GREENSBORO – Police are looking for a 96-year-old woman and her nephew who have not been seen since Aug. 7.
Jannie Dye Lee left her home at 2508 16th St. in Greensboro with her nephew Victor Tyrone Powell, 43, Greensboro police said.
They were last seen in a four-door black Honda and may have been headed to Burlington, Mass., police said.
Powell and Lee have lived there since March, when Powell agreed to take care of Lee at his home, Cpl. Paul McDonald said. They had been back in Greensboro visiting family.
Police are unsure if they left the state, but suspect they may have been headed back to Massachusetts.
But police have not been able to locate a Massachusetts address or driver’s license for Powell, McDonald said. Powell does freelance computer work, so there is no employer for police to contact either, he said.
Lee’s daughter reported her missing on Aug. 24 when she could not make contact with either Powell or Lee, who is on oxygen.
Police are asking for the public’s help because the case is unusual, McDonald said.
“It doesn’t fit what we normally get,” he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 373-1000.
For those of you who did not know, I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA. I love being in Louisiana because it’s such a warm and fun community but it saddens me to see that racism is still alive and well here. And you know what? It didn’t just start with the Jena 6. Cases like this has been going on for years.
Not even five years ago, I heard that separate proms for whites and blacks still exist here. But the question now is: When is it going to stop? When is the media going to make the Jena 6 [and other cases like it] national news and not just local so that we can start moving toward social equality? I pray that the answer is now. Doesn’t America deserve to live in peace?
In the meantime for my part – I collected as much information as I could about the case for you and organized it in a way that you can stay in one spot for all the information you need. Make sure you take part in the cause in any way you can! It doesn’t matter whether it’s signing the petition or simply spreading the news. Let the media know that it’s time to free the Jena 6 Now!
P.S. I did not forget about the missing women – with this case being a racial issue as well I felt like they deserve as much exposure as these women.
The Case:
Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the “white” tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could “take [their] lives away with a stroke of [his] pen.” Racial tension continued to mount in Jena, and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But when a white student–who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses–taunted a black student, allegedly called several black students “nigger”, and was beaten up by black students, six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted. He faces up to 22 years in prison for a school fight.
More detailed story: Finalcall.com Young Black males the target of small-town racism By Jesse Muhammad
JENA, La. (FinalCall.com) – Marcus Jones, the father of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell, pulls out a box full of letters from countless major colleges and universities in America who are trying to recruit his son. Mr. Jones, with hurt in his voice, says, “He had so much going for him. My son is innocent and they have done him wrong.”
An all-White jury convicted Mr. Bell of two felonies—aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery—and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Five other young Black males are also awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight: Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15. Together, this group has come to be known as the “Jena 6.”
“This town has always had a history of racism towards the Black man,” said Mr. Jones to the Final Call. “I am going to continue to fight for justice for my son.”
Jena, a small town still considered segregated in rural Louisiana, is the largest in LaSalle Parish with a population of nearly 3,000. Of that number, 85 percent are White, while there are only 350 Blacks in the entire area.
The trouble surrounding this case began in September 2006. At Jena High School, Black and Whites sit separately from one another outside during their school breaks—Whites under the shaded “White tree,” and Blacks on worn out benches. One day, Black student asked permission from a school official to sit under the “White tree,” and the official told them to sit wherever they wanted, so the Black student did. The following day, three nooses were seen hanging from the “White tree,” which upset the Black students who make up only 20 percent of the school’s population.
The school principal found the three White students responsible and advised that they were to be expelled from school permanently. The White superintendent of LaSalle Parish schools, Roy Breithaupt, overturned the principal’s decision and instead gave the White students a three-day suspension. In statements made to the media, Superintendent Breithaupt said “Adolescents play pranks. I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.” Black parents, students and residents disagreed and became upset.
“That’s a federal hate crime when those White students hung up those nooses. I don’t care what anybody says,” Mr. Jones told The Final Call. “A three-day suspension was a slap in the face of us as Blacks in this town.”
Students began to voice their disgust and protest against the “slap on the wrist” the three White students received for what many are calling a hate crime. According to the parents of the Jena 6 and a testimony given in Mr. Bell’s trial, White District Attorney Reed Walters then visited Jena High School to address a school assembly, making remarks directed at the Black students that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank,” he could take their lives away with the stroke of his pen. As a result of a fire that burned down the main building where classes are held at Jena High School on November 30, 2006, Whites in the community started to blame the Blacks students of the school as the cause of the fire.
But the racial tensions at the school would spill over into the community and erupt into a series of incidents that led to the charges against the Jena 6:
On the night of December 1, 2006, Robert Bailey and his friends went to a party at Jena Fair Barn. Once inside the party, Robert was approached by a White male named Justin Sloan, who asked him “Is your name Robert Bailey?” When Robert said yes, Mr. Sloan, along with his sister Jessie, began to hit Robert, and from there, he was also attacked by several other White men before his own friends came to assist him in the brawl.
According to Robert’s mother, Caseptla Bailey, the police who came on the scene told the Black youth that they need to get back to their side of town. The next day, on December 2, Robert and two of his friends were at the local Gotta-Go convenience store. They spotted Matt Windham, one of White males who attacked Robert the previous night. An altercation started and Mr. Windham ran to his truck and pulled out a sawed-off shot gun, which Robert was able to wrestle away from him. The fight ensued and eventually all involved left the scene running.
Two days later, on December 4 at Jena High School, a White male student by the name of Justin Barker had been allegedly making racial taunts at the Blacks, which included calling them “n—–s” and expressing support for the noose hanging, as well as the attack made on Robert Bailey at Fair Barn. Right outside the school auditorium, Mr. Barker was suddenly knocked down, punched, beaten and kicked by Black students. According to interviews with The Final Call, parents of the Jena 6 stated that school officials randomly pointed out White students to write statements describing what they saw, as well as identify what Black students were involved in the fight or were just standing around during the fight. Moments later, after several statements were collected, six Black males were taken out of their classes, arrested and charged.
Many of the Jena 6 remained in jail for several months due to the high bails set between $70,000-$140,000 on them. All are talented athletes with what their families called “bright futures.”
“We had to put up property to bail out my son,” stated Ms. Bailey. “My son is innocent. This is a disgrace and it only manifested the racism that has always existed in this town and this country. They are attacking our young Black males so we have to fight.”
Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, agreed. “My son was not involved in this fight. This is pure racism.”
Mr. Bell’s family was unable to bail him out and his father believed that is the reason his son’s case went to trial so quickly. A Black court-appointed attorney, Blaine Williams, represented Mr. Bell, pressuring him to plead guilty, but Mr. Bell refused. His attorney then gathered a list of proposed witnessed which included his father and mother, Michelle Bell. The judge put a gag order on all witnesses in the case and refused to allow his parents to be present in the court during the trial because they were potential witnesses although the victim, who was a witness, was allowed to stay inside the entire time.
When Mr. Bell’s father asked the defense lawyer to appeal the gag order so they can be inside the courtroom with their son, the lawyer replied “The best thing for you to do is to get the hell out of my face.”
“At that point I smelled a rat and I knew my son was being set up,” stated Mr. Jones to The Final Call. He also shared that the jury was all White, and that members of the jury were friends with the District Attorney as well as family members with the victim. The prosecution brought forth 17 witnesses of whom many stated that they did not see Mr. Bell hit Mr. Barker. The victim himself even testified that he did not know if Mr. Bell hit him or not. The defense lawyer did not call any witnesses and rested his case. After three hours of deliberation, Mr. Bell was convicted and is currently awaiting sentencing.
Members of the Houston Millions More Movement Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Muhammad’s Mosque No. 45 Fruit of Islam visited the families of the Jena 6 on July 14 to conduct an fact-finding mission along with The Final Call.
“Our mission to Jena made clear to me that the “old south” is not so old that it is not without a pulse and heartbeat,” stated Deric Muhammad, Houston MOJ Spokesman. “The U.S. congress and Black America doesn’t have to strain its eyes toward Darfur or South Africa to see apartheid and/or genocide. We need look no further than Jena, Louisiana.”
The Black residents have been mobilizing the last few months with protests, organizing meetings, developed a NAACP branch headed by Secretary Catrina Wallace and created the Jena 6 Defense Fund Committee. They are planning a major protest on the steps of the Jena courthouse on the day of Mr. Bell’s sentencing and are calling on everyone to support.
Partisan witnesses * The ten student witnesses who testified at Mychal Bell’s trial were all white. In fact, most of them were part of a distinct minority within the high school’s white student population who attended all-white schools in the country surrounding Jena until High School. (More on this below) * Justin Cooper was the only witness at trial to testify that Mychal Bell kicked Justin Barker as the victim lay unconscious on the ground. Since Justin Cooper was one of the boys who admitted to hanging the nooses at Jena High School at the beginning of the school year, he can hardly be seen as an objective or credible witness. Defense Attorney Blane Williams was apparently unaware of Cooper’s connection to the noose incident. * Jessica Hooter was one of four trial witnesses who identified Mychal as the person who threw the first punch at Justin Barker. Two days after the assault occurred, Jessica was unable to identify the initial attacker. But as she explained at trial, “After I thought about it more, I remembered more.” In his closing remarks, Blane Williams never mentioned that she had embellished her earlier testimony. Perhaps he forgot. * The single male juror graduated from High School with Justin Barker’s father. The tendency to sympathize with an old school buddy whosekid got punched and kicked in a one-sided assault is understandable. It also makes objectivity impossible. * Midway through the trial, assault victim Justin Barker and his family were seen by ten witnesses (myself included) sharing a convivial meal with several of the students who had testified against Mychal Bell. This suggests that a number of “memory-enhancing” conversations about the incident have taken place between early December and late June. Jessica Hooter likely “remembered” that the unidentified attacker was Mykal Bell because this quickly became the orthodox story in the social circle she move in.
Ms. Martin’s list * At trial, special education teacher Kristy Martin listed off the names of the boys who surrounded Justin Barker as if they were clear in her memory. Although she was forced to admit that she never saw a single student touch Justin Barker, Martin’s ability to name names seemed very convincing. Martin is the only witness thus far who has provided a list of attackers longer than three names. * In a written statement, given immediately after the incident, Coach Wayne Spence states that he was taking names of rowdy students in the gym during the lunch hour. “I had a list that Ms. Martin obtained from me,” he wrote. This suggests that Kristy Martin specifically asked Spence for the list of names the day of the fight. This explains why she is the only witness to remember more than two or three members of the Jena 6. Most eye witnesses can’t identify a single assailant by name. Most of the students who gave eyewitness statements after the December 4 altercation at the school make references to “a bunch of black kids”.
