Shortly after the killings, police arrested Hemphill, then 24, who was wearing a pair of the Grant Hill Fila shoes. - Law enforcement had interviewed a different suspect with a violent criminal history, Willie James Hemphill - a fact which was not disclosed to the defense. Photos. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window). Armstrong questions whether Flowers could have carried out the killings of four people execution-style. What are we supposed to think? Steven McKenzie, the driver of the getaway car in the pawn shop murders, was arrested on August 1 in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Police arrived at the factory and interviewed employee Katherine Snow. According to the July 8, 1996, police report, store owner Bertha Tardy reported to police that a burglar or burglars smashed through a skylight, tried to break into the safe and stole the side door key. Ive been confused of the day from the beginning. Search by Name. Find Willie Hemphill's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading online directory for contact information. What an Alabama crime spree might reveal about the Curtis Flowers investigation. He's shown a fearlessness about committing brazen attacks and thefts in daylight with high risks and low payoff, in places close to where he's lived and where people are more likely to recognize him. This score is (-15%) Above the National Average View Actual Score View Reputation Details . Prosecutors have always said that Curtis Flowers was the only serious suspect in the Tardy Furniture investigation. Gamble and Presley are serving life in prison for their Alabama crime spree. The show revealed that the district attorneys office bullied and threatened people into lying on the witness stand. Willie James Hemphill, 38. We have lots of information about Willie: religious views are listed as Christian . You may also light a candle in honor of Willie James . They wanted to ask him about his alibi for the day of the Tardy Furniture murders, an alibi that hadn't checked out. Jessie Mae Hemphill [1]1923-2006 Blues musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, percussionist Blues musician and vocalist Jessie Mae Hemphill [2] was a paradox. Submit an Obituary. WINONA Renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said evidence he reviewed of the 1996 Tardy Furniture slayings suggests more than one personcarried out the quadruple murder. Evans didnt want jurors comparing his tortured theory with a simple and sensible alternative. The similarities between the crimes were striking. He told us the truth … The statement that he gave in court I made sure was the truth before we used it.. And Hemphill had actually lived for a time in Winona. Belfast (2021; co-nominated with Denise Yarde, Simon Chase and Niv Adiri) References External links. 0 Add Rating Anonymously. In 1996, Mississippi investigators told the local paper they were looking into a possible connection. No one was going to all that trouble over the approximately $400 investigators say was in the till that morning. But that doesnt make Doyle a cold killer. Their pattern was to spend a week or so lying low before going on another rampage. But this week she told journalist Madeleine Baran that she was wrong. 20181228 Willie James Hemphill Criminal Civil Records Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. But he never cut ties with Winona, where his grandmother remained and where he committed a slew of small-time thefts in the years before and after the Tardy Furniture murders, according to public records. Past Addresses: Shelby NC, Shelby NC +7 more. He allegedly committed robberies to fund a drug habit. He thought back to when Small took the gun. Asked to clarify what he'd just said, Hemphill became agitated. It was his legal obligation, but its easy to see why he didnt. James Mather is a British sound editor. Only now, a new name has surfaced. Maybe Doyle did the deed and reported his gun stolen to throw everyone off the scent. "I was out of the whole jurisdiction in another state.". His full criminal history is too lengthy to reproduce here. In October 2015, some 20 years after the murders, Katie Ali, one of Flowers attorneys in his appeal, recognized him in the photo lineup law enforcement used to implicate Flowers: In those Alabama crimes, store employees were shot execution-style with a .380 handgun the same type weapon used in the Tardy Furniture Store killings that might have jammed, and a suspect was wearing Fila shoes the same type shoe found from a bloody shoe print at the scene. The police there picked up the investigation and also apparently probed the Tardy Furniture connection. Willie James Hemphill didn't come up until the sixth Flowers trial, and law enforcement