← CounterClock
CounterClock
Ep 4 of 10: Jessicah
00:40:45
Delia learns how both sides approached the August 2004 trial of Rayshawn Banner and Nathaniel Cauthen, and how Jessicah Black remembers preparing to testify as the star witness. The boys' false confession arguments flounder despite law enforcement's methods being less than sound.
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- [00:00]
Narrator
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- [01:38]
Narrator
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- [01:40]
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Narrator
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McCormick
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- [02:08]
Narrator
Episode four, Jessica in the weeks and months after the five teenagers from Southside were arrested for killing Mr. Jones, law enforcement and the Forsyth County District Attorney's office got to work preparing the case for trial. The local media got to work, too. Five juveniles now face first degree murder charges for tying up, robbing and killing Jones, taking only his wallet and leaving.
- [02:40]
Advertiser
His body in this carport.
- [02:42]
Narrator
Articles the Winston Salem Journal pumped out about the case after the arrests Featured headlines like 5 Teens Could Go to prison for life and gang Violence. There was even a feature in the local paper that posed the question, does the city have a serious youth crisis on its hands? More specifically, a troubled young Black male youth crisis. So if Southside's reputation wasn't already crummy enough, five black boys Accused of jumping an old man and leaving him for dead steps from his front door only made it worse. As information about the defendant slowly began to trickle out in the press, several facts became apparent. All of the boys came from a low income neighborhood and were raised by single moms who had to work to provide. So the teens often weren't monitored. And by their own admission, they used those opportunities to skip school and be, well, teenagers. Here's Christopher Bryant.
- [03:41]
Christopher Bryant
We used to hang at my house. Relax, chill, play the video game. Used to play this game called Max Payne. I had a moped, I paid $100 for it with a. With a check that my mama gave me that from a welfare check, you know. And she gave me $100 and I went and spent it on a moped that ain't had no muffler. All us would be out there riding up and down the neighborhood. It was loud, disturbing the peace or whatever. But I got pulled over on it one time and they said I had to put it in the house by 7:00.
- [04:10]
Narrator
If they weren't ripping through Southside on the mufflerless moped or playing video games, they were oogling the newest Nikes at the mall, listening to new music or trying to get girls. Bottom line, fun was the teens priority, not their educations.
- [04:25]
Christopher Bryant
I got retained one time cause I think I was getting bad grades. Cause like, math wasn't mathing for me at the time.
- [04:32]
Narrator
Brothers Nathaniel and Rayshawn had a similar experience.
- [04:36]
Nathaniel Cawthon
Man, I never went to school. I was expelled most of the time. I couldn't comprehend, I couldn't read or write.
- [04:44]
Rayshawn Banner
I didn't do no homework at the time.
- [04:46]
Nathaniel Cawthon
I wasn't thinking about asking nobody for no help. I wasn't thinking about learning how to read, know what I'm saying? Because I didn't know how to ask for help.
- [04:54]
Narrator
Naturally, by the end of 2002, the public's perception of the teenagers was exactly what you'd think. Not good. And now charged with a horrible crime. Residents on Moravia street like Calvin Scriven, had the age old if the shoe fits mentality.
- [05:10]
Christopher Bryant
A lot of people didn't feel too much sorry for him because they was already bad kids and stuff. And they figured it. I guess they figured they was gonna get in trouble anyway. They was gonna, you know what I'm saying? They were gonna probably end up doing some time anyway from something they were doing.
