Copyright 1993, The Commercial Appeal
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis)
October 16, 1993, Saturday, FIRST EDITION
SECTION: METRO, Pg. B1
LENGTH: 687 words
HEADLINE: DEFENSE DENIES SODOMY OF 3 BOYS;
FORD MOVES TO BAR PROSECUTION CLAIM
BYLINE: Marc Perrusquia; The Commercial Appeal
BODY:
A defense attorney Friday challenged prosecutors' assertions that three 8- year-old West Memphis boys murdered in May also were sodomized.
There is no medical evidence to support the sodomy claim, attorney Paul N. Ford said in motions filed on behalf of his client Charles Jason Baldwin, 16.
Baldwin, Jessie Lloyd Misskelley, 18, and Damien Wayne Echols, 18, each face three counts of capital murder in the May 5 murder of the three boys.
Ford's challenge came as prosecutors revealed they intend to try Misskelley first, before a separate trial for his two co-defendants. Misskelley and the two other teenagers were charged in June after he gave a statement to police implicating himself and two companions.
In one motion filed Friday in Circuit Court in Marion, Ark., Ford said the medical examiner's office told him ''there is no good-faith basis'' to claim the victims had been sodomized.
In his motion, Ford asks for an order to prohibit any mention of sodomy when the case goes to trial.
''The prosecuting attorney for the state of Arkansas had indicated that he is of the opinion that the victims were sodomized by the defendants,'' Ford said in the motion.
The motion goes on to say that prosecutors formed that opinion ''in part upon the autopsy report, but more importantly upon the alleged confession of Jessie Misskelley.''
''The medical examiner's autopsy report clearly indicates an absence of any injury'' indicative of sodomy, Ford said in his motion.
Misskelley told police Baldwin and Echols sexually assaulted the victims, claiming Echols sodomized at least one boy.
The three teens were arrested in June after Misskelley told police in a tape-recorded statement that he watched Baldwin and Echols kill the boys in a small woody area along Interstate 40.
Misskelley said he was sickened by the murders, but told police he chased down one of the boys who had escaped from Baldwin and Echols, according to the statement.
Misskelley also told police he was involved in a cult that held sex orgies and ate dogs.
In other motions filed Friday, Ford asked:
-- For separate trials for Baldwin and Echols. Circuit Judge David Burnett denied a similar motion last month, but Ford cites new grounds, including an allegation that Echols is involved in the occult but Baldwin is not. ''The information provided to counsel via discovery clearly acknowleges that the defendant Echols is involved in the occult and is a self-avowed witch,'' the motion charged.
-- To exclude from evidence a knife found at a Marion school.
The motion says there were ''no fingerprints or blood on the knife,'' which cannot be linked to the crime scene. The knife's only evidentiary value is that a fiber found on the knife was similar to a fiber found in Baldwin's home, the motion said.
-- To suppress from evidence Baldwin's juvenile record and school records.
In a letter received by defense attorneys Friday, Deputy Prosecutor John N. Fogleman said Misskelley will be tried first.
It had been decided earlier that at least two trials would be held - one for Misskelley and one for Echols and Baldwin - but it had been unclear who would go first.
''We anticipated from Day One we would go first,'' said Daniel T. Stidham, Misskelley's attorney. ''This is not a surprise at all.''
Fogleman could not be reached for comment Friday.
Going first has advantages and disadvantages, defense attorneys said.
Attorneys handling the second trial will get an advantaged ''preview'' of the state's case against the defendants by observing the first trial, Stidham said. On the other hand, it may be harder for defendants in the second trial to get a fair trial. A conviction in the first trial conceivably could bias a second jury against the other two defendants, said Ford, Baldwin's attorney.
''In one respect, going first gives you the easiest ability to pick an impartial jury,'' Ford said.
The Misskelley trial could come as early as January, with the second trial following in late February, attorneys said.
The next hearing in the case is set for Tuesday in Jonesboro.