The witness no one called * Coach Benjy Lewis gave two statements immediately after the school incident in which he clearly states that Justin Barker was facing him when Malcolm Shaw (not Mychal Bell) struck Barker from behind. “I saw Malcolm Shaw hit Justin Barker with his right fist to the right side of Justin’s head, right around the temple,” Lewis wrote. “Justin went down face first, knocked out . . .” Most witnesses agree that a single punch knocked Barker out cold. The only adult who witnessed the punch says Mychal Bell didn’t throw it. * In a signed statement given immediately after the altercation at the school, student Jesse Beard stated that moments after the assault Coach Manning asked him where Malcolm Shaw was. * It isn’t hard to see why the prosecution didn’t call Lewis to the stand (his testimony would have devastated the state’s case); but how do we explain why defense attorney Blane Williams didn’t call the coach to testify? * Several people (myself included) noticed Mychal Bell repeatedly handing his attorney pieces of eyewitness testimony during the trial. This suggests that Williams entered the courtroom utterly unprepared for trial.
The green jacket theory * Two female students testified that the person who knocked Justin Barker cold was wearing a green jacket. Mychal Bell’s statement, given immediately after the incident, suggests that he was initially cleared of responsibility because he was wearing a black jacket. At trial, the “green jacket” witnesses were convinced that Mychal Bell was not the attacker-they knew Mychal and the guy in the green jacket was someone else. * The “green jacket” identification means that we have at least three mutually contradictory eyewitness accounts of who struck Justin Barker: Mychal Bell, Malcolm Shaw, or an unidentified student in a green jacket. * Both “green jacket” witnesses insist that Justin Barker was knocked cold, not by a punch to the temple, but by having his head slammed into a concrete bench. Coach Benjy Lewis says that Justin Barker was knocked cold from a punch from behind. Witnesses who name Mychal Bell as the attacker describe a face-to-face confrontation followed by a blow to the head that knocked Justin Barker out. Defense attorney Blane Williams never reflected on the evidence long enough to identify these obvious contradictions.
If Lewis is right; Bell is innocent * The fact that Justin Barker cannot remember who hit him argues in favor of Coach Lewis’s blow-from-behind account. It must also be remembered that Lewis was the only adult who directly witnessed the assault. He was also the only non-partisan eye witness. If Lewis is telling the truth, the witnesses who identify Mychal Bell as the initial attacker are either confused or, like Jessica Hooter, they are victims of a false sense of concreteness produced by the continual retelling the story in the company of partisan friends. * Most of the prisoners recently exonerated on the basis of unassailable DNA evidence were wrongfully convicted by confident eyewitnesses. Memory doesn’t work like a photograph; recollections change dramatically with time. We often see what we want to see. * All this contradictory evidence makes it impossible to identifyJustin Barker’s assailant with any confidence. * All those identifying Mychal Bell were highly partisan observers clearly identified with one side of a longstanding and unresolved feud between the “country” white students who hung the nooses in a tree at the high school and the black male athletes who were particularly outraged by this hate crime (see more on this below). * On balance, the most persuasive testimony by far comes from Coach Lewis-and neither the prosecution nor the defense called Lewis to testify at Mychal Bell’s trial.
A chaotic scene * In signed statements, several black and white eyewitnesses referred to students running to and from the scene of the assault. Justin Barker was clearly struck on the face and then intentionally kicked while he lay on the ground. However, it is impossible to determine which of Justin Barker’s bruises and abrasions were the result of intentional assault and which may have been the unintentional result of a panic-induced stampede. All witnesses agree that the scene was utterly chaotic with students moving wildly in every direction. Defense attorney Blane Williams never raised this obvious question. * Several of the Jena 6 defendants freely admit that they were close to the altercation. This isn’t surprising when we realize that the shout of “fight” at a high school always brings students running to the scene.
“With a stroke of my pen”* In early September, the three white students responsible for hanging nooses in a tree in the school courtyard were punished with a few days of in-school suspension. The noose incident was dismissed as a childish prank. The following day, black students staged a spontaneous protest rally under the tree where the nooses had been discovered. Several black male athletes took the lead in this protest-the same students who were eventually accused of attacking Justin Barker. * The decision to treat the noose incident as a childish prank sparked a brief firestorm of media attention in which Jena school officials were frequently accused of racism. * In early September, District Attorney Reed Walters addressed an emergency school assembly called in response to the spontaneous student protest. With a dozen fully uniformed police officers in the auditorium, Walters warned protest organizers that with a stroke of his pen he could take their lives away. Walters has admitted under oath that he made this remark. His words were not aimed at the entire student body, nor at black students in general-he was speaking to the student athletes we now call the Jena 6. After the demonstration under the tree, Robert Bailey, Carwin Jones, Mychal Bell, Theodore Shaw, Jesse Beard and Bryant Ray Purvis became notorious.
A descending spiral of violence * Evidence suggests that some teachers and school administrators were empowered by Mr. Walters’ “stroke of my pen” remark. Defendants report that in the wake of the school assembly, several teachers became increasingly strict and adversarial in relation to the boys responsible for associating Jena High School with Jim Crow racism. It appears that some students responded to this change in attitude by withholding respect and acting out in ways that encouraged an even more authoritarian teacher response. Discipline referrals for the Jena 6 skyrocketed during the fall semester.
* In the period between Mr. Walter’s “stroke of my pen” threat in September and the assault on Justin Barker in early December, a series of physical altercations played out between the Jena 6 and the circle of boys who supported the hanging of the nooses. The white students had attended all-white schools in the countryside prior to coming to the integrated high school campus. They felt reassured by the segregated school courtyard and were intimidated by the suggestion that black students could sit wherever they wanted. Hence the nooses. * The laughably light discipline handed down for this “childish prank” was perceived, correctly, as a triumph for students wishing to preserve a segregated school square.
A fire, a fight, and a firearm * In signed statements, several white and black students mentioned a series of verbal altercations during the lunch hour preceding the attack on Justin Barker. The trash-talking was directly related to a fight at the Fair Barn three days earlier. On that occasion, Robert Bailey and a few of his friends were invited to an all-white student party by some of their white friends. When Robert entered the building he was punched in the face by a 22 year-old white male. In seconds, Robert was assaulted with beer bottles, punches and kicks in a virtual mirror image of the altercation at the high school three days later. The only differences were that the identify of the instigator in the Fair Barn incident was undisputed and that Robert remained conscious after the initial blow and was thus able to minimize the impact of the attack. * The following morning, Robert Bailey and two of the friends who had come to his aid during the Fair Barn assault were leaving a local convenience store when they encountered one of the country white males who had jumped Robert the night before. Fearing retaliation, the boy retreated to his truck and pulled out a pump-action, pistol-grip shotgun that looks like something the Terminator might have fancied. When Robert and his friends wrestled the weapon away from their would-be assailant they were charged with assault and theft. Once again, Jena’s New Jim Crow regime was reinforced. * It is not unusual for residents of rural LaSalle Parish to drive around with firearms in their trucks. On May 10, 2007, Justin Barker was arrested for bringing a rifle to school in his vehicle. A thorough search probably would have turned up several more illegal firearms in the school parking lot. * The violent assault at the Fair Barn, the convenience store incident, and the assault at the school followed in the wake of a traumatic school fire in late Novermber. Everyone associated with the school was in a state of shock akin to post traumatic stress syndrome. Concerned by the wave of violence, several teachers asked administrators not to reopen the school the Monday morning of the assault.
Running his mouth * Student statements suggest that the student who attacked Justin Barker was responding to taunts that Robert Bailey “had his butt kicked” at the Fair Barn. In the course of this verbal jousting, several students report that Justin Barker “got up in Mychal’s face” and gave Mychal the finger. Tony Knapp, one of three boys who admitted to hanging nooses earlier in the school year, was also involved in this lunch hour altercation. At trial, District Attorney Reed Walters created the misleading impression that Barker was attacked by black thugs looking for a random white victim. He knew better. * Several eyewitnesses recall that the initial punch was preceded by the shouted words, “This will teach you to run your mother f***ing mouth.” This statement, repeated by too many witnesses to be seriously doubted, makes no sense apart from the trash talking described in student statements.
The sins of the fathers * This background information demonstrates that the black male students who attacked Justin Barker were bound to a steadily escalating chain of violence and counter-violence. * This spiral of action and reaction was initiated by the September decision of school administrators to treat the noose incident as a childish prank. When Reed Walters threatened the Jena 6 with life imprisonment if they didn’t relinquish their constitutional right to denounce injustice, the boys were left with no legitimate avenue of protest. In the end, immature white and black males were left to their own devices. The consequences were as predictable as they were tragic. * The ultimate responsibility for the violence at Jena High School lies at the feet of public officials who refused to acknowledge a hate crime for what it was. The sins of the fathers are now being visited upon the children.
Defense Attorney says Bell case should be in juvenile system
Bell, the first of the “Jena Six” to face trial in the adult justice system, was 16 when arrested and charged with attempted murder in connection with a December incident at Jena High School.
Bob Noel, one of the team of defense attorneys from Monroe who took on Bell’s case pro-bono, said a juvenile can’t go through the adult justice system unless he or she is charged with one of a few crimes such as murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and attempted murder. Bell was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, not one of the specific charges.
But Pete Adams, executive director of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, said the court that starts with jurisdiction retains it.
This is an excerpt from the code that governs which court would handle a juvenile’s case:
“The court exercising criminal jurisdiction shall retain jurisdiction over the child’s case, even though he pleads guilty to or is convicted of a lesser included offense. A plea to or conviction of a lesser included offense shall not revest jurisdiction in the court exercising juvenile jurisdiction over such a child.”
But Noel pointed out that the adult system would retain jurisdiction only if the jury came back with the lesser charge or if Bell pleaded to that charge. That wasn’t the case for Bell, he said.
If the arrest of judgment — the motion that would void the conviction in adult court and throw it into the juvenile system — is denied, Noel said the attorneys also have filed a motion for a new trial citing improper representation by Bell’s previous attorney.
