UPDATE: Lee Anthony Evans Acquitted Of Murder In Deaths Of 5 Newark Teens

November 23, 2011

Lee Anthony Evans has been acquitted on all murder counts in the deaths of five teenage boys who vanished from a Newark street on Aug. 20, 1978, the final chapter on what had long been among the most enduring mysteries in city history.

The jury in Superior Court in Newark found Evans, 58, not guilty of all five counts of murder and all five counts of felony murder in the deaths of Michael McDowell, Randy Johnson and Alvin Turner, all 16, and Melvin Pittman and Ernest Taylor, both 17.

When the jury foreman began reading the “not guilty” verdicts for each count, relatives of the victims began quietly sobbing, hugging each other for comfort. Among them were Terry Lawson, sister of Michael McDowell; and William McDowell, Michael’s uncle. It was Lawson who first contacted investigators on the 20th anniversary of the boys’ disappearance, in 1998, to urge authorities to
take another look. And it was Lawson and McDowell who have been most vocal in their certainty that Evans killed the boys.

Although Evans displayed no emotion in court as the verdict was read, he requested that the judge tell him, “You’re dismissed.” And she did. On the short elevator ride down from the courtroom to the courthouse lobby, Evans hung his head in his hands and cried. A friend said, "Man, you won," but Evans said he didn't feel like he did.

"I feel like I still lost. Once somebody accuse(s) you of something that horrible," said Evans who cut himself off mid-sentence and walked away.

In the lobby, Evans said he was thankful for the jury’s decision, but it didn’t ease all the pain “That was the jury that wasn’t the people. That’s not the same thing as someone destroying you. It’s like someone put you in the oven and burned you up. You can’t undo that.”

Evans, a mason by trade who represented himself at trial, offered no reaction when the foreman announced the verdict at 11:10 a.m., following more than 12 hours of deliberations over four days. The jury began deliberating on Friday afternoon, following closing arguments.

"It's a situation where I heard them say not guilty but the way they put a horrible thing on you, you still feel guilty," said Evans outside the courtroom, minutes after the jury read its verdict.

Evans added that the case should never have been brought and, as he has done since his arrest, railed against what he called the corrupt Essex County officials who led his arrest, and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who used it as a springboard to his reelection.
At a press conference following the not guilty verdict and standing with two of the boys’ relatives, Essex County Acting Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said ,"we are of course disappointed in the verdict. but respect the jury’s process.”

In responding to a reporter's question about where the investigation now stands in the disappearance of the five boys, Murray said, "with respect to this case criminally, this case is closed."

Murray called the disappearance “a case that has bothered the collective conscience of the Newark police department for 33 years. This case was never forgotten, never put on back shelf.”

A distraught-looking Terry Lawson, Michael McDowell’s sister, said “not guilty does not mean innocent. Mr. Evans may have escaped the law but never the lord. We’re grateful this case was brought in front of the jury. It’s difficult to ask 12 people to go back 33 years. She added, "We stand here today with more information with what happened to our boys.”

The not guilty verdict marked a significant defeat for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, which charged Evans and his cousin, Philander Hampton, with the decades-old killing in March 2010, in a highly-publicized takedown. Hampton, 54, had confessed to the crime in November 2008, but mitigated his own role and called Evans the mastermind. He pleaded guilty to felony murder, but accepted a reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony against Evans at trial.

That testimony was always the linchpin to the case because Essex County assistant prosecutors had no DNA evidence or fingerprints to link Evans to the crime, and no bodies of the victims. In pretrial hearings, prosecutors admitted the case was a difficult one.
At trial, Hampton described in detail how Evans lured the boys into a vacant Camden Street house with the promise of moving boxes. The boys had all known and were friendly with Evans — nicknamed “Big Man” for his imposing presence—because he often hired them to do odd jobs around the neighborhood. Hampton said Evans locked the boys in a tiny closet that night, poured gasoline over the house then lit a match and watched it burn.

He said it was payback for the boys having stolen a pound of marijuana from Evans days earlier, adding he thought Evans merely wanted to scare the boys that night.

But the defense hammered away at Hampton’s credibility. Hampton, 54, has a lengthy criminal record, having previously been sentenced to 10 years in prison for committing two robberies. Hampton admitted on the stand that he was a former drug dealer and heroin addict who had sold drugs out of the same Camden Street house where the boys were brought. He had lived there for two years before moving out a couple of weeks earlier, he said on the stand. No one else lived in the three-family house.

Hampton also admitted on the stand that his November 2008 confession came after 13 hours of questioning from investigators. He also acknowledged working out a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony, agreeing to 10 years in prison. Under sentencing guidelines from 1978, Hampton would only be required to serve 2 years in prison, and with jail time already served, he is eligible for parole in a matter of months. He will also receive $15,000 from the state and will be relocated.

At trial, prosecutors brought in numerous relatives of the victims, along with their friends, neighbors and investigators on the case to testify. Relatives recalled seeing Evans drive off that night in his green pickup truck, with the boys in the back. The five boys were never seen again. Several of the boys’ friends also testified that the victims had broken into Evans’ Irvington apartment a dozen times over the course of that summer to steal small amounts of marijuana. They allegedly stole a pound of marijuana from Evans either a week before the killing or the day before, according differing accounts from witnesses. At the time the boys went missing, relatives found small bags of marijuana in each of their rooms.


Evans has loudly denied the charges against him since nearly the day he posted bail in late August 2010, saying corrupt Essex County officials had conspired to bring him down, and adding that his arrest was timed to give Newark Mayor Cory Booker a boost in his run-up to re-election. The mayor denied that allegation.

Evans represented himself at trial with the help of a court-appointed legal adviser, who had until recently been his public defender. Evans struggled to cross-examine witnesses in the first few days of trial, fumbling with his notes and delivering meandering, often convoluted questions that the judge had to translate to witnesses. Evans eventually ceded most of the control of his case to the legal adviser, Olubukola Adetula, who cross-examined Hampton.

Following the verdict, Adetula said Evans now "has a lot of work to do to regain back his name and his reputation, which has been completely ruined. But, you know, things like this do happen and people pick up and they move on and I only hope that he will be able to find the strength to be able to move on."

The trial began on Oct. 28, and included a week-long recess. Evans did not testify, but he and Adetula gave summations Friday morning, with Evans focusing on what he called inconsistent statements from prosecution witnesses about the precise time the boys were seen alive and the time the fire was reported.

In her summation, Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Cheryl Cucinello detailed the years-long investigation into the boys’ disappearance. “It was Lee,” she said. “It was always Lee.” Focusing on Hampton, she said it was his guilt over the death that finally led to his confession, adding that at the time, he had no plea deal in place and no assurance of a reduced prison sentence if convicted.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

WHAT a crock!! There was no dna evidence to link   to Caylee's death but we ALL know she did it. 

I think it's only a matter of time before he ends up back in the clink..for H or robbery or yet another murder(s).