- [05:22]
Narrator
So how the defendants were seen by potential future jurors in Forsyth county was one hurdle the prosecution didn't have to Worry about, however, finding physical evidence that tied the boys to the murder was police had gotten the confessions, including Jessica's, which was a huge advantage. But in order to make the case a true slam dunk, the crime scene needed to tell the same story the teenagers had. Back when the defendants were brought in for questioning, a special agent from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation had taken gel lifts of the two partial shoe prints found in dust on the hood of Mr. Jones. Lincoln Town Carried. Police's theory was that someone had stepped onto it to reach the carport's overhead light, and that had left shoe prints behind. Both partial impressions showed just the balls of each foot, not the entire bottom of the shoes. There's pictures of the prints on the blog post for this episode, so go check them out if you think. I did a terrible job of explaining that. In addition to analyzing the shoe prints, police decided to compare 12 latent fingerprints their crime scene tech had found on the outside of Mr. Jones car to Christopher, Durrell, Nath, Daniel, Jamal, and Rashawn. However, when detectives did the comparison, none of them matched. Something that struck me as odd is that the police never compared any of the prints to Mr. Jones himself. So that piece of evidence was just left hanging out there as an unknown. From reading the case file, it's clear the authorities just stopped trying to determine who the fingerprints belonged to. Maybe investigators figured since Mr. Jones owned an auto service station with lots of folks in and out, the prints could belong to anyone and therefore weren't super important to the crime. I don't know. It's a very strange fact of the case. In addition to fingerprinting the boys, police also seized several pieces of clothing from each of their homes, which included jackets, pants, shirts, socks, sweatshirts, sports jerseys, and several pairs of tennis shoes, boots and athletic shoes. Detectives took the most stuff from Nathaniel and Rayshawn's house because as brothers, they shared a lot of things between them. In fact, police were so interested in capturing every shoe in the Banner Cawthon household that they located Joseph Cawthon, Rayshawn and Nathaniel's older brother, who was in the county jail at the time. And they snagged a pair of basketball shoes from him just to make sure they got every shoe that could have possibly been worn by Rayshawn and Nathaniel during the timeframe of the murder. And just to clarify, Joseph was in jail in late November 2002 for an offense unrelated to Mr. Jones murder. He had his own troubles with the law. And from reading the police reports, it seems like investigators didn't really suspect him of being involved. They just took his shoes as a precaution, thinking maybe Rayshawn and Nathaniel could have worn them. On the evening of November 15, at Jamal's house, the cops took a metal baseball bat as evidence because they suspected it might have been used in the attack. They'd brought this item up several times during the boys interrogations.
- [08:26]
Rayshawn Banner
Somebody had a baseball bat. Tell me who had a baseball bat and who had a duct tape. Anybody else have any poles or sticks or bats or anything like that?
- [08:34]
Narrator
Did one of them say something about.
- [08:35]
Rayshawn Banner
How they were going to swing the bat?
- [08:37]
Narrator
Law enforcement's objective in collecting the teenager's belongings was to determine if Mr. Jones blood was on anything. A connection like that would essentially make the state's case open and shut. But when the NCSBI's lab reports came back on December 3, 2003, 13 months after the murder, investigators got a shock of a lifetime. No blood was found on any of the boys stuff. Not their clothes, not their shoes, not the bat, nothing. Detectives had also impounded Jessica Black's 1986 Mercury Cougar sedan, the car she said she'd been driving her friends in before and after the crime. Forensic techs had cut out portions of the front driver's seat because initial luminol testing indicated a possible presence of blood. But that turned out not to be the case. The forensic lab also didn't find any fingerprints on the pieces of black tape used to bind Mr. Jones or on the strip of tape investigators had found stuck to a small staircase on his back deck. There were also no prints on the mail scattered on the ground beneath his car, the broken screen door handle to his house, or on the bulbs in the carport's motion sensor light. Normally, forensic test results like this might make a prosecutor pause, regroup, reassess the path forward, possibly consider testing for DNA. But Forsyth County Assistant District Attorney Eric Saunders never ordered any further testing be done, and he didn't submit a request for DNA analysis either. Eric is deceased now, but retired Winston Salem police detective Chuck Byram characterized him as confident. Even when it came to entirely circumstantial cases, Eric was.
- [10:22]
Rayshawn Banner
What's the word?
- [10:23]
Eric Saunders
Tenacious.
- [10:24]
Narrator
That seems like you're being mild. Yeah. Yeah, I am.
- [10:28]
Christopher Bryant
Win, win, win.
- [10:32]
Narrator
Despite the vast majority of the physical evidence not pointing to the defendants, there was one ambiguous finding from the state lab that piqued. The prosecution's time is of the essence with COVID 19. Prescription oral treatment must be taken within the first five days of symptoms.
- [10:52]
Advertiser
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- [10:54]
Narrator
Ask your doctor if treatment is right for you.
- [10:57]
Advertiser
Learn more at treat covid19.com sponsored by Pfizer True Crime Podcasts There is no shortage to consume, and if you're like me, you've consumed them all. I'm Ashley Flowers, creator and host of the number one true crime podcast, Crime Junkie. Every Monday we cover a case in a way that's not like you've heard before, because I have built a one of a kind team of investigative journalists dedicated to conducting original reporting, making sure that you get the inside scoop. Listen to hundreds of Crime Junkie episodes now, wherever you get your podcasts.