The other attorneys defending Bell along with Noel are lead attorney Louis Scott, Lee Perkins, Peggy Sullivan and Carol Powell-Lexing. All of the attorneys are members of the 4th Judicial District Indigent Defenders Board.
Bell is still being held in lieu of $90,000 bond. A bond reduction hearing is set for Aug. 24. His sentencing is set for Sept.
In addition to Mychal Bell’s recent felony conviction, his criminal history was revealed Friday to contain four other violent crimes.
Because of that, a LaSalle Parish judge denied the 17-year-old bond in his current scrape with the law.
Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr., with the 28th Judicial District Court, went over the factors in Louisiana code used to determine bail, pointing out specifics in Bell’s case:
The seriousness of the offense: “It is a serious offense because it is a crime of violence,” he said.
The weight of the evidence against the defendant: Mauffray said it was “pretty weighty” considering the jury convicted Bell.
The previous criminal record of the defendant: He said a criminal record was obviously present considering that Bell had been adjudicated on three offenses that were committed while he was on probation and then convicted this year in adult court.
The nature and seriousness of the danger to any other person or the community that would be posed by the defendant’s release: Again, Mauffray pointed out that Bell now has either been adjudicated or convicted of five crimes of violence.
Whether the defendant is currently out on bond on a previous felony arrest: He cited Bell’s presence on probation and the fact that there were three other cases — not including the case Bell is currently in jail for — awaiting disposition.
“Past behavior is the best prediction of future behavior,” Mauffray said.
A motion hearing is scheduled for Sept. 4. Bell’s attorneys are hoping their client’s adult conviction will be voided and the case remanded to juvenile court. If that motion is denied, attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial based on insufficient defense counsel for Bell among other things.
For those of you who did not know, I was born and raised in Baton Rouge, LA. I love being in Louisiana because it’s such a warm and fun community but it saddens me to see that racism is still alive and well here. And you know what? It didn’t just start with the Jena 6. Cases like this has been going on for years.
Not even five years ago, I heard that separate proms for whites and blacks still exist here. But the question now is: When is it going to stop? When is the media going to make the Jena 6 [and other cases like it] national news and not just local so that we can start moving toward social equality? I pray that the answer is now. Doesn’t America deserve to live in peace?
In the meantime for my part – I collected as much information as I could about the case for you and organized it in a way that you can stay in one spot for all the information you need. Make sure you take part in the cause in any way you can! It doesn’t matter whether it’s signing the petition or simply spreading the news. Let the media know that it’s time to free the Jena 6 Now!
P.S. I did not forget about the missing women – with this case being a racial issue as well I felt like they deserve as much exposure as these women.
The Case:
Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the “white” tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could “take [their] lives away with a stroke of [his] pen.” Racial tension continued to mount in Jena, and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But when a white student–who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses–taunted a black student, allegedly called several black students “nigger”, and was beaten up by black students, six black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted. He faces up to 22 years in prison for a school fight.
More detailed story: Finalcall.com Young Black males the target of small-town racism By Jesse Muhammad
JENA, La. (FinalCall.com) – Marcus Jones, the father of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell, pulls out a box full of letters from countless major colleges and universities in America who are trying to recruit his son. Mr. Jones, with hurt in his voice, says, “He had so much going for him. My son is innocent and they have done him wrong.”
An all-White jury convicted Mr. Bell of two felonies—aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery—and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Five other young Black males are also awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight: Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15. Together, this group has come to be known as the “Jena 6.”
“This town has always had a history of racism towards the Black man,” said Mr. Jones to the Final Call. “I am going to continue to fight for justice for my son.”
Jena, a small town still considered segregated in rural Louisiana, is the largest in LaSalle Parish with a population of nearly 3,000. Of that number, 85 percent are White, while there are only 350 Blacks in the entire area.
The trouble surrounding this case began in September 2006. At Jena High School, Black and Whites sit separately from one another outside during their school breaks—Whites under the shaded “White tree,” and Blacks on worn out benches. One day, Black student asked permission from a school official to sit under the “White tree,” and the official told them to sit wherever they wanted, so the Black student did. The following day, three nooses were seen hanging from the “White tree,” which upset the Black students who make up only 20 percent of the school’s population.
The school principal found the three White students responsible and advised that they were to be expelled from school permanently. The White superintendent of LaSalle Parish schools, Roy Breithaupt, overturned the principal’s decision and instead gave the White students a three-day suspension. In statements made to the media, Superintendent Breithaupt said “Adolescents play pranks. I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.” Black parents, students and residents disagreed and became upset.
“That’s a federal hate crime when those White students hung up those nooses. I don’t care what anybody says,” Mr. Jones told The Final Call. “A three-day suspension was a slap in the face of us as Blacks in this town.”
Students began to voice their disgust and protest against the “slap on the wrist” the three White students received for what many are calling a hate crime. According to the parents of the Jena 6 and a testimony given in Mr. Bell’s trial, White District Attorney Reed Walters then visited Jena High School to address a school assembly, making remarks directed at the Black students that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank,” he could take their lives away with the stroke of his pen. As a result of a fire that burned down the main building where classes are held at Jena High School on November 30, 2006, Whites in the community started to blame the Blacks students of the school as the cause of the fire.
But the racial tensions at the school would spill over into the community and erupt into a series of incidents that led to the charges against the Jena 6:
On the night of December 1, 2006, Robert Bailey and his friends went to a party at Jena Fair Barn. Once inside the party, Robert was approached by a White male named Justin Sloan, who asked him “Is your name Robert Bailey?” When Robert said yes, Mr. Sloan, along with his sister Jessie, began to hit Robert, and from there, he was also attacked by several other White men before his own friends came to assist him in the brawl.
According to Robert’s mother, Caseptla Bailey, the police who came on the scene told the Black youth that they need to get back to their side of town. The next day, on December 2, Robert and two of his friends were at the local Gotta-Go convenience store. They spotted Matt Windham, one of White males who attacked Robert the previous night. An altercation started and Mr. Windham ran to his truck and pulled out a sawed-off shot gun, which Robert was able to wrestle away from him. The fight ensued and eventually all involved left the scene running.
Two days later, on December 4 at Jena High School, a White male student by the name of Justin Barker had been allegedly making racial taunts at the Blacks, which included calling them “n—–s” and expressing support for the noose hanging, as well as the attack made on Robert Bailey at Fair Barn. Right outside the school auditorium, Mr. Barker was suddenly knocked down, punched, beaten and kicked by Black students. According to interviews with The Final Call, parents of the Jena 6 stated that school officials randomly pointed out White students to write statements describing what they saw, as well as identify what Black students were involved in the fight or were just standing around during the fight. Moments later, after several statements were collected, six Black males were taken out of their classes, arrested and charged.
Many of the Jena 6 remained in jail for several months due to the high bails set between $70,000-$140,000 on them. All are talented athletes with what their families called “bright futures.”
“We had to put up property to bail out my son,” stated Ms. Bailey. “My son is innocent. This is a disgrace and it only manifested the racism that has always existed in this town and this country. They are attacking our young Black males so we have to fight.”
Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, agreed. “My son was not involved in this fight. This is pure racism.”
Mr. Bell’s family was unable to bail him out and his father believed that is the reason his son’s case went to trial so quickly. A Black court-appointed attorney, Blaine Williams, represented Mr. Bell, pressuring him to plead guilty, but Mr. Bell refused. His attorney then gathered a list of proposed witnessed which included his father and mother, Michelle Bell. The judge put a gag order on all witnesses in the case and refused to allow his parents to be present in the court during the trial because they were potential witnesses although the victim, who was a witness, was allowed to stay inside the entire time.
When Mr. Bell’s father asked the defense lawyer to appeal the gag order so they can be inside the courtroom with their son, the lawyer replied “The best thing for you to do is to get the hell out of my face.”
“At that point I smelled a rat and I knew my son was being set up,” stated Mr. Jones to The Final Call. He also shared that the jury was all White, and that members of the jury were friends with the District Attorney as well as family members with the victim. The prosecution brought forth 17 witnesses of whom many stated that they did not see Mr. Bell hit Mr. Barker. The victim himself even testified that he did not know if Mr. Bell hit him or not. The defense lawyer did not call any witnesses and rested his case. After three hours of deliberation, Mr. Bell was convicted and is currently awaiting sentencing.
Members of the Houston Millions More Movement Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Muhammad’s Mosque No. 45 Fruit of Islam visited the families of the Jena 6 on July 14 to conduct an fact-finding mission along with The Final Call.
“Our mission to Jena made clear to me that the “old south” is not so old that it is not without a pulse and heartbeat,” stated Deric Muhammad, Houston MOJ Spokesman. “The U.S. congress and Black America doesn’t have to strain its eyes toward Darfur or South Africa to see apartheid and/or genocide. We need look no further than Jena, Louisiana.”
The Black residents have been mobilizing the last few months with protests, organizing meetings, developed a NAACP branch headed by Secretary Catrina Wallace and created the Jena 6 Defense Fund Committee. They are planning a major protest on the steps of the Jena courthouse on the day of Mr. Bell’s sentencing and are calling on everyone to support.
Partisan witnesses * The ten student witnesses who testified at Mychal Bell’s trial were all white. In fact, most of them were part of a distinct minority within the high school’s white student population who attended all-white schools in the country surrounding Jena until High School. (More on this below) * Justin Cooper was the only witness at trial to testify that Mychal Bell kicked Justin Barker as the victim lay unconscious on the ground. Since Justin Cooper was one of the boys who admitted to hanging the nooses at Jena High School at the beginning of the school year, he can hardly be seen as an objective or credible witness. Defense Attorney Blane Williams was apparently unaware of Cooper’s connection to the noose incident. * Jessica Hooter was one of four trial witnesses who identified Mychal as the person who threw the first punch at Justin Barker. Two days after the assault occurred, Jessica was unable to identify the initial attacker. But as she explained at trial, “After I thought about it more, I remembered more.” In his closing remarks, Blane Williams never mentioned that she had embellished her earlier testimony. Perhaps he forgot. * The single male juror graduated from High School with Justin Barker’s father. The tendency to sympathize with an old school buddy whosekid got punched and kicked in a one-sided assault is understandable. It also makes objectivity impossible. * Midway through the trial, assault victim Justin Barker and his family were seen by ten witnesses (myself included) sharing a convivial meal with several of the students who had testified against Mychal Bell. This suggests that a number of “memory-enhancing” conversations about the incident have taken place between early December and late June. Jessica Hooter likely “remembered” that the unidentified attacker was Mykal Bell because this quickly became the orthodox story in the social circle she move in.
