I reside in Etowah, Arkansas. (BMHR 2325). I know Jason Baldwin from
having been locked up with him in the Craighead County Detention Center for
about seven months. I got to the Center on July 13 of 1993 and got out around
January 24 of 1994. I was there for a burglary. I eventually went to the Arkansas
Department of Correction and to a boot camp. (BMHR 2326). I haven’t been
convicted any felonies since. I work for a company that does irrigation. I’m
divorced, and have three children.
When a new guy got admitted to the Detention Center, he would be locked
up for 24 to 48 hours with no one else around.(BMHR 2327) There are usually 8
to 12 juveniles in the Center at one time. There were around eight cells. People
would usually be locked up two to a cell. There was a day room where people
would play cards and socialize. There was a command center too, where we would
be closely monitored by staff. (BMHR 2328) Jason Baldwin was there when I got
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there. He was there for the whole time I was there, about 7 months. (BMHR
2328).
We got to be friends. We talked pretty much every day. Jason was quiet,
polite, and not a troublemaker. I never saw him get in trouble. He was the kind of
guy that it took some time to warm up to. I thought I got close to him. It took a
couple of weeks before we could talk together pretty well.
Baldwin didn’t talk about his case a lot. He would talk about having talked
to his lawyer. He saw his mother and his lawyer while he was at the Center. Jason
was saying that the stuff that was being broadcast on TV about the case was not
true, that it was crazy what they were saying about his case. (BMHR 2330-1). He
never confessed his involvement to me, and never said anything that made me
suspicious he was involved. (BMHR 2331)
I remember Michael Carson. He was there maybe a week or two. Carson
did a lot of talking. He was one of those guys who does things to be accepted. I
basically tried to avoid him. I recall Carson being a bigger kid than I was at the
time–a red haired guy. By the time Carson got there, Baldwin and I were getting
along well. I didn’t see Carson and Baldwin get close. I didn’t see them interact
much at all. (BMHR 2332)
There were black inmates on the Unit, but I never heard anything about any
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of them becoming hostile towards Baldwin, or try to fight with him. I remember a
couple of those guys by name. I never saw Baldwin have a problem with any of
them, and I never saw Carson in a position where he was standing up for Baldwin
against the threats of other inmates, including the African-American inmates.
(BMHR 2333-4)
I was at boot camp when Jason Baldwin’s case was in trial. I did not know
about Carson’s testimony until after the trial when I saw a video about it. I
remember something about Carson saying that they had been in a cell together. I
don’t remember him saying something about being the muscle for Baldwin. I do
remember that Carson was supposed to have testified that Baldwin confessed to
him, and that he said in detail that he had emasculated one of the boys. (BMHR
2336) That sounded like a lie to me. I don’t believe that Baldwin would have
talked to Carson. (BMHR 2336-7) We didn’t like Carson that well. I had thought
that Carson was a troublemaker and Baldwin agreed. (BMHR 2337) Carson had
only been in the place for a short time, and Baldwin didn’t warm up to people that
fast. Carson’s testimony sounded false to me.
I was never approached about being a witness in Jason’s trial. Nobody talked
to me about being a witness until a guy named Tom Quinn came to see me.
(BMHR 2338-9). I heard of Baldwin’s lawyer Paul Ford, but I never saw him on
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the Unit. He never talked to me. If he had, I would have told him what I’m telling
you now.
Most of the time I was there, I had my own cell. Some times guys were
housed with me. Carson may have been for a day or two. (BMHR 2339)
CROSS EXAMINATION BY KENT HOLT
I remember Carson, but I can’t remember whether he was housed with me. I
had formed my impression about him from seeing him in the Day Room. We used
to play cards and watch TV there. We played Spades–Carson did too. (BMHR
2341)
I got in trouble for burglarizing cars. I did that with Jimmy Patterson. Both
of us had done that kind of stuff before. We hadn’t been caught until I ended up at
the Detention Center. I was there until January 1994, and then eventually I paroled
out. (BMHR 2342-3).
It would not change my opinion about Carson’s lying if I was told that he
has passed a polygraph test.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY BLAKE HENDRIX
I was seventeen when I was arrested on the burglary case. I remember when
I was arrested because my birthday is July 12, and I got drunk that night. I ended
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