Tuesday, March 16, 2004
In 1985, when the city manager's office first reviewed the Winston-Salem Police Department's handling of the investigation into the rape and murder of Deborah Sykes, Darryl Hunt was in prison serving a life sentence for her death.
Last night, as the city council's public-safety committee discussed the scope of a new review, Hunt sat quietly amongst them. Flanked by his attorney Mark Rabil and Larry Little, a former city alderman, Hunt listened as everyone discussed his imprisonment of 18 years.
"We here hurt deep that you had to spend ... If we could change it, we would," Council Member Vivian Burke said. "I apologize myself."
A new review will focus on mistakes made by the police, including how Willard E. Brown - the man now charged with the crime - was not identified earlier even though he had been interviewed and was suspected in a similar crime. Sykes was raped and killed in August 1984.
Rabil and Little spent an hour raising questions for the new review to answer.
"I'm not nearly as forgiving as Darryl is," Rabil said. "I have to a certain degree a great deal of anger.
He asked City Manager Bill Stuart to question whether police covered up information during the investigation. He poked holes in the police department's investigative tactics and questioned why Brown's DNA wasn't tested 10 years ago.
"I believe the city has a unique opportunity to learn from mistakes made in this case and to make changes to police procedures that will ensure that justice is done in criminal cases," Rabil said. "Do you want to be back here in another 15 years with another Darryl Hunt?"
Hunt was released from prison Dec. 24, having served 18 years after being convicted twice in Sykes' death. He was exonerated in February after police charged Brown with rape and murder. His DNA matched a semen sample from the Sykes case, investigators said in court papers supporting Hunt's release.
The victim of a 1985 rape that bore similarities to the Sykes case identified Brown in a police lineup, but he was never charged. Police said that the woman did not want to prosecute.
Brown was interviewed in connection with the Sykes case when it was reinvestigated in March 1986 - after Hunt had been convicted in his first trial. He denied involvement in the Sykes murder. It remains unclear why police dropped Brown as a suspect.
One officer has said he checked prison records at the time and was told that Brown was in prison on the day Sykes was killed; police now dispute that a mix-up of dates led them to drop Brown as a suspect.
"We can leave no stone unturned here," Council Member Nelson Malloy said.
A review issued by Stuart's office in 1985 was critical of how the police department handled the case. As a result of the investigation, a detective was demoted and two supervisors drew sanctions.
Council Member Wanda Merschel questioned whether the city should consider an external review this time.
Assistant City Manager Lee Garrity, who will be in charge of the new review, said that an outside investigation would probably cost too much.
Police Chief Pat Norris, police attorney Julie Risher and Assistant Chief Louis Saunders will assist with the review. None of them investigated the Hunt case.
Hunt softly told the committee that he believes and trusts that the city can do its own review of the investigation.
"I really just want to thank you for doing this - not just for me and the Sykes family but for the community," he said.
Capt. Jim Tesh and Sgt. Ken Bishop of the criminal-investigation division sat in the back of the room. They looked up from their notes only a few times during the meeting.
Norris sat with her hands folded, wringing them occasionally as Little turned to direct his comments at her.
"The buck has to stop here," he said. "She (the chief) has to set the tone."
As part of the city's review of the Hunt case, Burke, the chairwoman of the public-safety committee, also called for the city to provide information about the police investigation into the killing of Arthur Wilson in 1983.
Wilson was robbed and beaten to death Sept. 17, 1983, on Claremont Avenue.
No one was charged in his death until April 1986 when a man named Merritt Williams Drayton, who had been picked up on another homicide, told police that Sammy Mitchell and Hunt had beaten Wilson to death.
Drayton later said he too had been involved and pleaded guilty.
Mitchell was found guilty in the Wilson killing in October 1986 and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Hunt was convicted in October 1987 but was acquitted in a March 1990 retrial.
Several people, including Rabil, raised concerns to Burke about the case. Additional questions raised by the Winston-Salem Journal caused Burke to include the Wilson case in the city's new review.