10 posts tagged “terry hobbs”

Not sure what to think about Terry Hobbs? Well this should make that easier. 

Terryhobbs2

Arkansas Democrat Gazette
By Cathy Frye

The pieces appeared to be falling into place.

The DNA testing.

The discovery of previously unknown details about the night of May 5, 1993.

A potential new suspect.

So on Oct. 29, 2007, defense attorneys felt confident filing new federal court documents contending that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley had been wrongly convicted of killing three 8-year-old boys.

The attorneys revealed the results of ongoing DNA testing, turning their spotlight on Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of the West Memphis boys.

Two days later, a panel of forensics experts and a former FBI agent again pointed at Hobbs, saying he should have been questioned by police at the time of the slayings.

Hobbs, 49, is angry, saying that in the past year, defense investigators have ruined his reputation and caused him to have a nervous breakdown.

“I want people to know I haven’t done nothing wrong,” he said in a Friday night interview at a Memphis barbecue restaurant. “I want them to hear it from me.” The defense contends that DNA results are irrefutable and that an evolving timeline of that night shows Hobbs had motive and opportunity.

Former FBI profiler John Douglas, who has investigated Hobbs for the defense over the past year, says his subject has a dark side. He says two separate interviews revealed very different versions of Terry Hobbs.

“You’re talking to a saint — the all-American father, a great husband. And then there’s the rest of the story. We are talking about two different people.” It’s been nearly 15 years since the nude, hogtied bodies of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore and Chris Byers were discovered in a drainage ditch that runs through West Memphis’ Robin Hood Hills area, where the children often played.

All three of the boys had suffered numerous abrasions and puncture wounds. Most disturbing, however, were Chris Byers’ injuries. There were cuts on his inner thighs and a portion of his genitalia had been mutilated and removed.

A month later, police arrested three locals: Echols, 18; Baldwin, 16; and Misskelley, 17. In two trials that focused heavily on allegations of Satanism, all three were convicted. Echols was sentenced to death, while Misskelley and Baldwin received life sentences.

Spurred by HBO documentaries on the case, skeptics from across the nation formed a grassroots movement that eventually came to be known as Free the West Memphis 3. Money collected by supporters eventually secured a high-profile team of attorneys and forensics experts, who, in recent months have revitalized interest and publicity in the case.

The crux of the defense rests on DNA testing that wasn’t available in 1993.

In the court documents filed Oct. 29, 2007, defense attorneys said testing thus far hasn’t linked any of the three men to the crime scene. And six forensics experts contend that animals — not satanic rituals — caused the boys’ wounds. These injuries, they added, occurred after death.

Lawyers for Echols plan to take their new appeal to a state judge this month. The decision comes after U. S. District Judge William Wilson Jr. asked Echols to present parts of his appeal to state courts before turning to federal courts. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said last month that he’s frustrated by “a misleading press campaign” suggesting that there is new DNA evidence exonerating the three men. And he stood by a state medical examiner’s conclusion that Chris’ scrotum was cut off by a knife.

A YEAR OF SCRUTINY Defense investigators arrived on Hobbs’ doorstep in late February 2007. Hobbs was leery but invited them inside. “It was raining,” he explained. The investigators, both from a private Memphis firm, had two questions: Can you account for your whereabouts on May 5, 1993 ?

Why didn’t the West Memphis Police Department ever question you about the boys’ murders ?

Before leaving, unbeknownst to Hobbs, the pair took cigarette butts from an ashtray in his living room and the front yard.

“They used to call that stealing,” Hobbs said, thumping the table for emphasis.

Over the next few months, investigators talked to Hobbs ’ neighbors and family. They also were in frequent contact with Hobbs’ ex-wife, Pam, who has long accused Hobbs — to his face and in the media — of killing Stevie, he said. “She hurt so bad, she would lash out. She didn’t think I was hurting and wanted me to feel her pain.” During such arguments, he said, Pam would yell — “You killed my son !” Meanwhile, investigators continued to dig, tracking down a video from a neighborhood bar he used to visit with his ex-wife. The tape shows the couple involved in a lengthy fight, Hobbs said.

On March 7, Hobbs suffered an emotional breakdown, he said. He staked a sign in his front yard, putting the contents of his rental house up for sale. “I walked away. I put myself out on the street.” He spent the next few months living in a yellow Ford pickup with his teenage daughter.

He can’t explain why the investigators’ visit prompted this reaction. “These are things men don’t like to talk about,” Hobbs said.

