Jessica Currin Media Links Only

[Pauli]

Mayfield's trial in grisly death starting 8 years later

Witnesses' accounts kept changing, conflict at times


MAYFIELD, Ky. -- Eight years after 18-year-old Jessica Currin was found beaten, strangled, stabbed and burned behind Mayfield Middle School, prosecutors this month will begin the trials of a second set of defendants for the crime.
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Jessica Currin, shown at age 18, was murdered in July 2000 in Mayfield, Ky.
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Quincy Omar Cross, 31, of Tiptonville, Tenn., will be tried first on charges that include complicity to murder, kidnapping, rape and sodomy.

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Jeffery Allen Burton, 28, of West Paducah, was going to be tried with Cross but now will be prosecuted at a later date.

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Tamara C. Caldwell, 28, of Mayfield, who will be tried with Burton, is being held at the Crittenden County Detention Center.

Murder charges against two previous suspects were dropped in 2003 after a flawed police investigation in which potentially key pieces of evidence were lost or destroyed.

Special prosecutors from the attorney general's office now are seeking the death penalty for three other people -- Quincy Omar Cross, Jeffery Allen Burton and Tamara C. Caldwell -- who they allege are responsible for Currin's rape, sodomy and murder during a drug-fueled orgy.

The Kentucky Bureau of Investigation, which took over the case from local and state police over the past few years, has conducted an investigation so massive that the results -- witness statements, forensic reports and other documentary evidence -- fill more than 200 CDs and 70 DVDs, the equivalent of tens of thousands of pages.

But in court papers, defense lawyers say the prosecution's key witnesses -- then-teenaged girls who say they were present when Currin was killed -- have given statements so riddled with inconsistencies that "it appears unlikely they were at the same event."

Victoria Caldwell and Vinisha Stubblefield, who pleaded guilty to lesser offenses in exchange for plea bargains, have provided dramatically conflicting -- and changing -- accounts of every aspect of the crime, from Currin's abduction to the disposal of her body, according to the records.

In the most glaring example, Victoria Caldwell, who is Tamara's cousin and was 15 at the time of the crime, initially described Burton, who is white, as African American. Later, she said he was white.

Stubblefield, who was 17 when Currin was killed, initially told police that she and other defendants hauled the body from Burton's home to the school on a bicycle -- a story that one agent found so improbable that he asked sarcastically if perhaps the body was transported on horseback. Stubblefield later said she didn't remember how the body was moved.

And when pressed on a motive for the murder, Victoria Caldwell alleged that a Mayfield assistant police chief had Cross kill Currin because she was about to tell his wife that she was pregnant by him. But an autopsy showed Currin wasn't pregnant.

"The people who did this need to be punished, but they need to make sure they've got the right ones," said Ronnie Lear, the former assistant chief, who was never charged in the case and said he passed several polygraphs showing he wasn't involved. "I hope to God they are not basing their case on those two girls' statements."

Assistant Attorney General Scott Crawford-Sutherland, one of several prosecutors assigned to the case, declined to comment, citing a judge's order.

But in a dramatic turnaround last week, his office, which previously planned to try all three defendants together starting tomorrow, won an order to try Cross first, and to try Burton and Tamara Caldwell, against whom it has less evidence, later. Jury selection is scheduled to begin March 18 in Cross' case.

The move was surprising because the prosecution had twice opposed motions by Burton and Tamara Caldwell for separate trials.

Cross' trial before Judge Timothy Stark was moved to Hickman County from Graves County because of pretrial publicity.

The 5 charged
Cross, 31, and Burton and Tamara Caldwell, both 28, are charged with complicity to capital kidnapping, murder, rape, sodomy, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence, for allegedly trying to conceal Currin's body. Cross is also charged with four counts of intimidating witnesses.

The defendants are being held in local jails, each on $1 million bail.

Victoria Caldwell and Stubblefield pleaded guilty last May to abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence. They agreed to testify against the others in return for sentences of five and seven years, respectively, though they haven't yet been sentenced.

Victoria Caldwell has been moved to safe houses around the country under Kentucky's witness protection program, and Stubblefield is lodged in Christian County Jail, according to court records.

Currin's father, Joe, a retired Mayfield fire captain who now works for the state Transportation Department, said he and his wife, Jean, will attend the trials.

"It won't bring her back," he said of the trials, "but it will get her the justice she is due."

The couple have adopted Currin's son, Zion, who was 7 months old when she was killed. They are raising the boy, now a 7-year-old second-grader, as their son, and have told him Jessica was his sister.

"One day we will tell him what happened," Joe Currin said, "when it is appropriate."

Witness accounts differ
Pair contradicted selves, each other

The re-investigation seemed to be going nowhere until January 2007, when Victoria Caldwell, then 22, responded to a Web site run by an amateur sleuth in Mayfield who had been trying for years to solve the crime.

Caldwell, who had moved to California, indicated she had some information that could help.

KBI agents Lee Wise and Robert O'Neil flew out to interview her, and after initially denying any role, she ultimately, over at least four interviews, told this story:

Late on the night of July 29, 2000, she said, Jessica Currin, whom she and Stubblefield knew as a friend, was abducted off the street, forced into a white Cadillac and taken to Burton's house. There, Cross hit her over the head with a blunt object and choked her with a belt as he forced her to perform oral sex on him while Burton raped her.

Victoria Caldwell said she, her cousin and Stubblefield also performed sex acts on Currin, both before and after Currin died, then had sex with each other, as well as with Cross and Burton. She said that they hid the body in a shed behind Burton's house until it began to smell two days later, and that they dumped it at the middle school and burned it to destroy evidence.

Stubblefield initially denied she was present but eventually confirmed the gist of Victoria Caldwell's account, according to a transcript of her statement.

State police Detective Sam Steger told a grand jury that Stubblefield's story was "very consistent" with Victoria Caldwell's. "You could pretty much sit them side by side and they're identical statements," he said.

But a comparison of their statements shows at least a dozen contradictions.
For example:
Stubblefield said Cross threatened Currin with a gun inside the car; Caldwell says Cross hit Currin's head with a bat. Caldwell said Currin was unconscious when they got to Burton's house; Stubblefield said she walked in on her own.

Stubblefield said Tamara Caldwell was the first to hit Currin with a bat; Victoria Caldwell said it was Cross. Stubblefield said Cross took off Currin's clothes; Victoria Caldwell said Burton did it.

Stubblefield said Burton had oral sex with Currin; Victoria Caldwell said it was vaginal sex.

Stubblefield said Currin's body was taken to the school in a blue Pontiac; Victoria Caldwell said it was in the Cadillac.

Both witnesses also repeatedly changed their statements as they were questioned.

Victoria Caldwell, for example, first denied she had sex with the corpse, then admitted it. She first said she ran home in horror after the body was burned, then said she got a ride. She first said Cross helped dump the body, then said he wasn't there.

In an assertion that seemed most troubling to investigators, she initially said the body was immediately removed from the house, and that she was approached the next day and asked about the murder, as if it had already been publicly reported.

Only after the prosecutor, Crawford-Sutherland, noted that the body wasn't discovered for two days -- "Something is not adding up," he said -- did Caldwell amend her remarks to say that the body was put in the shed first.

Stubblefield, now 24, gave so many conflicting accounts that agents interviewing her repeatedly called her a liar.

She initially said Currin got in the car voluntarily, then said Cross forced her inside. She initially said Currin was struck in the head with a small metal baseball bat. But after agents told her that souvenir bats aren't made in metal, she said it might have been a wrench.

Regarding the gasoline used to start the fire that burned Currin, she first said Cross got it in a pop bottle, but after Wise told her, "Don't get that confused," she said Burton got it in a red gas can.

And she initially said Victoria Caldwell poured the gas on the body. Then she said she did it before switching back to saying Victoria did it.

At one point, Wise begged her to tell the truth. "I want you to ... release that evil demon that you've hidden inside of you," he said. "The demon of lying."

Court papers filed by the defense suggest theprosecution may try to explain the inconsistent statements by saying Stubblefield and Victoria Caldwell were afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder and rape trauma syndrome in reaction to a life-threatening situation.

Other evidence
Cross was stopped day after murder

In court papers, the attorney general's office also cites other evidence, much of it involving Cross.

The morning after the murder, he was found by a deputy jailer next to a stalled car, smelling of gasoline, with a gas can inside the vehicle, according to a police report in which he was charged with possession of narcotics. The report noted that Cross wasn't wearing a shirt or a belt.

According to other court documents, witnesses at a party he attended the night before said they saw him waving a belt like the one found around Currin's neck.

According to KBI agents, Cross also told a deputy sheriff who joined the deputy jailer at the scene that he was concerned he'd be charged in Currin's murder because he smelled of gas.

But at that point, Currin's body hadn't even been discovered, the agents said, and nobody knew it had been doused with gas and set afire.

Prosecutors also have said they will present jailhouse witnesses who will testify that Cross implicated himself in the murder. And they'll offer two witnesses who will testify that Cross, a 10th-grade dropout with a long criminal record, had a pattern of choking women.

In an interview with agents, Cross said his first criminal charge was for assaulting a girlfriend he said stole money from him. "I damn near choked her out," he said.

But in two long statements to police, Cross denied any part in Currin's murder. He admitted he'd hit women before -- "Yeah, hell yeah, yeah!" he said. But "killing, that's a whole another level, man."

He also said he didn't know Currin: "I never met the chick, never saw the chick and when I seen the chick, she was already newspaper dead."

