Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
51
I can't really say it's the best or the worst, you will have to decide that for yourselves. There is too much material to go through it all so I'm doing two articles a month, preferring those articles with photos to those without. There is some really good TNB that fell down the memory hole but I won't post TNB unless I have a URL that works. I'm breaking this down into quarters. Here is January - March 2003.
January 1, 2003
Coalition to take on urban violence
Black-on-black crime is group's focus
<a href='http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/01/01/loc_violence01.html' target='_blank'>http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/01/01
lo...violence01.html</a>
A coalition of African-American civil rights, religious and social service organizations Tuesday announced the start of a campaign to reduce urban vi
olence in Cincinnati.
The initiative, called the
"Peace Down the Way Coalition," is aimed at stopping black-on-black violence by placing trained volunteers on the streets to interact with at-risk youths and adults, airing public service announcements that promote peace and mobilizing residents to aid police in reducing crime.
The project initially will focus on Over-the-Rhine and the West End, and then expand to other city neighborhoods.
Leaders of the initiative say the coalition was born out of recognition that the battle for justice, equality and better communities is two-fold. While it is necessary to keep pressure on city leaders to institute systemic change, coalition members said, it is also necessary for the African-American community to take responsibility and clean up its own backyard.<b
r>
The coalition will meet today at 1 p.m. at New Prospect Baptist Church in Over-the-Rhine, where it will declare a moratorium on violence.
Reference: Plan t
akes on 'black-on-black' crime
Four council members seek $100,000 January 1,
2004
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/01/0...bondhill01.html
January 18, 2003
Woman gets 15 years probation in child-burning case
http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/011803/...uiltyplea.shtml
A 19-year-old charged with burning a baby with an iron pleaded guilty Thursday in Chatham County Superior Court.
Margaret Elmore was sentenced to 15 years probation for one count of cruelty to a child
. She also must meet several special conditions, including that she may not baby-sit any child outside her immediate family for the rest of her sentence.
The Di
strict Attorney's office dismissed a charge of
aggravated battery.
Assistant District Attorney Greg McConnell said there were possible problems in taking the case to trial that made the agreement acceptable.
n
The charges go back to September 2001, when Elmore was asked to baby-sit an 11-month-old girl. She was to have the child from Sept. 4-6, but when the baby was returned to her parents on Sept. 7, her father found burns on her. He called the police.
Elmore explained that she had been ironing clothes on Sept. 4 and put the baby on the floor with the iron, while she went to take a shower. She said when she got out of the shower, the iron was still upright on the floor and the baby was not crying, McConnell said in court Thursday.
Then, Elmore explained, she was driving to a job interview when she noticed the gi
rl's arm swelling. Elmore stopped for ointment, and when she applied it, McConnell told Judge Penny Haas Freesemann, she saw pus come out of the burns.
When the baby was examined on Sept. 8, a doctor found nume
rous burns on all four of the baby's extremities. They were triangular.
"Steam holes were observable in the burns," McConnell said.
February 1, 2003- First day of Coontint
of Character Month
More arrests possible in multistate sex ring
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/ring1_20030201.htm
State and federal investigators are searching for more suspects in a multistate sex-slave ring that preyed on young women, according to law enforcement officials.
The officials said Friday they hoped to bring additional charges in the case.
News of the widening investigation broke as a second suspect was ordered to stand trial in an emotional hearing
Friday in 36th District Court. Jamal Rivers, 17, of Detroit faces five felony charges ranging from first-degree rape and kidnapping to forcing a Detroit girl in
to prostitution.
Rivers left the courtroom sobbing after
Judge Willie Lipscomb Jr. bound his case over for trial in Wayne County Circuit Court. The judge declined to reduce Rivers' $1-million bond, agreeing with the prosecutor that he might flee.
Earlier this week, Henry Davis, 32, of Ch
icago, the alleged leader of the sex ring, was ordered to stand trial on charges similar to those filed against Rivers. Authorities contend that Davis used rape, beatings and threats of violence to control women in the ring.
The alleged ring was broken in mid-January when another teenage girl escaped the group and led police to a home on Nottingham in Detroit where Davis and Rivers were arrested.
