, including tree limbs prosecutors say were used
to beat the boys, the boys clothes' found stuck in the mud, and crime
scene and Arkansas State Crime Lab photos of their injuries, which
included cracked skulls and Byers's castration.
New evidence in the second trial may include a knife found in the
lake behind Baldwin's home on Nov. 17. It was unclear whether a
painted club police recovered last week in Echols's former trailer
home will become evidence in the second trial.
All four defense lawyers Ford and George Robin Wadley Jr., for
Baldwin, and Price and Scott Davidson, for Echols have declined
comment on their defense theories, though they say they have alibis in
court documents.
