Ameen Hurst a sixteen year old alleged teen killer has been charged with four counts of murder among other charges in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. According to the police the sixteen year old has been charged with the murders of four people including Rodney Hargrove who was just released from jail, Dyewou Nyshawn Scruggs whose murder was filmed on Instagram and two more victims who were killed in a drive by shooting that left two others with gunshot wounds.
Ameen Hurst – Dyewou Nyshawn Scruggs Murder
It is alleged that Ameen Hurst followed Philadelphia comedian for some time before pulling out a gun and shooting Dyewou Nyshawn Scruggs over a dozen times causing his death. Right before he died Dyewou Nyshawn Scruggs pulled out his camera and told the alleged teen killer Ameen Hurst that he was being filmed live on Instagram. The camera would go dead as several gunshots could be heard. The video above is the alleged killer following his victim
Ameen Hurst – Rodney Hargrove Murder
Rodney Hargrove was arrested for a number of charges and had to wait at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Homesburg while his family raised bail money. On March 18 2021 at 1:00am Rodney Hargrove would be released from the jail and as per policy driven off of prison grounds to a bust stop across the street. Rodney Hargrove would wait for approximately forty five minutes before a car would drive up and the recently released inmate would run back to the prison with gunshots firing behind him. The vehicle would follow him onto the jail property and allegedly Ameen Hurst would open fire striking and killing the twenty year old. No prison guards witnessed the murder though some would admit to hearing gunfire. Police believe that Rodney Hargrove was not the target and it was a case of mistaken identity.
Ameen Hurst – 2 More Murders
Police in Philadelphia are saying that Ameen Hurst was in a car that would drive up to a group and open fire killing two people and injuring two more on March 11, 2021. Not a lot of information has been provided by police regarding this shooting.
Ameen Hurst More News
Philadelphia police have connected a teenager to four recent murders, including one outside of a prison last month.
Philadelphia police say Ameen Hurst, 16, shot and killed 20-year-old Rodney Hargrove roughly one hour after he was released from the Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility on March 18.
Police announced the update during a gun violence briefing on Wednesday, revealing that they believe Hargrove was killed in a case of mistaken identity.
Officials say Hargrove was locked up on six charges, including carrying a firearm without a license. He was released around 1 a.m. after his dad bailed him out.
Prison personnel transported Hargrove across the street to a SEPTA bus stop. While waiting on family for nearly an hour, officials say Hargrove ran back onto prison grounds while being chased by a vehicle.
Authorities say Hargrove ran past the entrance gate where a guard usually is posted, and the vehicle followed. Hargrove was shot and killed feet from the raised gate.
It’s unclear why the gate was raised. An internal investigation is still underway.
Philadelphia Department of Prisons has vowed to implement security changes following the deadly shooting.
On March 20, police say Hurst was arrested on murder charges in connection with a deadly Christmas Eve shooting on the 1800 block of Wynnewood Road.
Police say officers used social media to link Hurst to a quadruple shooting on March 11 that left two people dead. Ameen Hurst has been charged with murder in connection with this shooting as well.
John Williams was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murders of Deborah Jean Elliot and Patricia Ann Ashe and for a number of sexual assaults. According to court documents John Williams is a serial rapist who has attacked a number of women over the years and would murder Deborah Jean Elliot and Patricia Ann Ashe. John Williams would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
With trendy bars, thriving businesses, fashionable apartments and creative food options, downtown Raleigh is booming.
Part of the growth includes the Warehouse District, where a lively mix of art museums, shops and technology firms live side-by-side with transportation hub Union Station and The Dillon, an 18-story mixed-use business and residential development.
But some areas remain unkempt, with overgrown vegetation, graffiti and barbed-wire fences that hint of a darker past.
In the late 1990s, the Warehouse District was characterized by fading brick buildings, with crime, homelessness and prostitution the norm.
Then in 1996, black women started turning up dead.
The first body of 1996 was discovered Jan. 7.
