Jury: Cairo jail death was suicide

~ A grainy security camera videotape was played for the jury, with a crime scene investigator commenting on what was shown.

CAIRO, Ill. -- A coroner's jury needed little more than 30 minutes Friday to decide Demetrius Flowers committed suicide in a city holding cell Dec. 14, a verdict that family members of the dead man immediately challenged.

A grainy security camera videotape showed that Flowers, 38, stopped moving in his cell less than 15 minutes after being locked up, Illinois State Police crime scene investigator Pete Sopczak told the six-person jury. And he remained motionless for more than four hours, Sopczak said, his death unnoticed until a police clerk entered the holding area to deliver his breakfast.

Sopczak played the video for the jury, commenting throughout. The video, played on a 19-inch television, showed the bars to the cell but only glimpses of the feet and lower legs during the time Flowers was alone.

When Flowers was placed in the cell, the time stamp on the video read 4:09 a.m. Two minutes later, police officer Terry Crowe returned to the cell to collect Flowers' personal belongings, but took only his wallet.

Flowers was allowed to keep his shoes, in violation of written police policy. Laces from the shoes were found around Flowers' neck, with one end tied to the framing on an electric light above the cell's bunk.

After Crowe left him, Flowers' feet disappeared from view on the tape. A few minutes later, his socked feet reappeared. One foot then jerked spasmodically. By the time the tape read 4:23 a.m., his feet had become motionless.

When Flowers was found, his body was already stiffening from rigor mortis.

Police employees responsible for periodically checking on Flowers made entries into the jail log that they had done so, but only looked at the video screen showing the cell. They did not physically check his well-being.

"The important thing to note is that the cell was empty" except for Flowers, Sopczak told the jury. "He doesn't have to be suspended. He just has to have enough pressure to cut off that blood flow."

A toxicology report from the autopsy of Flowers showed he had been drinking and using marijuana before his death. His blood alcohol content was 0.078 percent, just under the legal limit for driving.

Jury members refused to discuss their verdict. The four men and two women, equally split between blacks and whites, heard testimony for nearly 6 1/2 hours before retiring to consider the verdict. A total of 16 witnesses testified.

Three people subpoenaed by Alexander County Coroner David Barkett did not testify, including Flowers' girlfriend Barbara Harris, who claims she heard a commotion inside the Cairo Police Department building while Flowers was being held.

Harris was at the courthouse Friday, as was her cousin, Gerald Harris, whose dispute with Flowers led to his arrest early in the morning of Dec. 14. Gerald Harris was also subpoenaed but didn't testify.

The only witness called to testify who did not appear was former Cairo police Lt. Tim Brown, who was in charge at the department at the time of Flowers' death.

Brown and Lt. Gary Hankins were fired as a result of Flowers' death, along with dispatcher Don Beggs, who made the log entries that he had checked on Flowers. Crowe and dispatcher Regina Meyers were given one-month suspensions.

Neither Barbara Harris nor Gerald Harris were called because their testimony didn't fit the other evidence, Barkett said. Harris' claim that she was at the police station soon after Flowers was arrested isn't supported by the videotape evidence, he said.

'All refuted'

Everything Harris has said about what she heard "was all refuted in sworn testimony," Barkett said.

Harris, however, stood by her story. "When I got down to the police station, I heard him hollering. It sounded like there was a real tussle going on down there." She said she was ordered to leave.

In addition to testimony about Flowers' time in custody and the death investigation, jurors heard testimony that for the first time details why Flowers was arrested.

At 2:56 a.m. Dec. 14, Crowe and Lt. Gary Hankins responded to a disturbance call at Barbara Harris' home, Crowe said. Gerald Harris said he had been assaulted by Flowers.

Flowers, however, told officers he found Gerald Harris at the home with Flowers' six children by Barbara Harris, Crowe testified. The children were awake at the early morning hour, and Flowers said Gerald Harris was urinating on the floor and masturbating, Crowe said.

Barbara Harris, who was not home when police arrived, soon appeared and told officers she did not want Flowers there. Crowe and Hankins handcuffed Flowers and took him to the police station, where he was released after promising not to return to the Harris home.

About 3:40 a.m., police received another call and found Flowers had returned to the residence. He was then arrested and placed in the cell.

Brown arrived at the police station about 4 a.m., two hours early for his shift, approximately the same time Crowe and Hankins arrived with Flowers in handcuffs for the second time.

Every law enforcement officer who examined Flowers' body after he was found testified that they saw no evidence he was abused or beaten. The only marks on his body, said Dr. Mark LeVaughn, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, were from the shoelaces that killed him.

Family members disputed the suicide verdict. They said suicide didn't fit Flowers' personality.

"At this point, I haven't been convinced that Tyrone committed suicide nor that he accidentally killed himself," Arby Davis, Flowers' father, testified moments before deliberations, using his son's middle name.

Mayor Paul Farris had publicly speculated that Flowers died accidentally while trying to asphyxiate himself. No testimony was given to support that assertion.

A second autopsy

The family sent Flowers' body to Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., for a second autopsy but would not give the results to Barkett. And they had a Chicago civil rights lawyer, William F. Spielberger, on hand to monitor the inquest.

The case has aggravated already poor race relations in Cairo, a town with a history of black struggle against white dominance.

Barkett "was trying to sell the jury what they wanted to see," said Melinda Flowers, Demetrius Flowers' sister.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126