Ms. Martin’s list * At trial, special education teacher Kristy Martin listed off the names of the boys who surrounded Justin Barker as if they were clear in her memory. Although she was forced to admit that she never saw a single student touch Justin Barker, Martin’s ability to name names seemed very convincing. Martin is the only witness thus far who has provided a list of attackers longer than three names. * In a written statement, given immediately after the incident, Coach Wayne Spence states that he was taking names of rowdy students in the gym during the lunch hour. “I had a list that Ms. Martin obtained from me,” he wrote. This suggests that Kristy Martin specifically asked Spence for the list of names the day of the fight. This explains why she is the only witness to remember more than two or three members of the Jena 6. Most eye witnesses can’t identify a single assailant by name. Most of the students who gave eyewitness statements after the December 4 altercation at the school make references to “a bunch of black kids”.
The witness no one called * Coach Benjy Lewis gave two statements immediately after the school incident in which he clearly states that Justin Barker was facing him when Malcolm Shaw (not Mychal Bell) struck Barker from behind. “I saw Malcolm Shaw hit Justin Barker with his right fist to the right side of Justin’s head, right around the temple,” Lewis wrote. “Justin went down face first, knocked out . . .” Most witnesses agree that a single punch knocked Barker out cold. The only adult who witnessed the punch says Mychal Bell didn’t throw it. * In a signed statement given immediately after the altercation at the school, student Jesse Beard stated that moments after the assault Coach Manning asked him where Malcolm Shaw was. * It isn’t hard to see why the prosecution didn’t call Lewis to the stand (his testimony would have devastated the state’s case); but how do we explain why defense attorney Blane Williams didn’t call the coach to testify? * Several people (myself included) noticed Mychal Bell repeatedly handing his attorney pieces of eyewitness testimony during the trial. This suggests that Williams entered the courtroom utterly unprepared for trial.
The green jacket theory * Two female students testified that the person who knocked Justin Barker cold was wearing a green jacket. Mychal Bell’s statement, given immediately after the incident, suggests that he was initially cleared of responsibility because he was wearing a black jacket. At trial, the “green jacket” witnesses were convinced that Mychal Bell was not the attacker-they knew Mychal and the guy in the green jacket was someone else. * The “green jacket” identification means that we have at least three mutually contradictory eyewitness accounts of who struck Justin Barker: Mychal Bell, Malcolm Shaw, or an unidentified student in a green jacket. * Both “green jacket” witnesses insist that Justin Barker was knocked cold, not by a punch to the temple, but by having his head slammed into a concrete bench. Coach Benjy Lewis says that Justin Barker was knocked cold from a punch from behind. Witnesses who name Mychal Bell as the attacker describe a face-to-face confrontation followed by a blow to the head that knocked Justin Barker out. Defense attorney Blane Williams never reflected on the evidence long enough to identify these obvious contradictions.
If Lewis is right; Bell is innocent * The fact that Justin Barker cannot remember who hit him argues in favor of Coach Lewis’s blow-from-behind account. It must also be remembered that Lewis was the only adult who directly witnessed the assault. He was also the only non-partisan eye witness. If Lewis is telling the truth, the witnesses who identify Mychal Bell as the initial attacker are either confused or, like Jessica Hooter, they are victims of a false sense of concreteness produced by the continual retelling the story in the company of partisan friends. * Most of the prisoners recently exonerated on the basis of unassailable DNA evidence were wrongfully convicted by confident eyewitnesses. Memory doesn’t work like a photograph; recollections change dramatically with time. We often see what we want to see. * All this contradictory evidence makes it impossible to identifyJustin Barker’s assailant with any confidence. * All those identifying Mychal Bell were highly partisan observers clearly identified with one side of a longstanding and unresolved feud between the “country” white students who hung the nooses in a tree at the high school and the black male athletes who were particularly outraged by this hate crime (see more on this below). * On balance, the most persuasive testimony by far comes from Coach Lewis-and neither the prosecution nor the defense called Lewis to testify at Mychal Bell’s trial.
A chaotic scene * In signed statements, several black and white eyewitnesses referred to students running to and from the scene of the assault. Justin Barker was clearly struck on the face and then intentionally kicked while he lay on the ground. However, it is impossible to determine which of Justin Barker’s bruises and abrasions were the result of intentional assault and which may have been the unintentional result of a panic-induced stampede. All witnesses agree that the scene was utterly chaotic with students moving wildly in every direction. Defense attorney Blane Williams never raised this obvious question. * Several of the Jena 6 defendants freely admit that they were close to the altercation. This isn’t surprising when we realize that the shout of “fight” at a high school always brings students running to the scene.
“With a stroke of my pen”* In early September, the three white students responsible for hanging nooses in a tree in the school courtyard were punished with a few days of in-school suspension. The noose incident was dismissed as a childish prank. The following day, black students staged a spontaneous protest rally under the tree where the nooses had been discovered. Several black male athletes took the lead in this protest-the same students who were eventually accused of attacking Justin Barker. * The decision to treat the noose incident as a childish prank sparked a brief firestorm of media attention in which Jena school officials were frequently accused of racism. * In early September, District Attorney Reed Walters addressed an emergency school assembly called in response to the spontaneous student protest. With a dozen fully uniformed police officers in the auditorium, Walters warned protest organizers that with a stroke of his pen he could take their lives away. Walters has admitted under oath that he made this remark. His words were not aimed at the entire student body, nor at black students in general-he was speaking to the student athletes we now call the Jena 6. After the demonstration under the tree, Robert Bailey, Carwin Jones, Mychal Bell, Theodore Shaw, Jesse Beard and Bryant Ray Purvis became notorious.
A descending spiral of violence * Evidence suggests that some teachers and school administrators were empowered by Mr. Walters’ “stroke of my pen” remark. Defendants report that in the wake of the school assembly, several teachers became increasingly strict and adversarial in relation to the boys responsible for associating Jena High School with Jim Crow racism. It appears that some students responded to this change in attitude by withholding respect and acting out in ways that encouraged an even more authoritarian teacher response. Discipline referrals for the Jena 6 skyrocketed during the fall semester.
* In the period between Mr. Walter’s “stroke of my pen” threat in September and the assault on Justin Barker in early December, a series of physical altercations played out between the Jena 6 and the circle of boys who supported the hanging of the nooses. The white students had attended all-white schools in the countryside prior to coming to the integrated high school campus. They felt reassured by the segregated school courtyard and were intimidated by the suggestion that black students could sit wherever they wanted. Hence the nooses. * The laughably light discipline handed down for this “childish prank” was perceived, correctly, as a triumph for students wishing to preserve a segregated school square.
A fire, a fight, and a firearm * In signed statements, several white and black students mentioned a series of verbal altercations during the lunch hour preceding the attack on Justin Barker. The trash-talking was directly related to a fight at the Fair Barn three days earlier. On that occasion, Robert Bailey and a few of his friends were invited to an all-white student party by some of their white friends. When Robert entered the building he was punched in the face by a 22 year-old white male. In seconds, Robert was assaulted with beer bottles, punches and kicks in a virtual mirror image of the altercation at the high school three days later. The only differences were that the identify of the instigator in the Fair Barn incident was undisputed and that Robert remained conscious after the initial blow and was thus able to minimize the impact of the attack. * The following morning, Robert Bailey and two of the friends who had come to his aid during the Fair Barn assault were leaving a local convenience store when they encountered one of the country white males who had jumped Robert the night before. Fearing retaliation, the boy retreated to his truck and pulled out a pump-action, pistol-grip shotgun that looks like something the Terminator might have fancied. When Robert and his friends wrestled the weapon away from their would-be assailant they were charged with assault and theft. Once again, Jena’s New Jim Crow regime was reinforced. * It is not unusual for residents of rural LaSalle Parish to drive around with firearms in their trucks. On May 10, 2007, Justin Barker was arrested for bringing a rifle to school in his vehicle. A thorough search probably would have turned up several more illegal firearms in the school parking lot. * The violent assault at the Fair Barn, the convenience store incident, and the assault at the school followed in the wake of a traumatic school fire in late Novermber. Everyone associated with the school was in a state of shock akin to post traumatic stress syndrome. Concerned by the wave of violence, several teachers asked administrators not to reopen the school the Monday morning of the assault.
Running his mouth * Student statements suggest that the student who attacked Justin Barker was responding to taunts that Robert Bailey “had his butt kicked” at the Fair Barn. In the course of this verbal jousting, several students report that Justin Barker “got up in Mychal’s face” and gave Mychal the finger. Tony Knapp, one of three boys who admitted to hanging nooses earlier in the school year, was also involved in this lunch hour altercation. At trial, District Attorney Reed Walters created the misleading impression that Barker was attacked by black thugs looking for a random white victim. He knew better. * Several eyewitnesses recall that the initial punch was preceded by the shouted words, “This will teach you to run your mother f***ing mouth.” This statement, repeated by too many witnesses to be seriously doubted, makes no sense apart from the trash talking described in student statements.
The sins of the fathers * This background information demonstrates that the black male students who attacked Justin Barker were bound to a steadily escalating chain of violence and counter-violence. * This spiral of action and reaction was initiated by the September decision of school administrators to treat the noose incident as a childish prank. When Reed Walters threatened the Jena 6 with life imprisonment if they didn’t relinquish their constitutional right to denounce injustice, the boys were left with no legitimate avenue of protest. In the end, immature white and black males were left to their own devices. The consequences were as predictable as they were tragic. * The ultimate responsibility for the violence at Jena High School lies at the feet of public officials who refused to acknowledge a hate crime for what it was. The sins of the fathers are now being visited upon the children.
Defense Attorney says Bell case should be in juvenile system
Bell, the first of the “Jena Six” to face trial in the adult justice system, was 16 when arrested and charged with attempted murder in connection with a December incident at Jena High School.
Bob Noel, one of the team of defense attorneys from Monroe who took on Bell’s case pro-bono, said a juvenile can’t go through the adult justice system unless he or she is charged with one of a few crimes such as murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and attempted murder. Bell was convicted of aggravated second-degree battery, not one of the specific charges.