officers said he was eliminated as a suspect in about five minutes. The Tardy murders took place during a 24-day gap when the group carried out no robberies in Alabama. Nine days later, on July 25, 1996, the bodies of two innocent people were discovered in a pawn shop in Birmingham, Alabama. The bodies of Derrick Stewart, 16, Robert Golden, 42, Carmen Rigby, 45, and Bertha Tardy, 59, were found spread throughout the store and in the back office. And Gamble wore Fila sneakers the same brand of shoe that left a bloody footprint at the Tardy Furniture scene. Check resumes and CV, arrest records, places of employment, social media profiles, photos and videos, public records, skilled experts, publications and memorials . Goldberg doesn't remember the alibis Presley or Gamble gave, but he said following up on those wouldn't have been his job. Are you a sl*t? It took theIn the Dark team a full year to track Hemphill down in an Indianapolis courtroom (hes still getting into trouble). "[I]t's almost like a hair trigger that would cause a reversal if you've got false testimony that is significant.". When reporters talked to Hemphill last year, he said investigators cleared him because he had an alibi he called it "airtight." Lab officials, however, say the gun never arrived and was never tested. Willie James Hemphill's alibi doesn't check out TIMELINE: Hemphill's long criminal record. Its almost impossible to not hate him and to believe he is guilty. Burial will follow in Hemphill Star Cemetery, Boyce. Current Address: EHZR Hannah Dr, Rock Hill, SC. What follows are selected incidents from his past. Willie James Hemphill has done many terrible things. Wiilie Hemphill passed away in Bryan, Texas. The shooter, Marcus Presley (16) and his accomplice, Lasamuel Gamble (18) were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia on August 9, 1996 after two weeks on the run. A wealthy lawyer who killed his wife and son at close range has been sentenced in one of the most troubling cases the judge said he had seen. He allegedly committed robberies to fund a drug habit. Willie Dixon - The Big Three Trio 1947-1952 (Roots N' Blues C 46216) FLAC . Reporters also poked holes in Hemphill . Why offer up another suspect? ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM. In the Dark has previously reported that Hemphill was an initial suspect in the days after the July 1996 murders in Winona, Mississippi. "We did go to the mall, but it wasn't the day of the killing. Hours after the killings, authorities interviewed Flowers, who said he had been babysitting the children of his girlfriend, Connie Moore, and also gone to his sister's home and a nearby store. Their reporters know better than anyone that Hemphill wouldnt get a fair trial. Both men bounced from one traumatic living arrangement to another with no respite. Flowers through six trials present Presley and Gamble as an alternative theory of the crime? Willie James Hemphill was confronted in an Indianapolis courthouse last week, 23 years after police deemed him an initial suspect but later pursued leads against Flowers. The presence of Presley in the lineup raised some questions about the testimony of law enforcement witnesses who'd said under oath that Presley was never a suspect in the Tardy case. In the sixth, he was again convicted and sentenced to death, and his latest appeal was ongoing when the podcast started. In the midst of the probe, the Mississippi Crime Lab sent a copy of the bloody shoeprint found at Tardy to the lead Boston investigator. But we found a document showing that another man, Willie James Hemphill, had also been questioned just days after the murders. On November 16, 2015, Marcus Presley signed an affidavit claiming that Lasamuel Gamble and Steven McKenzie (the driver of the getaway car) had been in Mississippi the day of the Winona murders and had returned with several hundred dollars in their pockets after claiming to have hit a lick (committed a crime). Willie James Hemphill in Georgia Fulton County arrested for U/S VGCSA POSS* BLOG; CATEGORIES. So, maybe Curtis didnt steal the gun after all. Gamble told me that they saw a few licks while they were in Mississippi. And there he was. After examining the autopsy reportsand crime scene photographs, Baden said the evidence suggests one person maintained control while another person carried out the execution-style killings. Sympathy Ideas. Usually if somebody starts shooting, he said, others will run.. But at Curtis Flowers' trials, the prosecution downplayed any investigation of other suspects. 