His lawyer, Vince Yustas, declined to comment on Cross' defense.

But a review of the records shows that the deputy sheriff didn't mention the alleged comment that seems to implicate Cross, either in an arrest report or another report 11 days later. It didn't surface until 2006, according to a KBI memo.

The defense also may offer an innocent explanation for Cross smelling of gas: Records show the jailer who found Cross said he saw him spilling gas on himself as he tried to pour it into the vehicle, which had run out of gas.

For their part, prosecutors Crawford-Sutherland and Barbara Maines Whaley may try to bolster Victoria Caldwell's testimony with entries from a diary in which she allegedly wrote on Aug. 1, 2000: "Damn they found the body, man. I hope they don't find out it was us."

Court papers show they also may note that the blunt object they allege was used to hit Currin was found buried behind a house in Ballard County, near where Victoria Caldwell said it would be.

But defense counsel has ready rebuttals.

The record shows that the wrench had no blood on it -- or anything else linking it to the crime -- and none of the witnesses described the weapon as a wrench until after one was found in the junk-strewn yard. Police didn't even collect the wrench initially because "we were not aware that it had any evidentiary value to the case," Steger wrote in a report.

The defense also has questioned the authenticity of the diary entries, suggesting they were written recently.

In interrogations, Burton and Tamara Caldwell have asserted their innocence. Caldwell told a court-appointed psychologist that she turned down a plea bargain because "I didn't do it and they have nothing against me."

Although one of Victoria Caldwell's cousins, Rosie Crice, told KBI agents that Burton confessed to her during a relationship they had over the past few years, Crice since has recanted her statement and said she hasn't seen Burton since high school, according to an interview that she gave to an investigator for one of Burton's lawyers, Mark Bryant.

Stubblefield also recanted her allegations that Burton was present at the crime scene, saying she gave that statement initially only because agents threatened her with the death penalty -- "a needle in my arm" -- unless she cooperated.

"To be honest," she said, "I ain't never seen Jeffery that night."
Neither Crice nor Stubblefield responded to requests for comment.

Experts weigh in
Earlier chargesshould aid defense

Criminal law experts not involved in the case say that defense counsel will be able to capitalize on the previous prosecution to create a reasonable doubt about their clients' guilt.

"It will be enormously valuable to the defense if they can get the jury to see that the government previously thought somebody else was responsible," said Kent Wicker, a former federal prosecutor.

The prosecution is expected to allege that Victoria Caldwell implicated the earlier defendants only because Cross threatened to kill her and others unless they threw suspicion away from him and onto the two men originally charged.

Jeremy Adams and Carlos Sexton were indicted on charges of complicity in Currin's murder about six months after the crime. Adams fathered Currin's child, and she had dated Sexton.

But a judge dismissed the charges, saying that local police and prosecutors had failed to turn over evidence that suggested the men were innocent. Mayfield police then were criticized in the media and by other law enforcement officers for discarding remnants of Currin's clothing and for allowing her apartment to be cleaned before it could be searched.

Lear, who had supervised that investigation, is now an insurance salesman and Methodist minister and said he's been subpoenaed to testify by the prosecution and the defense.

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200 (http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080302/NEWS02/803020481)80302/NEWS02/803020481 (http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080302/NEWS02/803020481)

[Pauli]

The witnesses


March 2, 2008



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Vinisha Stubblefield, of Mayfield, who was 17 at the time of Jessica Currin's murder, pleaded guilty last May to abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in exchange for a seven-year sentence. She hasn't been sentenced yet but has started serving her time at Christian County Jail. She changed her story so often when she was interrogated that authorities accused her repeatedly of lying.



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Victoria Caldwell, of Mayfield, who was 15 at the time of the crime, also pleaded guilty to the reduced charges in exchange for a five-year term. She is Tamara Caldwell's cousin. She hasn't been sentenced yet, and the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation, because of concerns about her safety, has moved her around the country. Her story has changed on some key points as she has been interviewed multiple times by law enforcement officials. She said she and Stubblefield were friends of Currin.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080302/NEWS01/803020470


2 Plead Guilty In Jessica Currin Murder Trial


Video
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/2-plead-guilty-in-jessica-currin-murder-trial/306400815

[Pauli]

A small-town murder

July 15, 2004

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Jean and Joe Currin with a photograph of their murdered daughter.
Picture:Krystal Kinnunen

When a young mother was murdered in a typically middle-American township, it seemed everyone - even the police - was looking the other way. Tom Mangold reports.

When patrolman Tim Fortner first saw her he thought she was a discarded shop window mannequin. The shape lying on the grass next to Mayfield Middle School side-entrance was bald and it looked as if the plastic frame had begun to melt in the hot sun.

Then he saw the flies. He retched as he came closer. It was the fast-decomposing body of a black, teenage girl. Her clothes and skin were badly burned, blisters covered her arms, her pants had been ripped off and lay by her side.

Her face was a dreadful death mask of pain, her eyes bulging, her entire tongue forced all the way out of her mouth. There were deep bludgeon marks to the back of her head; another blow had broken her nose. The burned remains of a black belt were tight around her throat; a plastic bottle smelling of petrol was at her feet. Jessica Currin, 18, the daughter of Mayfield's local fire chief, had been bludgeoned, stabbed, strangled and burned. They never did work out the actual cause of death.

Fortner, a 31-year-old with the Mayfield Police Department, stared at the body for several minutes. He had never, ever seen anything like this. His police background was minimal: he had been a deputy jailer before joining the force and he had completed his education without a degree.


So imagine his surprise when he was brusquely informed that he, patrolman Fortner, a man who had never had a single day's training as an investigator, would be in charge of the case.

"I didn't have a clue what to do next," he recalls. "I had no idea how to organise a crime scene or look for forensic evidence. Frankly, I was scared stiff. Looking back on it now, I can only imagine I was chosen because someone didn't want this case solved."

If that is the truth, then that bizarre hope was to be fulfilled.

The crime scene was brimming with forensic evidence. A substantial swatch of hair, seemingly torn from a human head, lay six metres from Currin's corpse. It was labelled No. 9 by Fortner but it never got as far as the police station. It was lost or stolen and has never been seen again.The crime scene was brimming with forensic evidence. A substantial swatch of hair, seemingly torn from a human head, lay six metres from Currin?s corpse.Materials including DNA from her nails, strands of hair in her hand, the plastic bottle with petrol in it, all the stuff that was saved and taken for examination revealed not a single useful fingerprint, not a single clue, nothing.

Once inside Mayfield Police station, the boxes of evidence became contaminated with evidence from other cases, more of it was lost or misplaced and two rape-swab tests from other crimes found their way into the Currin boxes.
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Jeremy Adams is visited in jail by his mother Donna.

From its inception, the Jessica Currin murder investigation made the Keystone Cops look like Sherlock Holmes in top form.

Not that there wasn't plenty of local gossip to help the murder inquiry along. Mayfield, Kentucky, small-town America, 10,000 souls: everyone has kin in this bible-belt heartland. Mayfield Kentucky, a small town curling at the edges with insufficient work for a largely blue-collar population.

Fortner's investigation meandered on, yet despite the feast of forensic evidence that was not mislaid or misfiled, there was no breakthrough. The body was such a mess and the pudenda so burned that neither sexual assault nor rape could be positively established.

Fortner's boss, Assistant Police Chief Ronnie Lear, seemed unconcerned. If Fortner was a bit of a new monkey, Lear was the organ grinder, an experienced detective who "kept a close eye" on Fortner's bumbling efforts.

The girl had been murdered on the night of July 30-31, 2000. It took six months before the first big break came.

Jessica Currin had a son called Zion. She believed the father to be a young white man called Jeremy Adams. Adams is a petty criminal, small-time drug user with a sociopathic personality disorder. He was free on the night of the murder but went to prison the following day on unrelated matters. The word in Mayfield's bazaars was that Currin had been threatening to tell Adams's current girlfriend that he had fathered Zion.

This, it was claimed, might have been the motive for Adams to bludgeon, stab, strangle and silence Currin. Adams was in jail in January 2001 when Fortner visited him there and showed him the scene of crime pictures "to see if it would help his memory".

This was an unheard-of investigative ploy, given that Adams would always be a logical suspect. The pictures are horrific and it was not a complete surprise that, having seen them, a shocked Adams couldn't wait to describe them to his cellmate, one Jessie Roberts, another small-time crook, and known "snitch" (police informer).

Within days, Roberts informed his jailer that Adams had talked about the murder in a way which suggested he knew a great deal (which of course he did, having seen the pictures).

On the basis of this single piece of evidence, a grand jury was convened and duly recommended the indictment of Adams for the murder of Jessica Currin. On February 15, 2001, the 20- year-old was charged with murder, tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.

One year later the trial began, and the Adams case collapsed on the first day after it was discovered that Fortner and the Mayfield Police had withheld some 18 crucial pieces of evidence from the defence. The judge was so angry that he threatened to jail Fortner for his ineptitude.

The evidence "hidden" from the defence was damning. It showed, among other new truths, that Fortner, in his lumbering and inexperienced way, had actually been running a parallel investigation into Jessica's murder, had found two likely suspects and had almost certainly begun to stumble across the real truth. This is that two men, free to this day, had almost certainly picked her up on the night of the murder, sexually assaulted her, and when she protested, one of them bludgeoned, stabbed, strangled and burned her to death, probably in a cocaine-induced rage.

