Anthony Hines was sentenced to death by the State of Tennessee for a sexual assault and murder. According to court documents Anthony Hines would sexually assault and murder the victim, Katherine Jenkins, while she was employed as a maid at a motel. Anthony Hines was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m. on 3 March 1985 the body of Katherine Jean Jenkins was discovered wrapped in a sheet in Room 21 of the CeBon Motel off Interstate 40 at Kingston Springs. The victim was a maid at the motel and had been in the process of cleaning the room when she was killed. Her outer clothing had been pulled up to her breasts. Her panties had been cut or torn in two pieces and were found in another area of the room. A $20 bill had been placed under the wrist band of her watch.
The cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the chest. Four deep, penetrating wounds, ranging from 2.5 inches to 6.4 inches in depth, had been inflicted about the victim’s chest with a knife similar to a butcher knife or a hunting knife. Other superficial cuts were found in the area of the neck and clavicle. There was also a knife wound which penetrated through the upper portion of the vagina into the mesentery in the lower part of the abdominal cavity. Dr. Charles Harlan who performed the autopsy on the victim’s body testified that in view of the small amount of blood in the vaginal vault it was his opinion the wound occurred at or about the time of death. The victim also had what he described as “defensive wounds” on her hands and arms.
Jenkins had been left in charge of the motel at about 9:30 a.m. At that time the occupants of Rooms 9, 21 and 24 had not yet checked out. When the manager left her in charge she was given a Cheatham County State Bank bag containing $100 in small bills to make change for motel guests as they paid. The bank bag, bloody and empty, was discovered in the room with her body. It was her established habit to lock her automobile at all times and to keep her keys and billfold on her person when she worked. Her car keys, billfold and her 1980 silver-colored Volvo were missing.
On 1 March 1985 defendant had departed by bus from Raleigh, North Carolina. He had been given a non-refundable ticket to *518 Bowling Green, Kentucky and $20 in spending money. The traveling time from Raleigh, North Carolina to Nashville, Tennessee was approximately 17 hours. Prior to his departure he was observed by a witness to be carrying a hunting knife in a sheath which was concealed beneath his shirt. The witness admonished him that he could not carry a knife like that on the bus to which he responded “I never go anywhere naked.” “I always have my blade.”
Sometime in the early morning hours of 3 March 1985 he checked in and was assigned to Room 9 at the CeBon Motel. He was wearing a green army-type fatigue jacket, fatigue pants and boots. He was next seen at approximately 9:30 a.m. walking in a direction from his room toward a drink machine. At that time he told the manager he was not yet ready to check out. He was also seen sometime prior to 9:30 purchasing a sandwich at a deli-restaurant across the street from the motel. The same witness who saw defendant also saw another stranger there somewhere between 1:30 and 2:30 who she described as taller than defendant with dark hair, kinky looking and wild-eyed. He departed the restaurant in the general direction of the CeBon Motel.
The Cehatham County Sheriff testified that he responded to a call to the CeBon Motel at 2:37 p.m. When he arrived on the scene blood spots in the room were beginning to dry and the body was beginning to stiffen. Defendant was seen between 11:00 and 11:30 a.m. walking from the direction of the Interstate toward the CeBon Motel. At 12:40 p.m. a witness saw the victim’s Volvo automobile pulling out from the CeBon Motel driveway. It was being operated by a person who appeared to be a man with very short, light colored hair. The vehicle crossed over the Interstate and turned east on Interstate 40. She followed behind and endeavored to catch up but it sped off toward Nashville at a high rate of speed. Defendant was next identified in possession of the car a few miles past Gallatin on Interstate 65, heading in the direction of Bowling Green, Kentucky.
A group of young people first endeavored to help him start the stalled automobile and then gave him a ride to Bowling Green. During the trip to Bowling Green one of these witnesses observed some dried blood on the right shoulder of his shirt. He carried a jacket which he kept folded. After he arrived at his sister’s home in Bowling Green defendant told her he had endeavored to pay another day’s rent at a motel when he was attacked by the motel operator. He demonstrated to her how he had stabbed the man. He also related to her he had a sum of money. She could not remember whether he said $35,000 or $3,500. Defendant also told his sister’s husband he had earned approximately $7,000 working as a mechanic in North Carolina. He displayed a set of keys to a Volvo automobile and explained that a man who had given him a ride attempted to rob him. Defendant purportedly grabbed the steering wheel and when the car ran off the road he grabbed the keys and ran.
According to the witness he was wearing an army fatigue jacket which had something large, heavy and bulky in the pocket. The witness had previously seen defendant with a survival knife with a 6 1/2 to 7 inch blade hanging from his belt. When defendant was taken into custody he volunteered the statement that he had taken the woman’s car but had not killed her. According to the arresting officer he had not advised the defendant that a woman had been killed prior to the volunteered statement. There was evidence however that defendant was aware he had been charged in Tennessee on a murder warrant. The victim’s wallet was found wrapped in a thermal underwear shirt a short distance from where her car was found abandoned.
The key to Room 9 of the CeBon Motel was found at the site where defendant had been camping out near Cave City, Kentucky. When asked by a TBI agent to tell the truth about the death of Katherine Jenkins defendant stated that if the officer could guarantee him the death penalty he would confess and tell him all about the murder and that he could tell him everything he wanted to know if he was of a mind to. There were marks on the wall of Room 9 at the CeBon Motel apparently made by someone stabbing a knife into the wall. When shown photographs of the marks on the *519 wall defendant responded that they were knife marks. These marks were obviously made by a knife larger than two taken from defendant at the time of his arrest.
Kennath Henderson was sentenced to death by the State of Tennessee for a murder committed during an attempted prison escape. According to court documents Kennath Henderson would shoot and kill Fayette County Deputy Tommy Bishop, 43. Kennath Henderson girlfriend had smuggled the gun into the jail. Kennath Henderson would be convicted and sentenced to death.
At the time of the events giving rise to this case, the appellant, Kennath Henderson, was incarcerated at the Fayette County Jail serving consecutive sentences for felony escape and aggravated burglary. On April 26, 1997, as the appellant was planning an escape from jail, he had a .380 semi-automatic pistol smuggled into the jail through his girlfriend. A couple of days later, the appellant requested dental work on a tooth that needed to be pulled, and an appointment was made for May 2 with Dr. John Cima, a dentist practicing in Somerville. Dr. Cima had practiced dentistry in Somerville for more than thirty years, and he had often seen inmate patients. In fact, this was not the appellant’s first visit to see Dr. Cima.
On May 2, 1997, Deputy Tommy Bishop, who was serving in his official capacity as a transport officer for the Fayette County Sheriff’s office, took the appellant and another inmate, Ms. Deloice Guy, to Dr. Cima’s Office in a marked police car. Upon their arrival at the dentist’s office, Dr. Cima placed the appellant and Ms. Guy in separate treatment rooms, and each patient was numbed for tooth extraction. Deputy Bishop remained in the reception area and talked with the receptionist during this time.
When Dr. Cima and his assistant returned to the appellant’s treating room to begin the tooth extraction, the appellant pulled out his .380 pistol. Dr. Cima immediately reached for the pistol, and he and the appellant struggled over the weapon. During this brief struggle, Dr. Cima called out for Deputy Bishop, and the deputy hurried back to the treatment room. Just as the deputy arrived at the door, the appellant regained control of the pistol and fired a shot at Deputy Bishop, which grazed him on the neck. Although not fatal, this shot caused the deputy to fall backwards, hit his head against the doorframe or the wall, and then fall to the floor face down, presumably unconscious.
The appellant then left the treating room and came back with the receptionist in his custody. The appellant reached down and took Deputy Bishop’s pistol, and he took money, credit cards, and truck keys from Dr. Cima. The appellant then ordered Dr. Cima and the receptionist to accompany him out of the building, but just before he turned to leave the building, the appellant went back to the treatment room, leaned over Deputy Bishop, and shot him through the back of the head at point-blank range. The deputy had not moved since first being shot in the neck moments earlier and was still lying face-down on the floor by the door to the treatment room when the appellant fatally shot him.
