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Lewis trial under way All-Pro linebacker, co-defendants face murder charges
Posted: Wednesday May 24, 2000 03:23 PM
ATLANTA (AP) -- Football star Ray Lewis squeezed a tennis ball in his hand and watched quietly Tuesday as prosecutors tried to link him to a double murder through "a trail of blood." Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard used his opening statement to tell jurors that blood from one of the two victims was found in Lewis' limousine and in his hotel room after a fight that led to the stabbing deaths of two men. Lawyers for Lewis said he acted as peacemaker in the Jan. 31 fight and didn't stab or hit anyone. Lewis, a Baltimore Ravens linebacker and the leading tackler in the NFL last year, is charged with murder along with friends Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting for the deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar of Decatur.
The victims were stabbed in a melee Jan. 31 after a post-Super Bowl party at a nightclub in Atlanta. Lewis, 25, was in town to watch the game and take part in Super Bowl activities. Some prosecution witnesses Tuesday seemed to actually help the defense case. Melissa Keeler, who watched the killing from her apartment window, described the vicious attack on the two victims, but could not link any of the defendants to the attack. Keeler said all of the attackers were over 6-feet tall -- Sweeting is about 5-6 and Oakley is 5-11. And she said none of the attackers wore their hair in braids, as Sweeting did at the time of the attack. She also could not pick any of the attackers out of a photo lineup that included the defendants. Another witness, Tony Williams, told jurors he had the receipt to one of the knives believed to be used in the fight. Lewis had scribbled his phone number on the receipt when he saw Williams -- a family friend -- while signing autographs at a sporting goods store. But the bulk of Williams' testimony centered on investigators' rude treatment of him and a racial slur one officer made during their interview.
Two other witnesses -- both workers at the store -- told of selling the knife to a man that fit the description of Sweeting. Some legal experts thought the three defendants would blame each other for the killings, but the defense attorneys generally stuck together and used their opening statements to cast doubt on the prosecutor's case. Lewis' attorney Ed Garland noted that police have never found two men in Lewis' limousine, and that several witnesses disagree with the prosecution's star witness, limousine driver Duane Fassett. Defense attorneys also said the prosecution does not have a single witness who saw any of the defendants holding a knife at the scene of the stabbing deaths. Howard said the knives were used in a punching motion -- not an overhand stab -- making it difficult for any witnesses to see the knives. The prosecution said the limousine driver will testify that he saw Lewis punch Lollar, which Garland says is not true. "All of Ray Lewis' actions were actions to attempt to stop the fight, to attempt to break up the fight," Garland said. Both sides said a verbal argument led to a fight between two groups of people around 4 a.m. as the nightclubs in the Buckhead district were closing. The 5-foot-3 Baker apparently started the brawl by hitting Oakley in the head with a champagne bottle. "At that point, in a flash, there was chaos," Garland said, adding that different witnesses have told very different stories about the short fight. Howard said one witness, Chester Anderson, will tell jurors he saw Lewis kicking a body lying in the street. Anderson is currently in jail on identification fraud charges. Fassett will also testify that he overheard Oakley and Sweeting admit stabbing someone, Howard said. But Sweeting's lawyer, John Bergendahl, said Fassett was hard of hearing and cannot understand the speech of young black males. Lollar was stabbed four times in the chest, and Baker was stabbed three times in the same area. The victim's families were in court Tuesday, and several cried during descriptions of the beatings. Even if Lewis didn't stab anyone, he can be convicted of murder if the prosecution can convince a jury that he participated in the brawl that led to the two deaths. If convicted, all three men could be sentenced to life in prison. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Alice D. Bonner did not sequester jurors, instead insisting that they ignore news coverage of the trial. The jury consists of nine black women, one black man, one white man and one white woman. All the defendants and the victims are black.
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