Newspaper Page Text
The Summerville News, Thursday, February 28, 1991
12-A
Pair Acquitted Of Rape
By TOMMY TOLES
Editor
A Chattooga County
Superior Court jury Wednes
day afternoon acquitted two
men of raping a 16-year-old girl
near Lyerly about zgear ago.
The jeu:zl returned the not
Wflty verdicts at 3:10 p.m.
ednesday before Judge
Joseph Loggins. Donald G.
Parris, 21, Summerville Rte. 1,
and Edward H. Smith, 18,
Summerville Rte. 5, were freed
in the case. e
The 16-year-old girl, who is
now 17, hafiechargegui’n a war
rant last year that Parris and
Smith ha(r ra{)ed her in Smith’s
car off Lyerly Dam Road on
March 24 or 25. Smith and Par
ris said she voluntarily had sex
with them.
The jury of nine men and
three women began delibera
tions at 11:50 a.m. Wednesday,
later went to lunch and return
ed to continue their
deliberations.
VISITED
The girl said the two men
came by her house and asked
if she wanted to visit her
boyfriend in LaFayette. In
stead, they went to Floyd
County and to LaFayette
before returning to the Lyerly
area and raping her, she claim
ed. The jury didn't believe her.
Meanwhile, the drug
sséssion trial of Terry L.
lle)n'opshire began early
Wednesday afternoon. He was
charged with possessing both
cocaine and a misdemeanor
amount of marijuana last year.
Assistant District Attorney
Ronald Adams was pro
secuting the case.
The rape case was the se
cond one tried during this term
of criminal court. The Tim
Brown case had been schedul
ed but was postponed Monday
evening (see related story). A
drug trial Monday ended when
the defendant pled guilty. The
rape trial started a%l;ut 11:30
a.m. Tuesday after a jury was
selected.
TESTIMONY
The now 17-year-old victim
said she was at the home of a
friend on Woodland Avenue
about 9 p.m. March 24 when
Parris and Smith arrived. They
asked if she wanted to visit her
boyfriend’s home at
LaFayette.
Before they left, she, Parris,
Smith and her neighbor, Bar
bara Clayton, now 24,
Woodland Avenue, smoked a
marijuana cigarette, the teen
admitted to special Assistant
District Attorney Susan
Camgéelt appeared that Smith
had been drinking alcohol, the
girl testified.
Was she ‘‘high?”’ Mrs.
Camp asked.
‘... It didn’t put you out
of your mind or anythinfi," she
replied. The teen said she had
had several “tokes’ before she,
Smith and Parris departed.
Asked what a ‘‘toke”” was by
Mrs. Camsu, the teen-ager
laughed and said, ‘‘a puff.”
KNIFE
They first drove to a river
in Floyd County, and she then
drove to LaFayette, the girl
testified. When they got to the
home of her boyfriend, Labron
Jackson, “they wouldn’t let me
sto?." she told the jury. A
knife was put to her throat and
“He (Parris) told me not to
stoi." They made her drive
back south on Old Highway 27
where they stopped and Smith
started driving, she said.
Both Sam Finster, attorney
for Parris, and William Hyden,
attorney for Smith, questioned
the teen extensively about ap-
Earent inconsistencies between
er statements Tuesday and
several she made during a
greliminary hearing last June
Although she said last sum
mer that they made her get out
of the car to swap seats in
LaFaiette, she testified Tues
day that she never got out of
the car. She also said she never
saw the knife but it felt like it
was about three inches long.
Smith said he'd take her
home after he visited an uncle’s
place at Lyerly to get a cooler,
the teen testified. When they
arrived at the house, which was
agparently being remodeled,
they got out of the car and
went inside but didn’t find
anyone home, she said.
Nothing more was mentioned
about the knife incident, she
testified. “They acted like it
didn’t happen; like it was a
joke.”
TUNE IN MARCH 7 AT
7 P.M. ON CHANNEL 6
For a Mid-East Update
Slides On Israel Will Be Shown
and Bible Prophecy Related to -
Current Events.
LOCKED DOORS
She returned to the car
before the two men and locked
the doors but Smith o;gened the
door with a key, the teen
testified.
Finster later asked why she
didn't flee after she left the
house.
“There was nowhere to run
to,” she reg.led
When the two men came
back outside, they used a lever
on the seat to let back her front
passenger side seat, she said.
