After Senior Assistant District Attorney Stanley Alexander finished redirect of Lawrence Cooper Jr. in the felony trial of Mayor Frank Melton Tuesday morning, Judge Joe Webster called a brief recess. When attorneys returned, Webster lectured outside the presence of the jury. "When I rule on something, that's it," Webster warned, saying that it "got a little out of hand" during Cooper's testimony. Tuesday was marked by frequent objections.
The prosecution's next witness was Jennifer Sutton, who owns the duplex. Sutton said she has lived in the Virden Addition all her life. She is a house keepr at a retirement home in Ridgeland with two children. She lives about a block away from Ridgeway Street.
She said she purchased the duplex at 1305 Ridgeway, along with several adjacent properties, in 2004 for $25,000. Evans Welch lived at the duplex at the time she bought it and paid $160 a month, though his mother made actual payments.
Sutton said she heard about what happened at Ridgeway the night of Aug. 26, 2006, but she didn't go to the property then because she was afraid. The next day, she took photographs of the damage, which prosecutors submitted as evidence and jurors passed around.
Sutton said she did not go into the duplex then because there was too much debris, and the demolition had exposed live wires. She had to call Entergy to have the power turned off, Sutton testified.
She said that on Sept. 6, Melton called her and offered to fix the house. She said the contractors Melton said would fix the house had city emblems on their trucks. "He was very rude to me," Sutton testified about the phone call with Melton, and she admitted that she had hung up on him.
She said no police officer or city official had ever communicated with her about there being a problem at the duplex before Aug. 26.
Next was Louvenia Welch, who is Evans Welch's mother. She said Melton had not contacted her to say she should take her son back.
Melton attorney Dale Danks asked her to read a quote she had made to The Clarion-Ledger in which she expressed worry about her sons' friends.
Then Capt. Bobby Funchess, an investigator with the sheriff's department, took the stand to report on how he had investigated the case for the DA's office. "What I found was obvious," he said. "The front wall ... was missing. Also, the awning had been pulled down into the yard."
Webster would not allow prosecutors to admit photos Funchess took into evidence because he took them Sept. 6, 2006. "We have no way of knowing what happened between Aug. 26, Aug. 27 and Sept. 6," Webster said.
Later, the judge did allow prosecutors to admit one photo Funchess took of paint flung all over Welch's stove after Cooper returned to the stand and said it was an "accurate description" of his firsthand account of the defendants flinging paint.
Prosecutors then called Yolanda Allen, who said she lives at 1309 Ridgeway St., next door to the demolished duplex. She testified that she saw a big white police van pull up in front of the house the night of Aug. 26, 2006, and Melton, Wright and Recio, along with "about eight kids," came out of the police vehicle.
Her testimony closely matched that of earlier witnesses. She said Melton had a "big stick" and that the youths had sledgehammers. She testified that one of the youths who helped demolish the duplex said, "Look at what Frank has us doing. We're Wood Street tearin' up Virden. We're tearin' #### up."
She also testified that Melton had smashed in windows and that he had said, "I'm tired of this ####," to people in the neighborhood.
On cross-examination, Melton attorney Merrida Coxwell Jr. questioned apparent inconsistencies in Allen's testimony today with statements she had made to the DA's office. Allen acknowledged that she had seen a police raid on the duplex two weeks before Aug. 26, but she could not remember any others in the previous year.
She sparred with Coxwell over the signifigance of people in the neighborhood saying that "folks are coming," which is a code for the police. "They yell that all the time around there," Allen said.
"Is that what they yell so drug dealers can run?" Coxwell asked.
"I don't know about no drug dealers," she replied.
On redirect, Alexander asked if she had ever seen Welch deal drugs, and she said no.
The final witness in the morning was Anthony Richardson, who also lives near Ridgeway. Richardson identified all three defendats as being at the duplex the night of Aug. 26. He said that he saw Melton smash windows in the duplex, and that two youths got off the Mobile Command Center with sledgehammers.
He said Wright had ordered him to go home as he observed the events. "I said I was a grown man," Richardson testified. "He can't tell me to go home."
On cross-examination, Danks asked about Richardson's drinking habits, asking him to confirm that he had had alcohol the morning of the Ridgeway incident. Danks asked Richardson several times if he'd had any alcohol before testifying. "No sir," Richardson replied, "but after this I probably will."
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