But Pete Adams, executive director of the Louisiana District Attorneys Association, said the court that starts with jurisdiction retains it.
This is an excerpt from the code that governs which court would handle a juvenile’s case:
“The court exercising criminal jurisdiction shall retain jurisdiction over the child’s case, even though he pleads guilty to or is convicted of a lesser included offense. A plea to or conviction of a lesser included offense shall not revest jurisdiction in the court exercising juvenile jurisdiction over such a child.”
But Noel pointed out that the adult system would retain jurisdiction only if the jury came back with the lesser charge or if Bell pleaded to that charge. That wasn’t the case for Bell, he said.
If the arrest of judgment — the motion that would void the conviction in adult court and throw it into the juvenile system — is denied, Noel said the attorneys also have filed a motion for a new trial citing improper representation by Bell’s previous attorney.
The other attorneys defending Bell along with Noel are lead attorney Louis Scott, Lee Perkins, Peggy Sullivan and Carol Powell-Lexing. All of the attorneys are members of the 4th Judicial District Indigent Defenders Board.
Bell is still being held in lieu of $90,000 bond. A bond reduction hearing is set for Aug. 24. His sentencing is set for Sept.
In addition to Mychal Bell’s recent felony conviction, his criminal history was revealed Friday to contain four other violent crimes.
Because of that, a LaSalle Parish judge denied the 17-year-old bond in his current scrape with the law.
Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr., with the 28th Judicial District Court, went over the factors in Louisiana code used to determine bail, pointing out specifics in Bell’s case:
The seriousness of the offense: “It is a serious offense because it is a crime of violence,” he said.
The weight of the evidence against the defendant: Mauffray said it was “pretty weighty” considering the jury convicted Bell.
The previous criminal record of the defendant: He said a criminal record was obviously present considering that Bell had been adjudicated on three offenses that were committed while he was on probation and then convicted this year in adult court.
The nature and seriousness of the danger to any other person or the community that would be posed by the defendant’s release: Again, Mauffray pointed out that Bell now has either been adjudicated or convicted of five crimes of violence.
Whether the defendant is currently out on bond on a previous felony arrest: He cited Bell’s presence on probation and the fact that there were three other cases — not including the case Bell is currently in jail for — awaiting disposition.
“Past behavior is the best prediction of future behavior,” Mauffray said.
A motion hearing is scheduled for Sept. 4. Bell’s attorneys are hoping their client’s adult conviction will be voided and the case remanded to juvenile court. If that motion is denied, attorneys have filed a motion for a new trial based on insufficient defense counsel for Bell among other things.
Craig — A 70-year-old Craig man accused of murdering his wife and burying her near a gold mine north of Craig will be held without bond for at least another few weeks.
Terry Hankins, who was arrested by the Craig Police Department on Friday, appeared via video Monday in Moffat County Court for his advisement. It was the first time Hankins appeared in court since his arrest.
Public defender Sheryl Uhlmann, who represented Hankins during the hearing, entered her appearance in the case Monday morning and already had filed several motions in the case including one to schedule a bond hearing and one to seal Hankins’ court files from the public. Assistant District Attorney Kerry St. James and Deputy District Attorney Brett Barkey both are prosecuting the case. Fourteenth Judicial District Attorney Bonnie Roesink also was present during the hearing.
Uhlmann and St. James agreed it was too early in the case to set bond, for which Hankins is ineligible until a future bond hearing is set.
District Chief Judge Michael O’Hara scheduled Hankins to appear in court at 1 p.m. Sept. 12 for a status conference. Bond and preliminary hearings likely will be scheduled during that hearing.
Hankins, a gold miner, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, abusing a corpse, tampering with evidence, theft, forgery and possessing more than 1 gram of a controlled substance. Hankins was arrested the day before law enforcement officers uncovered the body of his wife 36-year-old Cynthia Hankins-Runnels about 33 miles north of Craig on a parcel of land Hankins lives and operates on. Hankins-Runnels had been missing since June 3.
Police suspect Hankins-Runnels was slain in Craig and that her body was buried at the site. Though officials had searched the area once, they were unable to locate the body until Saturday. Officials were investigating allegations that Hankins was involved in other criminal activity that related to his wife’s disappearance.
Craig Police Department Chief Walt Vanatta said police had executed around five or six search warrants in the case that included searches of both Hankins’ vehicles and Terry Hankins’ property north of Craig.
If convicted of the first-degree murder charge, Hankins could face up to life in prison or death. On the less severe charges, which range from a Class 3 felony to a Class 2 misdemeanor, Hankins could face from one year in prison to 24 years and up to $500,000 in fines.
During the hearing, Hankins waived his right to have a preliminary hearing within 30 days. He did not address the court expect to say, “Yes, I do understand,” when O’Hara asked Hankins if Hankins understood his rights.
O’Hara also put in place a mandatory restraining order in the case prohibiting Hankins from contacting at least a dozen people, including members of Hankins-Runnels’ family. Hankins also is not allowed to possess a weapon or consume alcohol if he were to make bond before the case is settled.
At the attorney’s request, O’Hara agreed to keep Hankins’ court files, which include details about several search and arrest warrants, sealed to minimize “pre-trial publicity.”
Both Uhlmann and St. James expressed concern about Hankins receiving a fair trial if the documents were to become public.
“My hope and desire is (Hankins) receive a fair trial in our community,” St. James said during the hearing. “The revelation of that information may infringe on that right.”
O’Hara said he was not inclined to put a gag order in place yet. A gag order is intended to limit what is made public during a criminal trial and usually involves participants in the case.
St. James assured the court that the DA’s Office would not be commenting on the case publicly.
“It has been my practice not discuss cases with the media,” he said. “I will continue to behave in that fashion.”
Uhlmann said newspaper articles regarding the case already had appeared in several regional and Denver newspapers as well as on a law enforcement Web site.
“The risk of pre-publicity is very substantial,” she said. “We want to ensure Mr. Hankins receives his due process and a fair trial.”
Uhlmann was unavailable for further comment Monday.
St. James also said the case is still under investigation, and that there are investigators working on the case outside of Colorado.
There were no other persons present during the 30-minute long hearing besides court personnel and attorneys.
On Monday, Renee McCurry, who worked with Hankins-Runnels at the Craig Motel for about a month, was distraught to hear that Hankins-Runnels was found dead.
“I am crushed,” she said. “This is awful. She didn’t deserve to be murdered.”
McCurry characterized Hankins-Runnels as “funny and outgoing.”
“She was a good woman, a hard worker,” she said. “She was very friendly. Everyone got along with her.”
Vanatta said the Hankins’ relationship, which began while Hankins-Runnels was serving a prison sentence in Texas, was “turbulent.”
McCurry said she had only met Terry Hankins twice, but that she knew the couple had problems.
“I don’t know what he was all about, but I know that he wanted to know where she was 24/7,” she said. “I ain’t lying about that.”
McCurry became suspicious Hankins-Runnels was missing after she quit stopping by the Craig Motel for visits. Hankins-Runnels apparently had quit working at the motel to work as a construction flagger, McCurry said.
“She’d stop by every other day or so and say hi, then she just stopped, and then one day I began wondering, ‘Where is Cynthia?” she said.
Police said Hankins-Runnels was reported missing around June 3 by a family member.
Moffat County Coroner Owen Grant said Hankins-Runnels’ autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday. Her body likely will be sent to Fort Worth, Texas, where Hankins-Runnels is from and where her family lives.
The Hankins case is the second Craig murder case the 14th Judicial District has handled in the last two years.
In August 2005, the then 17-year-old Craig resident Hugo Antonio Silva-Larios pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter in the October 2004 shooting death of James Calvin Pogline, 32.
Silva-Larios, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, originally was charged with second-degree murder. He was sentenced to serve five years in prison and was deported to Mexico.
Missing Woman found buried in Gold mine, husband arrested
Craig police say the body of 36-year-old Cynthia Hankins was found Saturday buried in a gold mine that her husband operated. Her body was under tons of dirt in the mine, 33 miles North of Craig. She had been missing since June 3rd.
Her 70-year-old husband, Terry Hankins, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder, abusing a corpse, tampering with evidence, forgery, theft and possession of a controlled substance.
Police say they believe Cynthia Hankins was killed in the city of Craig before she was buried at the mine.
Craig — A 70-year-old Craig man accused of murdering his wife and burying her near a gold mine north of Craig will be held without bond for at least another few weeks.
Terry Hankins, who was arrested by the Craig Police Department on Friday, appeared via video Monday in Moffat County Court for his advisement. It was the first time Hankins appeared in court since his arrest.
Public defender Sheryl Uhlmann, who represented Hankins during the hearing, entered her appearance in the case Monday morning and already had filed several motions in the case including one to schedule a bond hearing and one to seal Hankins’ court files from the public. Assistant District Attorney Kerry St. James and Deputy District Attorney Brett Barkey both are prosecuting the case. Fourteenth Judicial District Attorney Bonnie Roesink also was present during the hearing.
Uhlmann and St. James agreed it was too early in the case to set bond, for which Hankins is ineligible until a future bond hearing is set.
District Chief Judge Michael O’Hara scheduled Hankins to appear in court at 1 p.m. Sept. 12 for a status conference. Bond and preliminary hearings likely will be scheduled during that hearing.
Hankins, a gold miner, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder, abusing a corpse, tampering with evidence, theft, forgery and possessing more than 1 gram of a controlled substance. Hankins was arrested the day before law enforcement officers uncovered the body of his wife 36-year-old Cynthia Hankins-Runnels about 33 miles north of Craig on a parcel of land Hankins lives and operates on. Hankins-Runnels had been missing since June 3.
Police suspect Hankins-Runnels was slain in Craig and that her body was buried at the site. Though officials had searched the area once, they were unable to locate the body until Saturday. Officials were investigating allegations that Hankins was involved in other criminal activity that related to his wife’s disappearance.
Craig Police Department Chief Walt Vanatta said police had executed around five or six search warrants in the case that included searches of both Hankins’ vehicles and Terry Hankins’ property north of Craig.
If convicted of the first-degree murder charge, Hankins could face up to life in prison or death. On the less severe charges, which range from a Class 3 felony to a Class 2 misdemeanor, Hankins could face from one year in prison to 24 years and up to $500,000 in fines.