He also blames frequent media attention over the past 15 years. “None of us families have had a chance to go through the healing process,” he said. “But I never let this thing take a toll on me until last year.” Maybe it was because he was writing a book about the case, Hobbs said, adding, “You relive it.” Meanwhile, the defense’s investigation intensified, especially after forensics experts said a hair found in Michael’s ligatures matched mitochondrial DNA on the cigarette butts taken from Hobbs’ home.

In May, Hobbs met again with the defense investigators at their request. He stayed awhile but didn’t cooperate, he said. Around this time, he began attending church and got a job in sales at a lumber company.

In June, he was summoned to the West Memphis Police Department for questioning. His ex-wife had been talking to officers about some pocketknives he once owned, Hobbs said, adding, “It wasn’t nothing.” On Oct. 9, Hobbs began attending support group meetings to deal with his stepson’s death, he said.

A few weeks later, in the Oct. 29 filing, defense attorneys said further DNA evidence linked Hobbs to the crime scene. A second hair, found on a tree stump, belonged to a man Hobbs had visited the evening the boys disappeared, they said, adding that they didn’t believe the man had been at the crime scene.

A few days later, Hobbs received a note from the support group he had just joined. It asked that he not return until “all the uncertainties are cleared up.” Members of a second group have remained supportive, he said, as has the congregation of his current church and his coworkers.

THE DEFENSE’S THEORY Twice during the late summer, Hobbs met with former FBI profiler Douglas, once at a mall and again at the downtown Holiday Inn. The first interview was pleasant, he said. Douglas agreed, saying Hobbs presented himself well, making the retired agent wonder if he was investigating the wrong man. “After about two hours, I told the person I’m with — ‘Jesus, I don’t know about this guy. ’” Over the next few days, however, Douglas interviewed others. By the time he was done, he knew Hobbs had lied repeatedly to him in the previous interview, Douglas said.

Douglas contends that: Hobbs beat his first wife and his second wife, Pam; he was abused by his own parents; he abused Stevie and his younger daughter.

The second interview didn’t go so well. “He was rattled when we confronted him,” Douglas said.

Douglas said he believes the killings occurred after Hobbs set out to taunt and punish Stevie and his friends. The killings happened, he said, when Hobbs realized things had gone beyond “teaching a lesson.” The defense questions why Hobbs reportedly ventured near the crime scene during a search for the boys but then turned back, saying he had a creepy feeling.

“I know you’ve all heard the lowdown about me,” Hobbs says in response during the interview at the Memphis restaurant. “But it ain’t all lowdown.” He’s always been a good husband, he said, and while he and Pam once got into an altercation during which he slapped her and shot her brother, the abuse she suffered for many years was inflicted by others. That 1994 shooting, he said, happened in self-defense after the man jumped him. “Yeah, I shot the dude. He was a big guy.” The brother survived the shooting.

Hobbs scoffed at investigators’ assertions that he was abused by his own parents, alternately describing his dad as a man with a redhead’s temper and as an upstanding Pentecostal minister.

He was reluctant to discuss the subject further, however, saying again that it’s a “man thing.” “They’ve gone around to my family and have put together things they said. I’ve heard some things I didn’t know or care about. I had a good dad and mom.” Asked about allegations that he disliked or abused Stevie, Hobbs said, “He called me Dad. We had a blast. We didn’t have a hostile relationship.” On the night the boys disappeared, Hobbs said, he did go down the path that led to the crime scene.

“I couldn’t breathe. I froze. The hair started standing up.” He described the odor of blood, saying he knows the scent because of the time he worked with his dad, a butcher, but said he didn’t smell it on the path. “I had to get out of there. Something just wasn’t right. I don’t know what came over me. I don’t remember if I told police.” He’s glad he wasn’t the one to discover the bodies, Hobbs said, adding, “They were buried underwater.” He finds it a strange twist to watch Chris Byers’ stepdad, Mark Byers, go from being an implied suspect in two HBO documentaries to one of Hobbs’ accusers. “They were bashing him, and I kept saying, ‘ He didn’t do this. ’” He thinks Byers and his exwife have turned on him because of attention and the promise of money.

“It shames you, something like this. That’s the biggest thing I’ve had to deal with — shame.”

WMCT-5
Nov 1, 2007 06:27 AM
[Written before the press conference]

The man who forensics experts say is implicated by new evidence in the West Memphis 3 case talked about the allegations with Action News 5 in July. But now, Terry Hobbs is changing his tactics.

