MELVIN PITTMAN, EARNEST TAYLOR, ALVIN TURNER, RANDY JOHNSON and MICHAEL McDOWELL - 17, 17, 16, 16 and 16 (1978)/ Convicted: Philander Hampton, Acquitted: Lee Evans - Newark NJ

A man accused of burning five teenagers alive in 1978 in what was
once one of New Jersey's longest running cold cases told a jury during
his closing argument Friday that there was no evidence to connect him to
the case.                     "I am innocent of these charges," said Lee Evans, who faces 10 murder-related counts. "First and foremost: I am not a murderer."
                    Evans
has been representing himself and gave his own 40-minute closing
argument Friday morning in a Newark courtroom in which he pointed out
what he said were major inconsistencies in the testimony. He noted that
several witnesses gave differing testimony about when they saw him with
the teenagers, whom he occasionally hired for odd-jobs.
                    Evans
also reviewed the criminal history of several witnesses, including his
cousin and the state's star witness, Philander Hampton. Hampton pleaded
guilty and was given a 10-year sentence in exchange for the testimony.
                    The
case, originally classified as a missing persons case in 1978, went
cold for decades until a pair of Newark detectives on the cusp of
retirement decided to re-investigate it as an unsolved homicide.
                    In
2008, Hampton told authorities that he and Evans had lured the teens to
a vacant house in Newark with the promise of odd jobs, put them in a
closet, secured the door with a 6-inch nail. He said Evans poured
gasoline and set the house ablaze — all in retaliation for the teens
stealing some marijuana from him.
                    The bodies
of 17-year-olds Melvin Pittman and Ernest Taylor and 16-year-olds Alvin
Turner, Randy Johnson and Michael McDowell were never found.
                    Several
witnesses testified seeing the boys for a final time on the night of
Aug. 20, 1978, some of them in the back of Evans's light green handyman
truck with "Evans & Sons" painted on the side. Evans was a
well-known presence in the community where the boys lived, and where
Evans still lives. He pointed to that fact Friday as proof of his
innocence.
                    "After 33 years, I've been living
in the same community. I never left. I never ran anywhere," Evans said.
"I've faced the same people every day."
                    A
court-appointed attorney who has been assisting Evans was giving
additional closing remarks following Evans Friday morning. The
prosecution is expected to give its closing argument Friday afternoon.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=142505131

Philander Hampton Admits To Murdering Newark Teens In 1978

August 30, 2011 2:20 PM

NEWARK, NJ (AP) - A New Jersey man pleaded guilty Tuesday to murdering five teenagers in 1978 in what was one of the state’s longest-running cold cases.

Philander Hampton, of Jersey City, told police three years ago that he and a cousin, Lee Evans of nearby Irvington, lured the teens to an abandoned house in Newark with the promise of odd jobs, then locked them inside and set the house on fire.

The attack allegedly was prompted by stolen drugs.

Melvin Pittman, Ernest Taylor, Alvin Turner, Randy Johnson and Michael McDowell were last seen on a busy street near a park where they had played basketball on Aug. 20, 1978.

Evans is scheduled to go to trial this fall.

Though family members long suspected Evans, a local handyman who frequently hired local youths, the case stumped investigators for years.

The friends were last seen on a busy Newark street. Later that night, McDowell went home and changed clothes, then returned to a waiting pickup truck with at least one other boy inside. That was the last confirmed sighting of any of the teens.

According to prosecutors, Hampton took detectives to the former spot of the abandoned house in 2008. The blaze destroyed nearly all evidence and hampered the investigation from the outset because the fire occurred before the five boys were reported missing and no connection was made between the two, authorities said at the time of Evans’ and Hampton’s arrest last year.

Since his arrest, Hampton had been in and out of court as he tried to have his 2008 statements to police barred on legal grounds. But state Superior Court Judge Patricia Costello ruled the statement admissible this spring. Hampton pleaded guilty to five counts of felony murder before Costello on Tuesday.

Evans has been free on bail since last summer. He dismissed one attorney last fall and has sought to represent himself at his trial. Costello earlier this year found him mentally competent to stand trial after prosecutors asked for a psychiatric examination.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/08/30/philander-hampton-admits-to-murdering-newark-teens-in-1978/

Suspect in 1978 slaying of 5 Newark teens gets a 10-year prison sentence in plea deal

By Alexi Friedman/The Star-Ledger
on October 03, 2011 at 5:00 PM
updated October 03, 2011 at 7:36 PM

NEWARK — Terry Lawson remembers the night her big brother, Michael McDowell, vanished from a Newark street. And she remembers her mother’s despair.

Janet Lawson didn’t have a driver’s license, so when her 16-year-old son went missing on Aug. 20, 1978, relatives began shuttling her around the city every day, searching for the boy.

