Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Hi all :) This is a local SK case here in Hampton Roads, I had planned
on trying to attend the trial, today though it was announced the Judge
granted a change of Venue due to the publicity around this case, so I
will not be able to attend the trial in person. Here is a case summary
of this case, it may seem familiar to some of you, I did a profile on
this case back in Houston, before they had arressted anyone for the
murders.
Elton Jackson, charged with the 1996 strangulation death of Andrew D.
``Andre'' Smith, has been linked through newly released court documents
and DNA evidence to at least six of a dozen men thought to be the
victims of a serial killer in Hampton Roads.
Jackson, the prime suspect in the murders, which stretch back to 1987,
had previously been linked to at least four victims. Evidence released
this month reveals that he was acquainted with two additional victims.
In fact, Jackson was investigated as a suspect as early as 1994, after
the body of a ninth victim was found dumped in a deserted roadway,
according to these court documents. Suffolk police questioned him four
times that year.
Jackson, 42, is scheduled to stand trial on April 21 in the murder of
Smith, who is thought to be the most recent victim of the serial killer.
DNA evidence shows that Jackson's semen was in Smith's body when it was
found and that Smith's DNA was on cigarettes found in Jackson's car,
according to court documents.
Jackson, through his attorneys, has denied killing Andrew Smith or being
the Hampton Roads serial killer. He remains in the Portsmouth jail in
lieu of $1 million bond.
Since Jackson's arrest in May last year, detectives on a regional task
force have been trying to connect Jackson with other victims, according
to court documents.
According to The Virginian-Pilot's analysis of those documents and
interviews with witnesses, there are links between Jackson and five
other victims:
Jesse James Spencer Jr., 30, whose nude body was found in a ditch off
Jolliff Road in the Western Branch section on Jan. 27, 1996. In an
interview last week, a woman who worked at a convenience store with
Jackson said she last saw Spencer getting into Jackson's vehicle the
night before his body was found. Another court witness has said Jackson
and Spencer knew each other.
Garland L. Taylor Jr., a 24-year-old Portsmouth brickmason whose body
was found in a Suffolk ditch on Sept. 17, 1994. Jackson told Suffolk
police that he saw Garland two weeks before his death and that he had
known him three or four years.
Robert A. Neal, 24, a Portsmouth resident who was found dead in a remote
section of Chesapeake on Sept. 8, 1993. Jackson told Suffolk police in
1994 that he used to play tennis with Neal and that he let him stay at
his house for a short while.
Reginald Joyner, 32, who was found March 7, 1993, near Greenwood and
Holy Neck roads in Suffolk. DNA taken from blood and semen on the
bedding in Jackson's Portsmouth home match Joyner's DNA.
Charles F. ``Chuckie'' Smith, 18, of Ocean View, Norfolk, who was found
slain in a remote section of Chesapeake on July 17, 1987, and may have
been the serial killer's first victim. Two inmates said that Jackson had
known Smith. One said Jackson and Smith had a sexual relationship, and
the other said Smith was with Jackson the night he disappeared.
The murder cases share other similarities. Many of the victims were
known to be homosexual or bisexual, and some prostituted for drugs.
Their lifestyles, and Jackson's, tended to revolve around late-night
clubs and hangouts in the downtown and Ocean View areas of Norfolk, and
the Truxtun area of Portsmouth.
At least 10 of the 12 victims were strangled. Two were too badly
decomposed when found to determine the cause of death. All but one were
found nude.
Gloria Gaylord, who used to work with Jackson at a Quick Shop
convenience store on Portsmouth Boulevard, may also testify during the
trial. Jackson has told police that he met Andrew Smith at the store,
which is a short distance from Jackson's home.
Gaylord also saw Jackson with one of the other victims.
In an interview last week, Gaylord said she may have been one of the
last people to see Spencer alive. Spencer is considered to be the 11th
victim of the serial killer.
On Friday, Jan. 26, 1996 -- one day before Spencer's body was found --
Gaylord saw him get into Jackson's vehicle outside her home on 34th
Street in Norfolk. She had given Spencer, her friend and neighbor, money
for beer. The last she knew, he was going on a date with Jackson.
`That Friday night, Jesse came up and we were talking. (Spencer) said:
`I got a date for tonight,' '' said Gaylord.
She said she knew that Jackson had gone out with a lot of men and that
he often met them at the Quick Shop. ``He had a lot of people come by,''
she said.
On Sunday, Jan. 28, 1996, Detective Cecil Whitehurst of the Chesapeake
Police Department knocked on her door. Whitehurst, a member of the
serial killer task force, would take over as lead investigator four
months later.
He told Gaylord that Spencer's nude body had been found in the Western
Branch section of Chesapeake near Interstate 664. Had she seen Spencer
recently? he asked.
``I said, `What? Oh, my God,' '' she said. She told him what she knew.
Another witness also ties Jackson to Spencer. Kevin Benton, who
testified in court that Jackson once tried to strangle him with a strap
during a failed sexual encounter, has said that Jackson and Spencer knew
each other.
Prosecutors are currently waiting for a decision by Circuit Judge Johnny
E. Morrison on whether Benton and two other witnesses can testify
against Jackson at the trial in an effort to show a past pattern of
attempts to strangle people. Those other two witnesses have also said
that Jackson tried to choke them during sexual encounters.