2. An investigative team from American Public Media has uncovered evidence that law enforcement had at least two other suspects in the 1996 quadruple homicide in Winona that put Curtis Flowers on death row information that was not shared with his defense attorneys. Willie Hemphill is 80 years old and was born on 04/13/1942. How did your name get involved in this?, Hemphill: I wasnt in the city. "If he's guilty, he's guilty.". Obituaries Section. Does this theft provide a clue as to how the killers made their getaway? Information APM Reports obtained from the Montgomery County Sheriffs Department through a public records request shows Hemphill was held for 11 days in jail. Find records of Willie Hemphill . By licks he meant places to rob.. Authorities put together alineup later that day of black-and-white photos, and she identified Flowers from the lineup as the man she briefly saw that morning when she came outside to move her car. Hallmon has since admitted he lied. Miller, the Mississippi investigator who made the lineup and asked for the two to be interrogated, declined to answer questions from APM Reports. A photo array that contains Marcus Presley (No. A bloody shoe print found in the store (left), and an investigator's sketch comparing the print to the Fila Grant Hill sneakers. After the second stick up, the two men argued about whether they should have killed the witness. It happens. It was a .380-caliber automatic handgun, coated in dirt and rust. The answer was yes many, many times. In addition, he won an Emmy for the television show The West Wing.. A woman who admitted having sex with a 13-year-old boy and becoming pregnant with his baby has avoided jail time. <a . The answer was yes many, many times. Willie Hemphill Found 194 people in Mississippi, Illinois and 31 other states. "The best of my recollection, Mississippi was able to determine that our guys weren't the ones, or there was something that didn't make them right for the Mississippi case," said Mike DeHart, the Alabama sheriff's deputy who questioned Gamble. A .380-caliber is hard to control. . The investigative file contained no indication of what Hemphill said or why he was eliminated as a suspect. Follow him onFacebookandTwitter. Prosecutors said repeatedly at trial that the only suspect seriously investigated was Flowers. UNLOCK PROFILE. It was still in the morning time.". Just weeks ago, however, reporters discovered that Hemphill had an upcoming court date in Indianapolis and met him there. He said he would have sent a written report back to Mississippi, so authorities there could check out the stories. However, In the Dark's reporting has uncovered no clear evidence linking him to the Tardy murders. Evans has spoken to the Greenwood Commonwealth, most recently about APM Reports analysis of his record of striking potential black jurors vs. white juries 4 1/2 times more often. Episode 10 of the In the DarkPodcast was largely dedicated to the strange case ofWillie James Hemphill, a local bad boy with a violent streak who was continually getting cross-ways with the law. Presley was the tougher of the two, and he didn't say much. And in searching for Hemphill, she came upon a cousin with the same name who recalled three carloads of deputies showing up at his mobile home in 1996 looking for the other Hemphill. So, if Curtis didnt do this terrible deed, who did? The ugly facts of Hemphills past werent ugly enough for the podcast In The Dark emphasized its clear disdain of him. It wasn't until Flowers' sixth trial that jurors heard anything about the Alabama suspects. In total, he killed four people and wounded three others in the space of just three months. with Reverend Shane Russell officiating, assisted by Max Bennett. When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case. … A bunch of lies., Asked about Hallmons recantation, District Attorney Doug Evans, who has prosecuted Flowers in all six trials, said, Thats why the judge instructs the jury that a jailhouse informant is not very reliable, because they can change their statements very easily, for any reason. Evidence that prosecution witnesses may have given false testimony could potentially get Flowers' conviction overturned, said Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor who now teaches law at Pace University. That discovery will very likely win Curtis a new trial, but it doesnt necessarily finger the new guy as the killer. "I think we pretty much ruled him out from the get-go," Matthews testified. Flowers, who had been fired from the store 13 days before the murders, reportedly owed a small amount of money to one of the owners. At the time of his first known arrest, in 1990, he was an 18-year-old high school dropout bouncing back and forth between his mother's house in Memphis, Tennessee, and Winona, where his grandmother lived. A witness whose statement put a man on death row for 22 years has performed a remarkable backflip, turning a case on its head. And