At that point, themach raied
her. One held a knife at her
throat while the other raped
her, she said. Then the men
reversed gositions, she con
tinued, sobbing.
Parris pulled off her jeans
and pants she said. “'I asked
them not to,”’ she sobbed. “‘I
asked them to not make me do
it. They told me to ‘shut up.’ "
She later testified, “‘I kicked
and I screamed and I biiied
them to stop and they wo 't
stop.”
On the way back to her
house, ‘‘Eddie asked me if I'd
go out with him the next night.
He'd be back,”” the teen
testified. She later added,
twice, ‘“‘Donald said I was
good.”
The two men also told her
“I wasn't the only firl they'd
took down there and done tlzat
way,”’ she continued.
FEARFUL
When she arrived back
home, she told Ms. Clayton
about the incident and was told
that she should inform her
mother, the teen continued.
She said she was fearful but
finally told her mother. Her
mother suggested that she
take a bath and not tell anyone
since she'd gotten in the car
with the two men.
However, she talked with a
couple of friends and they urg
ed her to tell lawmen about the
incident.
She first went to a local doc
tor but since she had bathed, it
wasn’t possible to do any tests
for rape, the teen testified. She
then talked to Inv. Larry
Kellett of the Chattooga Coun
ty Sheriff's Office, she said,
who filed a report on the inci
dent. She and%er mother then
obtained rape warrants against
Smith and Parris.
INCONSISTENCIES
Hyden and Finster asked
the teen to explain inconsisten
cies in her statements at the
preliminary hearing last June
and during the trial Tuesday.
She didn't mention the
knife being placed at her throat
at LaFayette last summer, she
admitted, ‘‘but there was one.”
Neither did she mention lock
ing the car doors at Lyerly dur
ing the hearing last summer,
she admitted.
Igf'den tried to suggest that
she filed charges against Smith
and Parris because she was
fearful that her relationship
with her boyfriend might be
jeopardized if he found out
she’d been off with two men.
She admitted that riding with
the two men might have harm
ed their relationship but she
denied having sex voluntarily
with Smith or Parris.
During the preliminary
hearing, the teen said Smith
kept the knife but Tuesday she
testified that the men swapped
the knife when they took turns
raping her.
She also said she didn't tell
Inv. Kellett that the knife was
held at her throat and side and
was held only at her neck or
throat. Kellett later testified
that the teen told him that the
knife had been held at both her
side and throat.
POLYGRAPH
Had she taken a polygraph
test? Finster asked.
“Yes, I did,” she replied. No
results of the test were men
tioned during the trial.
Mrs. Camp sought to
reduce the damage elicited by
the cross-examination by
Hyden and Finster by asking
about the differences in her
testimony.
“I was scared and I was
nervous. It’'sbeen a year,” she
said.
Kellett testified later that
Parris told him that the-then
16-year-old initiated talk about
sex and Parris asked if she’d
like to have sex with him and
she responded affirmatively.
Parris’ statement claimed that
the teen took off her own
clothing and voluntarily had
sex mti both men.
STATEMENT?
Finster asked if an alleged
victim's statement is sufficient
for the sheriff’s office to obtain
arape warrant. Kellett replied
that normally, corroborating
evitiije:‘xge is needed.
er questioning again
from Mrs. gamp. I?e.ifett said
the teen wasn’t sent to a Rome
hospital for a rgpe test since so
much time had occurred bet
ween the time of the alleged in
cident and when she regeorted
it to him, and because she said
she had bathed.
Mrs. Camp then called
Steve Childers, 30, Summer
ville Rte. 3, to the stand.
Hesitatingly, he told the
jury that Parris was one of the
men who beat and sodomized
him in the Jail last September
after Childers had been con
victed on a child molestation
charfie. Smith wasn't in the jail
and had nothing to do with the
incident, Childers continued.
NO MISTRIAL
Nevertheless, Hyden mov
ed for a mistrial because he
said that Childers' testimony
had prejudiced the case of his
client, Smith. Judge Loggins
overruled the motion.
Ms. Clayton said she smok
ed a joint with the teen-ager,
Smith and Parris, but stayed in
the vehicle with the trio f}(’)r on
ly about ‘‘three minutes.”
The teen's mother said her
daufihter came home the night
of the alleged rape. I had to
hold her down because she was
jerking so bad,” she said.
Mrs. Camp asked the
mother if she thought lawmen
would believe her daughter’s
story.
