Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
This is a new trial that will be broadcast on CTV starting Wednesday,
below is a summary of the case.
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In a case that stunned Detroit, Reco Jones faces trial for five counts
of first-degree murder in the slayings of his ex-girlfriend, Yolanda
Bellamy, her two children and her young nephew and niece. The children's
ages ranged between three and five years-old; all the victims had their
throats slashed and suffered multiple stab wounds.
Prosecutors believe that Jones, 23, killed Bellamy because she had ended
their relationship the day before. The children were murdered because
they witnessed the crime, and Jones allegedly felt he had to kill them.
Jones told police that he was at Bellamy's house the night of the
murders and argued with her about their relationship. But, Jones said,
when he left Bellamy's house, she and the children were still alive.
However, according to two female friends of Jones whom he allegedly saw
hours after the crime, the defendant confessed the murders to them. (One
of them even admits to helping him destroy evidence.) And investigators
claim that Jones implicated himself during initial questioning for the
murders by showing that he knew how the victims died before detectives
had even told him about the specific details of the crime scene.
If convicted, Jones could face life in prison.
The Rocky Relationship
Jones and Bellamy began dating in December 1996. Apparently, they were a
happy couple until Jones began serving a prison term in January 1997 for
aggravated assault during a separate prior incident. Jones was
imprisoned for six months. Although Jones and Bellamy maintained contact
through phone calls from prison, their relationship eventually became
strained. Jones began accusing Bellamy of cheating on him.
When Jones was released from prison, he and Bellamy reunited, but their
problems persisted. And Jones began dating at least one other woman in
addition to Bellamy. On August 11, 1997, Bellamy ended her relationship
with Jones. According to the defendant's mother, Bellamy came to Jones's
house and demanded to both see him and retrieve some of her belongings.
Jones's mother, who knew that Jones was in the house basement, refused
to let Bellamy into the house and asked her to leave. When Bellamy
refused, Mrs. Jones called the police.
Bellamy left before police arrived. Mrs. Jones told her son what
happened and claimed that she later saw him asleep in the basement at
1:30 in the morning. Mrs. Jones also said she sat in the living room
until 4 am and when she awoke at 8 am, her son was not home.
The Slayings and their Various Versions
What happened between after time Mrs. Jones said she last saw Reco Jones
is in dispute. Jones gave the police two different accounts of his
confrontation with Bellamy after the incident involving his mother. In
his first story, Jones told police that he arrived at Bellamy's house
between 12:30 and 1 am. According to Jones, Bellamy threatened to kill
his mother, brother, and sister, and in response, he began to choke her.
However, Jones claimed he released his grip on Bellamy before he could
cause any damage and left her as she was still coughing. Then, Jones
said, he went home and went to sleep until around 5:45 am when he went
to visit another girlfriend, Maliaka Martin.
However, Jones's second version of the events is quite different. He
reportedly told one officer that when Bellamy told him that she would
not bear his child, he "snapped" and killed her.
Maliaka Martin told police that Jones, whose sneakers were covered in
blood, came to her house after the killings and admitted to the murders.
According to Martin, Jones said that Bellamy had told him that she would
tell her legal husband (and the father of her two sons) that Jones had
beaten her and the children. Apparently, the threat triggered a violent
response in Jones, and he stabbed Bellamy 11 times. Awakened by the
commotion, Bellamy's children and niece and nephew came down the stairs
upon the murder scene. Allegedly, Jones told Martin that to avoid
leaving witnesses, he had to kill the children.
Martin also told police that she let Jones shower and change his clothes
when he came to her house. She then drove him to the house of another
friend, Tamikah Terrell. According to Terrell, Jones also confessed
Bellamy's murder to her and wanted to use her washing machine to clean
his bloody clothes. However, since Terrell did not have a washing
machine, she took Jones's clothes, placed them in a garbage can, and
helped him burn them.
The Gruesome Discoveries
On August 13, 1997, at around 10:30 am, Bellamy's sister, Erika, called
the victim's house to see when she could pick up her two children, who
had been sleeping over at their aunt's place. When no one answered the
phone, Erika drove to the house and knocked on the door. With no one
answering the door, Erika peeked through the mailslot and saw her
children lying in a pool of blood on the living room floor. She
immediately called the building's landlady and 911.
When police arrived, they knocked down the apartment door and discovered
the bodies. Yolanda Bellamy and the four children were dead at the
scene. All five victims had their throats slashed and suffered at least
11 stab wounds each.
Jone's was arrested later that day and kept in police headquarters
overnight. According to reports, before investigators even told him how
the victims died, Jones implicated himself by telling them, "There's no
way I could have stabbed those people." The day after his arrest, Jones
jumped out of a window at police headquarters and fell 60 feet to the
pavement below. He survived the fall but suffered a fractured elbow and
abdominal injuries.
The Court of Public Opinion
The murders of Yolanda Bellamy and the four children outraged many in
Detroit. During a pretrial hearing, the defendant's mother needed police
to escort her out of the courtroom because family and friends of the
victims had threatened to avenge their deaths. It seems that the court
of public opinion in Detroit may have already convicted Reco Jones for
these five murders. Now his fate lies in the hands of the court of law.
--
Kathy E
"I can only please one person a day, today is NOT your day, and tomorrow
isn't looking too good for you either"
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