Once outside of the office, the appellant was startled by another patient, and Dr. Cima and his receptionist were able to escape back into the office.1 Once inside, Dr. Cima locked the door and called the police. The appellant, in the meantime, stole Dr. Cima’s truck and drove away at a slow speed so as not to attract any attention to himself. When police officers began to follow him, the appellant sped away, and eventually drove off the road and into a ditch. The officers took the appellant into custody, and upon searching the truck, they found the murder weapon, Deputy Bishop’s gun, and personal items taken from Dr. Cima’s office.
On May 13, 1997, Kennath Henderson was indicted by a Fayette County Grand Jury in a ten-count indictment, which alleged one count of premeditated murder, three counts of felony murder, two counts of especially aggravated kidnaping, and one count of attempted especially aggravated kidnaping, aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, and felonious escape. After three continuances, the appellant pled guilty on the day of trial to all of the charges except for the three counts of felony murder.
William Hall and Derrick Quintero was sentenced to death by the State of Tennessee for a double murder. According to court documents William Hall and Derrick Quintero had escaped from the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville and had broken into an elderly couple’s home in Tennessee that ended with the couple being murdered. William Hall and Derrick Quintero would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
According to the Tennessee Dept. of Correction, Derrick Quintero, 59, passed away at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution around 3:31 a.m. Monday March 22 of apparent natural causes.
William Hall More News
The proof introduced by the State during the guilt phase of the trial demonstrated that Myrtle and Buford Vester were murdered in their home in the Leatherwood community of Stewart County, which is situated on Kentucky Lake and in close proximity to the Tennessee-Kentucky border. The Vesters were murdered sometime after their son left their home at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 19, 1988 and sometime before their bodies were discovered by their neighbor around 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 22, 1988.
Along with six other men, the defendants in this appeal, Derrick Quintero and William Hall, escaped from the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville during the early morning hours of June 16, 1988. Three of the escapees 3 were apprehended in the vicinity of the prison on or before June 18, 1988. However, the other five escapees, including Quintero, Hall, James Blanton, Joseph Montgomery, and Ronnie Hudson left the area in a 1966 Chevrolet pick-up truck 4 which they stole from Curtis Rogers who lived about one-half of a mile from the prison facility.
The Stewart County Sheriff’s department was notified at 2:30 a.m. on June 16 that inmates had escaped from the penitentiary at Eddyville. After news of the escape had been broadcast to the public, the Sheriff’s department received a telephone call from Zachery Pallay, a resident of the Leatherwood community, warning that Quintero was familiar with the area and would probably seek refuge there. The Sheriff’s department’s also received several reports of suspicious individuals in the Leatherwood area including a report of three men attempting to flag down a car. However, when a rash of burglaries broke out in the Leatherwood community, the Sheriff’s department became convinced that the escapees were in the area. The burglarized residences in Stewart County were owned by Jim McMinn, Neal Foster, Essie Settles, Alfred Cherry, Thomas Harris, and John and Virginia Crawford.
Though it is not possible to determine from the record the precise order in which the burglaries occurred, the proof demonstrates that five of the six burglaries occurred before 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 19, 1988.
The first burglary was reported and occurred on June 18, 1988. That day, Jim McMinn of Clarksville, Tennessee, arrived at his cabin in the Leatherwood area at approximately noon. He left the cabin to go fishing in his boat at around 1:00 p.m. Upon returning to the cabin at 2:30 or 3:00 p.m., McMinn noticed a box of shotgun shells lying on the floor and discovered that his loaded .22 caliber pistol was missing from the bedroom. The telephone in his cabin had been removed from the wall, and the outside portion of the phone line also had been severed. McMinn went to his truck and discovered that the windows had been rolled up and the ignition destroyed with his ax. The telephone from McMinn’s cabin was in the bed of the truck.
Following the report of the McMinn burglary on June 18, the Sheriff’s Department initiated an intensive search of the area, utilizing helicopters, four-wheel drive vehicles, and tracking dogs. At one point law enforcement officers chased some individuals on foot through the woods, but they were not able to overtake the persons suspected to be the escapees.
At some point, perhaps during that chase, Hudson and Montgomery became separated from the defendants and Blanton. Hudson and Montgomery left the Leatherwood community and drove to Lebanon, Kentucky in a 1982 White Ford Fairmont they stole from Essie Settles, a resident of the Standing Rock Community, which is approximately six highway miles from the Leatherwood community. Montgomery’s fingerprint was found on Settles’ garage door. Hudson’s fingerprint was found inside the car when it was later recovered. Settles had seen the car in her garage around 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and discovered that it was missing at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. The proof demonstrated that the car was stolen sometime Saturday night or before daylight on Sunday morning. Burned matches were found inside the garage indicating that it had been dark when the theft occurred. In addition, when she watered her flowers around 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, Settles noticed that someone had removed the hose from the outside faucet during the night. Settles stated that the hose had been connected when she had used it on Saturday evening around 6:00 p.m.
Hudson and Montgomery arrived at Hudson’s brother’s apartment in Lebanon, Kentucky on Sunday, June 19, at approximately 1:00 p.m. They were driving a white car with Tennessee license plates, which witnesses identified at trial as the vehicle which had been stolen from Settles. Hudson’s brother and a friend accompanied the two escapees to a secluded area on the river where Hudson and Montgomery hid the stolen car among the weeds. Around 6:00 or 6:30 p.m., Hudson’s brother left the two escapees in the company of Hudson’s mother and sister. The next day, Hudson’s sister, her two children, and Martha Grover picked up the two escapees and transported them to Grover’s apartment where they stayed until early evening on Tuesday, June 21. The following day, Wednesday, June 22, Kentucky authorities apprehended both Hudson and Montgomery near the location where Settles’ car had been hidden. Shots were exchanged prior to the convicts’ apprehension. Hudson and Montgomery had in their possession McMinn’s .22 caliber pistol and a .22 caliber pistol which had been stolen from another resident of the Leatherwood community, Neal Foster. Two live rounds were recovered from Foster’s pistol, and four spent shells were recovered in the area. While this proof demonstrated that Hudson and Montgomery were some two hundred miles away in Lebanon, Kentucky when the Vesters were murdered in Stewart County, Tennessee, it also showed that the McMinn and Foster burglaries occurred before 1:00 p.m. on June 19.
The Cherry and Harris burglaries were discovered around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. on June 19, 1988 by Alfred Cherry. Cherry’s trailer was located approximately one-half of a mile from the murder victims’ residence. The inside of the trailer was in disarray. A bed was unmade and wet towels were in the bathroom. The refrigerator light switch had been taped down to prohibit the light from operating when the refrigerator door was opened. The hot water tank had been set on high.
Missing from the trailer were two bedspreads, a green thermal blanket, a sleeping bag, a portable radio, approximately fifteen cassette tapes, a rechargeable flashlight, a small handsaw, six knives, coffee mugs, various canned goods, a gallon of homemade wine, two bottles of bourbon, a six-pack of beer, a toothbrush, underwear, and two paperweights bearing the Cumberland Electric logo.5
Cherry did not have a telephone in his trailer. Upon discovering the burglary, he went next door to call the police on the telephone in the trailer owned by his brother-in-law, Thomas Harris. Cherry discovered that Harris’ trailer had also been burglarized. The trailer had been ransacked. The refrigerator light had been removed. The sink was full of dirty dishes, and food was in a skillet on the stove. Wet towels and sheets were strewn about and cigarette burns were all over the floors. Stolen from the trailer were all the canned food items, two quilts, silverware, butcher knives, towels, toilet articles, and a fishing tackle.
When Harris later received his telephone bill, he realized that several unauthorized long distance telephone calls had been placed from his trailer. Three of the unauthorized calls had been placed to a number in Springtown, Texas. These calls occurred on Sunday, June 19, at 3:51 a.m., 8:55 a.m. and 9:19 a.m. Two additional unauthorized calls were placed to a telephone number in Hopewell, Pennsylvania, at 4:00 a.m. and 9:19 a.m. The telephone number called in Springtown, Texas, was listed to Bryan Quintero, who is a brother of Derrick Quintero. The telephone number called in Hopewell, Pennsylvania, was listed to a Barbara Vasser, William Hall’s girlfriend.
At trial, Vasser testified that Hall told her during their first telephone conversation after the escape that his parole had been denied. Hall would not reveal to Vasser his and Quintero’s location, but told Vasser that there were helicopters in the area searching for the escapees and that he and Quintero had been separated from Hudson and Montgomery.