February 14, 2003- Valentines day of Coontint of Character Month '03
<img src='http://www.savannahnow.com/images/0214
03/full_trial1.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Jury to decide today if Green lives or dies
<a href=&
#39;http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/021403/LOCtrial.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.savannahno
w.com/stories/021403/.../LOCtrial.shtml</a>
He seems to always be smiling.
In a set of photos given to the jurors, showing Bernard Green from age 1 to 21, his face beams with life.
And that's how everyone remembers
him.
They didn't talk about the hardened man who bragged about shooting a woman in the back with a sawed-off shotgun.
They didn't talk about the violent man who thrust a pistol into a man's forehead, knocking him to the ground and threatening to kill him.
They talked about a Bernard they all once knew -- a fun-loving, protective, good-hearted boy who could light up a room with one look at his deep-dimpled smile.
Bernard Green grew up in Hitch Village. He lived next to a crack house; a man was once shot on his b
ack porch.
With a mother and step-father who worked all the time, the skinny little boy was left
to the care of his older brother, Larry.
Three years older than Bernard, Larry Lawson never realized his brother idolized
him so much.
With three younger siblings -- two boys and a girl -- Larry and Bernard were often left to run the house. They cooked and cleaned, and changed their sister's diapers.
As Sandy, now 16, got older, Bernard would have tea parties for her.
Some
times, he cut up sandwiches like appetizers and poured soda into tea cups to drink.
He always tried to make his sister laugh.
When he was about 10, Bernard joined the Broad Street Seventh Day Adventist Church.
He sang in the children's choir. He was a member of their Pathfinders group -- much like the Boy Scouts -- and he participated in youth group meetings.
"There's some kind of magnetism about him that I wanted to know more about him," said Larry Moore, an
elder in the church. "Something about his eyes, something about his demeanor said to me I need
ed to make him a part of my life."
The pastor of the church believed Bernard's attitude would carry him through.
"He had such ambition. He always wanted to do something more," said the Rev. Thomas McNealy. "I thought at that time that Bernard was so ambitious. I couldn't see him as being anything other than successful."
Trying to get money for their family, Bernard and Larry would often search the neighborhood for bottles and cans
to sell.
Bernard's aunt remembers him bringing her an onion when she called needing one.
As he walked from his home to hers, he tossed it into the air like a ball.
But Bernard's escapades were not always fun or admirable.
When he was just 10, Bernard got arrested with Larry for breaking into a potato chip factory.
Instead of disciplining her boy, Bernard's mother, Scherrel, would p
rotect him. She once lied to the police, telling them he was with her when a crime was committed
-- knowing that he was not.
His troubles didn't stop there. Bernard dropped out of school when he was 11 -- in the sixth grade.
<
br>That school year, he missed 59 days.
In fourth grade, he missed 17 days, though he finished with 'B's in language arts; social studies and science; and 'C's in math and health. But the marks for his personal growth and conduct at Spencer Elementary School told a different story.
Under "accepts authority;" "is self-disciplined;" "works well with others;" "conduct;" and "
follows directions" his teacher described Bernard as "unsatisfactory."
At some point, Bernard Green found out the man raising him was not his real father.
It changed him.
He had grown up believing that Harold Bryant was his dad, but he was not.
When Bernard found out, he tried to get in
touch with his real father, but the man wanted nothing to do with him.
It hurt
Bernard, but he didn't let it show.
Instead, he went on with his life, getting jobs first at the Pirate's House and later at the Tea Room on B
roughton Street.
There, he worked six days a week, from about 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
He was considered an exemplary employee.
Gloria Horstman, an original partner in the business, took an interest in Bernard. She often would correct his grammar and tried to get him to stop using vulgar language.
"He would say, 'Me and her," and I would say, 'No, Bernard, it's she and I.
"He said, 'I can't go back to the 'hood and say 'she and I,' and I said, 'Well, maybe not, b
ut you can use it here.'"
And when she learned of Bernard's interest in reading, Horstman began sharing non-fiction books with him.
