The Hunt dr
In reality, it happened in the
early afternoon of Aug. 22, 1984.
"1 was coming from the
(Samaritan) Soup Kitchen (on
Patterson Avenue) and 1 stopped
at the poolroom on Trade
Street/' Thomas said. With a
nickel bag of marijuana in his
pocket and some bourbon, he sat
down with "six black guys" who
were drinking vodka. He drank
with them.
"One of the guys sat down
beside me and said, 'Ain't you
the guy I seen over there with that
mg mm i flu fialw
that girl?1 Thomas said.
That person was Johnny Gray
(alias. McConnell), who later
became the prosecution's chief
witness in Hunt's murder trial.
Gray was referring to the person
he had seen assaulting Mrs. Sykes
on the day of the murder.
"I told him, 'Hell no,' "
Thomas said.
Thomas said Gray became
angry and said, "You a m f?
~g lie."
Thomas said he didn't want
any trouble, so he decided to
leave.
Two blocks later, Thomas said
he boarded a bus headed for
Hanes Mall. As the bus circled
the block, the police stopped it in
front of the Wachovia Building
on Main Street. Gray had approached
an officer near the bus
stop to tell him that Thomas was
involved in the murder of Mrs.
Sykes.
* Thomas said the officer boarded
the bus, came back to his seat
and told him to get-tip.
"He said he had orders to bring
me in for suspicion, of
murder," Thomas said.
-TTfTiinniiniiiiiminiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuMwini
Panel From Paj
conditioning of a group of people.
"We need to ask, 'Why have
these xpung men given,
Hufttley said of the young, unwed
black fathers depiotfti In tlfl?
documentary.
Dr. William Turner, who
teaches in the social sciences
department at WSSU, agreed,
saying the the program failed to
discuss any of the history involved
in the current status of the
black, family. Turner suggested
that viewers put the program in a
broader, historical context.
"The film is a little more entertaining
and shocking than informative,"
Turner said. "A short
150 years ago, the state of North
Carolina forbade black people to
get married. If you don't put the
film into a total context, the
meaning isn't as strong. We can't
just look at it as a film that makes
us gnash our teeth and wring our
hands."
Profiles of single parents in the
documentary suggest that in-,
creasing numbers of black people
are content to turn to welfare for
financial support. Louise G.
Wilson, retired director of Experiment
in Self-Reliance and a
member of the panel, said that
isn't always true.
"I, too, once felt that people
were on welfare because they
wanted to be, but when I became
involved I found that that isn't
always the case," Mrs. Wilson
said. "Many of them say they
don't want welfare. They get
$197 a month. What are you going
to do with $197 when you've
got to pay rent if you're not in
subsidized housing? You've got
to buy food and clothes for your
children. It doesn't go very far."
The Moyers documentary also
pointed out that more than half
of all black families are headed
by single women. But the
panelists said the film neglected
to discuss one of the causes of
that .. statistic - black male
unemployment. <
"Everyone asks, 'Where's the
man?* That's what everybody
wants to know\" said Mrs.
Wilson. "He's hiding so the
social workers don't know he's
living with his family. He Can't
get a job and he can't stay it the
house because the family will lose
the money. If We respected him,
we'd offef liim training to help
v
N.
ama's other |
"I relaxed then," he said. "I
knew then I only had to worry
about the reefer.'*
Thomas said he had heard
about the murder of Deborah
Sykes on television and knew the
police were looking for two black
males - one of them tall. Thomas
is about 6 feet, 2 inches tall.
"Because I'm tall, 1 figured I'd
be picked up," he said.
He was taken to a detective's
office on the second floor of City
Hall.
"They had me sitting in a
Gray was sitting just outside the
door, about as far away as that
pole," he added, motioning
toward a pole less than 15 feet
away.
When asked about his involvement,
Thomas said he told the officers
there was no way he could
have killed Mrs. Sykes.
"I told them 1 had an iron-clad
alibi - I was in jail across the
street," Thomas said, referring
to the Forsyth County Jail. Two
officers took him across the street
and confirmed his story, he said.
Thomas said he was cited for
marijuana possession and let go.
He said he was picked up between
2:30 and 3:30 p.m. and released
around 6:15 p.m.
One of the officers who interrogated
Thomas was Detective
James I. Daulton, the chief investigator
of the murder.
Daulton testified during the trial
that Gray never identified
Thomas, but only said Thomas
resembled the murderer.
