Beast of New Castle by Sells Larry & Porter Margie

Author:Sells, Larry & Porter, Margie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WildBlue Press
Published: 2020-02-17T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24—A Defensive Attack

Douglas Percy had told Sergeant David Phillips of the Indianapolis Police Department that he witnessed the shooting deaths of Robert Beeler and Melvin Hillis in the office of the car lot owned by Hillis at 5550 Brookville Road in Indianapolis. Phillips wrote, “Among the evidence recovered when the crime scene was processed were several 9mm shell casings and spent 9mm bullets.”

From his March 18, 1992, interview of Percy, Sergeant Phillips learned that “after Hillis and Beeler had been shot, Thompson went through their pockets and removed cash, a wallet, and keys from the man who had been seated at the desk against the south wall of the office. Thompson then removed cash and a wallet from the man who had been seated at the desk against the west wall as he lay shot on the floor.”

Thompson then fled the lot in a dark-blue 1978 El Dorado. That El Dorado, Thompson’s most recent purchase, bore a paper plate in the driver’s side rear window with dealer identification number 4908 M. Another witness identified the car.

Percy related what happened to the cash, wallets, and key rings. Those objects were evidence and Thompson wasted no time getting rid of them. Percy said, “Jerry took the cash from the wallets and the keys from the brown leather key ring. He then burned the wallets and their contents into ash with a cutting torch. He melted the keys by placing them on a concrete block and heating them with the torch.”

So, proof of the robbery may have been eliminated, but Sells and Commons had the murder weapon lying in plain view of the jury. And they could document its journey to the courtroom. Witnesses and paperwork confirmed that the gun had belonged to Wesley Crandall. Thompson had been convicted of Crandall’s murder.

The gun was used a month later to slay Hillis and Beeler and three months after that, it was seized from beneath Thompson’s seat by Illinois State Police.

“Every step of the way,” Sells stated, “this gun comes back to one person: Jerry Thompson. Is that right?” Percy said it was.

The testimony of Sergeant David Phillips added credence to the story, just in case there could be any doubt.

On June 6, 1991, Thompson and Percy were stopped in Illinois for a traffic violation. Illinois State Police Officer Kelly Hulsey seized two weapons. Percy said that the guns were a Mac-1 and the black semi-automatic pistol that Jerry Thompson had used to shoot both Robert Beeler and Melvin Hillis.

Having received this information, Sergeant Phillips moved quickly. It turned out that the guns were slated for destruction. Phillips reported, “On March 19, 1992, Detective Thomas Minor and I drove to Illinois State Police Post 12 in Heartland, Illinois. Upon our arrival there we met Sergeant Don Ziegler of the Illinois State Police. Sergeant Ziegler gave us a Stallard 9mm pistol, black in color and an SWD 9mm Mac-11 semi-automatic pistol. Sergeant Ziegler identified those pistols as the ones seized from Jerry Thompson and his

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