Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: "By the end of the trial, we hope to prove to you that someone other than Reco Jones committed these homicides." Those were the words of John McWilliams, defense attorney for Jones, who faces five counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of his ex-girlfriend Yolanda Bellamy, her two children (Nathan Burns, Jr. and Nathan, III) and her niece and nephew (Shanfontah and Delvontay Bellamy) last August. McWilliams told jurors that his client may have been with Bellamy during the night of her murder, but he did not kill her. Instead, McWilliams said, one of Jones's girlfriends at the time may have killed Bellamy and the children in a jealous rage. The defense attorney also suggested that jurors would actually hear the testimony of the real murderer. But to prosecutor Kevin Simowski, Jones is the actual murderer. He portrayed Jones as a manipulative person who had about five girlfriends at the time of the slayings. Simowski said that the relationship between Jones and Bellamy was not a happy one. In fact, Bellamy did not respect Jones very much and thought that he was not a "man." Simowski also told jurors that they would hear about an incident where Bellamy slashed Jones's car tires and told him shortly before her death that although she was pregnant with his child, she would not have the baby. (Simowski revealed that Bellamy had deliberately lied to Jones and was not pregnant at all.) Simowski also suggested for the first time that Jones may have tortured the four young children as he killed them, causing several grimaces and looks of disgust among jurors. He said that Jones made just one mistake when he tried to cover up his crime. When he tried to wash his hands after the killings, the blood of all five victims combined. Investigators came upon blood stains that matched all the blood types of the victims. The first victim called to the stand by the prosecution did not want to be identified. She was Jones's girlfriend during July 1997. This witness testified that she thought Yolanda Bellamy was Jones's ex-girlfriend throughout their brief relationship and that Jones acted as though his problems with Bellamy did not bother him. She talked about an incident weeks before the slayings where she saw a female slash Jones's tires but could not see the culprit. She could not identify the tire slasher as Bellamy. The witness eventually asked Jones about his continuing correspondence with Bellamy and told him that he was "either crazy or still liked her" for still talking to Bellamy. The state then brought assistant medical examiner Dr. Laning Davidson to the stand as a forensic pathology expert. Dr. Davidson examined the bodies of all five victims after the murders. He concluded from his examinations that all the victims died from multiple stab and slash wounds. The doctor said that three-year-old Shafontah Bellamy in particular suffered a lot of injuries: in addition to her 21 stab wounds around her body, she suffered 21 additional wounds around her neck and head. Dr. Davidson said her puncture wounds suggested that she had been tortured. (My thoughts were it seemed that the children were most likely killed first, since there were signs of torture on them, and the mother watched her children and neice/nephew killed. Sharontah had a defensive wound straight through the hand entering the palm of the hand exiting through the top of the hand. The mother was also tortured.) During cross-examination, the doctor said he could not determine from the wounds whether the attacker was right-handed or left-handed and conceded that the murderer could have been male or female. Based on the fact that the attacker would have had to overpowered both Yolanda Bellamy and the children, Dr. Davidson said the culprit had to have been an adult. The last witness for the day was Mary Wade, a neighbor of the victim. Wade claimed that early in the morning around the time of the slayings, she thought she heard Bellamy yelling and refer to Reco Jones After testimony concluded, there was a shouting match between a relative of the victim and a relative of the defendant Jones. Presiding Judge Kym Worthy chastised members of both families and warned them that they better behave or she will bar them from the rest of the courtroom proceedings. She did tell the aunt of one of the victims she would not allow her back into her courtroom, that "this is not a Zoo, or a bar room, this is a courtroom and it will be treated as such!" The judge was not a happy camper to say the least. -- 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" http://members.delphi.com/kathylaw/ Law & Issues Mailing List http://pw1.netcom.com/~kathye/rodeo.html - Cowboy Histories http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/2990/law.htm Crime photo's Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