- [11:37]
Narrator
Included in the state Lab's battery of tests on the case evidence was a comparison of the shoes taken from the defendants to the partial shoe prints that had been discovered on the hood of Mr. Jones car. Right away, several pairs of shoes were eliminated because their tread patterns weren't even similar. Some of the shoes were Timberland hiking boots or Reebok sneakers. That's tread wasn't even close to the marks left on the car. NCSBI technicians had successfully narrowed down the specific style of shoe that left the prints, and they were Nike Air Force Ones, a popular athletic shoe at the time that millions of people across the United States wore. Of the sneakers taken from the Southside Boys, only four were Nikes, and they'd all come from the Banner Cawthon household. So the state lab made inked impressions of those four shoes and compared them to the partials found on the hood. The lab staff ultimately concluded that one pair of Nike Air Force Ones in that group, which police records stated were size 9 Rayshawn Banner's size, had similar design and general wear to the shoe prints found on the car. It wasn't a 100% match because the lab had no scientific way to say for sure, but they wrote in their report that it was their opinion a Nike Air Force One Size 9, had been the type of shoe that left the print and dust on Mr. Jones Lincoln. And because Rayshawn's Nikes were the only sneakers taken as evidence that fit that category, well, you get the picture.
- [13:05]
Rayshawn Banner
They said the shoe print was mine and it came out my house. Like I used to say, that's my shoe. I mean, I got cousins that wear my shoes.
- [13:16]
Narrator
Even though the shoe prints had some ambiguity to them, it was still compelling evidence by 2002 standards. And in reality, the crux of the state's case had less to do with hard evidence and more to do with a law known as the Felony Murder Rule. The way felony murder rule works in North Carolina is you can be charged with first degree murder if while in the act of committing a felony, someone is killed, even if you never intended for that person to die. Prosecutors don't have to prove premeditation when it comes to the felony murder rule. That's the big takeaway. So if, for example, say you're a teenager who decides to rob someone on a whim with your friends and during that robbery, the victim has a heart attack and dies, you and your buddies are screwed. The linchpin for the state using the felony murder rule in this specific case was twofold. Mr. Jones wallet had never been found that checked the box for robbery. He'd also been bound and deprived of the ability to get away that checked the box for kidnapping. So that's why the felony murder rule came into play. And the five defendants were each charged with first degree murder and first degree kidnapping and robbery. One prosecutor put it like, if you hunt with the pack, you're responsible for the kill. End quote. And since the police had managed to get all of the defendants to confess to being present or involved in the assault on Mr. Jones, at some level, the district attorney was going to ride the felony murder rule train all the way to the bank. The person he planned to steer the whole thing was Jessica Black.
- [14:54]
Jessica Black
Eric Saunders is sneaky.
- [14:57]
Narrator
To make sure she would deliver on the stand, Jessica says she was prepped and re prepped.
- [15:03]
Jessica Black
I was handed a big manuscript. It was ever bit of 2, 3 inches thick, like it was huge. Things were highlighted throughout it and I was supposed to go through there. I was giving it, told take it home, look through it, make sure I learned what was highlighted. Like absolutely learned what was highlighted and made sure I knew what it was.
- [15:25]
Narrator
She's talking about her testimony, the version of events that she'd confessed to when questioned by detectives. She mentioned in her interview with me that back when she was going through all of this at 16 years old, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
- [15:39]
Jessica Black
Like, I had no choice, I had to, I was going to jail if I wasn't. I was told if I didn't say what I needed to say, I was going to prison if I did. Like, and I kept being threatened with prison. I was steady threatening prison. And I just, I didn't want to go, I didn't want to go to prison.
- [15:56]
Narrator
On the other side of the aisle were her five friends who were each represented by court appointed public defenders. For much of 2003, their attorneys had spent time reviewing the state's case. And they knew the boys confessions and Jessica's testimony were going to be hard to get jurors to look away from, but not impossible. And that's because when they studied the transcripts of both Jessica and their clients recorded statements, they saw things that made them take part. Most notably the fact that intimate details of the crime and crime scene had been embedded in the detectives questions. And the police had told the boys several lies. An example of this in Jamal's recorded statement involved Mr. Jones wallet.
- [16:39]
Eric Saunders
They brought it up to me and that's what made me even say anything about it. They were like, so did anybody find a wallet or anything? I'm like, so somehow I carried it on and I told them, I was like, yo, we went to the mall. Um, they threw the wallet out the window. It was just. I was just a kid making up lies, man.
- [17:02]
Narrator
While he was being questioned, police even took Jamal to the parking lot of a local mall in Winston Salem, where he told them he and his friends had ditched Mr. Jones wallet. But when officers searched the area, it wasn't there.