Two and a half years after the humiliating collapse of his case against Adams, Fortner himself resigned and a new Currin murder investigation was handed over to a professional investigator, Detective Jamie Mills of the Kentucky State Police. But even then no progress ensued.

Then, a few weeks ago, I received an unsolicited email from a concerned Mayfield resident asking if, as an investigative reporter, I would look at the Currin murder case.

It didn't require a very great reporting talent - just a lot of shoe leather - to go and see all the main parties, read original depositions taken by Fortner, talk to the lawyers and the main witnesses and put two and two together to realise that not only had Adams been framed by lazy policemen, but that Currin had clearly been murdered by others.

On the Saturday evening of her death, Currin had spent the night with a friend, Vinisha Stubblefield, allegedly playing cards until the two parted company in the early hours of Sunday.

Currin started to walk the 2.4 kilometres back to her apartment in Mayfield. No one has admitted seeing her alive again. That same night, Greg Starks was holding a party in Chris Drive, Mayfield.

In fact there were several parties taking place in the mixed-race street on that summer's evening. Of the seven young people who have admitted being at Starks's party, one, Quincy Omar Cross, a 25-year-old black man from out of town, quickly caught everyone's attention.

Cross spent some of the time at Chris Drive. The party had ample supplies of liquor and there is evidence of cocaine use. There were seven people present, occasionally sober, mostly drunk, often comatose, frequently in bedrooms. It was that kind of party.

According to Starks, Cross's behaviour for parts of the night was bizarre. "He kept saying he wanted to find women; he said it over and over again. He was ‘wired' and never stopped talking," Starks told police.

In the course of an evening blurred by witnesses' failing memories, sleep, drug and alcohol highs and lows, Cross moved in and out of 597 Chris Drive. About 5am, the priapic Cross suddenly asked Starks if he could borrow his car, a blue Pontiac because "I've got to see one of my girls".

Starks says that Cross borrowed his car at about daybreak, and returned about two hours later stinking of petrol. Starks is certain that Cross was no longer wearing the black leather belt he had been playing with before the car ride. He has said that the belt is precisely like the one found around Currin's neck.

By one of those truly remarkable coincidences, after Cross borrowed Starks's blue Pontiac, the car, with Cross at the wheel had the misfortune not only to break down but to be spotted by a deputy sheriff, Mike Perkins. It was about 7.50am.

We don't know what Cross did in that two hours during which he had the car, but when Perkins started questioning Cross in the broken-down vehicle he noticed that the driver's trousers reeked of petrol.

Cross gave Perkins a false name, false date of birth and false social security number. Perkins noticed that Cross wore no belt. There was a small red petrol can on the back seat of the car. It did not belong to Starks, the owner of the car, and had not been in the car when he loaned it to Cross.

Perkins allowed Cross to walk back to Chris Drive, (where he was later arrested for a drugs offence).

Shortly after Cross returned on his own without the car, a second man, Austin Leech, arrived at Chris Drive. Cross and Leech had a long, whispered conversation, and Leech left. Later it transpired that Leech had a white Cadillac, which for reasons still unexplained, was driven by Leech and hidden behind Starks's house that night.

Cross and Leech and their two cars are at the centre of what police now believe happened to Currin. The evidence is forensic and strongly circumstantial, but a thousand times firmer than the absurd "case" against Jeremy Adams.

I have discovered that Starks kept a small souvenir baseball "slugger" bat, made of hardwood, under the front seat of his car. That bat has been missing since Cross borrowed the vehicle. I have informed the police accordingly. They had had no clue as to the weapon that was used to bludgeon Currin.

So what did happened to Currin on that terrible night? Some of the mist is beginning to clear, some remains. Much of what really happened turns on the evidence of her friend Stubblefield, the last person to admit seeing her alive after an evening of cards together.

The two parted about 1.50am, claimed Stubblefield, and never met again. But shortly after Stubblefield made this statement, another young girl, Victoria Caldwell - a friend of Stubblefield's - told Fortner a different story. She claimed that Stubblefield had told her that after Stubblefield and Currin parted company, a white car with two men in it, had turned up, picked her (Stubblefield) up, and she in turn had directed the car towards where Currin was walking home. The white car then picked Currin up, but there was an argument between Currin and the occupants, so Stubblefield got out because she didn't want to be involved. End of different Stubblefield story. Fortner believed then (and still believes) that Stubblefield may have been somehow involved in the murder of Currin.

On Caldwell's evidence, Fortner arrested Stubblefield nine weeks after the murder, and charged her with hindering the prosecution case. But following Stubblefield's arrest, Caldwell, the only witness against her, started receiving death threats advising her not to give evidence. Caldwell and her mother were placed in police safe houses but just before Stubblefield's trial, Caldwell recanted her original statement and the family fled Mayfield for California. The case against Stubblefield could not now be heard.

While in Mayfield, I discovered that a CD with Stubblefield's name on the cover had been found by police in the blue Pontiac after Cross had borrowed it. (I told the police, who were very interested.) How had that got in there on that night?

When I challenged her, Stubblefield betrayed no emotion. "I don't know", she answered levelly, "I have no idea".

Could it have been a disc she loaned her friend Currin, which could mean Currin had probably been in the car at some stage ? "I don't think so," she answered. And that was that.

Caldwell's still unproven allegation that Stubblefield may have been economical with the truth about that night makes some sense.

Coincidentally, the car hidden behind Starks's house on Chris Drive was indeed a white car, Austin Leech's old Cadillac.

Current police thinking is that there were two crime scenes, not one. If Currin was picked up in the car by someone desperate to find a woman that night, and sexual advances were made and rejected, one can construct a scene in which her life may have been in peril.

Police today are certain she was burned in order to destroy any DNA on her body. The main investigative difficulty remains in placing two men and two cars on that night in such a way that all the dots join up.

So was Adams set up? Was his cellmate Roberts induced or bribed to give evidence against him ? "Oh no," everyone told me. "Definitely not," said David Hargrove the Commonwealth Attorney, "Of course not," snapped Ronnie Lear, "Not to my knowledge," says a hesitant Tim Fortner.

But I have discovered otherwise. The last formal interview between Fortner and Roberts, the snitch, was both video and audio recorded. It was one of the tapes that Fortner "didn't think it worth giving to the defence". Now I know why.

The audio tape from which the written deposition was made reveals nothing about a deal between the police, the Commonwealth Attorney and the jailhouse snitch.

But the video is a different matter.

The camera was switched on moments before the separate audio was switched on. In that telling few seconds which have never been transcribed, Assistant Police Chief Ronnie Lear is heard concluding a deal with Roberts by which the snitch is absolved of serving some outstanding jail term in one county, and obligingly moved to a jail in another county to be nearer his family. And this in return for helping the police nobble Adams. These deals are legal only if declared to the court. This deal was not declared to the court.

When I spoke to Hargrove in his lush Mayfield office, he was friendly enough until I asked him if he recalled the Roberts deal. There was a long, long silence. "I don't know," he answered very slowly. "I can't answer that, I can't remember."

Lear, who was the lead interviewing officer when the deal was made, wouldn't even confirm to me at first that he had actually interviewed Jessie Roberts. "I can't remember," he said staring at the wall over my right shoulder. "I don't think I was there."

"But I've seen you on the video." Very long pause. "Well, if I'm on the video I'm on it," Lear said, "but I don't remember anything about an inducement. If anything was done I had no knowledge of it."

Tim Fortner is today a security guard at the local hospital. He works for small money. The case haunts him and he believes his life is in danger. He has bought, and has permission to carry, a concealed weapon.

Cross and Leech are the objects of a new and intense police investigation. But the hard truth remains that once the investigation changed focus from the two real suspects to the framing of an innocent man, the heart went out of the inquiry, and the trail has gone very cold.

Cross and Leech remain an uncomfortable presence in a town that seems unable to come to terms with itself.

This really is heartland America; there are so many good people here; many of their young men have gone to serve in Iraq, hopeful ambassadors of a way of life they are proud to export.

But Mayfield, so typically American, will remain a stained standard for the American way of life as long as it fails to answer some of the questions that surround a small-town murder.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/14/1089694425270.html

[Pauli]

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Last Update: 3/28 12:13 pm

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For up to the minute courtroom blogs and LIVE STREAMING VIDEO inside the courtroom- CLICK HERE (http://www.wpsdtv.com/content/currin/default.aspx).

It's day two of the high profile Jessica Currin murder trial in Hickman, Kentucky.

Quincy Omar Cross is one of three people accused of murdering Jessica Currin in Mayfield, Kentucky in 2000.

Our courtroom reporter, Jennifer Horbelt, will be following this story.

http://www.wpsdtv.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=90daa958-7be7-46ec-9e02-f9b2d3e09daf

[Pauli]

Testimony begins in murder trial
Tenn. man charged with killing western Ky. woman 8 years ago

CLINTON - Jurors have begun hearing testimony in the trial of a Tennessee man charged with killing a western Kentucky woman eight years ago.

Quincy Omar Cross of Tiptonville, Tenn., has pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping, rape and other charges in the slaying of 18-year-old Jessica Currin.

Her body was discovered in 2000 near a middle school in Mayfield.

Jurors heard testimony on Thursday from former teacher Tina Schlosser, who discovered Currin's body.

They also saw video taken by state police of Currin's burned and partially clothed body, the Paducah Sun reported on its Web site.

The circuit court in Hickman County, where the trial was moved because of pretrial publicity, began trying to seat a jury for the trial on March 18.