It was a snowy Sunday, and Raleigh police officer G.M. Wright responded to a call in the 1500 block of S. Blount Street.
When Wright got there, a man was waving his arms to get the officers attention. The man, Rodney Bass, told Wright that he had seen a person with no clothes on behind a building.
Wright found a woman’s body, covered with snow, on a bench, with her legs and feet hanging off the edge. She was naked, except for white socks.
There was a thermal, long-sleeved T-shirt folded up under her buttocks and a pair of jeans folded under her head, like a pillow. A couple of crack pipes and a lighter were next to the bench.
The body was that of Patricia Ashe, a habitual crack cocaine user who may have also been involved in prostitution.
There were footprints in the snow near the body, but not close enough to suggest the person they belonged to had been involved in some way. After further questioning, the mystery was cleared. The footprints belonged to Bass, who said he had been walking around the building but stopped about 20 or 30 feet short of the bench when he saw the body and then decided to call police.
An autopsy performed on Ashe’s body concluded that she had died from strangulation.
But she apparently had put up a fight. She had scrapes and scratches on both sides of her neck as well as some on the front part of her neck. She also had scrapes and scratches on her back and arms and a small tear in her skin in the groin area. Some of the neck scratches were so deep that a bit of skin was torn off.
More bodies followed. A woman named Dewanna Burt was found dead later in January. Then Patricia Woods, Dawn Grandy, and an unidentified woman whose body was found in August.
The sixth victim was 35-year-old Deborah Jean Elliot.
On Dec. 23, 1996, Elliot spoke with one of her sisters about Christmas plans. She was supposed to go to her other sister’s house about 1 p.m. on Christmas Eve and stay for the holidays, but she never arrived.
According to court documents, a sister told police that Elliot was known to be involved in high-risk activities, such as using crack and prostitution.
But others knew Elliot in a different way, as a loving mother of three and a dedicated worker at McDonald’s, where she had worked for about a year and was on track to become an assistant manager.
“We’d see each other every day at McDonald’s,” said a woman who worked with Elliot at the fast-food restaurant. “And we’d talk, we’d carry on like we were sisters, you know, we’d laugh and stuff. She talked about her kids, her twins, her boys.”
The day after Christmas, a Thursday, Oliver Parrish was working at a building on N. West Street in downtown Raleigh. The building was part of the Pine State Creamery, and Parrish was checking to make sure doors were locked.
In a part of the building with three bays, Parrish saw something: It was a body, lying face down, naked except for socks and shoes. It was Deborah Elliot.
Minutes after her body was identified, her friends gathered at her home.
“I really didn’t think it would be her. It really is a shock. All I have is good things to say about her. I’m choked up … she was a nice person,” one man said.
Asked whether she had any enemies, the same friend said: “She was nice person, you know. She liked to have fun. She was friendly with everybody. I didn’t ever see her around any bad crowd.”
Raleigh Police weren’t sure whether Elliot’s death was connected to the killings of the five other black women earlier in 1996.
“We are not discounting or assuming anything at this point, that they are connected or they are not connected,” a Raleigh Police spokesman said at the time. “We’re just currently investigating them to the best of our ability right now.”
In the days after Elliot’s death, Raleigh Police said the FBI was helping to develop a psychological profile for the person or persons responsible for the killings of the six young women since January.
Mitch Brown, who was Raleigh Police Chief at the time, said police were talking to officials in other cities where similar crimes had happened.
“Anytime that’s there’s a homicide of similar occurrences, we’re in touch with those jurisdictions,” Brown said.
Concern grew across Raleigh as the body count grew. Nowhere more so than in the Walnut Terrace Public Housing Project, where two of the victims lived.
Sharon McClain often visited her sister at Walnut Terrace, just a mile from Raleigh’s downtown.
“You’ll be scared to go out at night by yourself, being a young black woman, you know, and just stuff going on,” McClain told ABC11 at the time. “I really don’t know what to say. It’s just fear in my heart.”