- [17:14]
Eric Saunders
I'm like, I'm lying to these people. Like, I just keep going till they. They're like, yeah, they knew I was lying. They had to because they canvassed that whole area. So if it was a wallet throughout there, they would have found it.
- [17:29]
Narrator
According to police reports, the day before authorities even knew the defendants names or brought them in for questioning, a detective had run a credit check on Mr. Jones credit cards and bank account and found no reported activity after November 15. However, during the interrogations, investigators had repeatedly asked Jamal and his friends questions like did you use any credit cards? Where did they try to use the credit cards? To which the teens then responded that they thought they'd used them at the mall, which law enforcement knew was not possible. In his confession, Jamal answered a detective's line of questioning about this by saying his friends had attempted to get money from an ATM at the mall's food court, but failed, which again, law enforcement knew had not happened because there was no evidence that indicated anyone had tried to use Mr. Jones card after his murder. Police checked the mall's ATM too, for video. But according to their reports, those particular machines didn't have video capabilities at the time. Are you angry at the law enforcement officers involved?
- [18:31]
Eric Saunders
I'm angry at their tactics. I still don't think every cop is bad or a detective, but I know the ones on our case that was not right and they know we didn't do it.
- [18:45]
Narrator
Investigators also were the first to bring up the fact that Mr. Jones was bound with tape. When they asked jamal if the 61 year old's hands had been taped in front of his body or behind it, he said, in front, which is wrong. Mr. Jones was actually found with his hands behind his back. In fact, between all of the confessions, there were several discrepancies about the tape. Where it was placed on Mr. Jones, what type of tape it was, who'd brought it, and what color it was. When Rayshawn was first asked about it, he seemed to have no idea what police were referring to. Here's a clip from his recorded statement.
- [19:21]
Christopher Bryant
Did you see any tape from Jessica's.
- [19:22]
Narrator
Car before you got there?
- [19:24]
Rayshawn Banner
What kind of tape you talking about?
- [19:25]
Narrator
Like, any kind of tape.
- [19:26]
Rayshawn Banner
CD player or whatever?
- [19:28]
Narrator
No, I'm talking about tape like you.
- [19:30]
Rayshawn Banner
Take a package with. No, I remember me saying that, though. I'm like, yo, tape. Like, man, I don't know. I was all over the place. I don't think I said two words that came together when they were questioning me. I was just saying the first thing that came to my head. I was just trying to get up out of there really, so I can be done with it. I'm like, yo, you trying to get me to tell you something I don't know nothing about?
- [20:03]
Narrator
So you honestly thought that by lying to them and corroborating whatever your brother had said was gonna mean that you were going home?
- [20:12]
Rayshawn Banner
Yes.
- [20:13]
Narrator
Why do you think you thought that?
- [20:15]
Rayshawn Banner
I was young. It was like, yo, I'm gonna just go ahead and lie so I can leave.
- [20:21]
Narrator
During the interrogations, police were also first to suggest that the boy's motive must have been robbery.
- [20:28]
Rayshawn Banner
Was he in on the plan of the robbery?
- [20:30]
Narrator
So you beat him down and stole his money and that the ceiling light in Mr. Jones carport seemed to be tampered with.
- [20:38]
Rayshawn Banner
Who's tall enough to reach up there and mess with the lights on at this man's house?
- [20:42]
Narrator
Who unscrewed the light?
- [20:45]
Rayshawn Banner
What happened to the lights of this house?
- [20:48]
Narrator
I've read through and listened to the confessions from 2002 multiple times. And I couldn't find anywhere that the teenagers actually described an intimate detail of the crime scene or victim without first being informed of such a detail by the detectives. This is what's known as confession contamination. And it's a real problem, not just in this case, but in thousands of other cases in the criminal justice system. But put a pin in that for a bit and let's keep going. 22 years ago, the defense attorneys representing the boys had A lot of concerns about these moments and others in their clients so called confessions. Which is why as they headed into court In March of 2004, their argument of having been coerced into falsely confessing had legs. For three days, there were five separate motion to suppress hearings, which were basically mini trials in front of a judge about why the confessions should have either stayed in or been thrown out. Close to a dozen investigators from the police department testified at these hearings, as well as each of the defendants except Rayshawn, Darrell Brayboy's mom, and Theresa Banner. Rayshawn and Nathaniel's mother also took the stand. By that point, Theresa had learned a lot of information. And when she looked back on those few moments, she'd been ushered into Nathaniel's interview room by police. She felt used, manipulated.
