Copyright 1993, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
November 17, 1993, Wednesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A1
LENGTH: 748 words
HEADLINE: MISSKELLEY TO FACE TRIAL AS ADULT; IQ CALLED 'BORDERLINE'
BYLINE: Bartholomew Sullivan; The Commercial Appeal
DATELINE: OSCEOLA, ARK.
BODY:
Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. is insecure, aggressive and ''lives in a kind of schizoid world,'' a psychologist testified Tuesday, but a judge ruled that Misskelley will stand trial for murder as an adult.
Misskelley's request for trial in a juvenile court was the main event in the two-hour proceedings before Circuit Judge David Burnett. The session also was marked by a scuffle outside the courtroom.
Misskelley, 18, Damien Wayne Echols, 18, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, are charged with murder in the May 5 deaths of West Memphis 8-year-olds Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore. Misskelley was 17 when the boys were murdered. The psychologist, William E. Wilkins of Jonesboro, said that after 11 hours of interviews, tests and a review of his school work, he concluded that Misskelley had an IQ of 72, giving him ''borderline intellectual functioning.'' A 100 IQ is normal. In Arkansas, defendants with an IQ of 65 are considered mentally retarded.
Wilkins testified that Misskelley had a history of drug abuse, including sniffing gasoline, and had been abandoned by his natural mother as a child. The combination of a dysfunctional family and drug abuse contributed to stress, Wilkins testified.
''When he's under stress, he rapidly reverts into fantasy and can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality.''
Misskelley sat through the hearing, one hand over his ear, looking into his lap.
During questioning by Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman, Wilkins testified that Misskelley was subject to ''aggressive outbursts'' in school and had been placed on probation by juvenile authorities in Crittenden County a month before the murders for assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
''Jessie had a low level of tolerance for frustration,'' Wilkins said.
Burnett ruled from the bench that ''the serious and violent nature of the offense is sufficient reason for trying a juvenile as an adult.'' He goes on trial Jan. 18 in Corning in Clay County.
If Misskelley had been tried as a juvenile, he would not have been subject to imprisonment since he is now past 17. If convicted, he could have been placed on probation or required to undergo counseling.
Baldwin and Echols, who attended Tuesday's hearing, will stand trial together in Jonesboro in February.
Burnett withheld judgment on another motion filed Monday by Misskelley's attorney, Daniel T. Stidham, that his client be ruled mentally retarded and therefore not subject to Arkansas's death penalty if he's convicted.
Despite tight security by Osceola police, the county sheriff's department and the Arkansas State Police, including use of hand-held metal detectors, one of the murder victims' fathers, Steve Branch, 33, was assaulted in the South Mississippi County Courthouse during a court recess.
The same victim's 24-year-old uncle, Jackie Hicks Jr., of Blytheville, struck Branch after the two argued about Branch's interest in caring for the 8-year-old before he was killed.
Hicks contends Branch is capitalizing on the case's notoriety after abandoning his son after a divorce years ago.
The men had to be separated and restrained by police, and Hicks was ordered out of the courthouse by Sheriff's Capt. Jim Stovall.
Hicks is the brother of Pam Hobbs, the child's mother, who had raised the victim after a divorce from Branch.
Hobbs supported her brother in the incident. The victim had lived with Hobbs and her husband since he was a year old, she said, and Hicks and the victim were ''like this,'' crossing her fingers.
Hobbs said Branch was behind in child support payments when the murder occurred. Branch acknowledged he was behind in the payments but also said Hobbs had been denying him visitation rights. Branch said he had gone to court to enforce the rights in the weeks before his son was killed.
Branch said Hicks told him he ''didn't have a right to be there'' in the courtroom Tuesday, ''and I told him I had as much right as he did.''
In June, Branch made an outburst during the defendants' initial arraignment, shouting, ''I'll chase you all the way to hell.'' Branch also appeared in Jonesboro in August to protest a witches' march, shouting Bible verses condemning the occult.
Hicks said his former brother-in-law is a publicity seeker, an accusation Branch strenuously denies.
''It's not over,'' said Hicks, a heavy-equipment operator at a Blytheville steel mill. ''There will be a time and a place when there are no police around.''
GRAPHIC: By Lisa Waddell (Color) Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr. ''lives in a kind of schizoid world,'' a psychologist testified Tuesday on the question of whether the 18-year-old should be tried as a juvenile in the slayings of three West Memphis boys. The request was denied; the judge will rule later on whether the youth is retarded and thus not subject to the death penalty.