Two knives taken from the Cherry trailer were found at Neal Foster’s residence indicating that it was burglarized sometime after the Cherry and Harris trailers. Again, however, the burglary occurred sometime before 1:00 p.m on June 19, because Montgomery and Hudson had in their possession a gun which had been stolen from the Foster residence when they were apprehended.
However, Foster did not discover the burglary until Tuesday, June 21. The residence had been ransacked. Food was on a kitchen counter, deer steaks were in the microwave, and his binoculars were sitting on a kitchen counter. A green ammunition box, a plastic bag full of old coins, a flashlight, and the holster for his .22 caliber RG pistol were on the floor of the living room. The hallway floor was littered with a Diet Pepsi can, a tin can of old coins, a notebook that once had old coins in it, some socks, a laundry basket with clothes that did not belong to him, and a pair of white tennis shoes that did not belong to him. Towels were strewn around the house. He found in his bathroom a pocket knife, towels, a pair of socks, a .22 caliber shell box, and a 20 gauge shotgun shell. The beds were unmade and had items spread on top of them. The master bedroom dresser drawers were open, and items were scattered all around the bedroom, including two walkie-talkies, a hacksaw, and a 12 gauge shotgun barrel. In the front bedroom, he found several hats, matchbooks, a jar of marshmallow cream, a box of graham crackers, and a small drinking glass.
In a walk-in closet in the residence Foster had kept a .22 caliber pistol, a Glenfield .22 caliber rifle, a Marlin .30-30 caliber lever action rifle, a 20 gauge shotgun, a single shot shotgun, and a Remington Model 1100, 12 gauge shotgun. Following the burglary, he found the 12 gauge shotgun lying on his bed. Someone had attempted to saw off the barrel and had rendered the gun inoperable. The 20 gauge shotgun was missing from his house, but a portion of the gun’s barrel had been sawed off and left in Foster’s bedroom. Also missing after the burglary were his .30-30 lever action rifle and ammunition for various weapons, including .30-30 accelerator rifle bullets, .30-30 caliber rifle shells, 20 gauge shotgun shells, and 12 gauge shotgun shells. In addition to the ammunition, several coins which Foster had collected, including silver dollars, were taken in the burglary.
The authorities found several latent prints at the Foster residence, and identified some of them as belonging to the escapees. A latent left thumb print matching that of Quintero was found on a full box of Federal 12 gauge shotgun shells. A latent right ring fingerprint matching that of Quintero was found on another Federal 12 gauge shotgun shell box. A right middle finger and a right index fingerprint matching Blanton’s print was found on a Federal field load 12 gauge shotgun shell box. A right palm print matching that of Quintero was lifted from one of the gun barrels. A latent right ring fingerprint matching that of Hall was lifted from a Diet Pepsi can.
Though the Crawford burglary was not discovered until after the Vesters’ bodies had been discovered, a glove taken from the Crawford residence was found at the home of the murder victims, indicating that the burglary actually occurred before the murder. The Crawford residence was less than a quarter of a mile from the Vesters’ home. John and Virginia Crawford had left their trailer, clean and orderly, around 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, June, 19. Following the burglary, they found their kitchen ransacked. Canned foods, crackers, and candy bars from the cabinet and refrigerator had been eaten. Prints were lifted from several items in the trailer. A latent left thumb print matching that of Hall was found on the bottom of a can of ham. A latent right index fingerprint left by Blanton was lifted from a Butterfinger candy wrapper found inside the refrigerator. The Crawfords identified two gloves found at the trailer, one white jersey and one brown jersey, as belonging to Mrs. Crawford. A patch on one of the gloves had been sewn on by Mrs. Crawford. Mr. Crawford testified that a flashlight had also been taken from the trailer. One of the gloves found at the Crawfords’ trailer matched a glove found outside the Vesters’ front bedroom window. A fiber analysis of the two gloves indicated that they were likely originally sold together as a pair.
With respect to the timing of the murder, the proof showed that late on Monday evening, June 20, John Corlew and Arthur Jenkins arrived at the Leatherwood boat dock, launched their boat, and night fished in the Leatherwood Bay. Between 11:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. they heard five gunshots emanating from the direction of the Vesters’ residence. Corlew testified that he first heard two gunshots that were fairly clear, and after a pause, he heard two additional shots, another pause, and one final shot. Corlew testified that the first two shots and the second two shots sounded as if they were from different weapons. Mr. Jenkins testified that the two initial shots sounded like repercussions from a pistol. Both Jenkins and Corlew heard a total of five gunshots.
The victims, Buford and Myrtle Vester, were last seen alive around 6:00 p.m. on Sunday June 19 by their son Wayne. He, along with his twelve-year-old son, had arrived at his parents’ home for a weekend visit on the evening of Friday, June 17. He had picked up groceries for his parents including Pepsi colas, lunch meat, bread, and milk. Wayne Vester left his parents home on Sunday, June 19, at approximately 6:00 p.m. At that time, the Vesters were alive and well. Wayne attempted, unsuccessfully, to reach his parents by telephone once on Monday, June 20, and twice on Tuesday, June 21. Concerned, Wayne called their neighbor, Howard Allor, who lived approximately one quarter of a mile from the Vesters, but Allor had not seen them since the preceding Friday morning. When Wayne was still unable to reach his parents on June 22, he again called Allor and asked him to check on them. Allor drove to the Vesters’ residence and discovered their dead bodies. He attempted to telephone the Sheriff from their residence, but the telephone was not functioning, so he returned home and reported the murders to the authorities.
David Hicks, Sheriff of Stewart County, was notified of the Vester murders at approximately 1:00 or 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 22. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (“T.B.I.”) conducted the primary investigation of the crime scene. The only entrance to the Vester residence was a screen door located at the side of the house opposite to the victims’ bedrooms. The screen door had not been damaged. However, the front window was open, and the screen from the front window was lying on the ground near Myrtle Vester’s bedroom window which was located at the back of the house. Underneath the front window was a concrete block which apparently had been taken from the front of a shed located at the back of the house. A cloth glove which matched a glove found at the Crawfords’ residence was found on the ground beside the concrete block. An unopened Pepsi cola can lay next to the walkway to the screen door of the house. The packages of Pepsi cola that Wayne Vester had brought his parents were missing from the porch. The Vesters’ maroon 1985 Pontiac Bonneville also was missing. The wires to the telephone connection box outside the Vesters’ residence had been damaged and the line was dead. A live 20 gauge Federal shotgun shell with number 6 bird shot was found lying near the electrical box. A spent 20 gauge number 4 shot Federal shotgun shell casing was found near the shed approximately 18 feet from Mr. Vester’s back bedroom window.
The windows to the victims’ bedrooms were located along the back of the house. Buford Vester’s bedroom window frame was visibly bent. The screen covering the window had a hole in it which indicated that Mr. Vester was shot at least once from outside the house. Some the glass louvers were broken, and shards of glass were found lying on the bed. Mr. Vester’s body was found on the floor next to his bed. The covers were drawn back, and blood was on both the pillow and the bed. Number 4 and 5 bird shot pellets were retrieved from Mr. Vester’s room. Two shot shell filler wads were found beside Mr. Vester’s body, and a 20 gauge plastic shot wad was recovered from beside his head. A plastic shot sleeve, one shot shell, a plastic shot wad, and several shot pellets, all either number 4 or 5 bird shot, were recovered from Mr. Vester’s body.
The victims were in separate bedrooms joined by a bathroom. Myrtle Vester’s body was found lying in a pool of dried blood on the floor of her bedroom next to the bathroom. Mrs. Vester had been shot three times, once with a 20 gauge shotgun, once with a high-powered rifle, and once again with either a shotgun or a high-powered rifle. She also had been stabbed thirteen times. A copper-jacketed bullet was recovered from her body. Blood was found on Mrs. Vester’s bed, and a considerable amount of blood was found on the bathroom floor. Blood was splattered on both the bathtub and the commode, and the bottoms of Mrs. Vester’s feet also were covered in blood. The screen covering Mrs. Vester’s bedroom window also had a hole in it, indicating that at least one shot had been fired from outside. The open and unbroken condition of the glass louvers indicated that the high-powered rifle or shotgun had been near the window when it was fired. Shot was sprayed all over the house, especially the kitchen. All of the shot pellets found in the house were either number 4 or 5.
