Doberman23 Veteran Poster Username: Doberman23
Post Number: 869 Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A Votes: 0 (Vote!) | Posted on Friday, March 09, 2007 - 04:25 pm: |
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this is my longest post evah! so my appologies... but i found it an interesting story none the less. >5/1/1998 Capital murder defendant awaits 4th trial in 1977 East Texas case >fraught with error > > By EVAN MOORE >Copyright 1998 Houston Chronicle DALLAS -- The middle-aged man cut a >strange figure beside the convenience store gas pumps as he slowly circled >his aging Mustang, casting puzzled looks toward the car's gas tank. >"Ma'am," he said, as he flagged a passing customer. "Can you help me? I >can't get the gas cap open on this thing." The woman eyed the man warily. >He had a slight build and carried his hands thrust nervously into his >pockets, but his voice was soft and the gaze from his deep-set eyes >appeared more confused than menacing. "Have you pulled the release?" she >asked. "Where is that?" he asked. The woman showed him and was turning to >leave as he spoke again. "Just one more thing, ma'am. Could you show me >how to work these gas pumps?" "Where have you been?" the woman asked with >a smile as she lifted the nozzle and handed it to the man. "Oh, just >around," he replied. For the past 21 years, "around" for Kerry Max Cook >has been a cramped cell on death row in Huntsville. It's the world in which >he has spent half his life. There, until his release on bond last >November, Cook lived a life isolated from the changes in society. Branded >as a homosexual, raped and beaten by other prisoners, he withdrew from >others and focused only on the series of trials and appeals, reversals and >mistrials in a case that has made him unique among defendants. It's not an >envious distinction. When Cook faces his fourth trial in September, he will >become the nation's most often retried capital murder defendant. Cook's >case also is singular because it has been so fraught with error. Smith >County District Attorney Jack Skeen of Tyler, whose predecessor began the >case, would not return calls about Cook. The Texas Court of Criminal >Appeals, however, cited prosecutorial misconduct in granting Cook his >fourth trial. Evidence in the case was withheld. Witnesses who testified >have since recanted. One who gave conflicting statements has died without >being questioned about his contradictions. Others with knowledge seemingly >pertinent to the case have never been allowed to testify. Evidence has been >lost and lost evidence has inexplicably reappeared. At the heart of the >case is a strange and brutal killing, one that Cook adamantly says he did >not commit. The victim was Linda Jo Edwards, a 22-year-old secretary at >what was then known as Texas Eastern University in Tyler when she was found >slain in a friend's apartment on June 10, 1977. The killing was savage. >Edwards had been bashed on the head with a porcelain statue, stabbed with a >butcher knife, then mutilated with scissors. The damage was so extreme that >pathologists were unable to determine if she had been raped. Parts of her >vagina and face appeared to be missing, along with a single lock of her >hair. HE ORIGINAL suspect was Edwards' supervisor, James Mayfield, then 44 >and dean of the school library. Mayfield, a dapper, athletic tennis >player, had held an important position at the school. He and Edwards had >been involved in a long-standing affair, however, and its revelation had >cost Mayfield his job. The affair had been destructive to both Mayfield >and Edwards. Mayfield had left his wife and moved in with the younger >woman, only to return to his wife within days. Edwards had countered by >taking an overdose of barbiturates a week before her death and Mayfield had >asked Paula Rudolph, another library employee, to allow Edwards to move in >with her when the young woman was released from the hospital. It was a >trying time for Mayfield and Edwards alike. School officials had asked for >Mayfield's resignation after Edwards' suicide attempt and he had complained >bitterly to others that his lover had "ruined" his life. Edwards, for her >part, had more than her estrangement from Mayfield to contend with. >Mayfield's 16-year-old daughter, Louella, angered over her father's affair, >had made repeated threats to kill Edwards and had been seen at Rudolph's >apartment complex, posing as a police investigator and asking for >information about Edwards. Still, Edwards and Mayfield continued to see >one another. The two had argued in Mayfield's driveway in the early evening >on the night the young woman was slain, and Edwards told friends later that >evening that Mayfield was furious. Added to that was Paula Rudolph's >description of a man she had seen on the night of the slaying, standing in >the doorway of the bedroom that Edwards used. Rudolph said she had entered >the apartment shortly after midnight and seen a person she recognized as >Mayfield, with his familiar gray hair and white tennis outfit, standing in >the room. Rudolph told police and others she was not surprised to see her >boss and had retired to her room and gone to bed, only to find Edwards' >battered