Page A10-The Chronicle, Thursda
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Hunt From Pai
your family when you got to
watch your back all the time."
In testimony Tuesday, both
Murphy and Gray, also known as
Johnny McConnell, pointed
fingers at Hunt when asked if the
man they saw that morning was
in the courtroom. Hunt sat expressionless,
as he has
throughout much of the sevenday
trial, when he was identified.
A i: - v 4 >
j-vtLuruing 10 rviurpny, as -?ne
drove on his way to work on the
morning of Aug. 10, he saw a
black man, who he- has since
identified as Hunt, with his arms
around the neck of a white
woman, who he said was Sykes.
The couple stood out in his mind,
said Murphy, because Sykes was
"pretty" and Hunt was black.
Gray testified that he saw Hunt
straddle Sykes as she lay on the
ground. Hunt, testified Gray,
was beating Sykes in tlfe face and
neck, hut hp Hirl not A a Wnif#?
Sykes was yelling loudly and
struggling to get away from
? Hunt, said Gray.
After he returned home from
work, Murphy said, he saw news
accounts of the Sykes murder on
television and called the police to
tell what he saw that morning.
No 'pigtails' on
composite
Murphy helped a police artist
H r Q VI/ O enmnAcifo /"?f rr* n n Ua
mi m? u vviupviiii. ui 11iv. man nc
saw in the Crystal Towers area
that morning. But the composite,
said Murphy, did not accurately
portray what he saw.
The man he saw had his hair in
"pigtails," said Murphy, but,
because the police department
did not have the ability to draw
composites of men with braids,
the man in the composite drawing
did not wear braids.
Murphy then picked Hunt out
of a photo lineup and asked to
see him in person. He identified
Hunt when he saw him in person
as well.
Contrary to his testimony in
the preliminary hearing, Murphy
testified Tuesday that he is sure
that Hunt was the man he saw.
Under cross examination,
Murphy admitted that he was a
member of the Ku Klux Klan in
1974 and that he was committed
"voluntarily" to a mental health
unit for problems with
alcoholism.
Court records show that Murphy
was committed involuntarily
and that he was diagnosed as having
"chronic brain syndrome.'*
After Gray watched the man
and woman struggling, he said he
walked six-tenths of a mile to a
pay phone, passing a phone
across the street at the fire station,
and called the police to
report what he saw. Gray used
the name Sammy Mitchell when
he reported the crime.
Gray testified under cross ex
amination that he does not know
Mitchell, who is Hunt's best
* friend. He said he picked that
name at random.
"I just don't like to be involved
in things," said Gray. "I used
the first name that came to mind.
I could have easily said
anybody's name."
Much of what Gray has
previously told the police in a
statement on Aug. 22, 1984, was
untrue, Gray testified Tuesday.
Although Gray said he realized
his previous statements had been
taped, he denied many of them
when defense attorney S. Mark
Rabil questioned him.
When asked by Rabil why he
didn't try to help Sykes, Gray
said, ''I'm helping her by being
on this witness stand."
'I didn't do it for monev'
*
Gray denied telling friends that
he had been promised $9,000 in
Crimestoppers reward money for
the information he provided on
the case. But he said he has been
given approximately $200 by the
police department to help pay his
rent. *
Gray, charged with commonlaw
robbery and under a $50,000
bond, has been in jail for the past
iy, June 6, 1985
jt
ge A1
IIHItlMttttMMItMHMMtMMIMMMMMMIMMMMItMltMtlM
three months. Neither the police
nor the district attorney have promised
him anything in return for
his testimony, he said.
But when asked if he would accept
a reward, Gray said, "It's
not that important to me, but if
it's offered, I will be glad to take
it."
Despite Murphy and Gray's
testimony, a state medical examiner
and a State Bureau of Investigation
pathologist testified
that no physical evidence links
Hunt to Sykes' murder.
According to Brenda Dew, an
SBI forensic pathologist, blood,
saliva and semen samples taken
from Hunt do not match those
taken from Sykes' body. Hunt is
a blood type A secreter and Sykes
is a blood type O secreter.
That information, said Dew,
does not "incriminate or
eliminate anybody." Although
sperm could be detected in the
fluid taken from Sykes' body, the
buildup of bacteria associated
with body _ deterioration can
destroy the material needed to
determine blood type, Dew said.
Sperm, she said, usually live
longer.
Dr. Michael J. Shkrum, an
assistant chief medical examiner
from Chapel Hill and the person
who performed the autopsy on
that hp HiH nrvt
^ J "VJ j I 1VW VIIMk iv VilM liV/i
remove from Sykes' body any
foreign hairs that might belong to
a black person.
Shkrum also testified that
Sykes was killed by a stab wound
to the heart.
Emotional Testimony
Other witnesses who have
testified include Sykes' mother,
Evelyn Jefferson, who cried
throughout much of her short
testimony; Fred Flagler, who was
managing editor of The Sentinel,
Svkes' emDlover when she was
killed; Ethel Wiggins, the police
dispatcher who sent a car to the
wrong location after the call from
Gray; Bryan Watts, the black
man who found Sykes' body; and
police Detective J.I. Daulton, the
case's chief investigator.
Other names pop up
often
The two names that have been
mentioned in the trial more often
than Hunt's have been Sammy
Mitchell and a man named
Charles "Too Tall" Wall.
Wall has been identified as a
street person who frequents the
area around Crystal Towers.
n ur_ in . __i_ _ _ 1
oecause wan s pnysicai
description fits the initial descriptions
eyewitnesses gave of Sykes'
attacker, the defense attorneys
have implied that he may have
been involved in the attack.
More than one involved
Most of the other witnesses in
the case have testified to what
Hunt's supporters often point
out ? that the murder was committed
by more than one person
and that blood and sperm
samples taken from Hunt do not
match those found on Sykes'
body.
"In my opinion, more than
one person was involved,"
testified Lewis Stringer, the county
medical examiner.
That conclusion, said Stringer,
is based on several factors, the
foremost being that Sykes was
apparently carried from the spot
where her clothes, shoes and
purse lay to tne spot wnere ner
body was found. That, said Stringer,
could not have been done
by one man Hunt's size. Sykes
was approximately 5-foot-10, 145
pounds.
Stringer's testimony came as
no surprise to District Attorney
Donald K. Tisdale, who had said
in his opening statements to the
jury that he isn't sure Hunt committed
the murder alone.
Ill) A. - J ? A _ 1 1 tU-?
I m noi cunvinvcu ai <ui mm
one person committed the
murder," said TisdaJe Friday
Please see page A12
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