the case file doesn't contain the report Goldberg says he would have sent to Mississippi authorities, or any indication of what might have been done to substantiate it. As the investigators interviewed for theWrong Man episodes on Flowers point out, the family members of the victims should have been considered suspects until evidence suggested otherwise. When he showed up the Montgomery County Sheriffs Department two days later, he said, they immediately cuffed him and that the investigators made it clear he was a suspect. "I haven't heard anything about them," John Johnson, the investigator for the District Attorney's office, had said when questioned about the Alabama suspects at the sixth Flowers trial. But Curtis Flowers is somehow still not cleared of the gruesome quadruple murder on July 16, 1996. While that case was delayed for more than two years, Hallmon murdered three people, including his ex-girlfriend, Marquita Hill, and her mother. And why did Doyles brother, Emmett, run from law enforcement when they came to question him on the morning of the crime? Passed away February 25, 2012. Not the right Willie? The Dallas Morning News Homepage. Although Presley was only sixteen, he seems to have been the driving force behind these crimes. And Hemphill had a history of committing crimes in Winona and Memphis. Includes Address(1) Phone(2) Email(1) See Results. Grief Support. Burial will be at Barber Memorial Cemetery Hemphill had previously told police and the podcast that he was not in Winona on the morning of the murders. One of them, LaSamuel Gamble, had more money in his possession when he returned to Alabama, Presley said. After nearly 23 years locked up, Curtis Flowers has a chance to get out on bail if his lawyers can convince the judge to rule in his favor. His mothers mutt, Patches, was barking in the crawl space, causing him to find a gunbeneath the house she was renting. (1870), A.M. (1872), and LL.D. When the podcasts reporter Parker Yesko confronted Hemphill about whether he committed the murders, he denied it, and the show included audio of the hideous, misogynistic things he said in response. But there was no mention of the Alabama crimes and suspects in the investigative files the prosecution had turned over to Flowers' defense attorneys. As far as him telling me he killed some people, hell, naw, he aint ever told me that. Initially, Hemphill refused to provide further details of his whereabouts on July 16, 1996. If, hypothetically, theIn the Dark team was charged with defending Curtis in a seventh trial even an all-white jury selected entirely of Winona residents couldnt find him guilty. Judge Joseph Loper asked Evans if the state had any exculpatory evidence.. After months of looking for Twanda Woods, In the Dark reporters located her a few months ago at her trailer in Winona, half a mile south of Tardy Furniture. Willie James Hemphill Obituary. But he believed Gamble's denial. Me and her was leaving," he said, forfeiting his Memphis alibi altogether and placing himself a short walk from Tardy Furniture. An early suspect in the murders, Willie James Hemphill, who has a long criminal history, lived less than a mile from where Armstrong found this gun in 2011. I aint saying nothing bad. Memphis is two hours north of Winona, just across the border with Tennessee. Told that Woods had a clear memory of being in Winona on the morning of July 16 and learning, outside the Piggly Wiggly, that the murders had just happened, Hemphill interrupted and altered his story. Simpson's brother Emmett was an early suspect, too a fact Matthews had himself testified to in the second Flowers trial. The day in photos. During nearly 30 years of crimes, Willie James Hemphill has shown a quick temper, and a penchant for daytime robberies and violence against women. Green is a reporter in Toronto. Both involved store employees who were shot execution-style, a .380 handgun that might have jammed, and a suspect wearing Fila shoes. Visitation will be observed from 10:00 a.m. until the time of service. One, Rigby,was killed with two shots to the head. More importantly, Woods said she was certain that she didn't make the trip with Hemphill that day. 5 Visits. 