Prosecutors also are waiting for the judge to decide on whether DNA
evidence can be used at the trial.
Prosecutors will try to link Jackson to Andrew Smith through semen found
in Smith's body. FBI lab reports say that the DNA taken from the semen
closely matches Jackson's DNA. Jackson was required to submit to hair,
blood and fingernail testing when he was arrested.
The report says the chances of that semen being from any other African
American are 1 in 470,000.
Jackson's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Brenda Spry, pointed out in a
recent court hearing that other DNA and forensic tests were inconclusive
or absent. Those tests included tire tracks near Andrew Smith's body
that did not match Jackson's vehicle and carpet fibers from Jackson's
house that did not match fibers on Andrew Smith.
Spry also pointed out that none of Andrew Smith's hair was found at
Jackson's house and that swatches of fabric from Jackson's vehicle had
none of Smith's DNA. Forensic experts also could not find Jackson's
fingerprints on the victim's body.
During an interview with police, after being confronted with the DNA
evidence, Jackson said: ``Oh, Lord. Uh-uh. I ain't never hurt nobody in
my life. I don't believe this.''
Prosecutors also will attempt to admit DNA evidence that links Reginald
Joyner, who was killed in March 1993, to Jackson -- again to show a
pattern with the suspect.
When authorities searched Jackson's home after his arrest in May 1997,
they took Jackson's bedding. On that material they found, through DNA
testing, Joyner's blood.
The FBI lab report says the chances of finding another African American
with the same DNA profile as Joyner are 1 in 3.2 billion. Joyner was
black.
The thick DNA report in the court file says that testing was done on 10
of the 12 murder victims. Other than the DNA links between Jackson and
Andrew Smith and Joyner, there were no matches to the other eight
victims.
Prosecutors, defense attorneys and investigators have repeatedly
declined requests for interviews about the case against Jackson.
Prosecutors fear that excessive publicity will force the judge handling
the case to order that the trial be moved to another jurisdiction,
according to court statements.
Jackson's court file also provides a glimpse into the early stages of
the investigation. That file shows that Jackson was a suspect long
before he was charged with Andrew Smith's murder.
For example, Suffolk police interviewed Jackson four times in the weeks
following the murder of Garland L. Taylor Jr., whose body was found in
Suffolk on Sept. 17, 1994. In those interviews, Jackson was also asked
about Robert A. Neal, another suspected victim of the serial killer, who
was murdered a year earlier and dumped in Suffolk.
On Sept. 20, 1994, Jackson told a Suffolk detective that he had known
Taylor for three or four years, and that he had last seen him two weeks
earlier. That prompted a series of questions:
``Has Garland ever been to your house?'' the detective asked.
``No, just to tennis, sometimes to cut grass or borrow money,'' Jackson
said.
``Where do you play tennis?'' the detective asked.
``Norfolk Community Park,'' Jackson said.
``Has Garland ever taken anything from you?'' the detective asked.
``No,'' Jackson said.
``Are you gay?'' the detective asked.
``Yes,'' Jackson said.
``Have you ever had relations with Garland?'' the detective asked.
``No,'' Jackson said, adding that he didn't know Taylor's sexual
orientation.
In a second interview 10 days later with the same detective, Jackson
changed his story.
Jackson was shown a poster with pictures of all the suspected victims of
the serial killer to date.
Jackson initially said he did not recognize any of them. When the
detective pointed to a photo of Robert Neal, Jackson said that he had
played tennis with him years ago, but that he had not seen him since
1990 or 1991.
In this statement, Jackson at first said that Neal had not visited him.
Later, he said Neal had stayed with him a short time when he had nowhere
else to live.
The statement also mentions a man named Steve Freeman, whom Jackson
described as his roommate for about nine months. Jackson told the
detective that Freeman used to hustle homosexual men to get money for
drugs and that he felt used by Freeman. He said Freeman had moved to
Maryland.
During the third statement, taken by phone the following day, Jackson
described to the detective his sex life with Freeman.
``Would Steve get violent with you?'' the detective asked.
``No, big baby, I still love him,'' Jackson said.
During the last statement, a week later, the detective continued
questioning Jackson about Freeman. The short interview ended after the
detective asked Jackson for Freeman's phone number in Maryland.
Efforts by The Virginian-Pilot to locate Freeman have been unsuccessful.
During later interviews after Jackson's arrest in May, Jackson was
questioned by Whitehurst of the task force about other possible victims
of the serial killer. Jackson denied knowing victims Spencer and Samuel
Eugene Aliff.
Jackson's link to the man thought to be the first victim of the serial
killer, Charles F.``Chuckie'' Smith, includes court testimony last
September from a witness in the Andrew Smith case. That witness said he
last saw Charles Smith with Jackson the night the victim disappeared.
Andrew Smith and Charles Smith are not related.
In an interview last year with The Virginian-Pilot, John Hogge Jr., an
inmate at Rustburg Correctional Center, also linked Jackson to Charles
Smith.
Hogge, Charles Smith's best friend when the two lived in Norfolk's Ocean
View section in the 1980s, said that Jackson and Charles Smith used to
get together for sex in the months before Smith's strangulation death in
1987.
Hogge said several months ago that authorities investigating the serial
killer case had not contacted him.
--
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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