Cross is one of three people charged with killing Currin. Jeffrey Burton and Tamara Caldwell face trials on the same charges at a later date.

Two others, Victoria Caldwell and Vinisha M. Stubblefield, have pleaded guilty to lesser crimes and have agreed to testify against the three.

Jessica Currin's father, Joe Currin, came to think the police investigation of the murder was cursed, starting when police in this tiny western Kentucky town who had little familiarity with murder cases, made early arrests that were tossed out and were shaken by a corruption scandal.

Currin, a firefighter, stepped up his own efforts, enlisting the state's top prosecutor and bringing in civil rights groups to help keep up the pressure.
More than seven years after Jessica's death, five people were arrested.

Victoria Caldwell told state police that the five gave Jessica a ride home from a party in Mayfield on the night of the attack and Jessica refused Cross' sexual advances.

She said Jessica was taken to Burton's house, where she was raped, choked with a belt and beaten with what police think was a metal tool.

http://news.nky.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080328/NEWS0103/803280393

[Pauli]

Defendants In Currin Murder Trial To Be Tried Separately

video http://video.aol.com/video-detail/defendants-in-currin-murder-trial-to-be-tried-separately/2657414058

Currin Murder Trial Heats Up

video http://video.aol.com/video-detail/currin-murder-trial-heats-up/2875026388?icid=acvsv2

Currin Murder Trial Underway

video http://video.aol.com/video-detail/currin-murder-trial-underway/123791642?icid=acvsv4

[Pauli]

Prosecutor begins presenting case in W. Ky. murder

Last Update: 3/28 2:19 pm PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) - The family of a western Kentucky teen murdered eight years ago prayed together on the morning that her trial began.

The parents of Jessica Currin later took the stand and testified about the last day they saw their daughter alive.

The testimony came Thursday as prosecutors began presenting their case against defendant Quincy Omar Cross of Tiptonville, Tenn., after several days of jury selection.

Cross has pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping, rape and other charges in Currin's death.

Currin's body was found strangled, beaten, stabbed and burned on Aug. 1, 2000, on the back lawn of Mayfield Middle School.

During opening statements Thursday, prosecutor Barbara Whaley described the events leading up to Currin's murder and the witnesses that the jury would need to pay special attention to, including Vinisha Stubblefield and Victoria Caldwell, who were juveniles when the murder happened.

Caldwell and Stubblefield have pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse, and have agreed to testify against Cross and two others, Jeffrey Burton and Tamara Caldwell, who face trials on the same charges at a later date.

Whaley said the girls lied repeatedly to police, and will admit to it on the stand, because they were afraid of Cross.

Victoria Caldwell has told state police that the five gave Jessica a ride home from a party in Mayfield on the night of the attack and Jessica refused Cross' sexual advances. She said Jessica was taken to Burton's house, where she was raped, choked with a belt and beaten with what police believe was a metal tool.

The defense did not give an opening statement.

A string of witnesses were called on the first day of the trial, including the Currins, police officers who investigated the case and school employees who found the body.

Joe Currin testified that the last time he saw his daughter alive was July 29, 2000. The 18-year-old had just rented her own apartment and her father saw her there when he picked up her 7-month-old son for the evening.

Currin said he and his wife, Jean, began to worry when Jessica failed to attend church with them the next morning. Currin said they unsuccessfully tried to track her down.

Jean Currin said she identified her daughter's remains by the jewelry she was wearing.

Former Mayfield police officer Tim Fortner testified that investigators took an interest in Cross soon after the murder. But under questioning from defense attorney Vince Yustas, Fortner said there was never any physical evidence linking Cross to the crime.

The trial is being held in Hickman County due to pretrial publicity.
http://www.kypost.com/content/news/commonwealth/story.aspx?content_id=3dd8f23e-4bab-436e-b99b-963366e260ba

[Pauli]

Trial in Teen's Slaying After 8 Years


http://www.examiner.com/images/ap/small/small_8dcb9e7c-2b84-4da7-954f-38a3f36f2b42.jpg (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:popUpWinPP%28%27ShowPhoto.cfm?filename=/images/ap/8dcb9e7c-2b84-4da7-954f-38a3f36f2b42.jpg&caption=Joe%20Currin%20explains%20the%20long%20pol ice%20investigation%20into%20his%20daughter%20Jess ica%5C%27s%20murder%20nearly%20eight%20years%20ago ,%20on%20Feb.27,%202008%20in%20Mayfield,%20Ky.Jess ica%20Currin%5C%27sburned%20body%20was%20found%20b ehind%20Mayfield%20Middle%20School%20in%20August%2 02000.%20After%20several%20disappointing%20twists% 20and%20turns,%20one%20of%20five%20defendants,%20Q uincy%20Cross,%20is%20headed%20to%20trial%20on%20M arch%203.%20Two%20other%20defendants%20have%20alre ady%20pleaded%20guilty%20to%20lesser%20charges,%20 and%20another%20two%20are%20facing%20a%20murder%20 trial%20at%20a%20later%20date.%20%27,%27pp%27%29)
(AP Photo/Michael Dann)
Joe Currin explains the long police investigation into his daughter Jessica's murder nearly eight years ago, on Feb. 27, 2008 in Mayfield, Ky. Jessica Currin's burned body was found behind Mayfield Middle School in August 2000. After several disappointing twists and turns, one of five defendants, Quincy Cross, is headed to trial on March 3. Two other defendants have already pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and another two are facing a murder trial at a later date.

Mar 16, 2008 12:45 PM (13 days ago) By DYLAN T. LOVAN, AP
MAYFIELD, Ky. - When his eldest daughter's burned body was found behind a school, Joe Currin (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Joe_Currin.html) wanted to believe the killer or killers would swiftly be brought to justice.

He trusted local law enforcement officials to solve Jessica's murder. "I told myself, 'They'll do what's right,'" he said.

That was nearly eight frustrating years ago. Currin came to believe the investigation was cursed, starting with police in this tiny western Kentucky (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Kentucky.html) town who had little familiarity with murder cases, made early arrests that were tossed out and were shaken by a corruption scandal.

Currin, a firefighter, stepped up his own efforts, enlisting the state's top prosecutor and bringing in civil rights groups to help keep up the pressure.
More than seven years after Jessica's death, five people were arrested, and one of them is scheduled to stand trial for murder Tuesday. That man and two others could face the death penalty.

"Joe Currin never gave up. I know it was frustrating for him," said former Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Greg_Stumbo.html), who eventually took over the case. "No one can imagine what his family went through."

The body of 18-year-old Jessica Currin (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Jessica_Currin.html) was found in 2000; investigators concluded she had been raped.

A police investigator working his first murder case focused on the father of Jessica's infant son. But Joe Currin said he never thought the that man was the killer, and charges against the ex-boyfriend and two others were thrown out by a judge in 2003.

Currin grew increasingly impatient.

"I told them, 'It ain't like we're here because somebody stole a motorcycle. We're here because my daughter was murdered,'" he said.

Graves County (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Graves_County.html) prosecutor David Hargrove (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-David_Hargrove.html) said he understood Currin's anger.

"I think it was far more difficult than anybody thought it would be," he said. "It was very frustrating."

Currin sought out Stumbo, then considering a run for attorney general, at a political picnic in 2002.

He led demonstrations at the county courthouse, the FBI (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation.html) office in Paducah (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Paducah.html) and at the state Capitol more than 250 miles away in Frankfort (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Frankfort.html). Representatives of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-National_Action_Network.html) - who questioned whether investigators were dragging their feet because Jessica was black - came to western Kentucky at Currin's request.

"Joe, he believed in the system, that the system would work for him and his family," said Alton McDonald (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Alton_McDonald.html), a member of Sharpton's group who came to western Kentucky several times. "But the system failed him."

Hargrove said he recalled just two murder cases in the decade before Jessica's killing. But her murder was the first of about a dozen in the county over the next three years, and Hargrove had just one full-time assistant.

A little more than a year after Jessica's death, a corruption scandal forced the resignations of the Mayfield (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Mayfield.html) police chief and assistant chief. And a rookie detective on the case was criticized by a judge for neglecting to turn over evidence to a defense attorney after the earliest arrests.

Then-Graves County Circuit Judge John Daughaday said he had "never seen a case so encumbered with problems."

State police investigators entered the case in 2003.

In 2006, Hargrove, burdened by a heavy caseload and acknowledging the growing complexity of the Currin case, asked Stumbo's office to take over. "I would have had to shut down my whole office to try it," Hargrove said.
About five months after taking over the case from Hargrove, Stumbo's office announced five arrests.

Victoria Caldwell (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Victoria_Caldwell.html) and Vinisha M. Stubblefield (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Vinisha_Stubblefield.html), who both knew Jessica, have pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse, and were given sentences ranging from five to seven years.

This Tuesday, Quincy Omar Cross, 31, of Tiptonville (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Tiptonville.html), Tenn. (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Tennessee.html), is set to go on trial for murder, rape, kidnapping, abuse of a corpse and evidence tampering. The trial was moved to nearby Clinton because of pretrial publicity. Jeffrey Allen Burton (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Jeffrey_Allen_Burton.html), of West Paducah (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-West_Paducah.html), and Tamara Caldwell (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Tamara_Caldwell.html), of Mayfield, will be tried later on the same charges. If convicted, all three face the death penalty.