614 records for Willie Hemphill. Record that.. While talking to them, he said he told them about his discovery. Nothing in the investigative file for the case explains why officers let him go. 1809 Gatewood Aven, Greensboro, NC 27405-6727 is the last known address for Willie. When Snow told police that the man she saw was about 5-foot-6, investigator John Johnson corrected her, saying she had already given the heights as 5-foot-10, according to an audio tape obtained by APM Reports. According to Yesko and Mann (2019), Hemphill dropped out of high school and was living back and forth from his mother's house to his grandmother's. The accused has had his conviction overturned for the sixth time, the woman who put him at the scene of the murders has backflipped on her story and another man has been forced to deny it was him all along. When In The Dark spoke to Woods, she denied the two were together. APM Reports, the investigative and documentary reporting team based in St. Paul, Minnesota, spent a year digging into the Flowers case for its In the Dark podcast. He took the gun and placed it into a nearby shed. The second season of the In the Dark podcast is about the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. Jessie Mae Hemphill; Jimmie Gordon; Jimmy "Duck" Holmes; Jimmy Burns; Jimmy Dawkins; Jimmy Holmes; Jimmy Johnson; . And Hemphill had actually lived for a time in Winona. Surveillance video from John's 280 Pawn Shop broadcast by ABC News. According to court records, he was "swinging a machete and causing a. Who was he? Even before finding the gun, Armstrong had doubts about whether Flowers played a role in the quadruple murder. This case was filed in U.S. Courts Of Appeals, U.S. Court Of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. Marcus Presley, the gunman in the Alabama crime spree, was staring up at Ali from among the six photos in the lineup. . ROCK HILL - Willie Abraham Williams, 69, of 1138 Hickory Lane, Rock Hill, S.C., was called home Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008, at Hospice & Community Care.He was born Sept. 7 . He never responded. "They were investigating that intently back then. And maybe his girlfriend, Katherine Snow, told the authorities that she saw Curtis leaning up against Doyle Simpsons car because thats what investigators wanted to hear. So, if Curtis Flowers isnt guilty, who is? In October 2015, almost 20 years after the murders at Tardy Furniture, one of Curtis Flowers' lawyers was paging through his case file, when she saw a familiar face. For Flowers, the new information including Flemings changed story adds weight to his case for a full acquittal. The host, Madeleine Baran, carefully noted that only some of evidence seemed to point in Hemphills direction, even though a flimsy case was enough to almost execute the man her show just found innocent. In 1996, central Alabama saw a string of armed robberies, where the criminals told store clerks to lie down and held them at gunpoint, sometimes killing them. Find an Obituary . Prior to his death, Doyle came across as a passive man working hard to stay out of trouble. The two men had family in both Boston and Norfolk. EPISODE 16. But his demeanor when approached by In the Dark investigative reporters was consistent with innocence. Reporters from In the Dark tried to contact Hemphill online to present him with these findings. I knew Curtis had started to get involved in crack. His alibi is weak, according to In The Dark. Their size was a.380. Photos. Hemphill said investigator took his shoes for a few minutes as well as his fingerprints. The killer or killers could have used the key to enter the side door, perhaps hiding before the store opened. Share Obituary. Username. But attempting to deliver another black man into that same system goes against its good work. Marcus Presley sometimes accompanied by LaSamuel Gamble had committed a string of robberies in 1996 in and around Birmingham, with the same modus operandi. Twenty-two years on death row. A series of Willie James Hemphill mugshots ranging from 2000 through 2016. And that's what I know," said David Goldberg, now retired from his job as a detective in the Norfolk Police Department. Willie James Hemphill was born on June 2, 1941. When Flowers went back on trial, Armstrong heard no mention of the gun by either prosecutors or defense attorneys. John Johnson, the DAs investigator, told the jury, I think they talked to him for five minutes. James appears the first time in the 1870 Federal Census as a six year-old, living with two brothers and a sister on his parents farm in Lampasas County, Texas. It takes no imagination at all to imagine Marcus Presley committing a crime like thatwe have the video from the pawn shop. LOW HIGH. APM lead investigative reporter Madeleine Baran found one page among the documents Evans did give the defense attorneys, a form someone named Willie James Hemphill, then 24, of Memphis had signed . On July 14, his mother, Lola, died of surgery complications. Willie James Hemphill Addresses Click Here For Willie James Hemphill's Last Known Address 1241 Hatfield Dr, Evansville, IN 47714 1001 Mississippi Ave, Greenwood, MS 38930. Presley wasnt the only suspect defense attorneys didnt know investigators had seriously considered.

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