- [22:10]
Theresa Banner
To me, you are the scum of the earth to do that to a parent. You played on my ignorance. I done what you told me to do because I didn't know I could do anything else. Hate is a very strong word, but I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I hate them. I hate them all. I hate everybody that was involved in it. Because you took something away from me that I had to question myself. Had I been a good parent. So you not only did to them, you did it to me as well. Because the only thing I know is even if the father is not there, I don't care. I played both roles and I don't mind. I'd do it again. I'm working to provide for my sons. And you took my sons and did them like that to do my children that way. I didn't deserve it. And certainly they did not either.
- [23:15]
Narrator
At the same time, though, she was also trying to wrap her mind around why her sons had confessed to something they claimed they didn't do.
- [23:23]
Theresa Banner
I'm so confused, you know? Cause I would ask questions. So what happened, Mama? We wasn't there. And I say, well, they say, you said you were there. How were you? How can you say you was there? And now you're saying you're not. But you put yourself there. I don't understand that, Mama. They made us say that. How did they make you say that? I mean, because I'm thinking, me, I'm tough, okay? I consider myself a tough young lady. And I'm like, there's no way. Nobody gonna make me say I did this. I guess they would call me the great disciplinary in the neighborhood as far as when it comes to the moms and how they were. I didn't know they were where they were that they didn't understand or could comprehend what was being put before them.
- [24:18]
Narrator
What she's referring to is Rayshawn and Nathaniel's intellectual capabilities.
- [24:24]
Theresa Banner
Rayshawn was slow in reading. Nathaniel was just being crazy, you know, just being Nathaniel. Early on in Nathaniel's life, I went to a place they called Centerpoint, and they wanted to put Nathaniel on something called Rentland or something to calm a child down, but that was to calm him down, not thinking that it had anything to do with his learning ability.
- [24:53]
Narrator
It wasn't until her sons had both confessed to a murder and then immediately recanted that she wondered if their past problems in school were merely symptoms of a much deeper intellectual issue in both of them. This was a point all of the defense attorneys raised while trying to get the boys confessions thrown out. Had any of the defendants actually understood what was going on when they gave police their recorded statements? Could they comprehend the questions they were being asked? Did they know what Miranda rights were? Did they even have the ability to detect that they were being asked leading questions, which is something police officers admitted to doing when they testified at the motion to suppress hearings. But the public defenders didn't call any experts to weigh in on whether or not the boys had intellectual disabilities. They didn't gather any of the teen's school records either, which would have shown each of the boys poor grades, disciplinary records, and below average intelligence. Ultimately, the judge ruled in favor of the prosecution, and the confessions were allowed to stay in. By August 9, 2004, almost two years after the murder, Rayshawn and Nathaniel's case had been split from the rest of their friends. Christopher, Durrell, and Jamal would face a separate jury several months after the brothers. They were all still facing the same charges for the same crime, but their attorneys had decided that severing would be in everyone's best interest. The negative narrative surrounding the group was as strong as it had ever been, Though they'd also all aged 2 years and no longer looked like boys. They were young men now, and their afternoons kicking it at Christopher's house, riding his mufflerless moped, were a distant memory. The cold, hard reality in front of all of them was a courtroom. Here's Nathaniel Cawthon.
- [26:43]
Nathaniel Cawthon
I was afraid of the outcome. It is not how you think it is. It was totally different from what I seen on tv, what I known it to be like. I had just started to learn how to read. I had just started to learn how to comprehend. So my whole dominion at this particular point was yo learn what's going on. Learn how to better yourself when it comes to the law.
- [27:12]
Narrator
He tried his best to understand the case against him and his brother, but it was strange. Prosecutors didn't have any forensic evidence tying them to the crime scene or Mr. Jones body. There was no murder weapon. There were no witnesses other than Jessica, who put the boys on Moravia street the evening Mr. Jones was attacked.
- [27:32]
Nathaniel Cawthon
The whole time, I'm like, how can you actually convict me or charge me with a charge that has no evidence? And by this time, I'm learning, you know what I'm saying, the thing that can get you locked up for a charge and stuff like that. So it was like, yo, what are we really going to court for?
- [27:49]
Narrator
The state's case was entirely circumstantial, and that even stood out to journalists like Michael Hewlett, whose newspaper was covering Rayshawn and Nathaniel's trial.