Victoria Caldwell told state police that the five gave Jessica a ride home from a party in Mayfield on the night of the attack and Jessica refused Cross' sexual advances. She said Jessica was taken to Burton's house, where she was raped, choked with a belt and beaten with what police believe was a metal tool.

Attorneys for the defendants and special prosecutor Scott Crawford-Sutherland (http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Scott_Crawford-Sutherland.html) would not comment because of a judge's gag order.

Currin, who is now retired, and his wife, Jean, are focusing on raising Jessica's son, Zion, who is now 8 and calls them "mom" and "dad." They have not figured out the right time to tell the boy about his mother's death.

Currin said he questioned why he had to take such an active role in the investigation of his daughter's death.

"One of my main thoughts was 'I shouldn't have to do this,'" he said. "But it seemed like if I didn't push, it wouldn't get started."

http://www.examiner.com/a-1282163~Trial_in_Teen_s_Slaying_After_8_Years.html (http://www.examiner.com/a-1282163%7ETrial_in_Teen_s_Slaying_After_8_Years.ht ml)

[Pauli]

http://www.newstin.com/image.a?id=3003597.jpg (http://www.newstin.com/go-to-link?url=http://www.kimatv.com/news/national/16745031.html) kimatv.com (http://www.newstin.com/go-to-link?url=http://www.kimatv.com/news/national/16745031.html)


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http://www.newstin.com/sim/us/47722609/en-010-001237665/2

[Pauli]

Friday, March 28-Day 2 of Trial-
11:57 AM-Greg Starks, Courtney Tolbert, and Jesse Alexander have been called to the stand by the prosecution. Right now, Alexander is testifying. Their stories all relate.

They tell about the Saturday before Jessica Currin was murdered. According to them, a group of men, including Starks and Alexander, went to Tennessee to pick up drugs. They also brought back Quincy Cross to the house Courtney lived in with Jesse Alexander, another girl and her boyfriend.

They began taking drugs, and they say they remember Quincy Cross taking off his belt, an old braided leather belt, and swinging it around. Then, Jesse and Courtney say they went to sleep and woke up the next morning to police knocking on their door. They went to jail for drugs in the house, and Quincy Cross went with them.

Alexander says one of the next times he saw Cross was outside a grocery store. Cross drove up in a car, jumped out, and Alexander says accused him of snitching to the police about "killing that girl".

Ashley Hardison has just been called to the stand. She shared the house with Courtney and two other men in 2000. She was there the Saturday night before the murder.


10:30 AM-
Trial proceedings began this morning at 8:30am. The prosecution first called Dr. Wes Mills, Jessica Currin's dentist. He was asked to turn over her dental records to identify her body on the day her body was found. The defense asked no questions of him.

Next, Dr. Mark LaVaughn was called to the stand. He is a former Forensic Pathologist with the Medical Examiner's Officer in Madisonville, KY. He was fired in 2002, for reasons never explained in his testimony. He visited the crime scene the afternoon Jessica's body was found. He testified that he took and drew pictures, and noticed a piece of a belt near Jessica Currin's body. The belt was charred. The body was then taken to Madisonville for an autopsy. The prosecution presented his drawings of the autopsy findings, and Dr. LaVaughn explained what he found. There was decomposition to the body, second and third degree burns to her chest and abdomen, and lacerations to her nose and the back of her head. Based on his findings, Dr. LaVaughn stated that her death was caused by a combination of strangulation and blunt head trauma.

Then, the defense began to cross examine Dr. LaVaughn. They asked him point blank if he had any physical evidence that Jessica Currin was strangled. Dr. LaVaughn said there was none. No bruising or scratches, no physical evidence at all. In fact, he stated that he drew the conclusion of strangulation as a cause of death only from the piece of the belt found at the crime scene. Vincent Yustas, defense attorney for Quincy Cross, asked Dr. LaVaughn if he would have any medical basis for saying that strangulation was a cause of death if the belt was not there. Dr. LaVaughn said no.

There was also a Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit done on Jessica Currin's body. That kit showed no evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, according to Dr. LaVaughn. He said he found no bruising or injuries, but stated that decomposition ot the body may have masked those injuries.

Finally, Yustas asked Dr. LaVaughn what happened to the dress Jessica Currin was wearing. That dress appears in photos of the crime scene but did not make it to the evidence room. Dr. LaVaughn stated he remembered holding up the dress, which had been partially melted from the burning of her body and was covered in maggots, and asking a member of law enforcement present at the autopsy if they wanted the dress. He says that person said no. So, he stated he put the dress either in the body bag or the trash. Also, he stated that none of the maggots were saved, although they can be used to determine a time of death for a decomposed body. He was not conclusive on the time of death of Jessica Currin, merely that she had died one to two days earlier.


The prosecution next called Margie Saxton, a former Mayfield Police Officer to the stand. She was called to the scene of the crime at Mayfield Middle School in 2000. She did not collect evidence, but worked the perimeter of the scene, keeping back spectators. She was asked by Detective Tim Fortner at one point to take the Caldwell Family in, one of the daughters being Victoria Caldwell. She did not know why they were there, but stated that they exhibited fear. She claimed they crawled from one room to another, and ducked whenever cars would pass by.

The court took a brief recess and is back in session. Greg Starks has taken the stand. He owned the car that Quincy Cross was found pushing, because it was out of gas, the Sunday morning after Jessica Currin's death.

http://www.wpsdtv.com/content/currin/default.aspx

[Pauli]

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[Pauli]

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[Pauli]

Monday, March 31-Day 3 of Trial-

3:51 PM-Just before court ended for the day, the prosecution called Timothy Carr to the stand. Carr is an old friend of Quincy Cross, they grew up together. He had two interviews with the state police; one from 2005 and the other from 2007. In those interviews, the prosecution claims he said Cross spoke to him about his involvement with the murders. Carr denied that, saying all Cross told him was that he had sexual relations with Jessica Currin the night of the murder.

Court ended at 3:30pm, and will resume Tuesday morning at 8:30am.


1:51 PM-Since the break several witnesses, including Vinisha Stubblefield's mother, took the stand. They testified about the events leading up to the murder, basically corraborating Stubblefield's story up until Jessica Currin decided to walk home the night before the murder.

Currently, Carlos Saxton is testifying. He was dating Jessica Currin at the time of her murder. Saxton was one of the original people charged in 2001 with Jeremy Adams. He was charged with complicity, and the charges were eventually dismissed on both of them.


12:32 PM-Vinisha Stubblefield continued to be cross-examined by the defense this morning, who questioned her on the tiniest details of the night before and the morning of the murder. For the most part, Stubblefield stood by her story. But at one point she said Jeffrey Burton told her that Quincy Cross would do the same to her that he did to Jessica Currin if she ever told the truth. During Stubblefield's testimony with prosecutors, she told them it was Cross who threatened her. The defense called Stubblefield out on the contradiction. Stubblefield may be called back to the stand by the defense at a later date.

The next witness called was Patrice Center, a friend of Vinisha Stubblefield. The night before the murder, she was with Jessica Currin and Stubblefield before Currin decided to head home. She told the jury that Stubblefield has a tendency to lie.

Currently, court is in recess until 1:00pm.


10:14 AM-This morning, Vinisha Stubblefield was called to the stand by the prosecution. She is Jessica Currin's cousin, and was arrested last year for her involvement in Jessica Currin's murder. She pleaded guilty and is serving time for the crime. She is also cooperating with the prosecution by testifying against Quincy Cross.

During her testimony she described what happened the night before the murder. She also talked about the murder itself. She claims she was hanging out with Jessica Currin Saturday night. They eventually parted ways that evening, and Vinisha Stubblefielf says Jessica was walking home. Vinisha then says she went for a walk that night, and saw Quincy Cross driving a car. He stopped, and she says she got into the car. She claims she told Quincy she was going to meet Jessica, even though Jessica was walking home to her apartment. Vinisha Stubblefield then told the jury they picked up Victoria Caldwell. At some point Tamara Caldwell joined the group, and they went to look for Jessica Currin. They found her walking home, and Vinisha says she got into the car and told her to make sure Quincy, who was driving, took her home.

They did not take her home, according to Vinisha, but instead went to Jeffrey Burton's house. On the way there, Vinisha says drugs were being used and Quincy Cross was touching Jessica Currin in a sexual way. According to Vinisha, Jessica did not like it and was arguing with Cross. When they arrived at Burton's home, Vinisha says Cross forced Jessica Currin to come inside and went into a back bedroom with her.

It's what comes next that brought tears and gasps from the Currin family. Vinisha testified that she was in the living room with Burton and Victoria Caldwell listening to music. Tamara Caldwell was in the bathroom. Then, said Vinisha, Tamara went into the bedroom, followed later by Burton. Finally, she says they called her to the bedroom, and she saw Cross standing over Jessica's body holding a belt that was around her neck. Vinisha said Jessica was unconscious at the time. Then, Vinisha claims Quincy Cross and Jeffrey Burton performed sexual acts on her while Tamara Caldwell watched, and that eventually Cross demanded Vinisha and Victoria do the same.

She also testified about getting rid of the body, and says that she hid the truth from police for years because Quincy Cross threatened to do the same thing to her that he did to Jessica Currin if she ever told.

The defense is currently cross-examining Vinisha Stubblefield.


7:30 AM-The murder trial of Quincy Cross will resume today.
Cross is the first of three to stand to trial for the murder of Jessica Currin.

On Friday, the defense got a big break when they cross examined a witness. Dr. Mark Lavaughn admitted there was no physical evidence to support that Currin was strangled.
Lavaughn was a forensic pathologist with the medical examiner's office at the time of Jessica Currin's murder in 2000.