Raleigh Police assigned 54 investigators to work on the murders and worked to quell fears in the community.
“I’m optimistic about clearing every homicide that occurs in the city, and I believe we will eventually clear this as well,” Brown said.
In January 1997, state and local officials offered up to $6,000 in reward money for information to help solve the murders. The office of then-Gov. Jim Hunt had posted a $5,000 reward the previous Fall for information leading to arrests and convictions in the killings of Ashe and Burt, and Raleigh police had a $1,000 reward through the CrimeStoppers program.
Faced with the possibility that a serial killer was on the loose, Raleigh Police conducted an estimated 6,000 interviews and beefed up patrols in the area around Moore Square.
Pressure was mounting to solve the brutal killings, and on Feb. 4, 1997, police caught the break they were looking for.
That night, a woman named Shelly Jackson was at the A.S.K. Store near Moore Square. According to court records, Jackson had been out drinking and using drugs. About 7 p.m. she saw a man getting out of another man’s van and struck up a conversation.
The man, according to the court records, told Jackson he had some cocaine and said, “Come go with me to my secret place that I go to.”
They went to a fenced-in lot with abandoned vehicles off W. Hargett Street and got into an abandoned truck.
Jackson later told police that as she bent down to put her purse on the floor, the man got behind her, grabbed her around the neck and flashed some sort of weapon, a razor blade perhaps. He told her to take her clothes off. She said she refused and screamed.
As the man said, “Shut up … I got you now. I’m going to kill you,” she happened to see a police car coming down the street and managed to break loose, jump from the truck and run screaming toward the police car.
Raleigh Police Sgt. T.C. Earnhart was driving past the back lot of 612 W. Hargett St. about 8 p.m. when he heard the woman scream. He got out of his patrol car and saw her jump out of a truck and run toward his vehicle.
Earnhart later testified that Jackson was “frantic” and “hysterical” and said something about a man trying to cut her and rape her. Her hand was dripping blood. She said the man was about to cut her throat, so she brought her hand up to defend herself and was cut in the process.
The alleged attacker hopped out of the old truck and ran away. But Officer Earnhart saw him and radioed for backup.
Within 10 minutes, police spotted the suspect and took him into custody.
When the man was brought back to the crime scene, Jackson identified him as the attacker. Police found a box cutter in the man’s pants pocket, and he had a cut on his right hand and blood on his shirt. His blood was also found inside the truck where Jackson said the attack took place.
Police identified the man as 35-year-old John Williams Jr., a drifter and native of Augusta, Georgia.
Williams was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and attempted first-degree rape.
Despite the arrest, police maintained there remained multiple suspects.
“All of the suspects that we arrest in these homicides, we are looking at them as possibilities of multiple killings, so we’re looking at him and other ones that we have, that we’re investigating right now,” Chief Brown said.
Nevertheless, news of the arrest came as welcomed relief in the neighborhood.
The Associated Press reported at the time that “many people who work downtown said they were relieved that a suspect was behind bars. At one store not far from the railroad tracks, police posters of the women killed last year are taped to the front door.”
Brenda Adams worked in an office directly across Hargett Street from the location Williams was apprehended.
“We’re right beside the railroad tracks and of course, this area is known for a lot of derelicts, winos, and often they come to our door,” Adams told ABC11 at the time.
Adams said she felt better after Williams’ arrest: “Most definitely. Sure am.” She said she was pleased by stepped-up police patrols around her office, saying Raleigh Police are doing a terrific job.
While Williams sat in jail for the assault on Jackson, police diligently worked to link him to other crimes.
Williams, 36, was charged on March 19, 1997 with the killing of Patricia Ashe in January 1996. While in jail on the assault rap, he was also charged for the murder of Debra Elliott in December.
Marty Ludas, a latent print examiner, who testified at Williams’ trial as a footwear-identification expert, compared a pair of Williams’ tennis shoes to a shoe print taken from glass pieces that had been put together at the spot where Elliot had been killed. Ludas concluded that only Williams’ left shoe could have made that print.