- [27:58]
McCormick
No fingerprints had tied him to the scene. No blood from them. And they're beating him. Right. The only physical evidence, maybe, is foot impressions that are left on the top of the car. And even then, that's kind of, you know, it's like, well, we can say that this was this type of shoe. It's kind of hard to say with any definitive accuracy that the shoes that the police seized from Banner and from Cawthon were the shoes that made those impressions. So you have this scene where, okay, you're telling me that five teenagers went and beat this guy up and left no physical evidence. Like, if you were telling me, okay, this was a planned attack done by people who have done this kind of thing before, and they did all the things, they wore gloves, they came in masks, and they robbed Nathaniel Jones and they killed him and I. And then they did everything they could to cover it up, and that's why there's no physical evidence. But you're telling me that these kids who just spontaneously decided we're just going to rob someone and go and beat this guy up, probably not meaning to kill him, but end up killing him, and they left no physical evidence. It's a tough sell, but that's the cell that was sold.
- [29:28]
Narrator
Rayshawn Banner.
- [29:30]
Rayshawn Banner
All y'all see is five black boys that say they did it. And even though you have no evidence, there wasn't nothing there at all. Y'all just. I felt like everybody was after me and my brother for the most part.
- [29:47]
Narrator
And to some degree, that's the portrait lead prosecutor Eric Saunders wanted jurors to see when he gave his opening statement. Two brothers who'd both confessed to wanting to rob Mr. Jones and convince their friends to help them. The way he planned to prove that was calling Jessica Black as a star witness. She was a fellow teenager who'd spent time with the brothers. She'd even had a short fling with Nathaniel.
- [30:11]
Jessica Black
They were a little more rowdy. Nathaniel, not so much Nathaniel. He was with me. He was more laid to me. He was more laid back. More just kind of calm, cool, collective. Now, his brother, that was something else. Rashawn had personality, Buddy, and he was. He was loud and proud, and you were going to hear him, and he was just. He did what he wanted to do.
- [30:37]
Narrator
When Jessica got on the witness stand, she stuck to the story she'd given in her confession, which was that she drove the boys to Bellevue Park. They ran away from her, and she'd sat on a picnic table with her back turned while she overheard what sounded like someone being beaten at a nearby house. After that, her friends came back, and they asked to go home to change their clothes while she testified. Nathaniel and Rayshawn couldn't believe their ears.
- [31:03]
Rayshawn Banner
When Jessica got on the stand, it just. I just said, forget it. I look at my lawyer and, like, yo, you know she lying, right? He was like, you sure? I'm like, what you mean, I'm sure. I'm like, everything she telling y'all, she lying.
- [31:18]
Theresa Banner
I say, she's lying. I knew it straight off. I say, she's lying.
- [31:24]
Narrator
Maybe it was the pressure of Teresa's glare from across the courtroom or the fact that the state's entire case was riding on her. But whatever the reason, Jessica wasn't a rock solid witness on the stand. Similar to moments in her taped confession, there were clear times that she contradicted herself or forgot specific details of her own story.
- [31:44]
Jessica Black
So here you are looking at these guys that, you know, you're fixing. You're fixing the hurt. You're looking at these people who are fixing to determine their fate, and then you're looking at the ones who are trying to tell you what you need to say. And you get fumbled, and you don't know what. You don't know what you're. You don't know what to do. It's a hard. It's a hard thing to do.
- [32:11]
Theresa Banner
The one thing that I took away was that when they asked her the color of the tape. When they asked her the color of the tape, I'm almost certain she said three different colors without knowing that the tape was black. She had to collect herself because she was crying so heavily on the stand till they recessed the court. Then when she came back, she got on that stand, and that girl said the tape was black, which lets me know that you were being coached. Somebody told you to say that tape was black. She did not know the color of that tape until they recessed. She went with the prosecutors in their office, got herself together. Court came back into play, and that's when she said that. That the tape was black.
- [33:09]
Narrator
Even though Jessica had been shaky while under oath, there was no doubt her testimony was damaging. Rayshawn and Nathaniel's attorneys had advised them not to testify in their own defense, so they couldn't refute anything she'd said. Jessica's words had been so compelling that at one point, the state offered both defendants a chance to plead out to avoid getting the book thrown at them, but they refused.
- [33:32]
Rayshawn Banner
Whatever happens, happens. We here. If we gonna go together, we gonna go together. At one point, we had the same mindset, like, yo, we ain't taking no plea. I'm not finna take a plea for something I didn't do. We gonna stick together. We gonna rock it out, and that's what we did.