The last one she gave him was Ralph Ellison's "Juneteenth
," about emancipation.
"Neither of us liked it very much," s
he said.
With Bernard's intelligence and hard work, Horstman thought he would go on to success.
"I just really thought he was going to do great
things eventually," she said. "We all did."
Becky Wright, another owner of the Team Room, agreed.
"Bernard has charisma. He gets right to your heart," she said. "He has a smile that will light up a whole room."
When Hurricane Floyd came through Savannah -- just days after the Sept. 12, 1999, shooting of Gail Vasilkioti -- Green stayed with the owners and helped them move $40,000 worth of merchandise out of the shop windows.
The employees all evacuated Savannah, except Bernard.
"When we got back from the hurricane, he was standing there waiting for us to put it back together," Wri
ght said. "No one else was there."
Bernard Green's son, Leonard, was born Sept.
29, 1999, -- five days after his father was arrested and charged with murder.
On Thursday, Leonard entered the courtroom with his mother.
As he sat on his uncle's lap, Leonard watched Bernard sitting at the defense table surrounded b
y sheriff's deputies.
Like any proud father, Bernard waved and made goofy faces at the boy -- smiling at him with a broad, toothy grin.
Following the day's testimony in the sentencing phase of Green's death-penalty trial, he got to hold that son for the first time ever.
It was a feeling he may never have again.
The 13 people who filed in and out of the courtroom Thursday all had the same request to the jury: Please spare Bernard's life.
It's a decision the jurors will be asked to decide today.
His friends and family told the four men and eight women on the jury all about the man they used to know.
And they tried to excuse -- if not explain -- his actions.
E
lizabeth Ruby, a co-owner o
f the Tea Room, called Bernard a "hot-tempered child," describin
g him as a boy at the time of the murder.
He was 22.
Bernard's sister, Sandy, was more matter of fact.
"Don't try to kill my brother."
O
thers were more eloquent in their pleas.
"People can be reformed all the time," Larry Moore said. "Sometimes, if a person is given just one more chance, that can make a difference in this world we live in."
Becky Wright believes Bernard should get just such a chance.
"He isn't a cold-blooded killer," Wright said. "There's something good about him that's worth saving."
March 7, 2003
Fights, taunts led up to shooting - Boy, 13, borrowed gun from store clerk, police say
<a href='http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/03/07/loc_killer07.html' t
arget='_blank'>http://www.enquirer.com/editions/20
03/03/0...c_killer07.html</a>
For months, a 13-ye
ar-old North Fairmount boy had been clashing with three teenagers who lived in his Beekman Street apartment building, according to testimony Thursday in Ham
ilton County Juvenile Court.
They had once been friends, but the boy told police that Michale and Jatawn Swan had been having sex with his sisters, which angered him. He said the Swans and their friend, Arick Hudson, taunted him, words turning to violence.
On Feb. 20, the boy told police, he'd had enough of the older boys' bullying. He said he borrowed a .380 semiautomatic handgun from an 18-year-old clerk at a nearby convenience store and, when the boys came near, he started firing.
Witnesses and police pieced together what happened that night during the Thursday hearing.
"They had arguments, they had been fighting. ... Michale and Jatawn threw (the sexual relationships) in his face, kind of pushed his bu
tton," Cincinnati Police Officer Keit
h Witherell testified. "He stated he had to release himself because he was frustrated."
Arick, 15, was shot to death. Michale, 14, who took a bullet in the neck; is paralyzed from the neck down. Jatawn, 1
5, was hit in the fleshy part of his shoulder and has recovered.
The 13-year-old, whom the Enquirer is not identifying because of his age, faces juvenile charges of murder with a firearm and two counts of felonious assault with a firearm. Juvenile Judge Sylvia Hendon determined Thursday the case can be presented to a grand jury.
Attorney Clyde Bennett, who represents the 13-year-old, does not dispute that the shooting happened. He says the boy did not mean to injure or kill anyone. He was reacting to the victims' antagonizing comments about his sisters and their sexual relationship, and their repeated attacks on him, Bennett said.
