EVIDENTIARY INNOCENCE

The retired team of professors and armchair detectives at Organized Snooping every season select old and cold cases from around the region that we feel we can add or be of value to. This year's selection is a good one. From the beginning the defendant stressed his innocence, which surprises no one who's worked a beat or prison ward. What in part makes this defendant's claim compelling is he pens biographies and other books and produces films and through all admits to so much, shall we say, unpleasantry, often in detail. Truly this is not a subject whose first or second nature is to hide past sins or shame. Let's get into it, shall we.

In August of 2002, Willie Earl Scott was convicted in Jefferson County, Alabama, for the 1999 capital murder of 10-year-old Latonya Sager, who was found unresponsive on a den sofa where she slept in a Birmingham residence at 1993 Huntington Lane (court filings from the state attorney's office has it incorrectly listed as a home in the northern central Norwood community), in the morning hours of September 11th.

Parties to this affair are, as follows: Willie Earl Scott, the subject; Vinnie Scott, the subject's grandmother and listed homeowner; Shaneka Scott, the subject's sister and likely homeowner (attached with a 2 year old and 7 month old); Latonya Sager, the now deceased; Latrice Sager, the deceased's mother; and Albert Hawkins, the deceased's uncle, brother to Latrice, and Shaneka's boyfriend.

Now what jumps out immediately from the records is that Latonya Sager's death was initially characterized by coroner Dr. Bruce Alexander as possible homicide but "ailment complicity cannot be ruled out."

Three years later, by the time of the August 2002 trial, Dr. Alexander was of the opinion that Latonya Sager died of strangulation or suffocation, or more accurately "a lack of oxygen," considering there were no ligature marks nor any visible signs of foul play. This is not a small thing. And on top of that testimony he points out having the sickle cell genetic disease made the deceased more susceptible to asphyxia at practically any level or degree, which greatly puts cause of homicide into question.

The single thing tying the defendant Willie Earl Scott to the case, if the negative is true and there was indeed a crime of capital murder as prosecutors contend, however, is DNA. Only the presence of DNA does not a murderer make, specifically in the Willie Earl Scott case. Staying with the coroner, Dr. Bruce Alexander testified that the deceased's vaginal ring was still intact, undisturbed, nor was there any evidence of trauma to the anal area, ruling out sexual assault. Dr. Alexander also testified that the DNA, a semenal substance, was approximately the size of a dime found on the inner front thigh of the deceased, who was discovered lying face down. The tiny substance was what's described as a "contact sheen," meaning it came in contact with the deceased through a secondary nature not directly from the source necessarily, and so he could not rule out the DNA having transferred on to the deceased from the sofa, as she was found lying undisturbed on her belly. Though here it should be noted that, though he refused to partake in the trial, uncle Albert Hawkins admitted in sworn police statement that he moved the body's positioning upon discovery before police were called.

The fact that the defendant lived at the home and regularly utilized said den was not disputed. Female associates of the defendant, Keisha Wesley, Rachel Hilleary, Saudia White, others, all conveyed to both investigating detective Jeff Steele and Deputy DA Brad Felton that they often engaged in activity of a sexual nature with Mr. Scott at the Huntington address on said sofa on previous occasions, a fact not disputed by others in the home, and, in the case of Saudia White even, had visited that very evening, as September 10th was her birthday. Taken with the fact that the deceased is not wholly certain to have been murdered, the Willie Earl Scott case is full of doubt of not just guilt but of a crime.

Where malfeasance does show itself is in the defense put on for Mr. Scott, as none of these women testified, though Rachel Hilleary was retrieved by Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputies to appear in court on the last day of trial, while the sofa cushions were apparently requested for testing by the subject himself leading up to trial yet were ultimately mislocated or lost or simply destroyed, a clear violation of law and protocol perpetrated by prosecutors.

Now, as a former interrogator, Willie Earl Scott's story of doings between the afternoon of September 10th and the morning of September 11th, when Latonya Sager was reported deceased, stayed remarkably consistent for a subject allegedly coming down from a night of party and intoxication. Birmingham officers took him for questioning under the guise of a potential club incident not involving him preceding the alleged rape allegation of associate club dancer Landris Wright, for which he was actually booked.

The subject, clearly unsure of the situation but feeling no culpability, volunteered his entire day, stating that he rode around and got high on weed with one James "Champ" Peoples and others who would confirm as much, before hooking up with female friendlies, first at nearby Daniel Paynes Apartments, where he lost/left his Erikson Sony cellphone and his house key, before walking home around the lane to the Huntington estate, for the second time, around 1:30 that morning, to retrieve: 1) a new house key, which Albert Hawkins gave him his; 2) a registered firearm, one of which Latrice Sager provided; and 3) his vehicle to drive, a 1997 ES Lexus purchased under the name of grandmother Vinnie Scott.

