Justifiable homicide? Mother's quest for answers in son's death reveals roadblocks in homicide cases
Photo by Brandon Dill
Priscilla Taylor says she has been disturbed by the impression that Memphis police rushed to judgment in calling the death of her son, James Stokes, a justifiable homicide.
Priscilla Taylor is searching for answers.
She thinks Memphis police believe her 37-year-old son rode a bicycle down a South Memphis street and fatally shot a man sitting in a car.
Taylor's son, James A. Stokes, then allegedly was killed in retaliation by relatives of the man he reportedly shot last Nov. 9 on Greenwood Street near McLemore.
Since the day after that double homicide nearly six months ago, Taylor has been disturbed by an impression that police detectives have shown little respect for her son's life, and rushed to judgment by calling his death a justifiable homicide.
"If he killed the man, he was dead wrong," Taylor said. "But my son was murdered, too."
Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich says she has met with more grieving mothers, including Taylor, than she can count.
Weirich has had to explain how police and prosecutors must rely on witnesses, evidence and the likelihood of proving a case in court as they weigh whether to bring charges in a homicide investigation.
"Too often, we're left with a victim who is dead and can't talk and a suspect who has given a statement or provided information," Weirich said.
"If we have no other witnesses who are able to come forward, or willing to come forward, we have nothing," she said. "We're left with the word of the person who could be charged with the crime."
Taylor acknowledges that two mothers lost their sons on that November day. Devan Monger, 34, was the man police found shot to death inside a Nissan Maxima in the 1100 block of Greenwood.
Monger's mother, Margaret Monger, said she is allowing the police to do their jobs.
"I know whatever comes out of it, it's not going to bring my child back, and it's not going to bring James Stokes back," said Margaret Monger, 60.
"I just wish we could all get along and the killing stop because I don't know why my child died," she said.
The Memphis Police Department reveals very little about homicide investigations. Officially, a nine-sentence statement prepared for the media back in November is all of the public information available about the homicides.
Officers found Monger fatally wounded about 5:45 p.m. that day, according to the press release, and another man -- later identified as Stokes -- was found dead lying in a vacant lot next door to the address where Monger had been shot.
Police records soon labeled the investigation a "justifiable homicide," an indication that criminal charges might not be filed.
The Memphis department lists three justifiable homicides so far this year, 28 in 2011 and 19 in 2010. Those figures include shootings by police in the line of duty -- one this year, four in 2011 and three in 2010.
Taylor, 55, acknowledges that the circumstances of Stokes' death and his criminal record gain him no sympathy.
Stokes served prison time for voluntary manslaughter after fatally shooting another man outside a Nashville nightclub in 2002. An autopsy after his death found cocaine and marijuana traces in his blood.
Taylor said she believes that because her son was a convicted felon, as was the man he allegedly killed, the investigation into a double homicide involving two black men in a low-income neighborhood has received less scrutiny than it should.
"It's two convicts off the streets," she said. "Two mothers lost their children."
Weirich disagrees with the perception that decisions about charges in homicide investigations would be affected by the race or criminal record of those involved. Nobody is above or beneath the law, she said.
"Our focus as prosecutors is not on the individual, victim or suspect," Weirich said. "Our focus is what they did, who lost their life and under what circumstances."
Repeated requests for interviews with Mayor A C Wharton and Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong for this story weren't granted.
Taylor's dissatisfaction with police investigators began early.
Her son had identification that could have led police to her home that evening, but no officer notified her of his death. She and her daughter learned of his violent end the following morning from a representative of N.J. Ford & Sons Funeral Home who came to the family's door.
After she contacted a brusque woman at the Memphis Homicide Bureau, two detectives came to her home, Taylor said.
In harsh terms, one investigator told her that her son's slaying would be considered a justifiable homicide -- one no prosecutor would want to take to court, she said.
Taylor's family, including her husband, Stokes' stepfather, began to investigate on their own, she said.
An autopsy report she obtained in late January from the Shelby County Medical Examiner's Office raises questions, Taylor said.
Stokes was shot in the upper back by a gun held so close that it left the imprint of a gun barrel and gunpowder flakes on his body, according to the report.
Another bullet pierced his right thigh and continued through his left thigh. His left ankle was dislocated and his right elbow was fractured. He had cuts and scrapes on his head.
There was no visible evidence of gunshot residue on his hands.
His black leather jacket and blue jeans were covered with what appeared to be dried mud.
"In my opinion, this death resulted from the gunshot wounds, with blunt force injury of the head and cervical spine as contributing conditions," wrote Dr. Karen Chancellor, the county medical examiner. "The manner of death is homicide."
Taylor said she believes her son was hit by a vehicle after he allegedly shot Monger and attempted to flee. She believes he was shot in the legs, captured, beaten, dragged through mud and shot in the back.
The lack of visible gun residue on his hands, she said, causes her to wonder if her son even shot Monger. Any further testing of of samples taken from Stokes' hands to find microscopic evidence of gun residue would have to be ordered by Memphis police, officials said.
The family's detective work also included tracking her son's missing T-Mobile cellphone from one location to another by using the cellphone company's website, Taylor said.
When she told a homicide detective about that, he replied that it would cost $ 3,000 for police to track the cellphone and it wasn't going to be done, she said.
That angered Taylor, who pointed to a new, $ 7.2 million animal shelter that the city opened the same month as her son's death. She asked a question of Wharton:
"If the mayor can spend $ 7 million on a dog or an animal, how come he's not talking about all this killing?" Taylor said.
She said she has repeatedly contacted homicide detectives and their superiors, a member of Congress and others. Prosecutors told her that no decision about charging anyone in her son's death had been made as the police investigation continued.
Still, she said she fears that the homicide probe has been botched.
"Basically, they've let the killers go," Taylor said.
Weirich said there is no time limit on a homicide investigation.
"We're working with the facts and the evidence that the police department or sheriff's office provides to us," Weirich said. "There's no magic time frame on when an investigation is done."
On Greenwood, Monger's 64-year-old uncle, Noel Lacey, said Memphis homicide detectives told him that Stokes was hired to be a hit man.
"The fellow they said was hired to kill him was the one that got killed," Lacey said on the well-kept porch of a house within sight of a large tree, decorated with stuffed hearts and bears, where the Maxima and Monger came to rest.
Lacey said Monger's younger relatives exchanged gunfire with Stokes after Monger was shot.
"The way police told me, Stokes shot at them too," Lacey said. "He shot at them and they defended themselves."
Taylor, who believes that others had motives for killing Monger and that disputes over marijuana and money may have triggered the shootings, said the autopsy provides evidence that the killing of her son went beyond self-defense.
"How can it be justifiable if he was shot at close range in his back?" she asks. "It's overkill -- they overkilled my son."
Unless someone is arrested and charged, it is unlikely that anyone outside of police and prosecutors will learn who shot Stokes, or what evidence homicide investigators assembled.
Memphis police routinely deny public access to justifiable homicide investigation files.
Weirich said that charges still could be filed in the future. She stressed the need for witnesses to come forward to help police and prosecutors.
"There is really no point where we close the door on an investigation and no statute of limitations for justice, but it takes many people working together to make that happen," Weirich said.
Taylor said she is hoping that someone will be arrested and charged in her son's death. That way, facts can be brought out and a judge and jury can decide if her son was murdered or not -- even if prosecutors lose the case.
"Try it anyway," she said. "Try it."
-- Kevin McKenzie: (901) 529-2348.
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