Attorneys for the West Memphis 3 say new DNA evidence implicates Hobbs, the stepfather of Stevie Branch, one of the murdered eight-year-old boys.

Hobbs attorney, Ross Sampson wasn't worried about the new evidence. "The allegation itself is ridiculous," he said.

Ridiculous, even though Hobbs talked exclusively with Action News 5 in July about the allegations.  During that interview, when asked whether he murdered the little boys, Hobbs said, I'd have to laugh at that, and say there's something wrong with someone who would think that."

Hobbs is not talking now, after defense attorneys filed a 700 page document in federal court detailing the new evidence.

International forensics experts claim they found no traces of evidence at the crime scene to link murders to the West Memphis 3.

Two hairs found at the scene, one from Terry Hobbs, and one from a friend of his, are part of the evidence experts are focusing on.

Searchers discovered the three eight-year-old boys in a watery ditch near their West Memphis homes. Experts say the cuts on their bodies came from animals, and not a knife.

Terry Hobbs has not been charged with anything, and his attorney does not expect that to happen.

"We really don't expect any type of legal action taken by the state of Arkansas against Mr. Hobbs," Sampson said.

Defense attorneys want the state to overturn the conviction of Damien Echols, who is currently on death row, and his co-defendants.

The forensics experts, which include a defense attorney from San Francisco and a criminal profiler will be in Little Rock tomorrow for a news conference to detail all of the new evidence.

You can watch that news conference live on WMCTV.com at 10:00 a.m. [We will be posting the video on wm3.org soon].

'West Memphis Three' Could Go Free While Step-Father Hangs By A Hair

Frank Brooks
American Chronicle
August 15, 2007

Beginning in the 1880's, perhaps the only scientific means available to aid criminal investigators in determining who was responsible for a crime was fingerprinting. Fingerprints were used as a primary method of identification until the early 1900's. Flaws in fingerprint evidence such as becoming easily smudged or destroyed completely, rendering inconclusive results, and the fact that perpetrators were able to bypass fingerprinting by using acidic substances to alter their own prints led scientists to look for a better method.

Fingerprinting gave way to ABO blood typing, a forensic investigative tool that remained popular until human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing became the premier personal identification tool in the 1960's. HLA typing was rendered powerful but eventually useless to all but a small percentage of samples. In the 1980's, DNA testing came to fruition and permitted investigators to perform a level of personal identification far superior to anything else available. For example, the DNA of a single hair root can be used to differentiate a person from all other persons living or dead.

In addition to providing a solid scientific method of identification, DNA testing has been used to determine parentage in both animals and man. Unknown genes can be identified by DNA testing, as well as the possible inheritance of disease. DNA testing is used for positional cloning experiments. But for all of the wonderful things that DNA testing can provide, perhaps its original usage is one of the most important. Not only can DNA evidence identify the guilty, it can vindicate the innocent and wrongfully accused or imprisoned.

It is DNA evidence that four men are looking at, though not all of them in the same light. For Jason Baldwin, favorable results would mean that he will not spend the rest of his life in prison. For Jessie Misskelley, DNA testing could not only allow him to go free, but provide evidence that maybe the West Memphis Police Department really did coerce a mentally retarded teenager into a false confession of a crime he did not commit. And Damien Echols may never have to take the ride from Cell Block Four of Varner Supermax over to Cummins Unit for a date with death via lethal injection.

But for Terry Hobbs, the final results produced by DNA testing may point to something darker. If these final results mimick the findings of the preliminary evidence, a man who has spent fourteen years condemning three teenagers for the murder of his step-son and two other children may not only lead to perhaps his own wrongful imprisonment as many have proclaimed is the case with the 'West Memphis Three', but a decade and a half of secrets could come spilling out and bring this tragedy to an end.

According the preliminary results of over two years of DNA testing, no evidence has been found that links Echols, Baldwin, or Misskelley to the crime scene or the victims. This finding is all the more spectacular because not only have the results been acknowledged by the prosecution, it seemingly flies in the face of the myth that hair and fiber matches had been made linking the fabled 'West Memphis Three' to the murders, a theory that many feel largely helped Jason Baldwin into a life sentence and Damien Echols onto Death Row.