"(The boy) feels horrible," the attorney said. "The cross-examination of t
he police officer indicated the defend
ant felt threatened by these individuals when they appeared in his presence.
"He fired a weapon in an attempt to stop an attack," Benn
ett added.
The boy is among the youngest people ever charged with murd
er in Hamilton County. His case comes less than two years after an 8-year-old Northside girl was beaten to death by a 13-year-old male cousin and her 11-year-old brother. Both those boys were found guilty on juvenile murder counts.
March 26, 2003
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2377248p-2215834c.html
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2377248...p-2215834c.html
FUQUAY-VARINA -- Authorities issued arrest warrants Tuesday for an 18-year-old man in the March 9 home-invasion robbery of an elde
rly Fuquay-Varina couple, the four
th suspect named in their investigation.
Wake County sheriff's deputies arrested two people -- one of them the victims' grandchild -- and obtained warrants for another man Monday. They are also searching for a fifth, unnam
ed s
uspect, Investigator Jerry Winstead said Tuesday.
The warrants issued Tuesday charged Montray Jermaine McDuffie with one count of first-degree burglary, two counts each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and second-degree kidnapping and five counts of conspiracy, according to a Sheriff's Office statement.
Authorities were searching for McDuffie Tuesday night.
Three armed men entered the home of Martha and Fred Morton, at 6032 Dwight Rowland Road, and locked them in a laundry room before ransacking their bedroom, the Sheriff's Office reported. The Mortons were not injured and managed to escape to a neighbor's home.
Karen Lisa Atkins, 20, who is the Mortons' granddaughter, and Otis Ray Covinton, 1
9, were arrested Monday at Atk
ins' home in Fuquay-Varina. They remained in the Wake County jail Tuesday, each under $250,000 bail, the Sheriff's Office reported.
Investigators have said they think Atkins and Covinton sat in the car while the three armed me
n went into the Mortons'
home.
Deputies have also obtained warrants for Jevone Maurice Monk, 23, who is described as 5 feet 10 inches tall and 145 pounds, with brown eyes, a medium brown complexion and a teardrop tattoo under his left eye.
I can't really say it's the best or the worst, you will have to decide that for yourselves. There is too much material to go through it all so I'm doing two articles a month, preferring those articles with photos to those without. There is some really good TNB that fell down the memory hole but I won't post TNB unless I have a URL that works. I'm breaking this down into quarters. Here is January - March 2003.
January 1, 2003
Coalition to take on urban violence
Black-on-black crime is group's focus
<a href='http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/01/01/loc_violence01.html' target='_blank'>http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/01/01
lo...violence01.html</a>
A coalition of African-American civil rights, religious and social service organizations Tuesday announced the start of a campaign to reduce urban vi
olence in Cincinnati.
The initiative, called the
"Peace Down the Way Coalition," is aimed at stopping black-on-black violence by placing trained volunteers on the streets to interact with at-risk youths and adults, airing public service announcements that promote peace and mobilizing residents to aid police in reducing crime.
The project initially will focus on Over-the-Rhine and the West End, and then expand to other city neighborhoods.
Leaders of the initiative say the coalition was born out of recognition that the battle for justice, equality and better communities is two-fold. While it is necessary to keep pressure on city leaders to institute systemic change, coalition members said, it is also necessary for the African-American community to take responsibility and clean up its own backyard.<b
r>
The coalition will meet today at 1 p.m. at New Prospect Baptist Church in Over-the-Rhine, where it will declare a moratorium on violence.
Reference: Plan t
akes on 'black-on-black' crime
Four council members seek $100,000 January 1,
2004
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/01/0...bondhill01.html
January 18, 2003
Woman gets 15 years probation in child-burning case
http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/011803/...uiltyplea.shtml
A 19-year-old charged with burning a baby with an iron pleaded guilty Thursday in Chatham County Superior Court.
Margaret Elmore was sentenced to 15 years probation for one count of cruelty to a child
. She also must meet several special conditions, including that she may not baby-sit any child outside her immediate family for the rest of her sentence.
The Di
strict Attorney's office dismissed a charge of
aggravated battery.