body the next morning. Mayfield was questioned briefly by police >after the killing. He then approached Dr. Fred Mears, a colleague at the >school and a forensic psychologist, and asked Mears "how to beat" a >polygraph. Subsequently, at least two library employees say, Mayfield told >them he had commissioned his own polygraph examinations and failed six of >them before passing the seventh. Police, however, never questioned those >employees. The investigators accepted Mayfield's account that he was at >home with his wife and daughter when the killing occurred, never questioned >the wife or daughter and dropped Mayfield as a suspect. Instead, they >settled on Kerry Max Cook. OOK'S SINGLE fingerprint on a sliding glass >door leading to Edwards' bedroom linked him to the crime and a petty >criminal history made him a palatable suspect. In a recent interview, both >Cook and his attorney, Paul Nugent of Houston, cited a gag order that >prevents them from discussing details of the case. But Cook spoke of his >life before his arrest and of his years in prison. He and an older brother >were "Army brats" who grew up around various military posts in Europe >before the family moved to Jacksonville, in East Texas, in 1970 when Cook >was 14. "I had trouble adjusting to this country," he said. "We had lived >off-base in Europe and didn't associate with other kids much. Everything >was `Yes, sir,' and `No, sir,' short hair and military. "When I got here, >it was kind of a culture shock, kids with long hair, smoking dope. Believe >it or not, what was going on in Jacksonville seemed like an exotic >lifestyle to me." By the time Cook had reached the ninth grade he had >become a petty car thief, stealing cars with other teen-agers, abandoning >the vehicles when they ran out of gas and stealing another to return home. >He was caught in a stolen pickup at age 15 and spent a brief time in >detention. He was arrested again at 18 when he broke the front window of a >Jacksonville hardware store and stole several firearms. His final crime >was littering, which netted him a $200 fine and probation. He later >settled in Tyler and, at the time of Edwards' killing, was living with a >friend in the same apartment complex occupied by Paula Rudolph and Edwards. > Edwards had already gained a reputation around the complex for failing to >close her drapes while undressing. Cook was among the men who had watched >her and had remarked to others that he had been to her apartment and "made >out" with her and displayed marks on his neck to bolster his claim. Those >marks had long faded, however, by the time police arrested Cook six weeks >after the killing. He was charged with capital murder based on the >contention that he had compounded the murder by taking body parts from the >scene in a missing stocking. He was brought to trial in June 1978. By that >time prosecutor Mike Thompson was referring to Cook as "a sexual >psychopath" with a "lust for blood and perversion." The testimony was >damning. Paula Rudolph had changed her description of the man she saw in >the doorway from that of a gray-haired, white-clad Jim Mayfield to that of >Cook, who had shoulder-length black hair and was wearing a black shirt on >the night of the killing. Rudolph's previous statements were never raised. >Neither was that of Robert Hoehn, a man who told jurors that he and Cook >had had a homosexual liaison on the night of the killing while watching The >Sailor Who Fell >From Grace With The Sea, a movie that featured mutilation >with a knife. Hoehn told jurors that Cook was aroused by the film and >waved a knife and yelled, "Let's get it on," at the mutilation scene. >Hoehn, who has since died, had made a previous statement to police, >however. In it he included no mention of sex with Cook and his description >of Cook's reaction to the movie was one of disinterest. But his testimony >was compounded by that of Tyler police Lt. Doug Collard, who told jurors >that Cook's fingerprint on the door was "less than 12 hours old" when it >was lifted on the morning after the slaying. Forensic experts, however, >agree that it is impossible to "date" fingerprints and Collard has since >made a written admission that he could not substantiate his testimony with >any scientific evidence. Further, said Collard, he was pressured by the >district attorney's office to make the statement that the fingerprint was >less than 12 hours old. The most incriminating tale, however, came from >jail inmate Eddie "Shyster" Jackson, who said Cook had been his cellmate >and had confessed the killing in detail to him. Responding to questions by >Thompson, Jackson emphasized that he had made no "deal" for his testimony >and was only attempting to see justice carried out. Weeks later, weeks >after Cook had been convicted and sentenced to death, and weeks after >Jackson had been released from jail, Jackson told police and newspaper >reporters that he had concocted his story about Cook's "confession" in >return for a reduction of the murder charge against him and his immediate >release from jail. Shortly after Jackson's announcement, Thompson, the >prosecutor, shot himself and died. EITHER OF those events was known to >Cook, who, by that time, was being