‘“‘No, not really,”” she
replied.
“Why?"
“I don't know,”’ she
responded.
Jackson, the teen's
boyfriend was also called to the
stand. .
Parris testified Tuesday
afternoon that the teen willing
ly allowed herself to be kissed
and fondled during part of the
driving. He also asserted that
the trio stopped between Sum
merville and LaFayette to
smoke more marijuana.
While Smith went in the
house at Lyerly, Parris
testified, he and the girl volun
tarily had sex together. When
Smith returned, he too had sex
with her while Parris waited at
the rear of the car, Parris said.
Smith, in his testimony
Wednesday morning, said he
obtained marijuana cigarettes
from an unidentified black on
“the block™ in Summerville
before going to the teen’s
house. g
Smith also said that the
three stopped between Sum
merville and LaFayette while
en route to LaFayette and
smoked two more marijuana
cigarettes.
He went in the Lyerly
house to use the bathroom,
Smith testified, and while he
was inside, Parris and the teen
:fier had sex. When he return
to the car, the girl was nak
ed from the waist down. ‘“‘She
asked me if I wanted some too,
and I said, ‘I may as well,” "’
Smith testified.
Hyden and Finster both
rested their cases at 9:37 a.m.
Wednesday. Mrs. Camp rested
the prosecution case late Tues
day afternoon.
PLEAS
Meanwhile several guilty
pleas were entered last Friday
and Monday and sentences
handed down by Judge
Loggins. :
David Lamar Wade, 21,
McConnell St., Trion, pled guil
ty Friday to arson charges.
Judge Loggins ordered him to
serve four years in prison.
Wade was charged with set
ting a fire at the apartment of
Linda Tapp, Allrecr Street, last
Dec. 22. Othell Stone, a Sum
merville police officer and
volunteer fireman, obtained a
confession from Wade in the
arson after an investigation in
the cause of the blaze.
Kevin Battles pled guilty to
theft by receiving charges Fri
day. The charge was reduced to
a misdemeanor and Battles
was fined S3OO and given a
suspended sentence, court
records indicated.
Valmond Beech Jr., 42,
Summerville Rte. 1, pled guil
ty Friday to burglary charges.
He was sentenced to five years
with one year to be served in
prison.
Cynthia Paige Brewster,
pled guilty Friday to theft by
takinfisand was placed on 12
months probation, ordered to
pay $810.24 restitution and a
S2OO fine, court records
indicated.
DRUGS
Rodney Dale Browning
%led guilty to one drug charge
riday and received five years
probation. Two other drug
chari? were dismissed.
The trial of Carlous M.
Cash, 24, Summerville, started
Monday but Cash pled guilty
to possessing cocaine after the
prosecution rested its case that
afternoon. Cash was sentenced
to five years with three to be
served in prison.
James Tony Dowd, 24,
Summerville Gardens Apart
ments, pled il:lilty Friday to
one count of child molestation,
one count of simple battery
and one case of sodomy in
separate cases Friday. Judge
Loggins sentenced Dowd to 10
years in prison on the child
molestation case, 10 years in
prison on the sodomy count
and 12 months in prison on the
simple battery case. One child
molestation count, two counts
of aggravated child molesta
tion and a count of aggravated
sodomy were dismissed.
Dowd was charged in con
nection with an assault against
an 11-year-old girl at Gore bet
ween last July and early
September. After being in
carcerated on that charge, he
was charged with attacking
another prisoner in the jail in
Sggtember. He was charged
with attacking Steve Childers.
Mark Dewayne Fowler
entered guilty pleas to being an
habitual violator, havinggefec
tive equipment and driving
under the influence of intox
icants Friday. He received a
total of five years on probation
and a fine.
MARIJUANA
Howard Gene Hartline pled
guilty Friday to possessin§
marijuana, not having proof o
insurance, driving on a
suspended license and being a
convicted felon in possession of
a firearm. He received six
months in jail on the first three
counts and four years proba
tion on the firearms charge.
A second lafirerson has pled
guilty in an alleged scheme to
steal a new car from Lewis
Smith Ford, Summerville, last
November. Janet Thacker
(Hayes), 33, Rome, pled guilty
to theft by dec;i)tion Friday
and was sentenced to two years
on probation and fined $1,500.
James G. “‘Jimmy’’ Thompson,
42, Summerville Rte. 4, had
pled guilty to the same chara%es
on Feb. 5. Still awaiting trial is
Gene Hayes, 49, Rome.