During the hearing, Hankins waived his right to have a preliminary hearing within 30 days. He did not address the court expect to say, “Yes, I do understand,” when O’Hara asked Hankins if Hankins understood his rights.
O’Hara also put in place a mandatory restraining order in the case prohibiting Hankins from contacting at least a dozen people, including members of Hankins-Runnels’ family. Hankins also is not allowed to possess a weapon or consume alcohol if he were to make bond before the case is settled.
At the attorney’s request, O’Hara agreed to keep Hankins’ court files, which include details about several search and arrest warrants, sealed to minimize “pre-trial publicity.”
Both Uhlmann and St. James expressed concern about Hankins receiving a fair trial if the documents were to become public.
“My hope and desire is (Hankins) receive a fair trial in our community,” St. James said during the hearing. “The revelation of that information may infringe on that right.”
O’Hara said he was not inclined to put a gag order in place yet. A gag order is intended to limit what is made public during a criminal trial and usually involves participants in the case.
St. James assured the court that the DA’s Office would not be commenting on the case publicly.
“It has been my practice not discuss cases with the media,” he said. “I will continue to behave in that fashion.”
Uhlmann said newspaper articles regarding the case already had appeared in several regional and Denver newspapers as well as on a law enforcement Web site.
“The risk of pre-publicity is very substantial,” she said. “We want to ensure Mr. Hankins receives his due process and a fair trial.”
Uhlmann was unavailable for further comment Monday.
St. James also said the case is still under investigation, and that there are investigators working on the case outside of Colorado.
There were no other persons present during the 30-minute long hearing besides court personnel and attorneys.
On Monday, Renee McCurry, who worked with Hankins-Runnels at the Craig Motel for about a month, was distraught to hear that Hankins-Runnels was found dead.
“I am crushed,” she said. “This is awful. She didn’t deserve to be murdered.”
McCurry characterized Hankins-Runnels as “funny and outgoing.”
“She was a good woman, a hard worker,” she said. “She was very friendly. Everyone got along with her.”
Vanatta said the Hankins’ relationship, which began while Hankins-Runnels was serving a prison sentence in Texas, was “turbulent.”
McCurry said she had only met Terry Hankins twice, but that she knew the couple had problems.
“I don’t know what he was all about, but I know that he wanted to know where she was 24/7,” she said. “I ain’t lying about that.”
McCurry became suspicious Hankins-Runnels was missing after she quit stopping by the Craig Motel for visits. Hankins-Runnels apparently had quit working at the motel to work as a construction flagger, McCurry said.
“She’d stop by every other day or so and say hi, then she just stopped, and then one day I began wondering, ‘Where is Cynthia?” she said.
Police said Hankins-Runnels was reported missing around June 3 by a family member.
Moffat County Coroner Owen Grant said Hankins-Runnels’ autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday. Her body likely will be sent to Fort Worth, Texas, where Hankins-Runnels is from and where her family lives.
The Hankins case is the second Craig murder case the 14th Judicial District has handled in the last two years.
In August 2005, the then 17-year-old Craig resident Hugo Antonio Silva-Larios pleaded guilty to reckless manslaughter in the October 2004 shooting death of James Calvin Pogline, 32.
Silva-Larios, who was 16 at the time of the shooting, originally was charged with second-degree murder. He was sentenced to serve five years in prison and was deported to Mexico.
Missing Woman found buried in Gold mine, husband arrested
Craig police say the body of 36-year-old Cynthia Hankins was found Saturday buried in a gold mine that her husband operated. Her body was under tons of dirt in the mine, 33 miles North of Craig. She had been missing since June 3rd.
Her 70-year-old husband, Terry Hankins, was arrested on charges of first-degree murder, abusing a corpse, tampering with evidence, forgery, theft and possession of a controlled substance.
Police say they believe Cynthia Hankins was killed in the city of Craig before she was buried at the mine.
UPDATE: Shaquita Bell’s ex-boyfriend has been charged in her murder.
The ex-boyfriend of a woman missing for 11 years has been charged in connection with her killing, News4 reported.
During a 10:30 a.m. news conference, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Michael Dickerson, 38, has been charged in the disappearance of Shaquita Bell, who was last seen 11 years ago leaving her grandmother’s Alexandria, Va., home with him.
News4′s Megan McGrath reported that Dickerson has also been charged in the death of Sean Thomas, who was found shot multiple times in Southeast in February 1996. McGrath said police believe that Bell was killed in June 1996 because she knew about Dickerson’s connection to the killing.
“The message is loud, and it is clear. This is no longer a place where you can get away with murder,” Lanier said.
Dickerson was convicted of a drug violation in 1989 and is currently serving a 15-year prison term after he was convicted in November 1996 of beating Bell a month before she disappeared. Dickerson also pleaded guilty to federal gun charges in D.C.
Lanier said on Tuesday that police executed two search warrants on Jan. 10 for Dickerson’s family home in southeast Washington and his jail cell at the Rivers Federal Corrections Institute in Winston, N.C.
Bell’s slaying was considered a cold case and was closed administratively in 1999 when prosecutors turned down detectives’ request for a warrant, News4′s Pat Collins reported.
Lanier reviewed the case, however, after meeting with Bell’s mother, Jackie Winbourne, and the investigation continued. Investigators said they have new witnesses and information that has allowed them to file charges.
“Nothing better could have happened, besides Shaquita coming home,” Winbourne said. “I praise God for what He’s done. I thank him for this, even. At least I have some closure now.”
In July 2007, K-9 units found possible clues in a Fort Washington, Md., field. D.C. and Prince George’s County police departments worked at the Old Fort Road site with a Smithsonian team in August after police received a tip from Bell’s estranged boyfriend.
Bell was last seen at about 1 p.m. on June 27, 1996. She was 23 years old at the time of her disappearance.
Police said Bell left her grandmother’s house on East Raymond Avenue in Alexandria with her estranged boyfriend and father of her youngest child, Dickerson, just before she disappeared.
Relatives said they were perplexed by Bell’s decision to leave with him.
A month earlier, Bell called police to report that the estranged boyfriend had beaten her during a squabble in the Laurel apartment that they shared. He was arrested, and Bell moved back in with her grandmother in Alexandria.
Three weeks after that incident, police said, Bell called police to say that he had held a gun to her head during a fight. He was arrested in Washington and charged with possession of a machine gun the same day.
On the day of Bell’s disappearance, the estranged boyfriend had driven Bell to take two of her three children to a doctor’s appointment. Family members said she called at 2 p.m. and said she was on the way home, and that was the last time anybody heard from her. The boyfriend told the family that they had gone into southeast Washington, where they got into an argument and she left him.
Police said Bell had provided information in at least two investigations, one of them a homicide. According to her mother, Bell was afraid for her life.
Police said Bell worked at a Giant Food bakery and did not have a criminal record.
No murder charges were ever filed in the case because her body has never been found.
Bell’s mother and stepfather have worked for more than a decade to find out what happened to her, holding vigils and demonstrations and knocking on doors.
Bell’s mother said she harbors no ill-will toward Dickerson.
Dickerson will be extradited to D.C., where he will face two first-degree murder charges. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of a mandatory 30 years to life in prison.
Two teams of investigators spent Tuesday in a wooded area of Fort Washington, searching for the remains of Shaquita Bell. The mother of three was last seen in the District in 1996, when she was just 23 years old.
D.C. Police K-9 cadaver units have led investigators to focus on one area in the site off Old Fort Road. A team of scientists from the Smithsonian Institution came to help analyze the soil where police suspect Shaquita Bell’s body may be buried.
“We had several teams show a significant area of interest,” said D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. “So we marked those areas off and we want to make sure we’re very careful and methodical about how we do this.”
Investigators suspect Bell’s boyfriend, Michael Dickerson, the father of her youngest child, killed her in 1996 in D.C. and dumped her body in the wooded area of Fort Washington. One of Dickerson’s friends told police he had helped bury Bell’s body in that spot. He led police to the same area off Old Fort Road before he was murdered.
That search turned up no evidence of Bell, but police have returned to the site recently, including last month, to try new technology.
“When you dig a grave shaft, you dig a grave and replace that soil; it’s not as compact as it was before, and we can feel that using metal probes,” said Doug Owsley of the Smithsonian Institute.
Bell’s parents, Thomas and Jackie Winborne, just want answers after a decade of not knowing what happened to Shaquita.
“There’s hurt if we don’t find her and we don’t know where she is, and there’s hurt if we do find her, but like i said, there will be closure,” said Jackie Winborne.
A team from the Smithsonian was digging in a Maryland field Tuesday in search for clues that could help solve a mystery that haunts a local family.
Shaquita Bell was last seen 11 years ago leaving her grandmother’s Alexandria, Va., home with her estranged boyfriend. A month ago, K-9 units found possible clues in a Fort Washington field. Authorities hope that might produce evidence.
The D.C. and Prince George’s County police departments worked with the Smithsonian team Tuesday.
Bell’s father was at the site at Old Fort Road Tuesday along with a documentary crew in an effort to gain more attention in resolving this case.
Police are searching that area based on a tip from a friend of Bell’s estranged boyfriend. In the weeks before her disappearance, Bell reported to police that her estranged boyfriend had beaten her on one occasion and held a gun to her head on another occasion.
The estranged boyfriend was convicted of a drug violation in 1989 and is currently serving a 15-year prison term after being convicted of beating Bell a month before she disappeared.
Bell was a young working mother. No murder charges were ever filed in the case because her body has never been found.
She was last seen at 1 p.m. leaving her grandmother’s house on East Raymond Avenue in Alexandria with her estranged boyfriend — a man family members blame for the disappearance of Shaquita Bell, 23, an attractive mother of three who worked at a Giant in Springfield. The date was June 27, 1996, and Bell has not been seen since. Now — 11 years after the disappearance — police officials in the District of Columbia have dispatched cadaver dogs and a search team to Fort Washington, Md., to look for additional remains. The search began last week, and Washington police officials acknowledge that they are investigating the possibility that they have found Bell’s remains.
“The chief has ordered a continuation of the search this week,” said Officer Junis Fletcher, a spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. “At this point, we’re trying to determine more about the remains.”