Assistant District Attorney Greg McConnell said there were possible problems in taking the case to trial that made the agreement acceptable.
n
The charges go back to September 2001, when Elmore was asked to baby-sit an 11-month-old girl. She was to have the child from Sept. 4-6, but when the baby was returned to her parents on Sept. 7, her father found burns on her. He called the police.
Elmore explained that she had been ironing clothes on Sept. 4 and put the baby on the floor with the iron, while she went to take a shower. She said when she got out of the shower, the iron was still upright on the floor and the baby was not crying, McConnell said in court Thursday.
Then, Elmore explained, she was driving to a job interview when she noticed the gi
rl's arm swelling. Elmore stopped for ointment, and when she applied it, McConnell told Judge Penny Haas Freesemann, she saw pus come out of the burns.
When the baby was examined on Sept. 8, a doctor found nume
rous burns on all four of the baby's extremities. They were triangular.
"Steam holes were observable in the burns," McConnell said.
February 1, 2003- First day of Coontint
of Character Month
More arrests possible in multistate sex ring
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/ring1_20030201.htm
State and federal investigators are searching for more suspects in a multistate sex-slave ring that preyed on young women, according to law enforcement officials.
The officials said Friday they hoped to bring additional charges in the case.
News of the widening investigation broke as a second suspect was ordered to stand trial in an emotional hearing
Friday in 36th District Court. Jamal Rivers, 17, of Detroit faces five felony charges ranging from first-degree rape and kidnapping to forcing a Detroit girl in
to prostitution.
Rivers left the courtroom sobbing after
Judge Willie Lipscomb Jr. bound his case over for trial in Wayne County Circuit Court. The judge declined to reduce Rivers' $1-million bond, agreeing with the prosecutor that he might flee.
Earlier this week, Henry Davis, 32, of Ch
icago, the alleged leader of the sex ring, was ordered to stand trial on charges similar to those filed against Rivers. Authorities contend that Davis used rape, beatings and threats of violence to control women in the ring.
The alleged ring was broken in mid-January when another teenage girl escaped the group and led police to a home on Nottingham in Detroit where Davis and Rivers were arrested.
February 14, 2003- Valentines day of Coontint of Character Month '03
<img src='http://www.savannahnow.com/images/0214
03/full_trial1.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
Jury to decide today if Green lives or dies
<a href=&
#39;http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/021403/LOCtrial.shtml' target='_blank'>http://www.savannahno
w.com/stories/021403/.../LOCtrial.shtml</a>
He seems to always be smiling.
In a set of photos given to the jurors, showing Bernard Green from age 1 to 21, his face beams with life.
And that's how everyone remembers
him.
They didn't talk about the hardened man who bragged about shooting a woman in the back with a sawed-off shotgun.
They didn't talk about the violent man who thrust a pistol into a man's forehead, knocking him to the ground and threatening to kill him.
They talked about a Bernard they all once knew -- a fun-loving, protective, good-hearted boy who could light up a room with one look at his deep-dimpled smile.
Bernard Green grew up in Hitch Village. He lived next to a crack house; a man was once shot on his b
ack porch.
With a mother and step-father who worked all the time, the skinny little boy was left
to the care of his older brother, Larry.
Three years older than Bernard, Larry Lawson never realized his brother idolized
him so much.
With three younger siblings -- two boys and a girl -- Larry and Bernard were often left to run the house. They cooked and cleaned, and changed their sister's diapers.
As Sandy, now 16, got older, Bernard would have tea parties for her.
Some
times, he cut up sandwiches like appetizers and poured soda into tea cups to drink.
He always tried to make his sister laugh.
When he was about 10, Bernard joined the Broad Street Seventh Day Adventist Church.
He sang in the children's choir. He was a member of their Pathfinders group -- much like the Boy Scouts -- and he participated in youth group meetings.
"There's some kind of magnetism about him that I wanted to know more about him," said Larry Moore, an
elder in the church. "Something about his eyes, something about his demeanor said to me I need
ed to make him a part of my life."
The pastor of the church believed Bernard's attitude would carry him through.