Kenneth Ross Jackson,
Summerville, entered a plea of
guilty to possessing cocaine
Friday. He received 15 years
with 10 to be served in prison.
REMOVED
The case of Marty Loveless
had to be removed from the
calendar when the court learn
ed that a law enforcement of
ficer on the Grand Jury had
deliberated in the case.
Loveless was expected to be
reindicted on obstruction of of
ficer charges.
Raymond Leon Millard Jr.
pled guilty to a variety of
charges Monday, including ag
gravated assault, obstruction
of an officer and drunk driving.
Judge Loggins sentenced him
to five years with two to be
served in prison.
Edwarg Moore pled guilty
to a misdemeanor shoplifting
charge Monday. He was plac
ed on 12 months probation, fin
ed SSOO and ordered to testify
truthfully against an
accomplice.
Candace Sheree Moses,
charged with theft by taking,
pled guilty Friday and was
placefgn 12 months probation,
ordered to pay $490 restitution
and told to pay a S2OO fine.
BURGLARY
Benny Lee Sizemore, 20,
Tunnel Hill pled guilty to
burglary charges Friday. He
was sentenced to five years
with two to be served in prison.
John Farrell Smith pled
g:ilty Friday to two counts of
ing an habitual violator, two
drunk drivix;g counts and
ogerat;'nfiano -road vehicle on
the highway. He received a
total of five years probation
after serving 120 daysin a gro—
bation detention center and 12
months on each of the other
charges to be served
concurrently.
Justin Stinson pled guilty
to two counts of burglary Fri
day. Judge Loggins sentenced
him to five years probation on
each count as a fxi:st offender
and ordered him to pay restitu
tion and a fine.
Darrell Grant Tomlin, 28,
Summerville Rte. 1, pled guil
ty to drunk driving, being an
habitual violator and traffic of
fenses Friday. Judge Loggins
ordered him to serve two years
in prison, and 12 months on the
traffic offenses.
Frankie Gardner Gilbert Jr.
gled guilty Friday to being an
abitual violator and one
drunk driving count. He was
placed on five years probation
and given a fine.
Julius Etheridge McCaw
gled guilty Friday to being an
abitual violator. He was plac
ed on five years probation.
The case of Anthonfi
Wayne Camg)ell, charged wit.
being an habitual violator and
at.:temggfi to elude officers was
dismissed. It had been added
to the calendar by mistake.
Campbell had already served
prison time on the charges.
Jason Hix pled guilty Fri
day to aggravated assaufl ina
domestic incident. He was
ordered to pay costs and fined
as a first offender.
FREE
GROOM’S TUX
DETAILS
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Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6688 has presented
awards in its annual Voice of Democracy contest. Chat
toc()Fa High School winners were Ipresented their checks
and awards at the school. From left are Rodney Allred,
CHS principal; Christa Whitley, first place; Amy
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Several students at Trion High School have been
honored by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6688 through
its annual Voice of Democracy contest. From left are
VFW Commander Harold Hawkins; Lannette Chandler
and Parks Westbrooks, participants; Amber Witt, third
place; Gina Dowdy, participant; and Larry Holbrooks,
VFW Essay Winners Cited
The three top winners of the
Voice of Democracy essay con
test at Chattooga and Trion
High Schools have been
honored by Veterans of
Foreign Wars Post 6688.
The post usually hosts a
banquet for the winning
students and their parents but
the Chattooga Memorial Home
was burned in January.
Therefore, the post presented
checks to the winners at each
school last week.
Heather Schram was first
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THS VFW Contest
place winner at Trion High ear
ning SIOO. She placed third in
the district competition. Casey
Bohanon placed second at
Trion and received a $75 prize.
Amber Witt was third and
garnered a SSO prize.
Christa Whitfiy was first at
Chattooga High, winning SIOO.
Amy McCrickard was second
an(e, received $75. Amber
Tallent was third and won SSO.
The essay contest was
sponsored in January by the
post.
McCrickard, second; Amber Tallent, third; teacher Judy
Hair, who coordinated the program at the school; and
VFW Post Commander Harol«fr Hawkins. (Staff Photo
By David Espy).
representing the VFW post. Holbrooks is also a member
of the Trion Board ofp(l)‘]ducation. First place winner
Heather Schram and second place winner Casey
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