DNA testing was conducted on the swabs that the medical examiner took from Ashe. Williams was a match.
After Williams’ arrest, a number of women came forward to say Williams assaulted them.
“For whatever reason, they didn’t report it at the time they were attacked,” police said. “Based on the interviews we got from them and the information they were able to give us, it led to, it was a substantial amount, and the information they gave led to the arrest today (in other cases).”
“Crime-scene search yielded some evidence that we needed the suspect to put back with the evidence. We were able to do that with laboratory techniques,” police said.
Police told The Associated Press in 1997 that they believed Williams also killed Grandy and Brown. Both their bodies had been dumped near downtown railroad tracks
“We have our man,” Capt. Dennis Ford told the AP. “People should feel comfortable at this point that we have our perpetrator.”
Investigators told media that they believed that Williams met his victims downtown and that they willingly went with him to secluded spots where “he felt comfortable to make the attacks.
The legal trouble grew: Williams was charged with the sexual assaults of four other women dating to October 1995.
THE TRIAL
At Williams’ 1998 trial, defense attorneys brought in two mental health experts to testify in an attempt to avoid the death penalty.
They cited Williams’ past and rough upbringing, issues that may have affected Williams’ state of mind.
A psychiatrist said that as a child, Williams saw his sister being sexually assaulted by his stepfather.
“He felt powerless to do anything about the violence … sexual violence. He felt really powerless, he didn’t think anybody would believe him if he reported that to his mom…” the expert testified.
Throughout the testimony, Williams seemed restless, pitching forward occasionally and often slumping back in his chair, his relatives sitting stoically behind him, refusing to comment to the media about the proceedings.
A psychologist testified that Williams believed he was incapable of harming any women and he actually saw himself as kind and benevolent toward them.
The psychologist also cited Williams’ IQ of 80 and doubted that Williams was capable of concocting several elaborate murder schemes and then lie about them later.
The jury was having none of it.
On March 4, 1998, the seven-man, five-woman jury decided that Williams, who they saw as a “lethal predator,” should get the death penalty.
Williams was convicted in the first-degree premeditated murders of Ashe and Elliot. He was also convicted in the attack on Jackson.
In addition, he was convicted in the rapes of two other women, an assault on another woman, but found not guilty in another case of attempted rape.
Williams, now 58, remains on North Carolina’s death row at Central Prison.
BITTERSWEET JUSTICE
Williams’ conviction brought tears of joy and relief to some members of victims’ families. Others called for harsh justice.
“I’m glad, and now he needs to be choked like he choked the rest of them women,” one woman said after the verdict. “They should choke him before they kill him, they really should.”
Elliot’s sister also had pointed words for Williams after the conviction.
“I wish they’d let me do it,” she told ABC11 at the time. “I wanted him to suffer just like he made my sister suffer. I mean, he’s sitting in there grinning. Like it was all good, he ain’t did nothing wrong.
“God is good,” she added, “and I’m glad it’s over.”
Danny Frogge was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murders of his father and stepmother. According to court documents Danny Frogge would stab to death his father and stepmother following an argument. Danny Frogge would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
The State’s evidence at defendant’s second trial tended to show that defendant stabbed his father and bedridden stepmother to death. At the time of the murders, defendant lived with his father and stepmother at their home in Winston-Salem. Defendant’s father did not work, and his stepmother had been confined to her bed for over two years. Defendant worked part-time and helped around the house, but paid no rent.