On the victims’ sofa authorities found a portion of The Tennessean, dated Monday, June 20, 1988. The local mail carrier testified that the victims did not receive The Tennessean by mail. A live 20 gauge shotgun shell with number 7.5 shot was found lying on the floor in the front bedroom next to a ransacked jewelry box.
Dr. Charles Harlan, the medical examiner, performed an autopsy on each victim and testified that the Vesters had died within two hours of consuming dinner. He stated that the victims had been shot a total of five times, and a minimum of three different weapons had been used to murder them.
Mrs. Vester had sustained three gunshot wounds. Gunshot wound A, located at the right portion of Mrs. Vester’s chest just below her collarbone, measured approximately a quarter of an inch and was basically round in shape. This wound resulted when a copper jacketed bullet entered Mrs. Vester’s body and lodged in her left arm. Wound B resulted from a shotgun blast and was located in the upper arm. This wound measured 3.4 inches by 1.8 inches, was jagged, with an irregular edge, and had multiple associated tangential abrasions. Wound C resulted from either a high-velocity rifle or shotgun. This gunshot blast had severed the two bones in Mrs. Vester’s right forearm, leaving her hand and wrist attached to her body by a piece of tissue, consisting of only skin, muscle, and fat. Dr. Harlan could not determine the order in which these three gunshot wounds were inflicted.
Mrs. Vester also had sustained thirteen stab wounds, one to the middle of her back and twelve to her head, neck, and shoulder region. A majority of the stab wounds were inflicted to the left side of her head and neck. Dr. Harlan surmised that the puncture wounds were made by a squared object with a sharp edge, such as a kitchen or hunting knife. Two of the stab wounds severed her right and left common carotid arteries. The right carotid artery was 90 percent severed, and the left was 10 percent severed. Dr. Harlan testified that either the injuries to her carotid arteries or the gunshot injury to her right forearm would have been fatal. Dr. Harlan determined that Mrs. Vester could have survived the brutal attack for up to 15 minutes.
Mr. Vester had sustained two gunshot wounds. Shotgun wound A was located at the head and neck juncture. The total dispersal pattern of shotgun pellets was 13 inches. Wound A caused significant injury to his left lung, aorta, and pulmonary artery. Shotgun wound B was to Mr. Vester’s right breast and caused trauma to his right lung and to his liver. Dr. Harlan recovered shotgun pellets and a shot column from Mr. Vester’s chest and abdomen. Dr. Harlan opined that Mr. Vester could have survived from four to twelve minutes after sustaining the gunshot injuries.
On June 21, 1988, around 8 a.m., employees of the Memphis Funeral Home observed three men, in a maroon Pontiac which was later identified as the victims’ car, enter the funeral home parking lot and park the car approximately 250 feet from the building. Two employees of the funeral home testified that one man got out of the front seat, took his tank top off, and put on three additional shirts. The two other men also exited the car. None of the witnesses could make a positive identification of the three men. The witnesses testified that all three men were white and about the same height, but two of the men were approximately 180 pounds and had darker hair. They stated that all three men had facial hair. One funeral home employee described the three men as having beards and stated that one had long hair.
The three men remained in the parking lot for approximately five to eight minutes. Then, after one of them took something out of the trunk, the three men walked towards a hospital across the street from the funeral home. One of the men turned, walked back to the car, and appeared to have placed an item back into the car. He then joined the two other men, and then all three walked away. The funeral home employees assumed that the three men were working on a construction project at the hospital. However, when the car had not been removed by Thursday, the funeral home employees contacted the Memphis Police Department.
On the morning of Thursday, June 23, the Memphis Police Crime Scene Squad responded to the call from the Memphis Funeral Home. The police found a 1985 maroon Pontiac Bonneville in the funeral home’s parking lot. The vehicle matched the description of the victims’ vehicle. The keys were in the car’s ignition. The officers found a sawed-off 20 gauge shotgun containing one live round under the floor mat behind the driver’s seat which was later identified as the weapon stolen from the Foster residence, and as the weapon from which a spent shell found outside the Vesters’ residence had been fired. Foster was able to identify the weapon by its serial number; however, the gun also had Foster’s full name carved into it. The police also discovered under a floor mat a .30-30 caliber cartridge which matched ammunition that had been taken from the Foster residence. From a crumpled Budweiser beer can which also was found under the back seat police were able to lift three latent prints belonging to Blanton. No other prints were found in the car. The officer noted that the extremely hot temperatures in Memphis at the time the car was found made it difficult to lift intact prints. Other items retrieved from the vehicle included a Ray-O-Vac flashlight, similar to one taken from the Crawford residence, electrical tape, thirteen 20 gauge shotgun shells, three 12-ounce Pepsi colas, one 12-pack of Pepsi colas, a portable electric air compressor, a Black & Decker car vacuum, and a brown umbrella.
Curtis Jones, who was a security guard at the Memphis Greyhound bus station, testified that he worked Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the bus station in June of 1988. The bus station, located in downtown Memphis was approximately one mile from the Memphis Funeral Home. His job was to prevent loitering at the bus station. Mr. Jones sat in a booth and observed people who came inside to determine whether they purchased tickets. Periodically, he would walk around and ask people whether they had tickets or if they were waiting for someone to arrive.
Mr. Jones recalled three men entering the bus station either Tuesday, June 21, or Wednesday, June 22, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Two of the men sat down and watched television. One of the two seated men spoke to a man seated nearby. The third man, who had darker skin and appeared Hispanic, used a telephone. Mr. Jones approached the two seated men and asked them whether they had tickets. A man, whom he identified as Blanton, told him that they would leave as soon as their friend finished using the telephone. The three men remained in the station five to ten minutes. Later that same day, the Memphis police stopped by the bus station with a photographic line-up of the eight escapees. Jones responded that Blanton and Hall had previously been at the station. Later in the week, Jones spoke with T.B.I. Agent Stout. Jones identified Blanton and Hall from a photographic line-up and made an in-court identification of Hall as one of the men at the bus station.
The Blue Movies West adult bookstore and entertainment center was located across the street from the bus station. Shirley Denise Morrow testified that she worked as a cashier in the bookstore in June of 1988. On Tuesday, June 21, the day before her birthday, three men entered the bookstore around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. Two of the men were white, and one appeared Mexican. The men traded a few silver dollars and half dollars for tokens. Morrow also purchased some of the silver dollars and half dollars for herself.
The men went to the back of the establishment to watch movies. Darlene Christof, a dancer at the establishment, testified that three “scruffy” men entered her booth on June 21. Two of the men were white, and the other appeared either Hispanic or Mexican. Ms. Christof informed the men that only one was allowed to remain in the booth. Two of the men left. From a photographic line-up, she identified the man who remained in her booth as Quintero. Quintero later gave her several silver dollars and tried to sell her a class ring and a man’s wedding band.
The men then returned to the front of the establishment approximately fifteen to twenty minutes later. They attempted to sell Morrow what appeared to be a class ring and a wedding band. Morrow declined and suggested they try a pawn shop. One of the men indicated that they did not have any identification and offered Morrow fifty dollars if she would allow them to stay in the movie house until their transportation arrived. Morrow declined their offer. Christof then came out from the back of the establishment and pretended to use the telephone. When Christof commented that the three men resembled the escapees from the Kentucky prison, they left. Morrow then contacted the police.
When shown a pre-trial photographic array of the eight escapees, Morrow identified Blanton, Quintero, and Hall as the three men who had visited the bookstore. Morrow turned over to the authorities the six silver dollars she had purchased from the men, and later, Foster identified the coins as those stolen from his residence. Morrow also made an in-court identification of both Quintero and Hall.
Lt. Thomas Pryor, an employee at the Eddyville penitentiary, testified that Quintero had long hair, a moustache, long side burns and a goatee prior to the escape. Lt. Pryor stated that he had never seen Hall with a beard.
Hall was eventually captured in El Paso, Texas. Both Blanton and Quintero were captured in Mexico near El Paso. Barbara Vasser, Hall’s girlfriend at the time, testified that her mother called the Pennsylvania State Police after Hall called her for a third time following the escape. Afraid for Hall’s safety, Vasser notified the authorities that she had agreed to wire money to him at the Western Union on North Stanton Street in El Paso, Texas. Hall was apprehended by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“F.B.I.”) when he entered the Western Union in El Paso at approximately 2:20 p.m. on July 6, 1988.
