This article is 1994 THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
MYSTERY MAN MAY LIFT DEFENSE HOPES IN MISSKELLEY CASE
Date: Monday, January 31, 1994
Section: News
Page: A1
Source: By Marc Perrusquia The Commercial Appeal
Edition: Final
Marty King saw something strange the night three West Memphis boys disappeared.
About two hours after sunset, a man with blood on his face and forearm staggered into a Bojangles restaurant, he said. King, manager at the restaurant, said the man had thick mud on his feet like he'd "been through a field."
King called police that night, but the man disappeared by the time an officer arrived, he said. The next day, when the bodies of 8-year-olds Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers were found submerged in water less than a mile from the restaurant, King asked police to come back.
"The next day, when you find out the boys had been murdered, it's kind of eerie," King said.
King is expected to tell his account to jurors after the prosecution rests this week and the defense begins calling witnesses in the trial of Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, of Marion, Ark.
Misskelley is on trial in Corning, Ark., charged with three counts of capital murder.
Defense attorneys hope to raise doubts about Misskelley's alleged involvement in the May 5, 1993, murders by attacking police interrogation tactics, suggesting others could have been involved and asserting there is little or no evidence linking Misskelley to the crime scene.
King, 29, of Crawfordsville, Ark., is expected to provide a key defense salvo. King claims he saw a mysterious black man covered in blood shortly after 9:30 p.m. the night of the murders.
Defense attorney Gregory L. Crow set the stage for King last week when he solicited testimony from a state crime lab expert who said she found a hair
from a black person among items on the body of one of the slain boys.
Lisa Sakevicius, a criminologist at the Arkansas State Crime Lab, testified Friday she found a "negroid hair fragment" in the sheet used to wrap Byers when he arrived at the crime lab in Little Rock.
Misskelley and two co-defenants are white. Damien Echols, 19, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, are scheduled to stand trial together next month.
King told The Commercial Appeal in an interview last fall he doesn't know if what he saw that night at Bojangles, 1551 N. Missouri, is related to the murders or not. But he said he found it peculiar it happened close to the time police believe the boys were killed.
According to King, the man came into the restaurant shortly before the 10 p.m. closing time, "disarrayed" and confused. He had blood on the side of his face, and blood also was dripping from his forearm, King said.
"That led me to believe he was bleeding himself," King said. But King said he wasn't sure if the blood may have been from another person or not.
The man went into the ladies restroom where he stayed about 45 minutes, accidently smearing blood on the walls and making a "mess of himself," King said. King said he poked his head in the door at one point, asking if the man was alright.
"He said, 'Yeah,' kind of grunting."
When he left, the man staggered out onto the parking lot and began walking east toward the woods and railroad tracks behind the restaurant, King said.
The boys' bodies were found about three-fourths of a mile due east of the restaurant along Ten Mile Bayou, a long drainage ditch that also passes near the restaurant.
The man turned around in the parking lot and and headed south on Missouri, walking out of sight, King said.
A female police officer named Regina responded to the restaurant that night, checked around, but found nothing, King said. King said he told the story the next day to patrolman Billy Covington, who stopped by the restaurant to eat.
About 1:30 p.m. on May 6 police found the boys' bodies. They sent two detectives by Bojangles that night to inspect blood in the bathroom, King said, but said he heard nothing about the incident again.
King described the man as dark skinned, with a mustache, about 5-9 and
175-180 pounds. He wore a blue nylon jogging suit.
Police and defense attorneys would not comment on the incident or other aspects of the case.
King's name appears on a long list of possible defense witnesses, several of whom might muddy the prosecution's case if called to the stand.
One on the list, L. G. Hollingsworth, 17, of West Memphis told The Commercial Appeal last summer police questioned him, in part, because he was friendly with Echols and his girlfriend, Domini Teer.
Within five days of the murders, police were looking for Echols, Hollingsworth said. But arrests weren't made until a month after the murders.
"I was not a suspect," Hollingsworth said as his mother, Linda, sat in on the interview. "When they talked to me I told them I was happy to help them all I could."
Defense attorney Dan Stidham told the jury last week police from the start had "Damien tunnel vision," blindly focusing their investigation on Echols and tips that the murders were occult-related.
The defense also hopes to discredit a taped confession in which Misskelley describes the killings and talks about his participation in a cult.
"When Jessie's under stress, he reacts by going into fantasy and daydreaming," said Stidham, who maintains police badgered Misskelley until he made the statement. "There's no doubt in my mind I could get him to confess to killing JFK."
Two other West Memphis teenagers appearing on the defense witness list said last summer they were questioned a couple of times by police because of their interest in occult matters and acquaintanceship with Echols. One of the teens, a West Memphis High School senior, said police at one point pounded on the interrogation table and accused him of lying about his whereabouts the night of the murders.
Defense attorneys seem to have plenty of ammo to point fingers in other directions, too.
Victoria Hutcheson, whose 8-year-old son Aaron was in the same Cub Scout troop as the victims, testified Friday that she "played detective" by attending a meeting of a satanic cult in the weeks following the murders. Hutcheson said she saw about 15 people there, including Misskelley and Echols.
Teer also appears on the witness list, and conceivably could be used to cast more doubts.
Baldwin attorney Paul N. Ford first raised the prospect of Teer as an uncharged suspect during a September pretrial hearing.
Last week, Tabitha Hollingsworth testified she saw Echols and Teer about 9:30 p.m. the night of the murders walking near the Blue Beacon truck wash along Interstate 40. The boys' bodies were found in a wooded area behind the truck wash.
Teer's mother, Diane, has said her daughter was at home the night of the murders.