"He had such ambition. He always wanted to do something more," said the Rev. Thomas McNealy. "I thought at that time that Bernard was so ambitious. I couldn't see him as being anything other than successful."
Trying to get money for their family, Bernard and Larry would often search the neighborhood for bottles and cans
to sell.
Bernard's aunt remembers him bringing her an onion when she called needing one.
As he walked from his home to hers, he tossed it into the air like a ball.
But Bernard's escapades were not always fun or admirable.
When he was just 10, Bernard got arrested with Larry for breaking into a potato chip factory.
Instead of disciplining her boy, Bernard's mother, Scherrel, would p
rotect him. She once lied to the police, telling them he was with her when a crime was committed
-- knowing that he was not.
His troubles didn't stop there. Bernard dropped out of school when he was 11 -- in the sixth grade.
<
br>That school year, he missed 59 days.
In fourth grade, he missed 17 days, though he finished with 'B's in language arts; social studies and science; and 'C's in math and health. But the marks for his personal growth and conduct at Spencer Elementary School told a different story.
Under "accepts authority;" "is self-disciplined;" "works well with others;" "conduct;" and "
follows directions" his teacher described Bernard as "unsatisfactory."
At some point, Bernard Green found out the man raising him was not his real father.
It changed him.
He had grown up believing that Harold Bryant was his dad, but he was not.
When Bernard found out, he tried to get in
touch with his real father, but the man wanted nothing to do with him.
It hurt
Bernard, but he didn't let it show.
Instead, he went on with his life, getting jobs first at the Pirate's House and later at the Tea Room on B
roughton Street.
There, he worked six days a week, from about 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
He was considered an exemplary employee.
Gloria Horstman, an original partner in the business, took an interest in Bernard. She often would correct his grammar and tried to get him to stop using vulgar language.
"He would say, 'Me and her," and I would say, 'No, Bernard, it's she and I.
"He said, 'I can't go back to the 'hood and say 'she and I,' and I said, 'Well, maybe not, b
ut you can use it here.'"
And when she learned of Bernard's interest in reading, Horstman began sharing non-fiction books with him.
The last one she gave him was Ralph Ellison's "Juneteenth
," about emancipation.
"Neither of us liked it very much," s
he said.
With Bernard's intelligence and hard work, Horstman thought he would go on to success.
"I just really thought he was going to do great
things eventually," she said. "We all did."
Becky Wright, another owner of the Team Room, agreed.
"Bernard has charisma. He gets right to your heart," she said. "He has a smile that will light up a whole room."
When Hurricane Floyd came through Savannah -- just days after the Sept. 12, 1999, shooting of Gail Vasilkioti -- Green stayed with the owners and helped them move $40,000 worth of merchandise out of the shop windows.
The employees all evacuated Savannah, except Bernard.
"When we got back from the hurricane, he was standing there waiting for us to put it back together," Wri
ght said. "No one else was there."
Bernard Green's son, Leonard, was born Sept.
29, 1999, -- five days after his father was arrested and charged with murder.
On Thursday, Leonard entered the courtroom with his mother.
As he sat on his uncle's lap, Leonard watched Bernard sitting at the defense table surrounded b
y sheriff's deputies.
Like any proud father, Bernard waved and made goofy faces at the boy -- smiling at him with a broad, toothy grin.
Following the day's testimony in the sentencing phase of Green's death-penalty trial, he got to hold that son for the first time ever.
It was a feeling he may never have again.
The 13 people who filed in and out of the courtroom Thursday all had the same request to the jury: Please spare Bernard's life.
It's a decision the jurors will be asked to decide today.
His friends and family told the four men and eight women on the jury all about the man they used to know.
And they tried to excuse -- if not explain -- his actions.
E
lizabeth Ruby, a co-owner o
f the Tea Room, called Bernard a "hot-tempered child," describin
g him as a boy at the time of the murder.
He was 22.
Bernard's sister, Sandy, was more matter of fact.
"Don't try to kill my brother."
O
thers were more eloquent in their pleas.
"People can be reformed all the time," Larry Moore said. "Sometimes, if a person is given just one more chance, that can make a difference in this world we live in."
