Tuesday, December 23, 2003
The man whose DNA matched a semen sample taken from the victim of a 1984 rape and murder in Winston-Salem was charged yesterday with rape, murder, kidnapping and armed robbery.
Willard E. Brown, 43, was charged in connection with the death of Deborah Sykes, 25, in August 1984, said Tom Keith, Forsyth County's district attorney.
It was not clear how Brown's arrest would affect the status of Darryl Hunt, 38, who is serving a life sentence and has been imprisoned about 18 years in the Sykes case.
Hunt's attorneys filed a motion in Forsyth County Superior Criminal Court asking that Hunt be freed immediately and that his conviction be reversed.
The motion also accused state investigators of running a biased investigation, designed to link Brown and Hunt together in the crime.
Keith said that it is still too early to tell how the new suspect and evidence will affect Hunt's case. "We've repeatedly said that depending upon what happens it can help (Hunt), it can hurt him or it can be neutral," Keith said. He would not discuss new evidence developed in the case since the DNA match was made.
Police Chief Linda Davis said last night that she could not comment on the evidence against Brown because the case is still actively being investigated. Davis said that the police do not have any theories on whether Brown acted alone or with other attackers.
"We don't have a theory on Willard Brown at this point,"Davis said.
Her comments differ from those made by Keith, who has said he thinks that Brown may be a third suspect in the rape and stabbing.
Brown's attorney, Forsyth County Public Defender Pete Clary, could not be reached for comment.
About 8 p.m., Keith's office issued a statement confirming the charges against Brown and noting that the two main investigators in the case would be Scott Williams, an agent of the State Bureau of Investigation, and police Detective Mike Rowe. Williams and Rowe, the statement said, jointly reopened the investigation into the Sykes rape and homicide based upon the DNA testing.
Brown has been in the Forsyth County Jail serving a 60-day sentence after being convicted Nov. 14 of violating probation on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and second-degree trespassing. He is being held without bond under the new charges. Authorities declined to release Brown's photo, at the request of the Winston-Salem Police Department.
Brown's father said he was shocked by the accusations against his son. His son is friendly, Cleveland Bankhead said, and can usually be found laughing and carrying on.
Bankhead, 81, a retired asphalt raker, said he knew that his son had been getting into trouble since his teen years. But he said he doesn't believe that his son is capable of murder and rape. "It's kind of a shock to me, because he had so many girls," he said.
The DNA testing in the Sykes case was ordered by Judge Anderson Cromer of Superior Court in April at the request of Hunt's attorneys. Hunt was twice convicted of first-degree murder in Sykes' death. Sykes was raped and stabbed to death on her way to work at The Sentinel, the afternoon newspaper that closed in 1985.
Hunt's attorneys say they hope that the charges against Brown will clear Hunt of any connection with the crime. Hunt has always maintained his innocence.
Two women who knew Hunt said yesterday that they had never seen him in Brown's company. Cynthia McKey was the girlfriend of Sammy Mitchell, Hunt's friend and a co-defendant in the case. She said that she knew of Willard Brown, whose family lived on 14th Street not far from her home on Dunleith Avenue. But, she said, she was not aware of Brown being friends with Hunt or Mitchell.
"I ain't never seen him with them," she said.
Estella McFadden, a longtime member of the Darryl Hunt Defense Committee, a community group that has supported his cause, said she knew Hunt and Mitchell because she lived in the same apartment complex on Patterson Avenue as Mitchell's mother. She said she never heard the name Willard Brown.
Sandra Brown, Willard Brown's niece, said yesterday that she doesn't remember her uncle ever mentioning the names Darryl Hunt or Sammy Mitchell.
Since news of Brown's identification surfaced Friday night, the tactics of Keith and the police have come under criticism by some area ministers and Hunt supporters. They fear that little effort will be made to reinvestigate the case or consider the possibility that police had the wrong man all along.
Hunt's attorneys - Mark Rabil, James Ferguson and Maitri "Mike" Klinkosum - also expressed concern about how the new investigation is being handled, according to their motion filed yesterday.
"The State has not engaged in a fair, just and impartial investigation to determine whether Williard E. Brown committed these crimes alone, or at least without the help or presence of Mr. Hunt," according to the motion. "Once again the State has engaged in misconduct designed to support its preconceived notion that Mr. Hunt participated in this crime."
Besides asking for Hunt's freedom, his attorneys are asking investigators to tape any interviews with Brown and to provide those tapes to them.
Keith said he had not yet read the motion and therefore would not comment on it. It is not clear when the motion will be heard and whether it will be Cromer who will rule on it.
An eight-part series in the Winston-Salem Journal last month documented problems and inconsistencies in the case against Hunt since he was first accused a month after the killing. The series showed how law-enforcement authorities relied on questionable witnesses and other tactics to zero in on Hunt, to the exclusion of others, and how the legal system worked against Hunt. It also showed how the state shifted its theory of the crime to match DNA evidence, such as citing the possibility of a third and even fourth suspect, rather than reinvestigate the crime.
The series included the fact that a second rape occurred nearby six months after Sykes' death and that it bore similarities to that incident. Brown had been identified as a suspect in that case but was ruled out by the authorities, who mistakenly thought that he was in prison at the time of Sykes' murder. A check of records showed that Brown had been released in June 1984 and was on probation at the time. He was never charged in the second rape because the victim declined to press charges.
Although DNA testing done in 1994 and again in 1995 proved that Hunt was not the source of the semen found on Sykes, the courts turned down his requests for a new trial. The courts said that the DNA evidence did not rule him out as Sykes' killer or even a participant in her sexual assault.
• Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7302 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com
• Journal reporters Phoebe Zerwick, Patrick Wilson and Michael Hewlett contributed to this story.