On July 10, 1988, Quintero and Blanton were apprehended by Mexican officials at the Santa Fe Hotel in Juarez, located just across the border from El Paso, Texas, and transported across the international bridge. F.B.I. agents took custody of both Quintero and Blanton from Mexican officials at a border checkpoint. Found in Quintero’s possession when he was taken into custody was an old wallet bearing an imprint of Neal Foster’s driver’s license.
Based upon the proof summarized above, the jury convicted both Hall and Quintero of two counts of murder during the perpetration of first degree burglary, three counts of grand larceny, one count of petit larceny and three counts of first degree burglary.6
John Hall was sentenced to death by the State of Tennessee for the murder of his estranged wife. According to court documents John Hall attempted to get back together with his estranged wife, Billie Jo Hall, and when she refused he would strangle the woman before drowning her. John Hall was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
When she met the defendant, Billie Jo Hall had two daughters, Jennifer and Cynthia, from a former relationship. After their marriage, she and the defendant had two more daughters, Stephanie and Jessica. The youngest, Jessica, suffered from cerebral palsy. At the time of her murder, Mrs. Hall and the defendant were estranged and living separately.
On the night of July 29, 1994, the defendant went to Mrs. Hall’s house to discuss a reconciliation. He brought a $25.00 money order made out to Mrs. Hall as a payment toward child support. Prior to entering the house, the defendant disconnected the telephone line at the utility box on the outside wall of the house.2 When Mrs. Hall answered the door, the defendant pushed his way into the room where she and the children were watching television. The defendant told the girls to go to bed. When they did not immediately obey his order, the defendant tipped over the chair in which Mrs. Hall was sitting. The defendant and Mrs. Hall then went back into her bedroom. The children, who had gone into their bedrooms, could hear “[t]hings slamming around” and their parents yelling at each another. When the children tried to enter the room, they found the door blocked. The three oldest children, Jennifer, Cynthia and Stephanie, persisted in their efforts to get into the room and finally succeeded. They attempted to stop the defendant from hurting their mother. When Mrs. Hall told the children to go to a neighbor’s house, the defendant told them that if they went for help, “he was going to kill Mama.” He also told Mrs. Hall, a college student, that she would never live to graduate. Cynthia and Stephanie tried to use the telephone to call for help, but they discovered the telephones would not work. At that point, they went to a neighbor’s house where they called 911. Jennifer, the oldest child, was the last to leave the house, carrying her sister Jessica. Before she left, she saw her mother and the defendant leave the bedroom and go outside. She watched the defendant drag her mother, “kicking and screaming,” to the small pool in the back yard.
The first officer to arrive on the scene was Chief Jerry Bingham of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department. Upon his arrival, he was directed by a neighbor to check the pool where he found Mrs. Hall’s body floating face down in the water. He immediately called Emergency Medical Services and a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) investigator. TBI Agent Brian Byrd arrived on the scene shortly after midnight.
Agent Byrd entered the house and found the master bedroom in disarray. Bloodstains marked the bed, a counter top, and a wedding dress. The telephones inside the house were off their hooks. A $25.00 money order made out to Mrs. Hall and dated the day of the murder was found inside the house. No weapons were found. A trail of drag marks and bloodstains led from the master bedroom, out the front door, over the driveway, past the sandbox, and down to the pool in the back yard. Mrs. Hall’s t-shirt was lying beside the pool. Clumps of grass ripped from the ground floated in the blood-tinged water of the pool. Outside the front door of the house the telephone junction box was opened and the phone line was disconnected. The grass and weeds near this box were matted down.
Dr. O’Brien Clay Smith, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Mrs. Hall, testified that the primary cause of death was asphyxia resulting from a combination of manual strangulation and drowning. He could not say with certainty that either strangulation or drowning was the exclusive cause of death. Evidence supporting strangling as a contributing cause of death included bruising on the left and right sides of Mrs. Hall’s neck, hemorrhaging in the neck muscles around the hyoid bone in the neck, and bleeding in the thyroid gland, which indicated that extensive compression had been applied to the neck. Evidence supporting drowning as a contributing cause of death was water found in both Mrs. Hall’s stomach and in her bloodstream. The water in her stomach could have collected when Mrs. Hall swallowed water as she was being drowned. The water in her bloodstream would have entered when she took water into her lungs, and the water passed through the lungs into her bloodstream.
Before dying, Mrs. Hall sustained at least eighty-three separate wounds, including several blows to the head, a fractured nose, multiple lacerations, and bruises and abrasions to the chest, abdomen, genitals, arms, legs and back. Abrasions on Mrs. Hall’s back were consistent with having been dragged across pavement. Dr. Smith used a mannequin during his testimony to demonstrate the size and location of the various wounds on Mrs. Hall’s body, marking each wound with a black magic marker. He described some of the injuries to Mrs. Hall’s arms, legs and hands as defensive wounds. He characterized the injuries to the neck, face and head as intentional “target” wounds. Except for the physical trauma associated with the strangulation, however, none of the injuries would have proven fatal.
Chris Dutton, who was confined in a cell next to the defendant, testified that while both men were incarcerated, the defendant confided in him about his wife’s murder. When describing what happened on the night of the murder, the defendant told Dutton that he had tried to talk with Mrs. Hall about reconciling but “[a]ll she was interested in was the money.” When she refused to consider his plea for reconciliation and demanded that he leave, “his temper got the best of him and he began to strike her.” According to Dutton, the defendant had determined, even before he arrived at his wife’s house, “to make her feel as he did. He wanted her to suffer as he did, feel the helplessness that he was feeling because she took his world away from him.” The defendant told Dutton that he hit his wife in the head until he panicked, threw her in the swimming pool, then re-entered the house, took the car keys, and drove away in Mrs. Hall’s minivan.
On cross-examination, Dutton admitted that the defendant also told him that he was depressed and had been drinking since he telephoned his wife earlier that day. The defendant also told Dutton that he was very concerned about the welfare of his two daughters, especially Jessica. The defendant explained that he disconnected the telephone line, because, when he and his wife argued in the past, she had called the police.
Two witnesses testified on the defendant’s behalf during the guilt phase of trial. Dr. Lynn Donna Zager, a clinical psychologist, interviewed the defendant several times after his arrest. She diagnosed him as depressed and suffering from alcohol dependence. In addition, she noted personality characteristics of paranoia and dependency. In Dr. Zager’s opinion, at the time of the killing the defendant suffered from depression and alcohol intoxication. These factors were compounded by his personality characteristics and various psycho-social stressors, including a sick child, loss of employment with the resulting financial problems, his impending divorce, and the terminal illness of a brother. Dr. Zager testified that, in her opinion, the defendant acted in an impulsive manner in killing his wife, rather than pursuant to a preconceived plan.
On cross-examination, Dr. Zager admitted that she based her opinion concerning the defendant’s intoxicated state on statements he made to her and statements of other witnesses who saw him drinking on the day of the murder. She agreed that no one she interviewed remarked on whether the defendant exhibited any of the typical physical signs of intoxication, such as slurred speech or lack of coordination.
Randy Helms, the defendant’s prior employer, also testified on behalf of the defendant. According to Helms, prior to the killing the defendant had been severely depressed because of his family problems.
The defendant attempted to call his sister, Cheryl Arbogast, to testify regarding his state of mind at the time of the murder, but she had no first-hand knowledge of the defendant’s state of mind on the night of the murder. In fact, Ms. Arbogast admitted she had not spoken to the defendant for several months prior to the murder. Her testimony regarding the defendant’s state of mind was based on a conversation she had with her brother, Jeff Hall, since deceased, on the day of the murder. The trial court would not permit this hearsay testimony to be admitted before the jury.3 At the conclusion of the evidence, the jury found the defendant guilty as charged of first degree premeditated murder.
During the sentencing phase the State recalled Dr. Smith to testify in more detail concerning the extent of Mrs. Hall’s injuries. The State introduced photographs of the injuries taken at the autopsy to illustrate Dr. Smith’s testimony. These photographs depicted the numerous external wounds the defendant inflicted while struggling with Mrs. Hall.