Secondary transfer occurs when a fiber or hair is physically transferred from one person to another. It should be noted that the hair and fibers that the prosecution suggests came about through secondary transfer in this case are inconclusive. There was one shirt fiber that “may be similar” to an article of clothing found in the home of a defendant. However, it has also been shown that this fiber is similar to materials found in the home of one of the victims as well. There has been a hair found that “could belong to” Damien Echols, but has not been matched. It has not been proven that either the hair or the fiber belongs to any of the WM3, and actual DNA testing refutes this suggestion, rather than solidifies it.

As far as facts are concerned, there is no physical evidence that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, or Jessie Misskelley had ever been near Robin Hood Hills, had ever met or been near any of the victims, or committed any sort of crime. There was no murder weapon recovered, no witnesses who can place Echols, Baldwin, or Misskelley at the scene of the crime, and no DNA evidence. So if the DNA evidence doesn’t point to these three, then who does it point to?

Well that's another story entirely. According to the DNA status report filed by the defense and acknowledged by the prosecution, DNA evidence has arisen that can not be linked to either the defendants or the victims. As of this time, there is no identity match for the DNA, except for one surprising piece of evidence that managed to turn up. A strand of hair belonging to Stevie Branch's step-father Terry Hobbs was found intertwined with a knot in one of the shoelaces used to tie up one of the victims. This is no longer a case of similarity or possibility. Terry Hobbs has been genetically matched to the scene of the crime through DNA testing.

Terry Hobbs says that the children played at his home often and perhaps a hair ended up in the shoelace through secondary transfer. In all likelihood this is a possibility. But what isn't said is that a shoelace bouncing around in Robin Hood Hills, being removed from a shoe, being knotted and tied to bind an 8 year old boy, being immersed in water, and lying around for over a decade – The hair was still with the shoelace. Still intertwined in a knot in the shoelace after all this time. That's either enough to arouse suspicion, or a very durable and strong piece of hair.

This evidence does not make Terry Hobbs a killer anymore than it does the three who have been convicted of the murders. However, there is a chance that if Terry Hobbs were tried in court on this evidence and prosecuted in the same fashion as the West Memphis Three, it would most likely be Terry Hobbs holding a cell in Varner Supermax, not Damien Echols.

These are very significant results in the DNA testing. No match for Damien Echols, no match for Jason Baldwin, no match for Jessie Misskelley. There is a match for Terry Hobbs and persons unknown. While this single strand of hair may not be the stuff that solid cases are made of, the Arkansas Judicial System finds it more than enough to indict, convict, and sentence people to life in prison and the death penalty.

In addition to a scientific match between Terry Hobbs and the crime scene, there is also strange occurrences regarding his wife Pam. After 17 years of marriage, Pam and Terry divorced for one reason or another. While Pam was going through various belongings, she happened upon a knife that her son Stevie Branch always carried on his person. According to Pam, Stevie always, always had this knife with him, and it would seem strange that the knife was not with Stevie but in Terry Hobbs’ possession. It is possible that the knife could have been discovered at the scene and given to Terry Hobbs. Except that Pam knew nothing about it.

If that is the case, this would be the second instance in which Terry Hobbs failed to inform his wife about her son, the first being when Stevie Branch originally went missing and Hobbs delayed telling his wife for 5 hours. Pam has openly stated that she is somewhat suspicious of her ex-husband, and is praying that the three men convicted are either guilty, or given a new trial.

The West Memphis Police Department decided to investigate Terry Hobbs. They have conducted interviews with Hobbs and are now looking for any other evidence that may point him out as the killer. Between the DNA results and his ex-wife’s growing suspicion, trouble certainly seems to be brewing for Terry Hobbs. Many supporters see this as justice coming far too late. To quote one of them, "After all, didn’t the ‘West Memphis Three’ get convicted on less evidence that that?"

For those who believe the WM3 are indeed guilty, this is just a defense tactic to try and get these men a new trial. For supporters of the case, this is a cause for hope that Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley will be given a new trial, and that the real killer or killers will eventually be caught. Perhaps the final DNA results will yield the true answer to which persons decided to tie up three children, beat them to death, and leave them in a drainage ditch to die.

For Terry Hobbs, being linked to a crime scene where your step-son was found murdered, and being suspected of murder by your own ex-wife can't be a position he'd like to be in. Did a loving stepfather really plan and execute the murder of three 8 year old boys? Is the same man who shot his own brother in the abdomen, disabling him for life, guilty of capital murder?

Could it be that Terry Hobbs failed to tell his wife about her son's disappearance for five hours because he had a sinister reason to do so? For all parties involved, let's hope the final DNA test results will once and for all unmask the perpetrators of the murders and lay to rest the most famous case in Arkansas history.