Proceedings wrapped up early on Friday but again will pick up this morning in Hickman County.

http://www.wpsdtv.com/content/currin/default.aspx

[Pauli]

http://www.wpsdtv.com/images/videobullet.gifKey Witness Testifies In Currin Murder Trial (http://www.wpsdtv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=9748@wpsd.dayport.com&navCatId=3)
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It was another emotional day in court for the family of Jessica Currin.

The murder trial of Quincy Cross continues in Hickman County today and it began today with the testimony of a key witness. Cross is the first of three defendants to face a jury for the murder of Jessica Currin in 2000.

Jessica Currin's cousin, Vinisha Stubblefield, took the stand this morning. Stubblefield has already pleaded guilty to her role in the murder and is now cooperating with the prosecution. She eventually made a deal with prosecutors and is serving jail time.

It's what comes next that brought tears and gasps from the Currin family.

Stubblefield claims to have seen Cross murder Jessica Currin back in 2000. During her testimony she described what happened the night before the murder. She also talked about the murder itself.

“Quincy Cross killed Jessica Currin,” said Stubblefield.

Stubblefield has told multiple stories to the police from the beginning. Today, she claims she's telling the truth.

Stubblefield says the night before the murder in 2000 she and Currin were hanging out with friends. They parted ways and Currin walked home. It was then that Stubblefield says she met up with Cross, Victoria and Tamara Caldwell, and Jeffrey Burton and they went looking for Jessica Currin.

They found her and Stubblefield says they brought her to Burton's house.

Stubblefield went on to say that Cross hit Currin because she protested his sexual advances. Currin's protesting didn't stop Cross from bringing her into a back bedroom.

Stubblefield claims Jessica was unconscious on the bed the next time she saw the two.

“Quincy was standing there over her body, holding a belt around her neck,” said Stubblefield.

But when Patrice Center, a friend of Vinisha Stubblefield, took the stand it may have placed some doubt in the minds of jurors.

“I wouldn't believe her... she lies a lot,” said Center.

Vinisha Stubblefield may take the stand again in the coming days of trial. The defense reserved the right to call her back for more questioning. The trial is set to resume at 1:00 p.m. after a recess for lunch.


PREVIOUSLY:The murder trial of Quincy Cross will resume today.

Cross is the first of three to stand to trial for the murder of Jessica Currin.

On Friday, the defense got a big break when they cross examined a witness. Dr. Mark Lavaughn admitted there was no physical evidence to support that Currin was strangled.
Lavaughn was a forensic pathologist with the medical examiner's office at the time of Jessica Currin's murder in 2000.

Proceedings wrapped up early on Friday but again will pick up this morning in Hickman County.


http://www.wpsdtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=f2f61131-3ad9-4919-8d8f-770314a9d85e&rss=675

[Pauli]

Another Key Witness Testifies..
.
http://www.wpsdtv.com/media/news/0/5/7/0578b2a6-965d-4ca9-bf0b-b882ae54fc4c/Story.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:void(0);)
Victoria Caldwell

Another key witness for the prosecution takes the stand today in the trial of Quincy Omar Cross for the murder of Jessica Currin. Currin was found behind Mayfield Middle school in 2000; her body beaten, strangled and burned. Five people were arrested last year in connection with her murder.

Quincy Cross, one of three charged with her murder, is on trial in Hickman County, Kentucky.

Victoria Caldwell took the stand Tuesday. She was charged last year with tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. She plead guilty along with Vinisha Stubblefield to those charges and is cooperating with prosecutors.

Like Vinisha Stubblefield's testimony on Monday, Caldwell claims she watched Quincy Cross kill Jessica Currin nearly eight years ago.

Victoria Caldwell pointed the finger of blame at Quincy Cross for the murder of Jessica Currin.

"What did he do with the belt Victoria?" asked prosecutors.

"He put it around her neck," Caldwell responded with tears.

"He put it around her neck. Then what did he do?" asked prosecutors.

"He started choking her," said Caldwell.

Both Caldwell and Stubblefield say they were present when Cross strangled Jessica Currin in the home of Jeffrey Burton. But there were discrepancies between their stories.

Caldwell says when Jessica Currin was taken to Burton's home, and ultimately into his bedroom by Cross, Caldwell and Stubblefield were with them the entire time. However, Stubblefield claimed Monday that she and Caldwell waited in the living room for some time, while Cross, Tamara Caldwell, and Jeffrey Burton were in the bedroom. Stubblefield also says that she, along with Cross and Caldwell, drove and found Jessica Currin, who was walking home the night before the murder, before taking her to Burton's home. But Caldwell said Tuesday that all three girls were picked up by Cross at her house that night.

What may make Caldwell a credible witness is a diary she kept in 2000. Tuesday, she read an entry to the jury that was made one day after the murder.

"It says damn, they found the body I hope they don't find out it was us," read Caldwell. "Q is nowhere to be found. Jeff won't talk to me."

And while Stubblefield offered little emotion on the stand, Caldwell shed tears as she repeated what may have been Jessica Currin's last words.

"She was saying, like, she wanted to go home, she just wanted to go home and be with her son. She just kept saying her son Zion's name," said Caldwell.

Another key piece of evidence presented Tuesday was a wrench that Victoria Caldwell says she buried in the backyard of her sister's house in LaCenter, Kentucky. Caldwell says Cross used that wrench to hit Jessica Currin over the head the night of her murder.

The trial will resume on Wednesday.

http://www.wpsdtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=d567e548-533b-42d8-aca5-425009ab80d0

[Pauli]

Tuesday, April 1- Day 4 of Trial-
4:00 PM- Detective Michelle Kent took the stand to testify about the demeanor of Vinisha Stubblefield during her interviews with KSP. Det. Kent says they went to Ohio to get Stubblefield in March of 2007, and brought her back to Kentucky. She claims Stubblefield was "reluctant and hesitant" to come back, and that during her interview at Post 1 in Mayfield, she was open and relaxed when giving basic information. However, Det. Kent says when they began asking Stubblefield about Jessica Currin, her body language completely changed. She pulled her legs to her chest, would fidget with her hands, and would not look the officers in the eyes.

2:50 PM-After lunch, Victoria Caldwell's sister, Rosie Crice, was called to the stand. The wrench Caldwell says Cross used to hit Jessica Currin was found buried in her backyard in LaCenter, Kentucky. It was Caldwell who told police where to find it.

Crice claims Quincy Cross told her that he was going to kill her sister because she was "running her mouth". She also says that he never told her he killed Jessica Currin. He only admitted to Jessica Currin being beaten that night. It was not specified that he was involved in that beating.

Currently, John Sims with the Kentucky State Police is testifying about finding the wrench in Crice's backyard last year. He testified that when they went, they were looking for a baseball bat, but found the wrench

11:38 AM-The defense is picking apart Caldwell's testimony, asking as many questions as possible about the night before and the morning of the murder. Caldwell's story has some obvious differences from Vinisha Stubblefield's account of events.

Caldwell says Jessica was at her house when Quincy came to get them, despite the fact that Stubblefield says Jessica was walking home on Walnut Street when they picked her up with Quincy Cross. Caldwell says she doesn't know how Jessica got to her house. She says Jessica and Vinisha were there for maybe five minutes, and Stubblefield told her to look for a car with flashing lights and that would be who they'd hang out with. That car, says Caldwell, was being driven by Quincy Cross.

The defense asked Caldwell about the use of drugs on the ride over to Jeffrey Burton's house. Caldwell claims cocaine and ecstasy were being used, and that Cross was using while he was driving.

Caldwell says she was sitting in the backseat of the car, and that Jessica was sitting in the middle/front between Tamara Caldwell and Quincy Cross. She says Cross hit Jessica very hard with a small baseball bat that he pulled put from under the seat while he was driving.

Defense attorney Vinvent Yustas asked Caldwell how she could know that the tool admitted into evidence is the same tool used to hit Jessica? He said it's rusted, corroded, and that it was obviously buried. Caldwell says she knows because it was her who buried it on her sister's, Rosie Crice, property in between two trees. She says no one, not even her sister, saw her bury it. She says she also buried the clothes she had on. She told KBI agents where it was, and that's how it was found.

Caldwell cannot remember Cross's exact location when he hit Jessica on the bed with the tool. Defense attorney Vincent Yustas asks about the strangulation. He wants to know when Cross pulled the belt off himself. Caldwell says it was right after he hit Jessica. Then, she says he put the belt around her neck and strangled her.

Yustas asked Caldwell about what Jessica was wearing when they brought her body to the school. She can't remember if Jessica had her shoes on, but says she was wrapped in a blanket. Caldwell says Jessica's clothes were taken off when she was laid on the bed. She says she remembers that Burton took her clothes off. She cannot remember what happened to the clothes, or if they were taken to the school with Jessica's body.

Yustas asked Caldwell how many times she had sex with Burton, and she answered that it was about three times. But in February of 2007, Yustas said she couldn't remember Burton's name and referred to him as "the white guy".

Caldwell says she remembers that. She had given 10 interviews by that February, and Yustas said she hadn't mentioned Burton's name until then. Yustas then said that in past interviews, Caldwell claimed she remembered Burton being a black man, but she said she doesn't remember that.

She is still being questioned by the defense at this time.



10:34 AM-This morning Victoria Caldwell took the stand for the prosecution. She answered questions about her past, and then began talking about what happened to Jessica Currin.