The defendant called Dr. Zager and Dr. Joe Mount, a psychological examiner who counseled defendant at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. Both described the defendant as depressed, remorseful, suicidal and extremely concerned about his children. Dr. Mount testified that the defendant had been diagnosed as suffering from an adjustment disorder with mixed emotional features (anxiety and depression) and “substance abuse of dependence by history.”
Helms also testified again. He described the defendant as a good, dependable employee and told how the defendant had cared for his children when he brought them to work with him. Helms stated that the defendant loved his wife and children and had hoped to reconcile with Mrs. Hall.
The defendant also presented his three sisters and his mother to recount the history of the defendant and his family. The defendant was the youngest of seven children. His father, an alcoholic, physically and verbally abused his wife until he died from a heart attack in 1974 when the defendant was ten. The defendant’s father denied that the defendant was his son and snubbed the defendant. The witnesses’ descriptions of the fights between the defendant’s parents eerily paralleled the defendant’s final confrontation with his own wife. All of the defendant’s relatives described him as a good father who loved his children.
Jessie Dotson was sentenced to death by the State of Tennessee for six murders. According to court documents Jessie Dotson who recently released from prison would murder his brother and then to cover his crime would murder five others in the household including two young children. Jessie Dotson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. This case was featured on 48 Hours
The proof offered at the guilt phase of the defendant’s trial established that in March 2008, thirty-year-old Cecil Dotson, Sr. (“Cecil”),2 Cecil’s five children, ranging in age from nine years to two months, and Marissa Williams, Cecil’s twenty-seven-year-old fiancee and the mother of four of his children, were living at a home located at 722 Lester Street in Memphis, Tennessee. They had been living in the home for five or six months. Cecil worked as a maintenance man at an apartment complex in Memphis.
The defendant—Cecil’s brother—lived with their sister, Nicole Dotson (“Nicole”), in her apartment at Goodwill Village in Memphis and worked with their father, Jessie Dotson Sr. (“Jessie Sr.”), as a painter. The defendant had moved in with Nicole in August 2007, upon his release from prison. The defendant’s family referred to him as “Junior.”
On Saturday, March 1, 2008, Jessie Sr., the defendant, and William Waddell, Cecil’s and the defendant’s half brother, also known as “Fat,” went to Cecil’s Lester Street home to watch a televised University of Memphis basketball game with him.3 Ms. Williams and the five children were also present at the home during this time.4 The group was unable to watch the game because Cecil’s television could not receive the broadcast. Jessie Sr. left Cecil’s house around 6:00 or 6:30 p.m., and as he was leaving, he saw Cecil on the porch cleaning his grill and preparing to barbecue. He did not see Cecil or the defendant again that night and never again saw Cecil alive. Mr. Waddell left Cecil’s home at 10:30 or 11:00 p.m., and when he left, Cecil was still alive.
When Jessie Sr. arrived at Nicole’s apartment the next morning, Sunday, March 2, 2008, to pick up the defendant for work, the defendant was not there, and Nicole did not know where he was. Jessie Sr. asked Nicole to tell the defendant to contact him if he wanted to keep his job. Later that evening, the defendant called Jessie Sr. and explained that he had not called because his girlfriend, Sheila Jones, had hidden his cell phone after they argued. The defendant did not explain why he had missed work. When the defendant and Mr. Waddell went to dinner that evening, the defendant asked if Mr. Waddell wanted to pick up Cecil. Mr. Waddell had called Cecil numerous times on March 2nd but had not reached him, so they did not go by the Lester Street home.
The next day, Monday, March 3, 2008, the defendant rode to work with Jessie Sr. around 8:00 a.m., but they stopped working at 11:00 a.m. due to rain. Later that same day, the defendant called Jessie Sr., telling him that Nicole wanted him to drive by Cecil’s house because Ms. Smith, the mother of Cecil’s two-year-old son Cecil II, feared something was wrong. Ms. Smith had been unable to reach Cecil by telephone since the very early morning hours of Sunday, March 2, 2008, and no one had answered the door at the Lester Street home when she knocked around 3:00 p.m. that day. Ms. Smith said the door was partially open, and the radio was playing, but she did not see anyone or hear the children, although she could see the television just inside the door and the photographs on the wall across from the door. On the morning of March 3rd, Ms. Smith discovered that Cecil had not shown up for work and that his relatives had not heard from him. She still could not reach him by telephone. When she called Mr. Waddell at work numerous times expressing her concerns, he told her to call the police. She took his advice and called the police in the early evening and waited outside the Lester Street home for them to arrive.
Officer Randall Davis arrived first. As he walked in the front door, he could “smell the dead bodies.” The storm door was closed, but the interior door was partially open, and he could see a person’s foot lying on the floor inside. Entering the front door, Officer Davis discovered four adult bodies, later identified as Cecil, Ms. Williams, Hollis Seals, and twenty-two-year-old Shindri Roberson. All appeared to have sustained multiple gunshot wounds. Officer Davis did not check for vital signs because it was obvious to him that they were deceased.
Officer Davis, along with two other officers, continued through the house, searching for survivors and perpetrators, while another officer secured the front door. Officer Davis noticed blood throughout the house, but none of it appeared to be fresh. Officer Davis saw someone in the hallway bathroom and discovered nine-year-old C.J. in the bathtub with a knife stuck in his head. Officer Davis first believed that C.J. was deceased but then noticed the child’s eyes twitch. After alerting others he had found a survivor, Officer Davis continued clearing the home.
In a bedroom on the left side of the hallway (“bedroom two”), Officer Davis discovered four-year-old Cemario, who was deceased. In another bedroom (“bedroom one”), Officer Davis discovered two-year-old Cecil II and five-year-old Cedrick, both of whom appeared deceased to Officer Davis. Meanwhile, another officer located two-month-old Ceniyah, who was still alive, and carried her out of the house.5 The officers exited just as Memphis Fire Department personnel arrived, and Officer Davis let them know a survivor had been found in the bathroom.
Firefighter Jason Vosburgh testified that he “could smell the blood in the air” when he approached the house, describing it as “[a] thick, spoiled smell like it had been there a while.” Firefighter and emergency medical technician Daniel Moore testified that, although he was instructed to check the adult victims for signs of life, he did not actually touch them because it was obvious to him that they were deceased. Mr. Moore explained that “[j]ust by looking at them and just the horrific scene that was there with all the blood and everything, it was obvious that they had been down for a while.” He described the blood as “definitely old.”
When Mr. Vosburgh and a paramedic entered bedroom one, they discovered that, although Cecil II was deceased, Cedrick was still alive, so they carried him outside to an ambulance. During this time, Mr. Vosburgh was informed that another deceased victim was in the other bedroom. When he returned inside, Mr. Vosburgh and Mr. Moore were summoned to the bathroom, where firefighter Herbert Henley was attending to C.J. They removed C.J. from the bathtub and transported him to an ambulance outside. Mr. Henley recalled seeing cuts on C.J.’s face and a “sawzall blade” sticking out of the top of his head. He described the bathroom as “a mess” with “blood everywhere.” Mr. Moore testified that when he and Mr. Vosburgh entered the bloody bathroom, C.J. “turned his head and the next thing we saw was one of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen, it was a knife stuck embedded in his skull and it was just stuck there. And it absolutely is the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” In addition to the embedded knife, Mr. Moore observed puncture wounds on C.J.’s abdomen and multiple superficial cuts to his neck.
By the time firefighter and paramedic Patrick McDevitt reached the scene, the surviving victims had already been removed and were on their way to the hospital. Mr. McDevitt and his partner were tasked with confirming that the remaining victims were deceased. To do so, they touched each victim to check for a pulse or other vital signs and ran an ECG, which required them to move clothing and affix ECG strips. They returned the clothing to its original position when they finished. Mr. McDevitt noticed that the blood on each victim appeared to be dry.
Meanwhile, Memphis Police Department Deputy Director Toney Armstrong, a lieutenant with the Homicide Bureau at the time these murders occurred, learned of the homicides. He called Lieutenant Walter Davidson6 at home, assigned him to serve as case coordinator on the investigation, and instructed him to go to the scene. He told Lieutenant Davidson that six persons had been murdered and that three severely injured children were on their way to the hospital and not expected to survive. Not knowing the identity of the perpetrator and wanting to prevent any further attacks on the family, Deputy Director Armstrong and Lieutenant Davidson decided to quarantine the surviving children at the hospital and not release their identities. Officers of the Tactical Unit were assigned to guard the children, and the quarantine prevented relatives, the media, and everyone other than medical personnel and police personnel approved by Deputy Director Armstrong from having contact with them. No family members were allowed contact with the children from March 3rd through March 8th.