initiated to the rigors of death row. >The testimony from his trial had preceded him to Huntsville and, as a >slight, shy and somewhat timid man, he was labeled a "." Cook is >reluctant to describe many of his experiences in prison and points out that >he may return there to face retribution. Former prisoner Clarence Brandley, >however, served with Cook from 1981 until 1990 and recalled how Cook was >treated. Brandley, who was represented in a second trial by Nugent and was >exonerated of the murder charge against him, remembered Cook as a quiet, >retiring prisoner whose life on death row was "unreal." "It's not a >Holiday Inn," said Brandley. "If you're perceived as being weak, you're a >`' and any one of them who wants you can take you. You're either a >`' or a `man' and, once he was labeled a homosexual, that was it." >Cook kept to himself on death row. He attempted suicide three times after >sexual assaults. He made few friends and saw the few he had go to their >deaths. "It was pretty traumatic," said Cook. "One of them was Kenneth >Brock (convicted of the murder of a policeman). I went by the death watch >cell just before they executed him and he told me, `You're gonna get out of >here, Kerry. This won't happen to you,' and he made me promise not to give >up. "I know what these people had done, but it's different when you live >beside somebody. They're still a human being." In 1987 he learned that his >brother had been shot to death while attempting to stop a fight between two >men in Jacksonville. In 1991 he heard of his father's death from cancer. >Both announcements came by telephone, days after the deaths occurred. In >the meantime, he took college correspondence courses and waited for >Wednesdays. Wednesdays are special days on death row. They are the days >that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals returns its findings. Cook waited >through 12 years of Wednesdays and came within 11 days of an execution >before the appeals court ordered a new trial in 1990. During those 12 >years Cook was befriended by Jim McCloskey, whose Centurion Ministries has >taken over the defense of numerous prisoners throughout the country. >McCloskey, who has called Cook's conviction "the most egregious case of >misjustice I've ever seen," paid Nugent's fee and sent investigators to >Tyler to examine the evidence against Cook. His organization later put up >the $100,000 bond for Cook's release in November. OOK'S SECOND trial in >1991 ended in a mistrial with a hung jury, but not before Edwards' >"missing" stocking was found wadded in the legs of her jeans, where it >apparently had been overlooked by police. A third trial in 1994 ended in a >conviction and death sentence, but, by that time, the videotape of The >Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea was nowhere to be found. Nugent >had already prepared an appeal based on prosecutorial misconduct. In it, he >pointed out that the Smith County District Attorney's Office had: · >Withheld from defense lawyers information about Louella Mayfield's threats >against Edwards. · Procured Jackson's testimony about Cook's >jailhouse "confession" with an agreement to reduce the charge against him >and release him. · Withheld Robert Hoehn's first statement. >· Introduced Collard's misleading testimony about the age of Cook's >fingerprint and withheld his subsequent written rebuttal of that testimony >until 1992. The appeals court found that "prosecutorial and police >misconduct has tainted this entire matter from the outset," sided with >Nugent and ordered a new trial. That trial promises to bring out testimony >not previously heard. Former library employees are set to testify that >Mayfield, who has since moved to Houston but could not be located for this >article, was enraged over Edwards' suicide attempt and blamed her for >losing his job. Mears is ready to testify about Mayfield's queries about >"beating" a polygraph. Robert Ressler, the retired FBI agent who designed >that bureau's "profiling" procedures, is poised to say that the killing >appears to have been "a domestic, staged homicide," in which the mutilation >was done as an afterthought to obscure the motive. And Cook is prepared >for either possible outcome of the case. "The first conviction was >devastating," he said. "The second was like an epiphany. This time ... I >guess I get to go through it again." In the interim he lives with a family >in Dallas, works for a telephone sales firm and tries to deal with a world >that has passed him by. "I'm like a kid," he said. "I was locked in a >vortex for 21 years and I don't fit in now. I choose the wrong kind of >clothes and I listen to the wrong kind of music. "I didn't know how to >operate a gas pump and I still don't know how to work an ATM machine. "I'm >used to structure. I ask permission for everything. I ask permission to go >to the restroom at work and everybody stares at me. Then, when I'm alone, >I'm not used to ever being alone. It scares me. "But I'm ready to get on >with my life if everything works out. "The last 21 years have been a >nightmare. It's a nightmare to have people not believe you when you're >telling the truth. Then, when you get to prison, the nightmare really >begins." |