- [33:50]
Narrator
When it was the defense's turn to present its side, the lawyers tried to bring in an expert witness to talk about the psychology of false confessions. But the judge denied their request because the expert they called had never personally assessed Rayshawn and Nathaniel. The attorneys tried to recover from that blow by calling Ava Williams and BJ Lowry to testify, since they were the two eyewitnesses who'd told police they'd seen one suspicious unknown figure at or running from Mr. Jones home on the evening of the crime, not five black teenage boys. But because Ava hadn't seen a face and BJ was just 10 years old at the time, their testimony just wasn't that compelling. The defense also spent some time talking about the Willard Cab Company phone calls and really tried to drive home to the jury how suspicious they seemed. The lawyers emphasized that whoever made those calls was likely tied to the crime. But because police had never determined who had called or dug further into the company's phone record data, the identity of the person behind the suspicious number was never unearthed. And the cab stuff just kind of fell flat with the jury. The defense also tried to poke holes in Jessica's credibility, too. But in the end, it was her word against Rayshawn and Nathaniel's. And like it or not, race seemed to be a factor. Do you think because you were white and the boys were black and they were from Southside that that played any impact?
- [35:18]
Jessica Black
Not going to prison.
- [35:20]
Narrator
As to why police chose to believe you and not them.
- [35:23]
Jessica Black
I do. I do believe it plays a big part in that.
- [35:27]
Narrator
I do.
- [35:28]
Jessica Black
I don't believe that's all of it, but I do believe that that's a big part.
- [35:32]
Nathaniel Cawthon
They used that as like, okay, we gonna take this white girl, put her on the stand to make the black guys look bad. And it worked. It worked.
- [35:41]
Narrator
The final nail in the coffin had nothing to do with Jessica or racial biases, though it came at the hands of Rayshawn's own defense attorney, and it was an absolute dagger.
- [35:56]
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- [36:32]
Narrator
On August 19, 2004, just as jurors weighing Rayshawn and Nathaniel's fate were about to retire for deliberations, Rayshawn's public defender, a guy named Robert Leonard, said the following in his closing argument. I would just contend to you that any involvement of Mr. Banner is minimal. They didn't have the requisite intent. He did not have the knowledge. He did not join into a common scheme. He was not part of any plan. He. He may have been there, but he wasn't part of what was taking place.
- [37:04]
Theresa Banner
Why would you say that? That means you went into it believing that they were there.
- [37:11]
Rayshawn Banner
Like, why would you even do. Like, ain't you supposed to be fighting for me, not against me?
- [37:17]
Narrator
Robert Leonard committed a cardinal sin, perhaps the cardinalist of cardinal sins. If you're a defense attorney representing someone who's only in court because of the Felony Murder Rule, and that is, if you tell jurors your client was there or even intimate that he was there, you're toast. The Felony Murder Rule bell has been rung, and there's no way to unring it. After that, it only took a few hours for jurors to unanimously find both brothers guilty. Theresa Banner was baffled by the jury's conclusion.
- [37:52]
Theresa Banner
Show me that my sons did this. I was there present every single day, every minute of it. I listened, I paid attention, and no, you did not prove that to me. They had one chance to prove to me that those five boys did it. And they failed miserably.
- [38:15]
Narrator
Before they were sentenced, the prosecution read a victim impact letter Chris Paul wrote to express how much the loss of his grandfather had affected his entire family. By that time, he was in college, playing basketball for Wake Forest University. He'd chosen not to attend the trial because he didn't want his newfound celebrity to overshadow the proceedings. After Chris letter ended, Nathaniel Cawthon was allowed to speak. He stood before the Jones and Paul family and pleaded his innocence, something he'd been doing since 2002. Here he is reading an excerpt of his own words from the trial transcript.
- [38:52]
Nathaniel Cawthon
I never knew this man, Never hurt this man a day in my life. I'm sorry. All I got, all I really am. I can't tell you who killed it. This man. It's not my fault that these people put me in a room and made me say stuff I didn't want to say. It's not my fault. Like I said, everybody loved him because they knew him. Oh, Mr. Jones, don't nobody know him. How can y'all judge me of something I didn't do? I got to spend the rest of my life in prison. That's not right. And y'all say justice. What is justice? You got people, 12 people, all judging me, all judging my life. That's not right.
- [39:34]
Narrator
Rayshawn chose not to speak in court. By that point, he'd said he'd given up.
- [39:39]
Rayshawn Banner
The way they were speaking, I knew I was going to lose. I only think I cried at the trial or when they gave us the.
- [39:46]
Narrator
Time, and the time was a lot. Life in prison without the possibility of parole.