However, the transcript of an
interview of Gray by Daulton and
officer W.G. Miller, conducted
je A1
him get on his feet. If he's not
made to assume his responsibility,
is he to be blamed?"
? Dr. Turner said unemployment .
has historically been a problem
fdrlriacks. Citing the findings of
a major study, Turner said,
" Every 25 years since slavery,
either the majority group has asked,
'What are we going to do with
black people?' or there has been a
war going on. People do not, and
have not, had jobs."
The Rev. Carlton A.G.
Eversley, pastor of Dellabrook
Presbyterian Church and one of
the more outspoken members of
the panel, traced the cause of the
crisis in black families even
deeper.
"The first thing we need to say
is that racism is the problem,"
said Eversley, who was raised in
the Bedford-Stuyvesant community
in New York. "It's a fact
that old, white, rich males run the
world. There is a maior nrnhlem
with the self-esteem level of black
males."
Eversley said the documentary
was a "good report" and called
Moyer a "good reporter." He
also voiced concern over what he
termed the "abdication of the i
white community's responsibility i
for the total community."
The panel cautioned viewers
against feeling the film depicted
isolated incidents and offered
suggestions for a plan of action
to reverse the trend in the black
family.
"I look at the filtn as a black
mother and as a citizen of Forsyth
County," Mrs. Wilson said.
"While the film is about New
Jersey, 1 would have to talk
about Forsyth County. Rest
assured that some of the same
things are happening in North |
Carolina and in Winston-Salem.
I challenge all of you to let these |
young people know that someone J
cares. We need to have f
workshops with parents and
work with them in parenting their
children."
Eversley suggested that blacks
begin to assume responsibility for
healing their own wounds.
'There are some things that we
can and must do for ourselves,"
he said. "There is a litany of
black complaints that says, 'We
are so abused.' I'm not 10 years
away from my teen-age years and
Please see page A15
f
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player Fr0n
MMNMMIMMMIIMMMINUMHIIIIIIIItinMtMIHIMMtMIIM
on the day of Thomas* arrest,
reveals Gray saying, "On the
word of my mom and dad, on
myself as being a man,*' that he
would be willing to go to court
and swear that-Thomas was the
man he saw committing the
crime.
Additionally, Miller has admitted
since the trial that Gray identified
Thomas on the day in question.
Miller said he took Thomas
to the county jail to be identified
only because Grav had said
Thomas was Mrs. Sykes'
Daulton was present during the
identification.
"They shouldn't have tried
that man (Hunt) with the little
evidence they had," Thomas
said. "I knew Johnny Gray was
lying. If he tnisidentified me, why
not misidentify somebody else?
"He could've been using me or
somebody to cover up for
somebody else," Thomas surmised.
"It could've been a friend of
his or something."
Thomas said he should have
been called to testify.
"Why didn't they bring me to
court?" he said. "Because the
statement he made to me at the
poolroom would've proven that
he identified me. "He was sure
? or he wouldn't have been so
bold at the poolroom."
A city manager's review of the
police handling of the case contends
that Thomas was con
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sidered a suspect in Mrs. Sykes'
murder, and that he is the person
Johnny Gray pointed out to the
officer at the bus stop downtown
on Aug. 22.
A subsequesnt internal investigation
of the police's handling
of the Hunt case has led to
Daulton's demotion to a civilian
job in the police communications
room.
He was stripped of his police
certificate for giving 4'deceptive
testimony" on the witness stand
during the trial, and for
^^Tfr&cconiiTtg and an satisfactory"
behavior.
According to police records,
Daulton's demotion was not based
on his testimony about Gray's
misidentification of Thomas.
MeanWhil^, Hunt's attorneys
have filed motions in the state
Supreme Court to^have Hunt's
conviction overturnedNrhey say
4 'massive prosecutorial rnisconduct,"
including Thomas'
misidentification, were covered
up at Hunt's trial. They alsoVay
that Miller is the most important
witness who did not testify at tne
trial. \
Hunt is serving a life sentence,
and Thomas, who quit schoolj
after the 10th grade, says he is
concentrating on bettering/
himself. |
"It would be wonderful if i
could learn computers," he saidA
"something that would help J
me." /
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The Chronicle, Thun
^JtpS
*
Indera
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Monday-Friday 10-5,!
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HI mm
HuuHp^i'^laH K ^|
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sday, March 27, 1986-Page A3
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