Between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m. on 5 November 1994, the Winston-Salem Police Department received a 911 call from a person who identified himself as Danny Frogge. Frogge reported that his parents were dead. When Winston-Salem police officers arrived at the scene, they found the bodies of Robert and Audrey Frogge in their bedroom. Robert Frogge was found on the floor lying on his left side with bloodstains on his shirt and arms. He had sustained ten stab wounds. A leather wallet, containing his driver’s license and miscellaneous papers but no money, was found next to his body. The wallet, which was lying open, had a drop and a smear of blood inside. Near the wallet, a white, bloodstained sock was found. An iron bar from a lawnmower was found under Robert Frogge’s body. Audrey Frogge was found in her hospital-type bed with bloodstains on her chest and arms. She had sustained eleven stab wounds to her chest. In addition, she suffered defensive knife wounds to her hand. A hospital-type rolling table stood beside the bed. Dr. Patrick Lantz, a forensic pathologist, opined that the angle of the stab wounds indicated the person stabbing Audrey Frogge either stood at the edge of the bed beside the table or climbed on the bed itself to deliver the blows.
Outside the home near the back porch, the officers found a bloodstained butcher knife. Just beyond the edge of the woods behind the house, the officers found men’s clothing, including a pair of blue work pants, a pink tee shirt with red stains, a pair of men’s underwear, and a white sock which contained bloodstains and blood spatter. The white sock appeared to match the sock found near Robert Frogge’s body. The officers also collected several pairs of white underwear and blue work pants from defendant’s bedroom which appeared similar to those found in the woods.
While talking further with the officers that night, defendant appeared calm and showed no signs of emotion. In a statement to Winston-Salem Police Detective Sergeant Dennis Scales, defendant claimed that on the day of the murders he had been in and out of the house on numerous occasions taking care of his stepmother and preparing her supper. After a night of drinking and crack cocaine use with friends, he returned to the home at approximately 4:00 a.m. and found his parents murdered.
The State also offered into evidence defendant’s testimony from the sentencing proceeding of his first trial. This testimony included the following: On the day of the murders, defendant worked around the house and later met with Earl Autrey, Audrey Frogge’s son-in-law, at approximately 2:00 p.m. The two began drinking. Defendant went back to his parents’ home to prepare supper for his stepmother and later returned to Autrey’s home to continue drinking. Subsequently, defendant returned to his parents’ home. Defendant had consumed almost an entire pint of liquor and several beers. Defendant’s father awoke from a nap between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. and began to argue with defendant about his drinking. Defendant could not recall what he said to his father; however, his father became so upset that he took an iron bar from a lawnmower and jabbed and hit defendant four or five times. Defendant got up, went to the kitchen, and retrieved a butcher knife. He recalled stabbing his father three or four times while his father held the iron bar. Defendant did not remember stabbing his stepmother, but admitted that he must have done it. He then took approximately twenty-five or twenty-six dollars from his father’s wallet. Defendant attempted to wash the blood from his hands. He then changed clothes and threw the soiled clothes in the woods behind the house. When asked how blood got inside his father’s wallet, defendant stated that he did not know, but admitted it might have dropped from his hand. Defendant left and went to Kim Dunlap’s house. He and Dunlap then rode with Dunlap’s sister to downtown Winston-Salem. They used the money defendant had taken from his father’s wallet to purchase crack cocaine. After smoking the crack, defendant and Dunlap returned to defendant’s parents’ home in a taxicab around 4:00 or 4:30 a.m. Defendant entered the house, but returned to the taxicab and said that his parents were dead. He then called the police.
Defendant elected to testify on his own behalf at his second trial. His testimony was similar to that given at his first sentencing proceeding. He testified he served over four years in prison for a previous second-degree murder conviction and that he saved $8,000 to purchase a mobile home where he resided for six months after his release. Thereafter he returned to live with his father and stepmother. Defendant again admitted killing his father and stepmother and stated that after the murders, he changed his clothes and washed his hands. His testimony differed somewhat in that defendant claimed he did not take the money from his father’s wallet until after he had washed his hands and was preparing to leave the house approximately thirty minutes after the murders. Defendant again admitted purchasing crack cocaine with the money he took from his father’s wallet.
