June 4
TEXAS:
Suspect in McKinney slayings recants confession----Attorney says man told
McKinney police what they wanted to hear
The man whose confession led to arrests in a McKinney quadruple slaying
this year is recanting his statement to police, his attorney said
Thursday.
Attorney Steven R. Miears said James Jones, a former police informant,
merely told police what they wanted to hear and was under the influence of
crack cocaine.
"At this point in time, James' position is that he made it up. He had no
involvement in these murders," said Mr. Miears, who last saw Mr. Jones,
33, Wednesday. "As to why he told the story he did, that's going to take a
mental health person to sort it out."
McKinney police Capt. Robert Dean, who heads the criminal investigation
division, said Mr. Jones' new statement to his attorney does not diminish
cases against the three men charged with 4 counts of capital murder.
"We feel that he's one of our suspects in this case, and we will proceed,"
Capt. Dean said.
Police are still waiting on lab results from physical evidence including
DNA collected at the scene and in vehicles the accused men had access to.
Mr. Jones, Jecory "Corn" May, 22, and Calvin "Dallas" Walker, 28, are
charged with four counts of capital murder in the March shooting deaths of
Rosa Barbosa, 46, her nephew Mark Barbosa, 25, and McKinney North High
School juniors Austin York, 18, and Matthew Self, 17.
Attorneys for Mr. May and Mr. Walker could not be reached for comment
Thursday. Mr. May and Mr. Walker have denied any involvement in the
slayings.
None of the men have been indicted by the grand jury.
Mr. May's mother, Margaret May, 49, of McKinney said Thursday that she
hoped the charges against her son would be dropped.
"He did not have anything to do with this. He wouldn't put me through
this," she said. "I know my son is innocent."
She said that during jail visits and phone calls, her son has denied any
involvement in the slayings.
Ms. May said that her son knew Mr. Jones but that the two were not close
and did not "hang out."
Mr. Miears said McKinney police have questioned Mr. Jones twice after his
client told them he had an attorney and did not want to speak with
officers without Mr. Miears present.
"They're continuing to question him without an attorney present. They did
it yesterday [Wednesday]," Mr. Miears said. "It's unconscionable for the
police to keep questioning James when I've told them in writing that he's
not to be questioned without me present."
Capt. Dean said investigators have not questioned Mr. Jones about the case
unless he sent a message to police saying he wanted to talk. He said that
on Wednesday, officers served Mr. Jones with a warrant for violating a
protective order on an unrelated case.
Mr. Miears said he would seek an order of protection from the court to
prevent questioning of his client outside of his presence.
Mr. Miears said Mr. Jones spent time in the psychiatric ward while
incarcerated in the Texas prison system. He was also in a state hospital
for psychiatric problems as a juvenile.
Mr. Miears said Thursday that he could not be more specific about his
client's mental problems because he was still gathering information about
his health history.
He said Mr. Jones' mental faculties have been tested several times.
Court records show Mr. Jones told police he shot Ms. Barbosa in her
McKinney home. He also told police that Mr. May shot Mr. Barbosa and that
Mr. Walker shot the 2 teenagers in another room of the home, according to
court testimony.
Mr. Jones told police that after the shootings, the three men took Ms.
Barbosa's keys and went to the check-cashing business where she worked,
court documents show.
Criminal records for Mr. Jones show that he began serving two concurrent
10-year prison terms from Collin County in 1991 for a pair of 1989
burglaries. Prison officials released him in late 1998, and he remained on
parole until August 2000.
Three years later, Mr. Jones was charged with 7 misdemeanors in Collin
County.
In the 1st 6 months of 2003, he was charged with violating court
protective orders 3 times along with 2 charges of criminal trespass in
Plano and McKinney.
In August and October, he was charged with theft twice in Plano.
(source: Dallas Morning News)
ILLINOIS:
It is a daughter's journey into hell . . . . . . A daughter who claims her
father calmly proclaimed his innocence before he was executed at
Stateville Prison on March 22, 1995.