Becky Wright believes Bernard should get just such a chance.
"He isn't a cold-blooded killer," Wright said. "There's something good about him that's worth saving."
March 7, 2003
Fights, taunts led up to shooting - Boy, 13, borrowed gun from store clerk, police say
<a href='http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/03/07/loc_killer07.html' t
arget='_blank'>http://www.enquirer.com/editions/20
03/03/0...c_killer07.html</a>
For months, a 13-ye
ar-old North Fairmount boy had been clashing with three teenagers who lived in his Beekman Street apartment building, according to testimony Thursday in Ham
ilton County Juvenile Court.
They had once been friends, but the boy told police that Michale and Jatawn Swan had been having sex with his sisters, which angered him. He said the Swans and their friend, Arick Hudson, taunted him, words turning to violence.
On Feb. 20, the boy told police, he'd had enough of the older boys' bullying. He said he borrowed a .380 semiautomatic handgun from an 18-year-old clerk at a nearby convenience store and, when the boys came near, he started firing.
Witnesses and police pieced together what happened that night during the Thursday hearing.
"They had arguments, they had been fighting. ... Michale and Jatawn threw (the sexual relationships) in his face, kind of pushed his bu
tton," Cincinnati Police Officer Keit
h Witherell testified. "He stated he had to release himself because he was frustrated."
Arick, 15, was shot to death. Michale, 14, who took a bullet in the neck; is paralyzed from the neck down. Jatawn, 1
5, was hit in the fleshy part of his shoulder and has recovered.
The 13-year-old, whom the Enquirer is not identifying because of his age, faces juvenile charges of murder with a firearm and two counts of felonious assault with a firearm. Juvenile Judge Sylvia Hendon determined Thursday the case can be presented to a grand jury.
Attorney Clyde Bennett, who represents the 13-year-old, does not dispute that the shooting happened. He says the boy did not mean to injure or kill anyone. He was reacting to the victims' antagonizing comments about his sisters and their sexual relationship, and their repeated attacks on him, Bennett said.
"(The boy) feels horrible," the attorney said. "The cross-examination of t
he police officer indicated the defend
ant felt threatened by these individuals when they appeared in his presence.
"He fired a weapon in an attempt to stop an attack," Benn
ett added.
The boy is among the youngest people ever charged with murd
er in Hamilton County. His case comes less than two years after an 8-year-old Northside girl was beaten to death by a 13-year-old male cousin and her 11-year-old brother. Both those boys were found guilty on juvenile murder counts.
March 26, 2003
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2377248p-2215834c.html
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2377248...p-2215834c.html
FUQUAY-VARINA -- Authorities issued arrest warrants Tuesday for an 18-year-old man in the March 9 home-invasion robbery of an elde
rly Fuquay-Varina couple, the four
th suspect named in their investigation.
Wake County sheriff's deputies arrested two people -- one of them the victims' grandchild -- and obtained warrants for another man Monday. They are also searching for a fifth, unnam
ed s
uspect, Investigator Jerry Winstead said Tuesday.
The warrants issued Tuesday charged Montray Jermaine McDuffie with one count of first-degree burglary, two counts each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and second-degree kidnapping and five counts of conspiracy, according to a Sheriff's Office statement.
Authorities were searching for McDuffie Tuesday night.
Three armed men entered the home of Martha and Fred Morton, at 6032 Dwight Rowland Road, and locked them in a laundry room before ransacking their bedroom, the Sheriff's Office reported. The Mortons were not injured and managed to escape to a neighbor's home.
Karen Lisa Atkins, 20, who is the Mortons' granddaughter, and Otis Ray Covinton, 1
9, were arrested Monday at Atk
ins' home in Fuquay-Varina. They remained in the Wake County jail Tuesday, each under $250,000 bail, the Sheriff's Office reported.
Investigators have said they think Atkins and Covinton sat in the car while the three armed me
n went into the Mortons'
home.
Deputies have also obtained warrants for Jevone Maurice Monk, 23, who is described as 5 feet 10 inches tall and 145 pounds, with brown eyes, a medium brown complexion and a teardrop tattoo under his left eye.
