Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three (27 page)

Price asked, “Are you familiar with the Christian belief, the Trinity, the Three in One?”

Griffis said that he was, but added that his belief that the murders were cult related had been confirmed for him by some of Damien’s drawings, particularly one of “an individual that had the head of a satanic goat.”

Price objected that any materials Driver had taken from Damien’s home before the crime were confidential juvenile records. But Fogleman argued that the materials related to Damien’s “belief system, his state of mind.”

“Judge,” Price argued, “we have the First Amendment in the United States. A person is entitled to believe—they can practice the freedom of religion.”

“I don’t have any problem with him practicing whatever belief he wants to,” Burnett responded. “That doesn’t mean that belief is not a part of relevant evidence in a proceeding against him.”

Price countered, “If it is a writing he had a year before the murders, it is obviously not relevant.”

But Prosecutor Davis returned to the theory of motive, arguing that the timing of Damien’s beliefs was not relevant. He argued that a person’s ideas, which might be “a motive for causing them to act,” continued “over a course of time.”
²⁷²

Ultimately, Burnett ruled in favor of the prosecution: that the books, writings, and drawings taken from Damien’s home a year before the murders would be admitted as evidence. “I’m also going to rule,” he said, “that, inasmuch as the state has the burden of proof in this case, and inasmuch as a good portion of the case is circumstantial, that it’s necessary and appropriate that the state prove motive if they can…[and] that the probative value of the testimony with regard to motivation outweighs any possible prejudicial effect.”

Still in the hearing, Ford asked Griffis, “Do you have any evidence that establishes a link between Jason Baldwin and the occult?”

“No.”

“Are all crimes of this nature occultic in nature? Are all murders where these type of injuries happen, are they all occultic?”

“No sir.”

“What separates this one from those that aren’t?”

“First of all, the dates, the full moon.”

The defense lawyers protested that there was no scientific basis to Griffis’s proposed testimony that the murders were cult related. But Judge Burnett ruled against them. The judge said he was qualifying Griffis as an expert “based upon his knowledge, experience and training in the area of occultism or satanism.”

When the jury returned, Fogleman called a few witnesses in preparation for Griffis. Lisa Sakevicius, from the crime lab, testified that she’d found “a trace of blue wax” on one of the victims’ shirts. Other witnesses said that they’d found a book titled
Never on a Broomstick
and the skull of a dog in Damien’s home, and that eleven black T-shirts had been found in Jason’s home. With that, Fogleman called Griffis, who told the court how, based on the fullness of the moon and the lack of blood at the scene, he had detected “the trappings of occultism.”

“In looking at young people involved in the occult, do you see any particular type of dress or jewelry or body markings, anything like that?” the prosecutor asked.

“I have personally observed people wearing black fingernails, having their hair painted black, wearing black T-shirts, black dungarees, that type of thing,” Griffis said. “Sometimes they will tattoo themselves. Then they’ll use some earrings which have occult symbols on them that you can buy through mail-order houses.”

Then Fogleman asked about the types of artwork he’d seen associated with “people involved in occultism.” Griffis answered that what he’d seen involved “necromancy, or love of death.” Artwork attributed to Damien qualified as that, he said. Similarly, he said that Damien’s writings indicated involvement in the occult. And so did books in his possession. As Griffis testified, he sharpened his opinion further, stating that the crime showed trappings, not just of vague occultism, but of satanic worship in particular.
²⁷³

The next day, Fogleman and Davis mounted their final attack. They called two young girls and the mother of one of the girls to testify about what they’d heard at a softball game. One of the girls, a twelve-year-old, said, “I heard Damien Echols say that he killed the three boys.”
²⁷⁴
She said that Jason Baldwin was with Damien at the time, and that after she heard the remark, she’d reported it to her mother.