Sergeant Anthony Mullins of the Homicide Bureau was at the scene when Deputy Director Armstrong and Lieutenant Davidson arrived.7 After he had walked Deputy Director Armstrong through the house and provided an overview of the crime scene, Sergeant Mullins left and obtained a search warrant. When he returned with the warrant later that evening, officers entered the home and began collecting any evidence located in the immediate vicinity of the deceased victims’ bodies. By the time this work had been completed, the medical examiner and seven others from the Shelby County Medical Examiner’s Office had arrived at the scene. By 2:30 a.m. on March 4, 2008, the deceased victims’ bodies had been removed and were en route to the morgue. Sergeant Mullins and the officers assisting him left a short time later, but a uniformed officer remained behind to secure the scene. Sergeant Mullins and the crime scene processing team returned between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. on March 4th and continued their work.
Testifying at trial as an expert in general crime scene investigation and bloodstain pattern analysis, Sergeant Mullins described the Lester Street crime scene as horrific and the worst he had ever worked. The living room, into which the front door opened, was very small, with only between five and ten feet of available space around the furniture and the bodies of the four adult victims. The home, he said, was dirty and cluttered. He found evidence indicating that the crime scene had been staged, which further complicated the investigation.
All of the adult victims had sustained multiple gunshot wounds, and all except Mr. Seals had been shot at least once in the leg. Two guns were used in the shooting—a nine-millimeter and a .380 caliber—although neither gun was found at the scene or thereafter. Although the guns were not found, officers located spent bullets in the living room on the sofa cushion, on top of a piece of plastic from a window unit air conditioner, on the floor under Cecil, under the sofa, inside the arm of the sofa, between two sofa seat cushions, in the wall behind the sofa, and in the east wall of the living room.
Shell casings were also found in the living room. Officers recovered two nine-millimeter and three .380 caliber shell casings on the floor. When officers moved a jacket on the love seat, they found a sealed Ziploc bag that contained eleven more nine-millimeter and five more .380 spent shell casings. Sergeant Mullins concluded that the person or persons responsible for the crimes had collected the spent shell casings after the shootings, intending to remove them from the scene.
Sergeant Mullins believed that all of the adult victims’ bodies were moved or staged after the shooting. Cecil’s body was located in a kneeling position in front of the sofa, with his torso on a sofa cushion near a seam where two cushions met, and a bag of marijuana in his left hand. Cecil had sustained several gunshot wounds including several to the front of his body, one to his neck, one to the bottom of his foot, and several to his lower legs. Fibers collected from Cecil’s chin and mouth were consistent with a pillow having been placed over his face when he was shot, and police found a pillow in the living room through which a bullet had passed. The gun used to shoot Cecil’s legs differed from the gun used to shoot his neck. Sergeant Mullins could not determine the sequence of the gunshot wounds to Cecil’s legs, but he believed that several of them may have been inflicted close to or after Cecil’s death.
Sergeant Mullins opined that Cecil’s body had been positioned and staged after the shooting. Sergeant Mullins believed that Cecil was likely facing his attacker when the first shot was fired, explaining that Cecil had several gunshot wounds to the front of his body, which he would not have sustained had he been kneeling with his torso resting on the sofa at the time of the shooting. Sergeant Mullins also believed that the bag of marijuana had been placed in Cecil’s hand, explaining that the bag was so large that Cecil would have been unable to close his fingers around it and would have dropped it had he been holding it during the shooting or while attempting to flee or defend himself.
A loaded twelve-gauge sawed-off shotgun was found on a stack of clothing in the corner of the living room, a little more than an arm’s length from Cecil’s body. Five more live rounds of shotgun ammunition were found under the sofa. DNA testing of blood found on the end of the shotgun barrel revealed that two-month-old Ceniyah was a minor contributor of the blood. According to Sergeant Mullins, the blood on the shotgun barrel indicated that the gun was positioned atop the clothing after the shooting, because no blood spatter was found on any of the clothing beneath the gun and the blood on the gun belonged to a victim whose body was found in another part of the home.
Ms. Roberson’s body was located in a seated position on the floor, with her back to the sofa, her legs extended, and her head to the side, between the sofa and the loveseat. Her shirt was pulled up, exposing her breasts, and her pants were pulled down, exposing her lower body from her waist to her knees. A clear plastic bag containing what appeared to be between three and five rocks of crack cocaine was found on the outer portion of her vagina. Sergeant Mullins concluded that Ms. Roberson’s body also had been staged after the shooting and that she had been pulled from the sofa to the floor near the time of or after her death and her clothing then altered. Little blood was found on the floor beneath her body, but a nearby sofa cushion was stained with very thick coagulated blood, which Sergeant Mullins described as consistent with the type of blood loss that would occur from a gunshot wound like that Ms. Roberson sustained to her leg. Ms. Roberson’s pants were also saturated with blood, and bullet holes in her pants corresponded to the location of the gunshot wounds to her legs, indicating that her pants were covering her legs when she was shot and were pulled down afterwards. The bag of crack cocaine also appeared to be part of the staging, as it was only slightly touching her and appeared to have been placed on her body.
On the floor beneath and around Ms. Roberson’s body were items that appeared to Sergeant Mullins to have been emptied from a purse, although he did not locate an empty purse in the room. These items were not collected as evidence, and Sergeant Mullins could not recall seeing any type of identification, although he did recall seeing Ms. Roberson’s cell phone and photos among these items. Three hairs were collected from Ms. Roberson’s right leg, thigh, and buttocks and sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for testing. Considering the dirty condition of the home and the considerable traffic through it during the previous months, Sergeant Mullins did not view the hairs as significant and opined that they could have easily adhered to her body when it was moved.
Sergeant Mullins believed that Ms. Williams’s body, too, had been positioned after the shooting. Ms. Williams’s body was located on the floor, slumped over onto Ms. Roberson, with her legs positioned across Ms. Roberson’s legs. He pointed out, however, that the carpet was bloodstained on the side opposite of the way she was leaning. Additionally, Ms. Williams’s legs were lying across Ms. Roberson’s legs, indicating that Ms. Williams’s body had been staged after Ms. Roberson’s body had been positioned on the floor.
Sergeant Mullins testified that Mr. Seals’s body was located across from the front door and near the door connecting the kitchen and the living room. However, Mr. Seals’s body was not visible upon entering the home because a large television blocked the view across the living room. Mr. Seals was wearing a black shirt and black pants. His pants were pulled down to below his knees. A cup and a wallet were found near his body, as was a purse with the contents inside, which was later identified as belonging to Ms. Williams. Inside the kitchen, just beyond Mr. Seals’s body, officers discovered a spent projectile under a table and a defect in the kitchen wall, which appeared to have been made by gunfire from the living room.
Although Sergeant Mullins believed that Mr. Seals was shot in the area where he was found, he opined that Mr. Seals’s clothing and body were altered after the shooting. He pointed out that a pool of blood on the carpet near Mr. Seals’s body had a “void” in it—an area where the carpet was not bloodstained—indicating that something had been covering the unstained area of carpet when the blood pool formed. The carpet was bloodstained on the opposite side of Mr. Seals’s body as well. Based on the bloodstains, the distance between them, and the location of Mr. Seals’s legs one atop the other, Sergeant Mullins believed that Mr. Seals’s body may have originally been lying in the area of the “void” and may have been rolled from that area when his pants were pulled down and his wallet removed.
Sergeant Mullins testified that all of the sharp force and blunt force injuries sustained by the deceased and surviving children were inflicted with kitchen knives and wooden boards the perpetrator found in the home. Sergeant Mullins pointed out that officers discovered a gray plastic silverware tray overturned on the floor of the kitchen but did not recover an intact set of kitchen knives. In total, officers found five knife blades throughout the home, including the blade that was lodged in C.J.’s head. The word “Farberware,” a brand of kitchen knives, was printed on one of the two blades recovered from inside the bathtub. Officers also recovered one intact knife handle and what appeared to be broken pieces of another knife handle. Sergeant Mullins believed the perpetrator removed the knife handles from the blades after the assaults. Officers found bloodstained and broken pieces of wood in various places, including the hallway, the bathroom, and bedrooms. According to Sergeant Mullins, the perpetrator’s use of guns, knives, and boards already present in the home demonstrated the perpetrator’s familiarity with the home.