Allen Holman was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder of his wife Linda Holman. According to court documents Linda Holman phoned police and told them she was scared to return home because of her husband Allen Holman. Police escorted her home and told Allen Holman to pack his stuff and leave and he was not to return. A number of weeks later Linda Holman called 911 saying she was being chased in her car by Allen Holman. Police would try to capture Allen but he was able to escape and would return to shoot and kill Linda Holman with a shotgun. Allen Holman would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Allen Holman would die of natural causes on death row – April 2023
The State’s evidence presented at the sentencing proceeding tended to show that on 6 July 1997 the victim called the Morrisville Police Department and stated that she believed that her husband, defendant, would kill her if she returned home. Police officers were dispatched to meet the victim at the location from which she placed the call and to escort her home. When the officers met the victim, she appeared hysterical; she was crying and shaking, and she acted terrified. The officers escorted the victim home and spoke to defendant, who apologized for causing the officers to be called out and told the officers that he was packing to move away. Defendant was allowed to collect his remaining property and left with a warning from the officers that he would be cited for trespass if he returned.
The next day the victim unsuccessfully attempted to remove defendant’s name from the lease to the home she rented, and she contracted to have a security system installed. Sometime thereafter, the victim began parking her car so that it faced the road and was closer to the door to the house; changed her phone number and the locks on her house; nailed the windows of her house shut; and began keeping the curtains drawn so that defendant could not shoot her from outside the house. The victim told the law enforcement agencies of nearby municipalities that she feared defendant would kill her, and she verified that officers knew how to get to her house. The victim also circulated a petition to have the street that she lived on officially named to enable quicker response from police and emergency personnel. Witnesses testified that from 6 July 1997 to 28 July 1997 the victim repeatedly told them that she was terrified that defendant was going to kill her.
Around 6:04 a.m. on 28 July 1997 the victim called 911 from her cellular phone and told the dispatcher that she was driving eighty-five to ninety miles per hour on Highway 55 towards Apex, North Carolina, with defendant chasing her in his own car. The victim also told the dispatcher that defendant was trying to kill her and that he was ramming her vehicle with his own vehicle.
The dispatcher alerted police officers and told the victim that officers were waiting farther up the road for her car to pass them. The victim spotted an officer’s car in a grocery store parking lot and stopped her car next to it. The officer in the car saw defendant make a quick turn and drive away. The victim was terrified, but the officer told her to wait in the parking lot for other officers to arrive; and the officer began pursuit of defendant.
Defendant eluded the officer and returned to the parking lot where the victim was still waiting for the other officers to arrive. A short time later Sergeant Denson, an officer with the Apex Police Department, pulled into the parking lot and saw defendant’s car parked in front of the victim’s car and defendant standing beside his driver’s side door holding a shotgun. Defendant then got into his car, pointed the shotgun out the window, fired a shot, and drove away. As Sergeant Denson began chasing defendant in his own car, he saw the victim lying on the ground on the driver’s side of her car in a pool of blood. Sergeant Denson pursued defendant and requested that other officers attend to the victim. When the officers requested by Sergeant Denson arrived at the parking lot, they found the victim’s lifeless body lying face-up on the ground by her car.
Upon leaving the parking lot defendant drove back towards the victim’s house with officers in pursuit. When he arrived at the victim’s house, defendant held police at bay for a time before shooting himself in the abdomen. During this time in a phone conversation with a co-worker of the victim, defendant admitted shooting the victim twice in the parking lot. Defendant later also admitted to an officer that he had shot the victim. Police officers took defendant into custody. Defendant was subsequently treated by medical personnel for the self-inflicted wound.
The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on the victim found two shotgun slug entry wounds in the victim’s back. The medical examiner further determined the cause of death to be massive blood loss attributable to these wounds.