With the car windows rolled down, Janet Lawson would call out: "‘Michael! Michael!,’" Terry Lawson said today in court.

Janet Lawson died long before anyone found out what happened to her son, who disappeared with four friends that night. The boys were officially classified as missing until March 2010, when authorities charged two cousins with their murder.

Today, standing in for her mother, Terry Lawson was in court to see one of the defendants, Philander Hampton, get sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the killing.

"The pain, anguish and helplessness she was forced to endure are indescribable," Lawson said of her mother, who died of leukemia in 1979, but never gave up hope that Michael would walk back through the door and give her a hug.

Hampton, 54, who admitted to five counts of felony murder, will testify against his cousin, Lee Anthony Evans, at his murder trial later this month. In exchange for the plea, Hampton received a reduced prison term, which under guidelines from the time of the killing make him eligible for parole in February.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:


• In plea offer, prosecution offers suspect in 1978 Newark slayings a 10-year prison sentence

• Man charged with killing five Newark teens in 1978 can remain free on bail, judge rules

• One of two men charged with killing 5 Newark boys in 1978 turns down plea deal

• Essex County Prosecutor's Office seeks to revoke bail for man accused in decades-old slaying of 5 Newark teens

• Judge rules Lee Anthony Evans can serve as his own attorney in trial of '78 Newark killings

The alleged mastermind of the killing, Evans, 58, stands charged with five counts of murder and intends to represent himself at trial. Authorities say the cousins lured the teenagers into an abandoned house that night 33 years ago, then locked them inside. A third cousin, who is also believed to be involved, has since died.

Evans is accused of pouring gasoline throughout the house then setting it on fire.

The bodies of McDowell, Randy Johnson and Alvin Turner, all 16; and Melvin Pittman and Ernest Taylor, both 17, were never found.

Evans, who is free on bail, was not in court today but has loudly maintained his innocence, accusing Essex County officials of corruption in their effort to prosecute him. Last month, Evans turned down a similar plea deal to the one Hampton received, though prosecutors later said the offer merely represented a start to negotiations.

In a phone interview after sentencing, Evans called Hampton’s plea deal "an insult to the families. If, hypothetically, someone would do something like that, how are you going to let somebody out in two years?" he said. "That means Michael Vick went to jail for two years for a dog," referring to the N.F.L. quarterback who pleaded guilty for his role in a dogfighting ring in 2007.

In fact, the half-dozen victims’ relatives who sat through today’s sentencing expressed anger at what they view a lenient sentence. But they have their sights set on Evans — Terry Lawson has called him the "big fish" — who prosecutors contend orchestrated the killing as payback for the boys having stolen a pound of marijuana.

Authorities have built their case against Evans largely on Hampton’s November 2008 confession to police, which also implicated his older cousin in the killing. In her own remarks, Costello noted how Hampton’s confession has given authorities "the only evidence they have."

While no physical piece of evidence has tied either cousin to the crime, prosecutors contend witnesses will testify to seeing Evans, a carpenter at the time of the killing, drive the boys in his truck that night, after promising them work moving boxes. They were never seen again.

Evans may be the alleged brains behind the killing, but Hampton’s sentence did not sit well with one victim’s relative. Booker Murray, whose brother was Melvin Pittman, told the court, "you’re talking about the murder of five boys. It’s just not reasonable."

Terry Lawson, meanwhile, could barely contain her rage. Reading from a prepared statement, but addressing Hampton directly, she said at one point, "May your soul never experience a day’s rest or peace, and when you die, I pray you go straight to hell where you belong."

But in asking the judge to impose a 10-year term, lead prosecutor Peter Guarino said Hampton had been influenced "by a much older and much more dominant individual." Hampton, who will remain bound by the terms of the plea deal when he testifies at trial, "has nowhere to go but forward," Guarino said. "Today begins the freest period of Mr. Hampton’s life that he has had in 30 years. He has freed himself of Lee Evans."

In the three decades following the killing, Hampton had a string of arrests and convictions for robbery, theft, public drinking, drug possession and shoplifting, Costello said in reviewing his case file. He had a "long-term heroin addiction," which he kicked, she said, earned a high school equivalency in prison and has fathered two children, whom he does not see. Costello, who will preside over Evans’ trial, said the fact that the killing involved "five children was especially depraved."

But for Terry Lawson, now 45, the pain of Michael’s memory will endure.

"Thirty-three years ago I was a child who watched her big brother disappear into the night," she said. "Today, I stand here a woman, a mother myself. I can’t imagine not knowing what happened to one of my children. I can’t imagine the pain my mother endured not knowing what happened to her only son."