Evidence was introduced by the prosecution, and Caldwell identified it as a picture of Tamara Caldwell, her cousin. Caldwell then stated she knows Quincy Omar Cross, and is asked to identify him in the courtroom. She also says she knows Jeff Burton, and identifies a picture of him. She also says she knows Vinisha Stubblefield, and met her at school and church when she was in the 5th grade. She says she didn't really know Jessica Currin, but knew who she was prior to July 29, 2000, through her cousin Tamara.

Saturday night July 29th, and early morning hours of July 30th, 2000, she says she saw Jessica Currin and Quincy Cross, Tamara Caldwell, Jeff Burton, and Vinisha Stubblefield. She also claimed that Quincy Cross killed Jessica Currin at Jeff Burton's house, and that all of them were present for her murder. She says she was involved in hiding the body, and dumping it behind Mayfield Middle School.

On the Saturday night of July 29, 2000, Caldwell says Vinisha Stubblefield and Jessica Currin came to her house to see if she wanted to hang out. On Monday Stubblefield testified that Jessica Currin was walking home when she, Cross and Caldwell came and picked her up.

Caldwell says Stubblefield told her to watch for flashing lights on a car, that would be who they'd hang out with. She says the car showed up and they got inside. She says Quincy Cross was driving. Then, Caldwell says they drove to a man named Austin Leech's house. Leech pulls up in a white Cadillac and four of them, Quincy Cross, Vinisha Stubblefield, Victoria Caldwell and Jessica Currin drive to Jeffrey Burton's house to pick him and Tamara Caldwell up. Caldwell says they were doing drugs in the car, and at some point Cross and Tamara Caldwell, who were sitting in the front seat with Jessica, began rubbing on her. Caldwell says Jessica said for them to stop, but that they wouldn't.

Then, Caldwell says they went back to Burton's house, and Cross pulled out a small baseball bat from underneath the seat. She says he hit Jessica over the head with it, knocking her out.

At this point, prosecutors asked Caldwell if she had ever been to Burton's house before. She said yes, she had. Then, they went back to talking about what happened to Jessica.

Caldwell says Quincy Cross and Jeffrey Burton carried Jessica into the house, to Burton's bedroom. Caldwell claims all of them were present in the room for the entire crime, even though Stubblefield testified yesterday that they didn't go into the room until after Cross had strangled Currin. According to Caldwell, Cross began to perform sexual acts on Jessica, who was unconscious at the time. During this part of the testimony, the Currin family left the courtroom.

Caldwell then stated that Currin began to wake up, asking to please be taken home to her son, and saying her baby's name over and over. Caldwell says that Quincy Cross then took out a tool and hit Jessica over the head again, knocking her back out. The prosecution pulls this tool and admits it into evidence. Caldwell identifies it as the tool used to hit Jessica that night. She also remembers seeing Cross wearing a black leather belt. She identifies a piece of that belt in a picture of the crime scene.

That belt, says Caldwell, was what Cross used to choke Jessica Currin after he hit her over the head with the tool. Caldwell says she could hear Jessica gasping for air, and that she eventually died. After that, she claims Cross made them all do sexual things to Jessica's body, and then to each other. At some point, she says Jessica's body was wrapped in a blanket and carried out to the garage by Burton and Cross. Then, she says Tamara Caldwell, Cross, and Stubblefield left, and Burton told her to put the pillows, pillowcases and sheets into a trash bag, and then take that bag to the garage.

She says the next night Burton noticed the body was beginning to smell, and had two other people come over. Austin Leech and a man named Isaac. They brought a white car, and loaded the body into the trunk. Caldwell says she was there, along with Vinisha Stubblefield. They carried the body to Mayfield Middle School, poured gasoline on it, and set it on fire.

She admits to the prosecution that she lied numerous times, and during the cross examination by the defense which she says she lied to Kentucky State Police because they are white. She also admits her lies caused Carlos Saxton and Jeremy Adams to be charged with Jessica's murder originally.

Caldwell says she eventually moved back to California, and taped phone conversations between herself and her sister, who was dating Burton, for the KSP. She says she was eventually contacted by the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation in 2007 via the internet website MySpace.

Right now, Cross's defense team is cross-examining Caldwell.

7:45 AM-The high profile Jessica Currin murder trial continues today. Quincy Omar Cross faces murder, rape and kidnapping charges in the death of Jessica Currin in 2000. He is one of three people facing charges.

A key prosecution witness has testified in Jessica Currin murder trial Monday.

Vinisha Stubblefield testified Monday that she saw cross standing over an unconscious Currin holding a belt that was around her neck.

Stubblefield already plead guilty in the case.

http://www.wpsdtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=7c31c768-a0df-4c0d-83cb-7bea4d294383

[Pauli]

Wednesday, April 2- Day 5 of Trial-
4:59 PM-Shameeka Powell says she knows Quincy Cross, and he told her he killed Jessica Currin.

She claims she was walking in Mayfield years ago with a friend, and they ran into Quincy Cross. She says he told them that he killed Jessica Currin and would do the same thing to them that he did to her if they told anyone.

She says she knows Stubblefield, and that Stubblefield told her about the murder. According to Powell, Vinisha Stubblefield did change her story several times. She's in jail now,and has felony charges pending.


2:45 PM-In the last hour and a half, several investigators have taken the stand. Steger testified again just after lunch, and was asked about an interview he had with Timothy Carr, an old friend of Quincy Cross, in 2005. In that interview, Carr claims Cross told him he was involved in the crime, and described the body being "burnt". But the defense came right back and asked Steger if the details of the crime had made it to the media before the interview was conducted. Steger said they had, and the defense was done with their questioning.

Then, Bob O'Neill with the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation testified about his involvement with the case. He personally interviewed and worked with Victoria Caldwell. He responded to criticism from the defense about Caldwell being placed in protective custody, while Stubblefield was not. O'Neill explained that she was put into protective custody because she was extremely fearful for her life, had children, and was being threatened by members of her family. He also explained that when the crime occurred, she was only 15 years old. If you accompany that with the fact that she was being threatened, said O'Neill, it would be understandable that her memory of the murder might be "fuzzy". He said she needed help remembering some of the things that happened the night of the murder.

11:58 AM-Sergeant Sam Steger testified about his part of the investigation for the Kentucky State Police. He didn't take over as lead investigator until 2004. Before that other agencies were handling the case. However, he was called to the residence on Chris Drive on the morning of July 30, 2000 to assist in arresting Quincy Cross and several others for drug use. That was the morning Cross was found on the side of the road, pushing a car he said had run out of gas.

When Steger took over the investigation, he says he went through all the evidence and re-examined it. Eventually, he began interviews and at some point interviewed Victoria Caldwell, Vinisha Stubblefield, and Quincy Cross. However, he only interviewed Caldwell by phone because she was in California. She mainly was expressing fear for her life, he said, although he did not go into details. He interviewed Stubblefield several times, twice in different states. Quincy Cross was interviewed at the end of 2006 at the police department in Tiptonville, TN. He claims Cross said he was going to get food the morning he was found on the side of the road and that he had run out of gas on his way there. When Steger asked Cross about the belt found near Jessica Currin's neck, Cross claimed he didn't even own a belt. Then, Steger told him that it was his belt, and according to the interview records Cross said "ok, mine is, ok."

The defense tore into Steger, asking him why he cannot recall so much about the case without the aid of transcripts. During their cross-examination, they ask about the wrench that was found on Rosie Crice's property, that Caldwell claims Cross used to hit Jessica Currin over the head. Steger claims Kentucky State Police officers went looking for a bat and rope. They found a wrench, and Steger was told about it later. He says Caldwell mentioned a tool that made a clicking noise when you turned the top of it while the dig was taking place. When Steger found out about the wrench being found, he immediately went to retrieve it from LaCenter, KY.

The defense and prosecution have finished with Steger, and court is now in recess for lunch.

10:14 AM-Gerald Laponte, Chief Forensic Chemist with the United States Secret Service, took the stand first this morning. He was asked by the FBI to analyze the ink from Victoria Caldwell's diary entries for the year 2000. An August 1st, 2000 entry she read yesterday in court said, "Damn, they found the body. I hope they don't find out it was us, but man, Q is nowhere to be found. Jeff don't want to talk to me."

Laponte was asked to try and determine if the ink used to make the entries was made when Caldwell claims they were made. Based on his analysis, he was able to determine that they were all made with the same ink, but was unable to determine if they were actually made in 2000 or a different year.

Next, Kathy Frasier is called to the stand. She grew up with Quincy Cross, and says she began hanging out with him again when she moved to Mayfield in 2001. She recalled a conversation she had with Cross and a friend on her porch as they three were smoking marijuana and drinking. She claims they began talking about the Jessica Currin murder in general conversation, just about how awful the circumstances were. Then, she claims Cross said to them, "she overheard something she wasn't supposed to hear and we had to take care of it." At the time, Frasier says she thought Cross was just "blowing smoke" and talking "big", because that was something he had a tendency to do.

Sergeant Sam Steger takes the stand and is currently testifying about his part of the investigation for the Kentucky State Police.


7:45 AM-It's day five in the Quincy Omar Cross trial. Cross is one of three people charged with the 2000 murder of Jessica Currin of Mayfield, Kentucky. The two others face lesser charges for their involvement.

Another key witness took the stand on Tuesday. Victoria Caldwell claims she witnessed Cross hit Currin twice in the head with a bat and a wrench.