On cross-examination the girl acknowledged that she had never seen Damien before the encounter at the ballpark. She said he was talking in a group of people, but that the confession to murder was the only part of what he’d said that she’d heard. She also acknowledged that she was at least fifteen feet away from Damien when he made the remark. Although the girl said she had told her mother about the remark, and the crime had not been solved, she acknowledged that neither she nor her mother had reported the information about Damien’s alleged boast to the police until after Damien’s arrest.

The other girl was a year older than the first witness and a friend of hers.
²⁷⁵
She testified that at the same softball game, she’d heard Damien say “that he killed the three little boys and before he turned himself in that he was going to kill two more and he already had one of them picked out.” She too said that she’d never seen or heard of Damien prior to that event. She also said that she’d reported the incident to her mother, though again, neither the child nor her mother had alerted officials until after the arrests. When defense attorneys questioned the girl, she acknowledged that, although “six or seven” other people had been with Damien that evening, she would not be able to recognize any of them if they were in the courtroom.

And that marked the end of the prosecutors’ evidence.

When the prosecutors sat down after calling their last witnesses, a reporter jotted impressions in his notebook of the case they’d just presented. “A pervasive vagueness…,” he wrote. “Just couldn’t get through it or past it; simply impenetrable.”
²⁷⁶

Later the reporter wrote, “When the prosecution rested the state’s case, about all it had proved was (1) that the murders had indeed occurred, and (2) how the victims died. It had proved the deed and the how, but not the who, the why, the where, or even the when. Its who, why, where, and when were supposition, guesswork, rumor, and bad courtroom Vaudeville. No motive, opportunity not clearly established, time of death disputed, and not a single shred of tangible evidence linking any of the defendants to the crime.”

Not surprisingly, the defense lawyers also regarded the evidence as paltry, especially in a case where the prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. Arguing that “there’s been a lack of evidence to place Jason Baldwin at the scene of the crime”; “there has been no eyewitness to identify him as being a perpetrator”; “there’s no evidence whatsoever to tie him to the act of homicide”; and “there’s been no introduction of any scientific evidence to link him to this homicide,” Jason’s lawyer asked Burnett to issue a directed verdict, acquitting Jason on the spot, which a judge is empowered to do when the evidence is deemed glaringly insufficient. But Burnett refused, announcing in open court, “I feel it is more than sufficient.”

Damien’s lawyer then made a similar motion, and Judge Burnett made a similar ruling. Jason’s lawyer appealed again for a severance, noting that “there has been overwhelming evidence introduced in this case that the court has instructed the jury to apply
only
to Damien.” And again, the request was denied.

While Judge Burnett ruled that he considered the state’s case “more than sufficient,” Damien’s lawyers found little in the state’s case to contest. Now that the ball was in their court, and it was time to present their defense, they felt they were battling shadows. How were they to counter allegations linking Damien to Satan and thence to murders beneath the full moon? They began with his alibi.

Damien’s mother testified about her activities on the previous May 5, ending with her claim that Damien had been with the family from 4
P.M
. on. But on cross-examination, Davis lacerated her testimony, forcefully suggesting that, at the very least, she was confused about her times. Michelle, however, corroborated her mother’s account, as did three of the family’s friends.

With that, Damien’s lawyers put him on the stand.

Damien stepped into the witness box. His coal black hair was unevenly cut. When Shettles had seen him before the trial, he’d been in bad need of a haircut, and with no better barber available, she’d done the job herself. As Val Price asked Damien some preliminary questions, the nineteen-year-old answered in a voice that, oddly, sounded neither confident nor afraid. Price asked how Damien came to have his name. Damien explained that he’d changed his last name when Jack Echols adopted him and how, at the time, he’d been “very involved” in the Catholic Church. “And we was going over the names of the saints,” Damien said. “Saint Michael’s is where I went to church at—and we heard about this guy from the Hawaiian Islands, Father Damien, that took care of lepers until he finally caught the disease hisself and died. I was inspired by what he did.”

“Did the choosing of the name Damien have anything to do with any type of horror movies, satanism, cultism, anything of that nature?” Price asked.

