Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt

Author:Mara Leveritt [Leveritt, Mara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, True Crime, Law, Criminal Law
ISBN: 9780743417600
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2002-10-08T00:58:27+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

The Motive

THE TRIAL WAS ENTERING ITS THIRD WEEK. Prosecutors Davis and Fogleman had welcomed the judge’s decision to bar evidence about other suspects. Still, their case was thin. In Jessie’s trial, they’d had a confession. Here they did not. Unable to call Jessie and unwilling to call young Aaron Hutcheson, the prosecutors had no eyewitness to the crime. And for physical evidence all they had were a few ordinary sticks from the woods, a couple of “similar” fibers, and the knife that was taken from the lake—nothing that directly linked the defendants to the murders. To some observers, their case was looking tenuous. Then, abruptly, Fogleman announced a motive.PROSECUTION SAYS KILLINGS CULT RELATED , theJonesboro Sun proclaimed.

The prosecutors had not suggested a motive in their opening statement to the jury. But now, the paper reported that Fogleman was expected to call “an expert in cult-related crimes” to testify. The decision triggered anotherin camera hearing, as Jason’s lawyer Paul Ford tried to block the approach. With the jury out of the room, Detective Ridge testified that he had believed from the start that the boys’ murders were linked to the occult. “The fact that there was overkill, more injuries to the boys’ bodies than what was needed to kill them,” he said, had led him to suspect a cult-related crime. The boys’ ages—eight, which Ridge said was a number used by witches in the Wicca religion—and his observation that “in cult-related killings, the victims will be males,” had supported his suspicion. Aaron Hutcheson’s statements had reinforced his belief. “Plus,” he said, “there was damage to the left side of one of the boys’ faces, which is a sign of the occult.” Ridge testified that when he’d questioned Damien, the teenager’s responses had further heightened his suspicions.

Burnett asked Ford and Fogleman, “Can either one of you define ‘occult’ for me?”

“Well,” Ford said, “we can get Webster’s dictionary, Your Honor.”

“I don’t know what an occult is,” Burnett grumbled. “It sounds like something bad, but I’m not sure what it is.”

Price asked, “Is the state now stating that the motive is occult killing?”

“We have not made a final, firm decision,” Fogleman replied, “but at this point, I would say yes.”

Burnett asked Fogleman if he expected to link Jason “to occult activities.”

“Your Honor,” Fogleman said, “that is something that will have to be talked about with the expert. It is my understanding that part of the involvement deals with obsession with heavy metal music, change in forms of dress, wearing all black. And I believe the proof would show that he had fifteen black T-shirts with the heavy metal thing. And he had some kind of animal, either claws or teeth—I think they said they were claws—in his possession.”

Jason’s other lawyer, Robin Wadley, shook his head in disbelief. “Judge, if it’s the state’s position that owning black T-shirts with rock bands on them meets the court’s burden…is that fact alone enough?”

But Fogleman said there was more. “We have the testimony that Michael Carson gave

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