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/suspect_in_1978_slaying_of_5_n.html

Lee Evans Not Guilty: New Jersey Man Acquitted Of Murdering 5 Teenagers In '78

First Posted: 11/23/11 03:43 PM ET
Updated: 11/26/11 03:17 PM ET

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — One of the nation's most baffling cold cases remains unresolved after a jury on Wednesday acquitted a New Jersey man of locking five teenagers in a vacant home in 1978 and burning them alive in retaliation for stealing his marijuana.

No bodies were ever found, and Lee Evans, who represented himself against 10 murder-related charges, was able to poke holes in the testimony of the star prosecution witness.

Despite hearing the phrase "not guilty" 10 consecutive times Wednesday morning in a Newark courtroom, Evans said he did not feel vindicated.

"It's a situation where I heard him say: `not guilty,' but the fact is, they put this horrible thing on you, and you still feel guilty," a visibly stunned Evans said moments after the verdict was read. He said of the verdict, "that was a jury, that wasn't the people," referring to the family members of the missing teens who packed the courtroom throughout the trial and have said publicly for decades they feel Evans is guilty.

Evans, now 58, said the revival of the long-dormant cold case had destroyed his life and livelihood.

"I'm literally tore up, ripped up inside from the case," he said. "How can you get past that?"

Several family members of the missing teenagers wept and hugged one another as the verdict was read.

"Not guilty does not mean innocent," said Terry Lawson, who was 11 when she last saw her older brother, Michael McDowell, climb into Evans' truck on the night he disappeared. "Mr. Evans may escape the law, but never the Lord."

McDowell said the families felt some relief by learning more about what happened to the boys.

"We are grateful this case has been brought before a jury, understanding it's difficult to ask 12 people to go back 33 years without the technology and DNA available today," she said, adding, "We know in our hearts what happened to the boys, and we know that Mr. Evans is a guilty man walking free today."

Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said they were disappointed in the verdict.

"This is a case that has bothered the collective conscious of the Newark police force over 33 years," Murray said. "This case was never forgotten, it was never put on a back shelf."

Prosecutors sought to prove that Evans, who was 25 at the time, had planned to kill the teenagers as payback for breaking into his apartment and stealing a pound of marijuana a week before they vanished. Evans, who ran a handyman business, often hired the teens for odd jobs and paid them in marijuana, prosecutors said.

The case largely hinged on the prosecution's star witness, Evans' 54-year-old cousin Philander Hampton, who agreed to testify after pleading guilty in exchange for a 10-year prison sentence and $15,000 in relocation money. Hampton was sentenced under 1978 guidelines, and expected to be freed in a matter of months.

It was Hampton's comments to authorities in 2008 that helped revive the long-dormant case.

Hampton testified that Evans was angry about the marijuana theft and was bent on retaliation. He said he helped Evans lure the teens to a vacant Newark house on the night of Aug. 20, 1978, after asking them to help move some boxes, but then herded them into a closet and secured the door with a 6-inch nail. He said Evans poured gasoline around the perimeter, demanded that Hampton give him a match and set the house ablaze.

The bodies of 17-year-olds Melvin Pittman and Ernest Taylor and 16-year-olds Alvin Turner, Randy Johnson and Michael McDowell were never found. The boys were reported missing after the fire, and authorities at the time never connected the two events or examined the fire site as a crime scene.

The case was originally classified as a missing-persons case, despite the ongoing protests of family members who insisted to police that five grown teenagers wouldn't have simultaneously run away from home shortly after playing a game of basketball.

They insisted that Evans was the last person anyone saw the teens alive with. Evans told police at the time he'd dropped the boys off after hiring them for a few hours.

Over the years, investigators conducted a nationwide search for the teens, chased hundreds of dead-end leads and enlisted at least two psychics. The case went cold for decades, until a pair of Newark detectives on the cusp of retirement decided to rework it as an unsolved homicide.

During questioning by investigators in 2008, Hampton brought them to the site in Newark where he claimed the teens had been burned alive. The house had been destroyed in the blaze, and long since built over with new development.

Evans and the court-appointed attorney assisting him, Bukie Adetula, said the scenario to which Hampton testified would have been impossible and pointed out Hampton's criminal record and inconsistencies in his testimony.

Evans said he had lived and worked openly in the same community near Newark in the bordering city of Irvington, where many of the victims' families lived and saw him on a regular basis, and emphasized that fact as proof that he had nothing to hide.

Following the verdict, Evans was surrounded by family and supporters as he walked out of the Essex County Courthouse, saying he wasn't sure what he would do next or whether he would remain in the community.

Murray, the prosecutor, said, "with respect to this case criminally, this case is closed."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/23/lee-evans-not-guilty_n_1110755.html