For more than a decade, Bell’s disappearance has troubled family members and friends at My Father’s House Christian Church. Each year, the church holds a special ceremony to remember Bell that includes dancing, singing, poetry and even fashion. Church officials say the remembrance is an opportunity to put a spotlight on the dangers of domestic violence and show support for Bell’s three surviving children: Ashley, 16; Devontae, 13, and Alexis, 11.
“They are now in the 11th year of her disappearance and they consider it to be the 11th hour,” read an invitation to the June 30 event. “It is in God’s timing that they should hear from Him.”
THE TIMING OF BELL’S disappearance dovetails with countless other missing persons cases — sad chapters that linger as bitter memories for family and friends who are left with fading memories and unanswered questions. A month before she was last seen — June 1996 — Bell called police to report that her estranged boyfriend had beaten her during a squabble in the Laurel apartment that they shared. The boyfriend, Michael Dickerson, was arrested and Bell moved in with her grandmother in Alexandria. On the day of Bell’s disappearance, Dickerson had driven Bell to take two of her three children to a doctor’s appointment. They returned to the grandmother’s house shortly after noon. Shortly afterward, Bell and Dickerson left together — the last time she was seen alive. Around 2 p.m. she called to say she would be home soon but she was never heard from again.
“All evidence points to Dickerson,” proclaimed a missing-person flyer distributed by Bell’s church.
Washington police officials thought they had a break in the case several years ago, when Dickerson’s friend told investigators where Dickerson said he had buried the body. Yet the friend was murdered the day before he was supposed to wear a wire during a meeting with Dickerson, who is currently serving time for the assault-and-battery case against Bell. The Washington Police Department searched the Fort Washington area where the man said Dickerson claimed to have buried Bell. But the results were inconclusive and police officials suspended the investigation. Bell’s family, however, did not.
“The Bible says that God answers in the 11th hour,” said Jackie Winbourne, Bell’s mother. “God told me that an answer would come in the 11th hour.”
Eleven years after the disappearance, Bell’s annual remembrance ceremony brought media attention and television coverage. One of the viewers who saw Winbourne on television was Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier, who invited family members to a July 4 meeting at police headquarters to talk about the case. During the meeting, police officials asked Winbourne how they could renew the stalled investigation.
“I thank God for Chief Lanier,” said Winbourne. “She has such compassion, and she is an amazing woman.”
AS THE COLD CASE heats up, police officials are continuing to search the area in Fort Washington where investigators believe that Dickerson buried Bell. Because of the 11-year passage of time, police officials have brought a Smithsonian bone expert into the investigation and conducted several sweeps of the area where the remains were discovered last week. DNA samples have been taken from family members and the analysis is now being conducted on the remains. Washington police officials say that no identification has been confirmed yet, but one could come any day.
“Part of me, of course, doesn’t want it to be her,” said Winbourne. “But if she’s not going to come home I want closure.”
There was a time shortly after Shaquita Bell disappeared 11 years ago when her parents would come to this spot in southern Prince George’s County almost every day. Shovels in hand, sweating in the summer sun, they spent hours scanning the ground for signs of her body along a small wooded ravine in Fort Washington where witnesses said Bell, a 23-year-old mother of three, had been buried.
Bell’s mother, Jackie Winborne, and Winborne’s husband, Thomas, often came alone. Sometimes they would pause there only a few minutes, but they always prayed the same prayer: Lord, let her body be here somewhere. Lord, let it end so we can take her home.
Yesterday, they were not alone. One of the nation’s leading forensics experts joined a team of police detectives from the District and Prince George’s in the hunt for Bell’s remains. Using a search dog, metal probes, shovels and a backhoe, Doug Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and investigators surveyed the sloping ravines near Old Fort Road and Marge Court for hours while Bell’s family waited nearby.
“We’re just hoping for a proper homecoming for Shaquita today,” Thomas Winborne said.
By late yesterday, investigators had not found her body. The search continues today.
Bell, who worked at a grocery store bakery, was last seen about 1 p.m. June 27, 1996, when she left her grandmother’s Alexandria home with her estranged boyfriend, Michael Dickerson. Relatives said the couple, who during their stormy two-year relationship once shared a home in Laurel, split shortly before Bell’s disappearance.
A month earlier, Bell told police that Dickerson had beaten her and threatened her with a gun. Bell disappeared days before she was to appear in court as a witness in the assault case.
Dickerson, who is serving a 15-year sentence for the May 1996 gun assault on Bell, has denied involvement in Bell’s disappearance and has not been charged in connection with it.
Bell’s mother said her daughter began scribbling notes about Dickerson’s activities months before her disappearance. Flipping through a thick binder with notes and news clippings on Bell’s case before yesterday’s search, Jackie Winborne pointed to one of the neatly penned notes she said was found in Bell’s address book. “Call homicide,” the note read. “Tell them that the person was killed w/a .380 bullets.” Jackie Winborne shook her head. “It’s chilling to find that. There’s a lot of things, you know, you wish you could have done to put her in a safe zone,” she said.
Winborne said several people who knew Dickerson and anonymous tipsters hinted that Bell might have been buried in Fort Washington days after her disappearance. Over the years, the family received other clues: an envelope stuffed with documents detailing Dickerson’s criminal history, a late-night phone call from a woman who said she knew Bell’s body was buried in the woods.
Bell’s daughter Alexis, 11, was only 7 months old when her mother disappeared, but she tells her grandparents that she remembers her mom. Devontae, 13, has his mother’s eyes and recalls her mostly as the woman who smiles down from the mantelpiece photo that sits in the center of the Winbornes’ collection of angel figurines. Ashley, 16, remembers more and knows what it means to celebrate her first prom without her mother there to see her off, Winborne said.
Detectives launched the new effort in June after D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier took a personal interest and helped detectives organize the search with Owsley, who has worked on several other cold cases. Lanier had heard Bell’s mother talk about the case during a television broadcast on the anniversary of the disappearance.
“I called her because I thought there were some things still worth doing. There are still some people we are talking to,” Lanier said.
In July, cadaver dogs from the District picked up a scent in the area once pinpointed by tipsters, authorities said. Owsley, who was in the news recently for helping to discover the body of a 13- or 14-year-old boy who died in the mid-1800s, said he agreed to assist even though he knew the Bell case would be challenging.
Lanier and Maj. Daniel Dusseau, head of the Prince George’s criminal investigation division, said the search team plans to work for several days.
“We hope to do as much as we can so that we are able to bring the family closure,” Dusseau said. “For them it’s been an emotional rollercoaster.”
UPDATE: Shaquita Bell’s ex-boyfriend has been charged in her murder.
The ex-boyfriend of a woman missing for 11 years has been charged in connection with her killing, News4 reported.
During a 10:30 a.m. news conference, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Michael Dickerson, 38, has been charged in the disappearance of Shaquita Bell, who was last seen 11 years ago leaving her grandmother’s Alexandria, Va., home with him.
News4′s Megan McGrath reported that Dickerson has also been charged in the death of Sean Thomas, who was found shot multiple times in Southeast in February 1996. McGrath said police believe that Bell was killed in June 1996 because she knew about Dickerson’s connection to the killing.
“The message is loud, and it is clear. This is no longer a place where you can get away with murder,” Lanier said.
Dickerson was convicted of a drug violation in 1989 and is currently serving a 15-year prison term after he was convicted in November 1996 of beating Bell a month before she disappeared. Dickerson also pleaded guilty to federal gun charges in D.C.
Lanier said on Tuesday that police executed two search warrants on Jan. 10 for Dickerson’s family home in southeast Washington and his jail cell at the Rivers Federal Corrections Institute in Winston, N.C.
Bell’s slaying was considered a cold case and was closed administratively in 1999 when prosecutors turned down detectives’ request for a warrant, News4′s Pat Collins reported.
Lanier reviewed the case, however, after meeting with Bell’s mother, Jackie Winbourne, and the investigation continued. Investigators said they have new witnesses and information that has allowed them to file charges.
“Nothing better could have happened, besides Shaquita coming home,” Winbourne said. “I praise God for what He’s done. I thank him for this, even. At least I have some closure now.”
In July 2007, K-9 units found possible clues in a Fort Washington, Md., field. D.C. and Prince George’s County police departments worked at the Old Fort Road site with a Smithsonian team in August after police received a tip from Bell’s estranged boyfriend.
Bell was last seen at about 1 p.m. on June 27, 1996. She was 23 years old at the time of her disappearance.
Police said Bell left her grandmother’s house on East Raymond Avenue in Alexandria with her estranged boyfriend and father of her youngest child, Dickerson, just before she disappeared.
Relatives said they were perplexed by Bell’s decision to leave with him.
A month earlier, Bell called police to report that the estranged boyfriend had beaten her during a squabble in the Laurel apartment that they shared. He was arrested, and Bell moved back in with her grandmother in Alexandria.
Three weeks after that incident, police said, Bell called police to say that he had held a gun to her head during a fight. He was arrested in Washington and charged with possession of a machine gun the same day.
On the day of Bell’s disappearance, the estranged boyfriend had driven Bell to take two of her three children to a doctor’s appointment. Family members said she called at 2 p.m. and said she was on the way home, and that was the last time anybody heard from her. The boyfriend told the family that they had gone into southeast Washington, where they got into an argument and she left him.
Police said Bell had provided information in at least two investigations, one of them a homicide. According to her mother, Bell was afraid for her life.
Police said Bell worked at a Giant Food bakery and did not have a criminal record.
No murder charges were ever filed in the case because her body has never been found.
Bell’s mother and stepfather have worked for more than a decade to find out what happened to her, holding vigils and demonstrations and knocking on doors.
Bell’s mother said she harbors no ill-will toward Dickerson.
Dickerson will be extradited to D.C., where he will face two first-degree murder charges. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of a mandatory 30 years to life in prison.
Two teams of investigators spent Tuesday in a wooded area of Fort Washington, searching for the remains of Shaquita Bell. The mother of three was last seen in the District in 1996, when she was just 23 years old.
D.C. Police K-9 cadaver units have led investigators to focus on one area in the site off Old Fort Road. A team of scientists from the Smithsonian Institution came to help analyze the soil where police suspect Shaquita Bell’s body may be buried.
“We had several teams show a significant area of interest,” said D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. “So we marked those areas off and we want to make sure we’re very careful and methodical about how we do this.”