During the time all of this seemed to check out, even to the point where the subject was stopped for traffic violation, searched and everything computered by police in the wee hours that morning, to the point where Latrice Sager was called on the phone there on the spot by officers concerning the gun, and the subject cleared to leave. Later on, however, arguably when Latonya Sager was passed, whether intentionally or otherwise, and when it was decided by someone or group that more serious questions would be demanded by authorities and Mr. Scott had therefore been designated suspect or blame, everything conveniently changed. The following day the Lexus was called in stolen on behalf of Vinnie Scott, who was in a wheelchair at the time and unable to drive. This was allegedly done at the behest of Albert Hawkins, who was careful not to be seen as controlling the situation. Latrice Sager, the deceased's mother, would have her own mother report the handgun stolen several days later.

Willie Earl Scott had evidently been corralled into a crime and crossed out in clandestine fashion without figuring. We've been operating under the presumption that the touch amount of physical evidence was likely transmitted from the sofa cushions. Yet one now has to ask could the "contact DNA" itself have been outright planted altogether?

This is part of Willie Earl Scott's transcribed statement, to Birmingham Police Det. Jeff Steele, at downtown police administrations, the following morning:

No murder or incident is ever mentioned, nor does the detective let on about the death of Latonya Sager, probably hoping to let the subject trip himself up, but gets exasperated when nothing significant is forthcoming. Mr. Scott was either still drunk or high, but clearly doesn't sound guilty of murder. What's striking on a simple human level is, when discussing the family, the subject calls Albert Hawkins his "brother," as if thinking whatever the detective is attempting to hold over him, his loyalties rest with the family. He has no idea he's being set up.

Now, compare that with the statement of Shaneka Scott, the off-the-books owner of the home, and, who, today, is the last living survivor of the Huntington Hills residence in association with the Willie Earl Scott case besides the subject himself. Shaneka Scott shared the temperature of the deceased's mother and uncle—one or both of whom may or may not have been responsible for Latonya Sager's death, be it murder or accidental overdose, we just don't fully know the answer. But at this moment in the statement, and really without knowing it or even seeing the strategy being sprang, the subject is out of the loop and now being painted in calculated fashion in a manner that intentionally makes him suspect from police perspective. Albert Hawkins and Latrice Sager surely have their reasons for this move, motives that may well be nefarious, but the subject's sister Shaneka Scott nonetheless casts her lot in with them, either for personal reasoning or for part of her own secret motives, and she begins by newly calling Mr. Scott her cousin, not her brother. Separation.

In her statement, Shaneka Scott would tell four apparent lies against the subject Willie Earl Scott, likely in an attempt to damage his standing and/or simultaneously help someone else. Four lies that, according to records and evidence submitted subsequently, would be quickly disproven: That the subject didn't normally have a home key; that the Lexus was not purchased by him since it was in family's name and that the subject had taken keys from her purse, along with $40; that only the subject did drugs and not the entire lot of them; and, that the subject's grandmother distrusted him as opposed to a house filled with persons not related to her.

When the subject was arrested at the Wright apartment, he had approximately $500 on him and contended still that $500 more had been taken from his pocket by the alleged victim in that case while he slept. Pertaining to drug usage, both Albert Hawkins and Latrice Sager have records for possession of controlled substance, while the latter, known as an extensive drug abuser almost her entire life, would later die from an actual overdose of street narcotics. And as for grandmother Vinnie Scott, her testimony at the subject's 2002 trial professed a mutual love and care not in cooperation with the statement characterization.

The transcribed statement of Shaneka Scott is as follows:

What strikes one as odd is how everyone says that the den door usually locks when it is closed, and that one often has to pick the lock or kick the door open. Yet, Latrice Sager, whose room, as shown in the "Downstairs" diagram

of the house, is directly next door, knob to knob exactly, to the den occupied by Latonya Sager, and instead of picking her way inside the room a few meters over, Latrice Sager goes all the way upstairs to gather up others in the home and almost have them do the honors of finding her daughter unresponsive. As an investigator that comes off as deeply odd and very suspicious behavior.

The following is the part statement of Albert Hawkins, upon entering the den and discovering the deceased:

Now include the information of records that police pulled over the subject in the Lexus that morning after the club and waffles, on September 11th, with the firearm belonging to Latrice Sager, whose name and number he not only gave officers to call but whose name he wrote in margins on the traffic ticket as the gun's owner, claiming to have consent and so sure the subject was that he would not be contradicted. Officers called Latrice Sager on the spot, finding the mother up in the wee hours, possibly alone with daughter Latonya and at a time when the coroner's report would classify her as dead or dying, and the officers got some story about the gun always being in the Lexus' glovebox and not misused. With this, the officers cleared the subject, giving him back the firearm after a thorough vehicle search, warning him to park the car with no license, which apparently he then almost immediately there in the north Birmingham neighborhood, turning all of five corners and stopping at the apartment of longtime associate Gladys Wright, only to stumble upon more trouble.

Definitely not an angel in 1999. Far from it, infact. But not a murderer either, as far as the actual evidence is concerned at least.