Timmy Grooms was sentenced to death by the State of North Carolina for the murder of Krista Kay Godwin According to court documents Timmy Grooms would kidnap, sexually assault and murder Krista Kay Godwin. Timmy Grooms would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
The State’s evidence tended to show that defendant and Krista Kay Godwin were neighbors in Laurel Hill, North Carolina. On 14 February 1994, Godwin was planning an intimate Valentine’s Day dinner with her fiancé, Michael McDaniel. Godwin spent the afternoon with a friend, Myra Martin. Around 6:30 p.m. Godwin spoke on the telephone with her mother and with McDaniel, who called Godwin from work during his 6:30 break. Godwin and Martin then went to Rita Quick’s house for approximately thirty or forty-five minutes. While at Quick’s house, Godwin ate some dinner and phoned her mother. Godwin and Martin returned to Godwin’s home, and Martin left around 7:30 p.m. Godwin called her father between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. and told her father that she was waiting for McDaniel to come home from work.
McDaniel attempted to phone Godwin from work around 10:00 p.m. When no one answered his repeated attempts to call Godwin, McDaniel became concerned and left work early. McDaniel arrived at Godwin’s home around 10:25 p.m. The front door was unlocked; the lights were on; the dogs were in the yard; and Godwin’s shoes, purse, and jacket were in the house, but Godwin was missing. McDaniel phoned Martin, Godwin’s father, and the police. Martin then phoned the police, the hospital, and Quick. Godwin’s father helped McDaniel search the neighborhood for Godwin.
Meanwhile, around 6:00 p.m. Chad Miller noticed defendant straddling his bike in some bushes near Godwin’s house. Miller called out to defendant, and defendant rode away on his bike without answering. Miller proceeded to downtown Laurel Hill, where he sat on the steps of an abandoned building and drank beer with defendant. Miller walked defendant home, leaving defendant at the house defendant shared with Hope Norton at approximately 9:00 p.m. Around 10:00 or 10:15 p.m. Kenneth Boswell noticed defendant and Godwin standing together on a street corner. At approximately 1:00 a.m. Shirley Johnson nearly hit defendant with her car as he ran down the street from the direction of Mildred’s Florist Shop. Johnson told law enforcement officers that defendant was wearing a blue jacket, a dark hat, and light-colored jeans. Defendant then returned home twice for short periods, both times without the blue jacket that he frequently wore and that he had been wearing earlier.
When defendant returned home the next morning, his face was scratched; and he was bleeding from a long cut on his arm. Defendant told Norton that two black men had assaulted him, that his dog had scratched his face, that he had gotten scratched riding his bicycle under a tree, and that he had gotten scratched in some bushes while breaking into a house. Defendant also told Norton that he had thrown away his jacket. Later, defendant told Norton that he had buried the other clothing he had worn that night and that the police would never find this other clothing.
On the morning of 16 February 1994 Marvin Radford, Jr., discovered a severed human hand when he climbed onto the roof of Mildred’s Florist Shop to patch some leaks. On that same day a search team looked for Godwin in a nearby wooded area. As he walked through the wooded area, Deputy Thomas Butler discovered a negligee. Deputy Butler continued to search the surrounding area until he saw human toes sticking up from some pine straw. Deputy Butler then recognized the outline of a human body, which was later uncovered and identified as Godwin.
The pathologist who performed the autopsy on Godwin found a total of twelve stab wounds on Godwin’s body, all of which were inflicted by the same instrument, possibly a pocketknife. One stab wound perforated Godwin’s aorta and would have caused Godwin’s death within minutes; however, several other wounds that penetrated Godwin’s chest cavity were potentially fatal. The pathologist found numerous linear scratches and scrapes on Godwin’s back and on the back of Godwin’s legs that were consistent with the dragging of the body. Additionally, Godwin’s face exhibited scrapes and extensive bruising around the eyes and nose resulting from blunt-force trauma inflicted while Godwin was still alive. Internal bleeding and hemorrhaging in the tissues of the neck indicated that Godwin had been choked before she was stabbed. Vaginal smears revealed the presence of intact sperm. Godwin’s right hand had been sawed off at the forearm; and Godwin’s left hand had been partially sawed off, then the bone had been forcibly broken or snapped. The contents of Godwin’s stomach indicated that Godwin had eaten her last meal within four or five hours of her death.
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