Caldwell was charged last year with tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse. She plead guilty along with Vinisha Stubblefield to those charges and is cooperating with prosecutors.

Caldwell says she watched Cross strangle Currin with his belt. The trial continues today.

http://www.wpsdtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=06da4948-9688-47a2-990f-3ec380ba19d7

[Pauli]

Focus Turns To Investigation

The diary of an eyewitness is put to the test in Jessica Currin's murder trial Wednesday.

Quincy Cross is one of three people charged with the murder of Jessica Currin in 2000. Cross is currently on trial in Hickman County, Kentucky.

Wednesday the focus turned from eyewitnesses of the murder to the investigation itself. But late in the day, jurors in the Jessica Currin murder case heard testimony from someone in Quincy Cross's past.

Wednesday morning a forensic chemist explained that he was asked to analyze Victoria Caldwell's diary from 2000. She wrote one day after the murder "they found the body... I hope they don't find out it was us."

He wasn't able to determine if Caldwell actually wrote the entries when she says she did.

Later, Sergeant Sam Steger testified about leading the investigation for the Kentucky State Police when they took over in 2004. And Bob O'Neill testified about his part as a member of the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation.

Defense attorneys wanted to know why Victoria Caldwell went into protective custody but Vinisha Stubblefield did not.

“She was scared, being threatened, she had children,” said O’Neill.

O’Neill also said that there was a point in time, while Caldwell was living in California, when her sister called her. She told Caldwell that her life was in danger and Cross was trying to locate her so he could kill her.

While Wednesday was mostly a chance for the prosecution to focus on the investigation into Jessica Currin's murder, there was one witness who claims Quincy Cross told her he was involved in the crime.

Several investigators testified today about the lengthy process of getting witnesses to talk. One witness who may have paid off in court was Kathy Frasier.

Frasier grew up with Cross in Tennessee, and says she lived in Mayfield in 2001. She claims the two had a conversation one day in which she mentioned how "awful" Jessica Currin's murder was.

That's when Cross said something back that she repeated in court today.

“She overheard something that she wasn't supposed to hear, and we had to take care of that,” said Frasier.

What may hurt her testimony was the fact that she claims the two were drinking and smoking marijuana at the time. She also said Cross is a "big talker" and thought he was "blowing smoke" when he made that statement.

http://www.wpsdtv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=ced148d1-af2c-48b1-87ab-f266ca8099ef

[Pauli]

Tenn. Man Convicted in 2000 Ky. Murder

2 days ago
CLINTON, Ky. (AP) — A jury on Tuesday convicted a Tennessee man of kidnapping, raping and murdering a western Kentucky teenager whose burned body was found behind a school eight years ago.

The same jurors were to return Wednesday to decide whether Quincy Omar Cross, 31, should receive the death penalty for killing 18-year-old Jessica Currin.

Cross was one of five people charged last year in Currin's death after her parents persuaded the state's top prosecutor to take over the case. Two people pleaded guilty to lesser charges, and the other two are awaiting trial.

Currin's mother, Jean Currin, smiled and folded her hands together near her face after the verdict was read.

"You don't know how excited I am. I'm pleased and happy, happy for Jessica," she said.

"It will always be hard because we don't have her, but this chapter in our life, we can get behind us," said Jean Currin, who with her husband, Joe, is raising their daughter's son, Zion, an infant when Jessica was killed.

Joe Currin had criticized local authorities in the tiny western Kentucky town of Mayfield, saying the case went unsolved for too long. He personally petitioned the state attorney general to get involved. That office took over the investigation in 2006.

"I can't celebrate with something like this," Joe Currin said after the verdict was handed down. "Nothing is going to bring her back, but justice needed to be done. It was bad what happened. It shouldn't have happened."

Cross' public defender, Vince Yustas, declined to comment on the verdict, citing a gag order in the case.

The prosecution's case relied heavily on two witnesses who had once been charged with killing Currin but later pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse and agreed to testify.

Victoria Caldwell and Vinisha Stubblefield testified they were with Cross the night of the killing.

Assistant Attorney General Barbara Maines Whaley said in closing arguments Tuesday that Cross threatened Caldwell and Stubblefield after the killing and forced them to take part in the disposal of Currin's body.

"He was in control, and there's never been any doubt about that," Whaley said.

Yustas argued that Caldwell and Stubblefield gave conflicting reports the night Currin was killed. He said both women have repeatedly lied about the case and can't be trusted.

Yustas also said police got it right the first time when they charged two other men with killing Currin. The cases against those men were dismissed by a judge in 2003.

Former Attorney General Greg Stumbo, who took over prosecution of the case from the Graves County prosecutor, said justice was served by the verdict.

"If there was ever a case that should have a harsh penalty, this was one," said Stumbo, now a state representative. "It's just a wonderful thing after all the Currin family's been through."

Caldwell and Stubblefield were given sentences ranging from five to seven years. Caldwell's cousin, Tamara Caldwell of Mayfield, and Jeffrey Burton of West Paducah, are facing rape, kidnapping and murder charges, which could bring the death penalty.

"Before it all unfolds, hopefully all those who broke the law and were part of that conduct that led to her death, justice will be served, and they'll all be put behind bars," Stumbo said.

The trial was moved from Mayfield to nearby Clinton because of pretrial publicity.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqQwlvk-6Ag8CM2EH17BW6XtZpLgD8VU4QK80

[Pauli]

Man convicted of murdering Mayfield teen maintains his innocence

The Associated Pres

ADUCAH, Ky. --

A Tennessee man found guilty earlier this week of killing a western Kentucky teenager eight years ago says he didn't do it.In an interview with the Paducah Sun, Quincy Omar Cross said he never met Jessica Currin and had nothing to do with her death. The 18-year-old Currin's body was found behind a middle school in Mayfield in 2000.

Cross, 31, was found guilty of murder, kidnapping, rape, sodomy, evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse on Tuesday. The jury recommended a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Cross will be formally sentenced on May 21.

"The truth will come out," Cross told the newspaper. "It all depends on me and God. If God knows I didn't do it, and I know I didn't do it, why should I worry about what the rest of the world thinks about me?"

Cross told the newspaper he turned down a deal with prosecutors that could have reduced his jail time if he testified against two other people also charged with the murder because he didn't want to lie.

"I'm not going to make up lies on nobody, because I can't sleep like that," Cross said. "My soul won't rest like that."

Jeffery Burton and Tamara Caldwell are facing charges in Currin's death. Cross said he didn't know either Burton or Caldwell in 2000, nor did he know two other defendants who testified for the prosecution, Victoria Caldwell and Vinisha Stubblefield.

Cross, who is from Tiptonville, Tenn., moved to Mayfield after Currin's murder. Cross said the move is proof that he didn't commit the crime.

"Why would anybody do a murder in Mayfield and then move to Mayfield?" Cross said.

Cross believes he was targeted because of rumors about his involvement even though he was originally cleared by investigators following her death.

Stubblefield and Victoria Caldwell testified that they saw Cross strangle Currin with a belt before performing sexual acts on the body and forcing them to do the same. The girls said they lied to investigators for years because they feared Cross.

"If I did this to their friend, somebody they knew, why didn't they run to the police?" Cross said. "If you go back every day from the trial and listen to what the two girls said, it don't add up."

http://www.kentucky.com/471/story/372579.html

[Pauli]

Reaction mixed to jury's recommended sentence in murder case

Last Update: 7:24 am CLINTON, Ky. (AP) - A jury's sentence of life without parole for a Tennessee man convicted of killing a Kentucky teenager elicited a mixed response from his attorney and the victim's family.

The jury made the recommendation Wednesday night after eight hours of deliberations.

The decision gave the teen's family some relief, but defense attorneys say they'll continue to try to prove their client is innocent of the charges.

Quincy Omar Cross, 31, of Tiptonville, Tenn., could have been sentenced to death after the jury found Cross guilty on Tuesday of kidnapping, raping and murdering Jessica Currin in 2000.

Joe Currin, Jessica's father, says he is relieved that this part of his family's ordeal is over.

"We'll be really glad when the rest of it is over, but this part is over and that's a little bit of relief," he said.

Joe Currin had led protests critical of local authorities and complained that the case went unsolved for too long. He personally petitioned the state attorney general to get involved. That office took over the investigation in 2006.

Prosecutors relied heavily on two witnesses who had once been charged with killing Currin but later pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse and agreed to testify.

Those witnesses, Victoria Caldwell and Vinisha Stubblefield, testified that they were with Cross the night of the killing.

Jurors recommended life without parole on murder and kidnapping charges, life in prison for rape, 50 years for sodomy, five years for abusing a corpse and three years for evidence tampering.

Formal sentencing is set for May 21 in Hickman County Circuit Court, where the trial was moved due to pretrial publicity.

Defense attorney Vince Yustas maintained that Cross is innocent, even after the trial.

"We as defense counsels often have defendants tell us they're innocent when they're not, but looking at all the evidence and things that happened in the past two days makes me think an innocent man was convicted," Yustas said.

Yustas said he intends to take his case to The Innocence Project, an advocacy group that investigates claims of wrongful conviction.

Two others are still facing charges in Currin's death. Tamara Caldwell, of Mayfield, and Jeffrey Burton, of West Paducah, are facing rape, kidnapping and murder charges and are to be tried later.
http://www.kypost.com/content/news/commonwealth/story.aspx?content_id=d4809731-4d54-4c40-b82a-280697fc3948