Investigators suspect Bell’s boyfriend, Michael Dickerson, the father of her youngest child, killed her in 1996 in D.C. and dumped her body in the wooded area of Fort Washington. One of Dickerson’s friends told police he had helped bury Bell’s body in that spot. He led police to the same area off Old Fort Road before he was murdered.
That search turned up no evidence of Bell, but police have returned to the site recently, including last month, to try new technology.
“When you dig a grave shaft, you dig a grave and replace that soil; it’s not as compact as it was before, and we can feel that using metal probes,” said Doug Owsley of the Smithsonian Institute.
Bell’s parents, Thomas and Jackie Winborne, just want answers after a decade of not knowing what happened to Shaquita.
“There’s hurt if we don’t find her and we don’t know where she is, and there’s hurt if we do find her, but like i said, there will be closure,” said Jackie Winborne.
A team from the Smithsonian was digging in a Maryland field Tuesday in search for clues that could help solve a mystery that haunts a local family.
Shaquita Bell was last seen 11 years ago leaving her grandmother’s Alexandria, Va., home with her estranged boyfriend. A month ago, K-9 units found possible clues in a Fort Washington field. Authorities hope that might produce evidence.
The D.C. and Prince George’s County police departments worked with the Smithsonian team Tuesday.
Bell’s father was at the site at Old Fort Road Tuesday along with a documentary crew in an effort to gain more attention in resolving this case.
Police are searching that area based on a tip from a friend of Bell’s estranged boyfriend. In the weeks before her disappearance, Bell reported to police that her estranged boyfriend had beaten her on one occasion and held a gun to her head on another occasion.
The estranged boyfriend was convicted of a drug violation in 1989 and is currently serving a 15-year prison term after being convicted of beating Bell a month before she disappeared.
Bell was a young working mother. No murder charges were ever filed in the case because her body has never been found.
She was last seen at 1 p.m. leaving her grandmother’s house on East Raymond Avenue in Alexandria with her estranged boyfriend — a man family members blame for the disappearance of Shaquita Bell, 23, an attractive mother of three who worked at a Giant in Springfield. The date was June 27, 1996, and Bell has not been seen since. Now — 11 years after the disappearance — police officials in the District of Columbia have dispatched cadaver dogs and a search team to Fort Washington, Md., to look for additional remains. The search began last week, and Washington police officials acknowledge that they are investigating the possibility that they have found Bell’s remains.
“The chief has ordered a continuation of the search this week,” said Officer Junis Fletcher, a spokesman for the Washington Metropolitan Police Department. “At this point, we’re trying to determine more about the remains.”
For more than a decade, Bell’s disappearance has troubled family members and friends at My Father’s House Christian Church. Each year, the church holds a special ceremony to remember Bell that includes dancing, singing, poetry and even fashion. Church officials say the remembrance is an opportunity to put a spotlight on the dangers of domestic violence and show support for Bell’s three surviving children: Ashley, 16; Devontae, 13, and Alexis, 11.
“They are now in the 11th year of her disappearance and they consider it to be the 11th hour,” read an invitation to the June 30 event. “It is in God’s timing that they should hear from Him.”
THE TIMING OF BELL’S disappearance dovetails with countless other missing persons cases — sad chapters that linger as bitter memories for family and friends who are left with fading memories and unanswered questions. A month before she was last seen — June 1996 — Bell called police to report that her estranged boyfriend had beaten her during a squabble in the Laurel apartment that they shared. The boyfriend, Michael Dickerson, was arrested and Bell moved in with her grandmother in Alexandria. On the day of Bell’s disappearance, Dickerson had driven Bell to take two of her three children to a doctor’s appointment. They returned to the grandmother’s house shortly after noon. Shortly afterward, Bell and Dickerson left together — the last time she was seen alive. Around 2 p.m. she called to say she would be home soon but she was never heard from again.
“All evidence points to Dickerson,” proclaimed a missing-person flyer distributed by Bell’s church.
Washington police officials thought they had a break in the case several years ago, when Dickerson’s friend told investigators where Dickerson said he had buried the body. Yet the friend was murdered the day before he was supposed to wear a wire during a meeting with Dickerson, who is currently serving time for the assault-and-battery case against Bell. The Washington Police Department searched the Fort Washington area where the man said Dickerson claimed to have buried Bell. But the results were inconclusive and police officials suspended the investigation. Bell’s family, however, did not.
“The Bible says that God answers in the 11th hour,” said Jackie Winbourne, Bell’s mother. “God told me that an answer would come in the 11th hour.”
Eleven years after the disappearance, Bell’s annual remembrance ceremony brought media attention and television coverage. One of the viewers who saw Winbourne on television was Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier, who invited family members to a July 4 meeting at police headquarters to talk about the case. During the meeting, police officials asked Winbourne how they could renew the stalled investigation.
“I thank God for Chief Lanier,” said Winbourne. “She has such compassion, and she is an amazing woman.”
AS THE COLD CASE heats up, police officials are continuing to search the area in Fort Washington where investigators believe that Dickerson buried Bell. Because of the 11-year passage of time, police officials have brought a Smithsonian bone expert into the investigation and conducted several sweeps of the area where the remains were discovered last week. DNA samples have been taken from family members and the analysis is now being conducted on the remains. Washington police officials say that no identification has been confirmed yet, but one could come any day.
“Part of me, of course, doesn’t want it to be her,” said Winbourne. “But if she’s not going to come home I want closure.”
There was a time shortly after Shaquita Bell disappeared 11 years ago when her parents would come to this spot in southern Prince George’s County almost every day. Shovels in hand, sweating in the summer sun, they spent hours scanning the ground for signs of her body along a small wooded ravine in Fort Washington where witnesses said Bell, a 23-year-old mother of three, had been buried.
Bell’s mother, Jackie Winborne, and Winborne’s husband, Thomas, often came alone. Sometimes they would pause there only a few minutes, but they always prayed the same prayer: Lord, let her body be here somewhere. Lord, let it end so we can take her home.
Yesterday, they were not alone. One of the nation’s leading forensics experts joined a team of police detectives from the District and Prince George’s in the hunt for Bell’s remains. Using a search dog, metal probes, shovels and a backhoe, Doug Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and investigators surveyed the sloping ravines near Old Fort Road and Marge Court for hours while Bell’s family waited nearby.
“We’re just hoping for a proper homecoming for Shaquita today,” Thomas Winborne said.
By late yesterday, investigators had not found her body. The search continues today.
Bell, who worked at a grocery store bakery, was last seen about 1 p.m. June 27, 1996, when she left her grandmother’s Alexandria home with her estranged boyfriend, Michael Dickerson. Relatives said the couple, who during their stormy two-year relationship once shared a home in Laurel, split shortly before Bell’s disappearance.
A month earlier, Bell told police that Dickerson had beaten her and threatened her with a gun. Bell disappeared days before she was to appear in court as a witness in the assault case.
Dickerson, who is serving a 15-year sentence for the May 1996 gun assault on Bell, has denied involvement in Bell’s disappearance and has not been charged in connection with it.
Bell’s mother said her daughter began scribbling notes about Dickerson’s activities months before her disappearance. Flipping through a thick binder with notes and news clippings on Bell’s case before yesterday’s search, Jackie Winborne pointed to one of the neatly penned notes she said was found in Bell’s address book. “Call homicide,” the note read. “Tell them that the person was killed w/a .380 bullets.” Jackie Winborne shook her head. “It’s chilling to find that. There’s a lot of things, you know, you wish you could have done to put her in a safe zone,” she said.
Winborne said several people who knew Dickerson and anonymous tipsters hinted that Bell might have been buried in Fort Washington days after her disappearance. Over the years, the family received other clues: an envelope stuffed with documents detailing Dickerson’s criminal history, a late-night phone call from a woman who said she knew Bell’s body was buried in the woods.
Bell’s daughter Alexis, 11, was only 7 months old when her mother disappeared, but she tells her grandparents that she remembers her mom. Devontae, 13, has his mother’s eyes and recalls her mostly as the woman who smiles down from the mantelpiece photo that sits in the center of the Winbornes’ collection of angel figurines. Ashley, 16, remembers more and knows what it means to celebrate her first prom without her mother there to see her off, Winborne said.
Detectives launched the new effort in June after D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier took a personal interest and helped detectives organize the search with Owsley, who has worked on several other cold cases. Lanier had heard Bell’s mother talk about the case during a television broadcast on the anniversary of the disappearance.
“I called her because I thought there were some things still worth doing. There are still some people we are talking to,” Lanier said.
In July, cadaver dogs from the District picked up a scent in the area once pinpointed by tipsters, authorities said. Owsley, who was in the news recently for helping to discover the body of a 13- or 14-year-old boy who died in the mid-1800s, said he agreed to assist even though he knew the Bell case would be challenging.
Lanier and Maj. Daniel Dusseau, head of the Prince George’s criminal investigation division, said the search team plans to work for several days.
“We hope to do as much as we can so that we are able to bring the family closure,” Dusseau said. “For them it’s been an emotional rollercoaster.”
The family of the missing Bradley girls has released a new photograph they found on the Internet.
After more than six years and dozens of prayer vigils and marches, the Bradley sisters are still missing. Tionda was 10 and her little sister Diamond was 3 when they disappeared from their South Side apartment in 2001.
Despite scores of leads gathered by Chicago police, no trace of the girls has been found.
As CBS 2′s Mike Parker reports, now a photograph has surfaced on the Internet on a MySpace page by someone named “Angelique.” Although tracing the source of the picture has been fruitless so far, the girls’ aunt believes it could well be a picture of Tionda, who would be 16 today.
“That’s my niece. I’m telling you that’s my niece. And if it’s not my niece, only DNA can prove me different,” said Shelia Bradley Smith.
A West Side pastor who has been counseling the family thinks she may be right.
“It looks like a very close resemblance,” said Rev. Paul Jakes.
The family has posted the mystery photo on their Web site, FindTiondaAndDiamond.com.
“I need for the community, anybody throughout the United States or internationally to just take a look at the picture. Maybe they know who that girl is, because if it was put on there as a joke or a hoax, we need to just know,” Bradley Smith said.
“We have faith in the prayers,” Jakes added. “We pray that there will be a fair and good outcome.”
Experts at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children say they cannot say for sure if the girl in the photo is Tionda.
Chicago police are still trying to track down the source of the picture.
Tionda Age-Progressed to 15 years