“Nothing whatsoever.”

Price suggested, “Tell the ladies and gentlemen of the jury a little bit about the types of things you enjoy doing, your interests, hobbies, and things of that nature.”

“For a few years I really enjoyed skateboarding,” Damien said. “It was like all I did for a while. I like movies, about any type of books, talking on the phone, watching TV.”

“Do you like to read a great deal?”

“Yes.”

“What types of books do you like to read?”

“I will read about anything, but my favorites were Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Anne Rice.”

“During this time period, did you develop an interest in different types of religions, or what beliefs were you studying?”

“I have read about all different types of religions because I’ve always wondered, like, how do we know we’ve got the right one, how do we know we are not messing up.”

“After the time period you were really into the Catholic religion, did you start focusing in on another particular religion?”

“Wicca.”

Price asked Damien about some of his writings, which the prosecutors had already introduced. Damien identified one of the books as his personal journal. Pointing to quotes on the inside front cover, the lawyer asked Damien to read them to the jury “and then tell them where they came from.”

Damien began to read. “‘Life is but a walking shadow. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.’ That’s from
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
by William Shakespeare.
²⁷⁷
‘Pure black looking clear. My work is done here. Try getting back from me that which used to be.’ That is off a Metallica tape called,
Injustice for All.
It’s about how warped the court systems are and stuff like that. The other one was from a
Twilight Zone.
‘I kicked open a lot of doors in my time, and I am willing to wait for this one to open and when it does I’ll be waiting.’”

Damien identified other items the state had introduced against him as a cover from the Metallica tape
Master of Puppets
and “a bootleg Metallica tape that most people didn’t even know existed, called
Garage Days Revisited
. Damien explained that he and Jason “used to get copies of them on copy machines and get them enlarged bigger and have them for decorations in our rooms.” He said he’d kept the dog’s skull he’d found because “I just thought it was kind of cool.” Another picture the state had introduced was of a gold skull with wings. Damien identified that as a Harley-Davidson emblem he had.

Price asked why Damien had borrowed
Cotton Mather on Witchcraft
from the library.

“Just to read it,” he said. “Most people by looking at the cover, they would think it was a witchcraft book. It’s really an antiwitchcraft book. It was wrote by a Puritan minister. It was on different ways that during the persecution era, they used to find ways to torture people or keep them locked up until finally they would say, ‘Yeah, I’m a witch,’ and then they would kill them.”

When Price asked if Damien had a driver’s license or had ever driven a car, the teenager answered no to both questions. When Price asked if he’d discussed the murders at a girls’ softball game, Damien replied that he had been at the ballpark, but that he had not talked about the murders there. When Price asked Damien his opinion of the testimony by the cult expert, Dale Griffis, Damien calmly observed, “Some of it was okay, but he didn’t stop to differentiate between different groups. He just lumped them all together into one big group that he called cults.”

The lawyer continued. “As far as several things that Griffis was talking about yesterday—about satanism beliefs—are there any of those things that he was talking about that are your personal beliefs?”

“Not really,” Damien replied, though he added that he might share “some” characteristics with what Griffis had described. For example, the defendant said, “Some satanists may be arrogant, conceited, self-important. I might be that, but I’m not a satanist. I don’t believe in human sacrifices or anything like that.” Asked about the knife that was found in the lake, Damien said, “I had one sort of like that, but mine didn’t have a black handle. The handle on mine was camouflaged, and it had the camouflage case and everything. The blade on mine was black. It wasn’t silver like that.”

Asked how he’d felt during the past year, since being charged with the murders, Damien answered, “Different ways. Sometimes angry, when I see stuff on TV. Sometimes sad. Sometimes scared.” Asked about the time when he’d licked his lips at one of the pretrial hearings, he said, “I guess I just lost my temper, because, it was, like, when I went outside, everybody was out there, standing there calling me names, screaming at me, things like that. And I guess it just made me upset when I did that.”