By Mara Leveritt on Friday August 10, 2007

A reliable source close to the investigation has reported that Brent
Davis, the prosecuting attorney in the case of the West Memphis Three,
arranged this week for Arkansas officials to take possession of knives
that once belonged to Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Stevie Branch, one
of three children murdered in 1993.

The source said the knives were to be transferred to state custody on
Wednesday. The knives had been given to an attorney representing one of
the teenagers convicted of the murders by Pamela Hobbs, Stevie's mother,
who was at the time married to Terry Hobbs.

The source also reported that Davis has cooperated with defense
attorneys in making arrangements to have the knives tested.

The Evening Times
By Laura Smith

Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of one of three West Memphis boys brutally slain in 1993, said he's gotten by during the 14 years since the murders by going to church and spending a lot his time on his knees in prayer.

“That, and being raised in a preacher's home,” he said. “My parents taught me the Bible; there's a whole lot of things in there, if you'll look at them, they'll help get you by and get you through.”

At the time of the murders, Hobbs was married to Pam Hobbs, the mother

of 8-year-old Stevie Branch who was killed with his buddies Christopher Byers and Michael Moore.

The murders changed the course of the lives of the boys' families.

He and Pam, who's from the Blytheville area, were together for 17 years before they divorced in 2003.

“I had a restaurant up there; that's where we met,” he said. “And we had a dream that we would move to the big city, work, save some money and go home and retire. It just didn't happen like that for us.”

John Mark Byers was married to Christopher Byers' mom, Melissa Byers, at the time of the killings. A few years later, the couple moved to Cherokee Village, where Melissa Byers died in 1996. John Mark Byers has reportedly moved to Millington, Tenn. He declined comment for this

article, and accurate details as to Todd and Dana Moore's whereabouts were nil.

But the news of the results of DNA testing on crime scene evidence has brought local and national attention back to the victims' families, to the three men in prison for the murders - Damien Echols, Jessie Miskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin - and West Memphis itself.

The results found that no genetic material recovered at the crime scene belonged to Echols, Miskelley or Baldwin, and, with the exception of one hair, all of DNA recovered at the scene that was tested belonged to the victims.

The hair was reportedly Hobbs', and police attributed his hair to secondary transfer.

Hobbs said he was recently questioned by police, who have put any speculation of Hobbs' involvement to an end, with Assistant Police Chief Mike Allen noting that Hobbs wasn't a suspect 14 years ago, and he isn't now. In the state's response to a report on the results, Prosecutor Brent Davis said the state stands behind the convictions.

“I went and talked to the police in West Memphis for a follow-up,” Hobbs said. “I've always been willing to cooperate, so I went over and done that.”

He recalled the day Stevie went missing.

“I worked that day like I've worked everyday of my life,” he said. “I got home about 3 or 3:30, and Stevie had gone off riding his bicycle, playing with Michael Moore.”

Stevie was supposed to be home at 4:30, and when he wasn't home Hobbs became concerned. Hobbs picked Pam up at work at Catfish Island at 9 p.m.

“Her dad and mom came down; she went with them to look,” he said. “I went with a friend. At different times we'd go to the police department. We spent all night driving around.”

The bodies of the boys were found a day later, and police arrested Echols, Miskelley and Baldwin a month after the murders. They were convicted of the murders in 1994.

Hobbs said he believes in their guilt.

“I'm more than convinced because [the police are] more than convinced,” Hobbs said. “Mike Allen's a good man, and I believe what I know, and I only know what they tell me.

“I think it's just a sad, desperate attempt for the defense to be doing what they're doing.”

But the recent attention does take its toll, Hobbs said.

“I try to go on the best I can, then something like this comes up, you know, and Hawaii looks pretty good sometimes, just to get away.

“This isn't how things could have been or should have been for all of us. We only came here to live a dream, and it's been a totally different life, living this."

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WHBQ FOX13 myfoxmemphis.com)- After 14 years, new evidence is emerging in the West Memphis Three case. It's a case that's still getting national attention. The new evidence has a mother of one of the three little boy's murdered wondering if the men serving life in prison are innocent.

Watch video here.

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (WHBQ FOX13 myfoxmemphis.com)  --  Three teens - now grown men - have all been tried and convicted for the 1993 murders of three little boys. Now 14 years later, DNA evidence could tie one of the victim's family members to the crime scene. FOX13's Cori Lake reports from West Memphis on the reopened investigation.

Watch video here.