- [39:53]
Nathaniel Cawthon
When they told me that I had life, it was like, what the hell that mean? What is life? I never had a real thought to me having life or being convicted of life until after I left that courtroom. Like, literally, I twist my dreads the same night I got convicted. Crying.
- [40:19]
Narrator
Christopher, Jamal and Darrell's joint trial in early May 2005 went about the same as the brothers. Their public defenders tried to poke holes in the state's circumstantial case. But with Rayshawn and Nathaniel's convictions already secured, prosecutors had a really strong advantage. Here's Jamal and Christopher.
- [40:39]
Eric Saunders
I thought I was about to get the same thing. I'm no different than them. I thought I was gonna get the same thing.
- [40:46]
Christopher Bryant
I was nervous. I was scared. When I. When I seen them get convicted, I went in my room and stayed in my room all day. And people was coming to my room like, man, y'all gonna be all right. Man, Y'all gonna. Y'all might beat it, though. It was hard, though, to think about it. Cause I gotta go face the same people they face, you know?
- [41:03]
Narrator
When it came time for Jessica Black to take the stand this time, Jamal genuinely thought a miracle would happen.
- [41:10]
Eric Saunders
I'm like, oh, Lord, I hope she tell the truth right now. Please tell the truth right now. I was like, man, please. She gonna do it. This is the trial. She gonna. Me, Darrell and Brian. I'm like, hey, we're going home, man. This is gonna get everybody out right here. She gonna do it.
- [41:27]
Narrator
But when it became clear that Jessica was sticking to her story and pointing the finger at the boys, it was obvious where the tide of the tr.
- [41:36]
Christopher Bryant
We was the scapegoat. We was the people that go ahead and send us there. Like somebody had to go down for. Why not find kids that ain't got nothing going for themselves? Obviously, that's how y'all looked at us anyway. We ain't these upscale people that you think supposed to be this way. Like, we ain't like. That don't mean we supposed to be in prison. That don't mean y'all supposed to take our life away. Cause you think we gonna end up in there anyway. Y'all don't know that. Y'all don't got the plan for our life, you know? And I'm not racist at all. But under the circumstances, I think they really, like, just did that. Like, okay, we can get her, and we can nail all them to the cross.
- [42:12]
Eric Saunders
You know, she held the power to. I don't even think she understood what she was doing. I think she was just trying to protect herself.
- [42:22]
Narrator
Just like with Rayshawn and Nathaniel, the state offered the remaining three defendants last minute plea deals. But just like with Rayshawn and Nathaniel, no dice.
- [42:32]
Eric Saunders
I was like, no, no, I didn't do it. I didn't do it then. I didn't do it now. I'm not taking the plea.
- [42:39]
Christopher Bryant
I'm not taking no plea bar. Because I ain't killed Mr. Jones.
- [42:43]
Narrator
After two days of deliberating, Christopher, Jamal, and Darrell's jury returned with verdicts and found them each guilty of second degree murder and common law robbery. They were sentenced to 14 to 17 years in prison. Why their jury found them guilty of a lesser charge than Rayshawn and Nathaniel's jury had is something only the people who held their fate know. The reality of doing hard prison time settled differently on each of the boys.
- [43:11]
Christopher Bryant
It really didn't sink in until they took us back to the bullpen and I got back to the dorm, and I was looking outside through the little peephole, and I seen downtown, and I just started crying.
- [43:24]
Eric Saunders
It hit me like, boom. Like, it kept ringing in my head, like, dang. As they were walking me back to me, I just felt myself getting angry. That was it. After that, I just said, I got to go to prison. I got to make it through this. I got to make it through this.
- [43:37]
Narrator
Meanwhile, the one person who truly held their fate went home with a terrible secret. A secret that would stay buried for nearly 15 years until finally she revealed it to the world. Can you state your name for the record? Jessica Black.
- [43:56]
Eric Saunders
If I understand correctly, you're telling us.
- [43:58]
Rayshawn Banner
That your testimony at both trials spots, is that correct?
- [44:03]
Narrator
Yes. I'm diving into that. Next time on Counterclock, episode five, jaw dropping. We all know that the world can be a dark place. But have you ever thought about whose job it is to enter that darkness and investigate the most disturbing spaces? I'm Delia Diambra, and on my show, Dark Arenas, you'll hear firsthand from the people who choose to do just that. Join me as I take you inside the professions that come face to face with some of the most deviant criminals in society and who grapple with the most grotesque topics. Listen to Dark Arenas now. Wherever you listen to podcasts.