Officers found blood spatter throughout the home, and according to Sergeant Mullins, the large amount of blood spatter found in the bathroom and bedrooms one and two was consistent with a prolonged “one-on-one struggle” rather than a more rapid execution of the children. He noted that the bathroom floor, the bath mat, the area around the bathtub, and the outside and inside of the toilet were stained with blood. A substantial amount of blood had pooled inside the bathtub, where C.J. was found. A bloody partial palm print, later matched to Cemario, was found on the tile wall of the bathroom. Sergeant Mullins described the palm print as a transfer stain, which results from a bloody object or body part coming into contact with and transferring blood onto another surface or object.
Sergeant Mullins identified “cast-off” blood stain patterns on the bathroom wall over the toilet tank. This pattern is produced, he explained, when blood that has adhered to an object or weapon used to strike a person multiple times is cast off the object or weapon during the attack and onto a nearby surface or object. Sergeant Mullins stated that the cast-off spatter on the wall above the toilet consisted of three distinct trails, indicative of three different blows. The top trail, which he described as almost horizontal on the wall, indicated that the victim was close to the wall when the blow was administered. Sergeant Mullins stated that because the cast-off was “a fairly wide pattern,” he believed it came “from one of the boards” rather than a knife, although he could not definitively identify the weapon that produced the pattern.
On the wall over the bathtub and near where C.J. was found, Sergeant Mullins noted still more cast-off spatter, which could have come from either a knife or a wooden board. On the wall near the soap dish he noted cast-off spatter from a different blow, and he identified still more cast-off spatter on the wall above the bathtub faucet controls, which was indicative of additional blows. He observed a “smeared type” transfer stain farther down inside the bathtub, as well as a thick amount of blood in the corner of the bathtub, all of which had resulted from cast-off. On the wall next to Cemario’s bloody palm print, Sergeant Mullins identified even more cast-off spatter, but he could not determine if it was associated with the bloody palm print or if it resulted from a different blow to the same victim or to another victim.
On the top of the toilet tank, Sergeant Mullins identified impact blood spatter, which occurs when an object strikes a bloody surface. Toward the bottom of the toilet, he observed a blood transfer stain. Sergeant Mullins also noticed that blood had dripped down from above, hitting the toilet tank and running down inside the toilet bowl. He testified that this particular pattern was likely produced by an actively bleeding victim positioned above the toilet tank. He testified that the pattern had been dissipated by water or someone wiping through the dripped blood. He also testified that the blood spatter indicated that someone had raised and lowered the toilet seat.
Based on the cast-off patterns, Sergeant Mullins opined that at least one, and up to three, blows were struck in the bathtub. Based on the dripped blood and Cemario’s bloody hand print on the wall, he concluded that more than one victim was assaulted in the bathroom. Sergeant Mullins also noted that three green beads similar to those found in Cecil II’s hair were recovered in the bathroom next to a large drop of blood. While he acknowledged that the beads could have been on the floor prior to the attack, Sergeant Mullins testified that the beads also could have fallen out during an attack on Cecil II in the bathroom. Sergeant Mullins explained that “[t]here is a lot of movement in the bathroom. There’s more than one blow being delivered in the bathroom. You’ve got several pieces of broken wood that would be indicating at least one good blow, but from the blood evidence there’s more than one and there’s movement within that scene.”
Sergeant Mullins also testified about the blood evidence in bedroom one, where Cemario’s body was discovered face down on the floor in a pool of blood. Inside this bedroom, officers found two wooden boards and broken pieces of braided hair scattered across the floor. Sergeant Mullins testified that a forceful blow to Cemario’s head would have broken off the weaker braids. The broken braids scattered across the floor and the pool of blood beneath Cemario’s head suggested that the perpetrator struck the fatal blow while Cemario was lying on the floor in bedroom one. Large spots of dripped blood on the carpet suggested to Sergeant Mullins that Cemario may have aspirated blood. However, Sergeant Mullins believed that some portion of the assault on Cemario occurred in the bathroom. He explained that “[t]he level of violence delivered to [Cemario] couldn’t have happened in [bedroom one] without some additional blood evidence. So there has to be some movement after the fact.”
In bedroom two, where Cecil II and Cedrick were found, investigators found blood stains on the bed, the window blinds, the wall by the bed, the ceiling fan, and the ceiling. Sergeant Mullins testified that the blood spatter was multi-directional, indicating that multiple blows had been delivered in bedroom two. Sergeant Mullins believed that the cast-off blood spatter on the ceiling and ceiling fan resulted from a knife being raised overhead between downward stabbing motions. On the floor beneath the bed, investigators found seventeen more green hair beads like those in Cecil II’s hair.
In bedroom two investigators also located a bloodstained wooden board, an intact knife handle lacking a blade, and two knife blades lacking handles. The first knife blade, found inside a pillowcase between the pillow and the pillowcase, had been bent into an “S” shape and had blood on it. Sergeant Mullins believed the blade was bent when the knife handle was removed, and he found no evidence to suggest that the blade had been twisted and damaged during the stabbing of a victim. The second knife blade, found between the mattress and the wall, and almost on top of the box springs, was discovered only after investigators moved the bed.
In the dresser of the master bedroom, investigators located a box with eleven or twelve rounds of nine-millimeter ammunition. Items were stored in the area beneath the bed. Officers collected two cordless telephones from this area, including one from the floor between the dresser and the laundry room and another from farther back in the bedroom.
Sergeant Mullins opined that a perpetrator in the living room could have trapped the children by standing in the doorway of the living room. Although doors leading to the outside of the home were located in the laundry room and the master bedroom, to reach those doors from the hall bathroom or from bedrooms one and two, the children would have been required to walk through the living room. In addition, the door in the laundry room was secured by a tied cord and appeared as if it had not been used in awhile. Most of the windows in the home had bars.
According to Sergeant Mullins, the perpetrator spent considerable time in the house staging the crime scene after the murder. Sergeant Mullins reiterated his opinion that all four adult victims were moved either close to the time of death or after death, and he noted that Ms. Roberson was not petite and that pulling down her pants, as well as those of Mr. Seals, would have taken time. More time would have been required to position Ms. Williams’s legs across Ms. Roberson’s legs, to place the marijuana in Cecil’s hand, and to place the crack cocaine on Ms. Roberson’s body. Sergeant Mullins stated that additional time was perhaps spent moving Cemario, if he were indeed assaulted in the bathroom and later moved to bedroom one. Removing the knife handles and hiding the knife blades in the pillowcase and under the mattress would have taken more time, as would collecting and removing from the scene all but one of the knife handles. Sergeant Mullins also pointed out that the guns used in the shooting were removed from the scene, and he believed the loaded shotgun had been positioned atop the clothing after the crimes occurred. Sergeant Mullins also explained that some additional time would have been required to locate, collect, and place sixteen shell casings in the sealed Ziploc bag. According to Sergeant Mullins, “[I]t took enough time to alter things in this scene as opposed to boom, boom, stab, stab, out the door. There’s a difference. If you consider all the movement in the scene after this is done, it’s going to take a few minutes but not necessarily hours, I would not think.” He opined that the staging of the crime scene indicated that the perpetrator felt familiar with and comfortable enough to remain in the home for the time needed to finish altering the crime scene.
Sergeant Mullins observed that having knowledge of gangs and drug activity would have been useful in staging the crime scene. However, based on his experience investigating more than 100 gang-related homicides, Sergeant Mullins opined that gang members would not have remained inside the home following the murders and would not have gone to the crime scene unarmed and used weapons they found in the home to commit the offenses. Sergeant Mullins was unaware of any gang-related homicides in which women were murdered and children were assaulted and killed with knives and boards. Sergeant Mullins acknowledged that the defendant’s DNA was not discovered on any item of physical evidence associated with the investigation; however, Sergeant Mullins testified that the lack of DNA evidence linking the defendant to the crime did not exonerate him.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