Shirlynda Williams Hamilton, the daughter of Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th),
claims her father, Hernando Williams -- the last person to be executed in
Illinois -- was not screaming for justice the day he died, nor pleading
for his life. He was just answering for the final time a question his only
child had been asking for 8 years: "Daddy, did you murder that woman?"
"I promise you baby girl, I am innocent. I didn't do that," Williams told
his 19-year old daughter, Shirlynda, the eldest child of Coleman.
"But I am at peace. I am going to my death for what I have done in the
past, but not for that crime. What I am guilty of is not being a good
father and not being a good husband."
Then he added: "If it will bring you comfort, research my case and you'll
know I am innocent."
To Shirlynda, now a wife and mother of two youngsters, her father's dying
request was the beginning of a journey she recently decided to take. In an
exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Shirlynda gave us a peek
into the tortuous trek to exonerate her father.
"My mother has always shielded me, but I need to know the truth," she
said.
Ald. Coleman is concerned, but added: "I believe he is innocent, because
he proclaimed his innocence before he died. But, most importantly, my
daughter is on a journey she needs to take."
Shirlynda's journey began the day she, her mother and father held hands
for the last time through metal bars.
"I was shaking and cold and had chills all day because I knew he was going
to die. I couldn't hold my father or hug him. But I knew I had to ask him
one more time if he did it because it was a horrible crime and that woman
was butchered."
Does she have evidence to prove his innocence? "He kept telling me he was
set up," she said. "That he hung out with bad people. He alluded to the
mob. And we now know innocent men have been freed from death row even
though evidence was against them. But he wouldn't say anything else
because he said he wanted to protect us."
However, the forensic and physical evidence against Hernando Williams was
overwhelming. And the crime was devastatingly brutal. Williams confessed
and pleaded guilty to kidnapping, raping and killing 29-year-old Linda
Goldstone in April 1978 after abducting her at gunpoint outside
Northwestern's Prentice Hospital.
Evidence revealed Goldstone, the wife of a doctor and mother of a
4-year-old son, was raped, beaten, then released 2 days later after being
held in a motel and stuffed in a trunk -- on the promise she would say
nothing, and then retrieved minutes later by her assailant, who shot her
to death in a garage.
But the story is even more horrific. Williams was out on bond on a rape
charge when Goldstone was kidnapped. He admitted talking to her in the
trunk of a car while going to court on the rape charge.
The tragedy ended on a deadly note, when Goldstone was released on the
promise she would tell no one . . . and then was turned away at the door
of a Chicago firefighter when she begged to use his phone. Williams
confessed to recapturing Goldstone a block away and killing her in a
nearby garage.
For 6 weeks, attorney Todd Musburger -- then a well-trained public
defender -- tried to save Williams' life in a 6-week mitigation hearing
showing why Williams should be spared the death penalty. "We lost," said
Musburger, who is vehemently anti-death penalty.
Musburger added: "While I have tremendous sympathy for the families of the
victim as well as the Williams family, I now feel 25 years later that the
evidence against Williams was overwhelming." But Musburger has also
retained 2 boxes of evidence he is willing to let Shirlynda review.
Williams later claimed his confession was coerced.
Shortly after her father's execution, Shirlynda asked Northwestern
University's Center on Wrongful Convictions, which was working to free the
innocent from death row, if they'd be interested in clearing her father's
name.
"They were more interested in freeing the living than clearing the names
of the innocent dead," she said.
However, Larry Marshall, who heads the center, plans to give Shirlynda
guidance.
"My father once gave me a poem on a bookmark that said, 'Don't quit.' And
I've never forgotten my promise to him," Shirlynda reflected.
"But I also know someone like me is hurting out there. I didn't know Mrs.
Goldstone had a son. But now I do. We were both victims of this crime. I
just want to know the truth . . . no matter what the outcome."
Amen.
(source: Chicago Sun-Times)
