MAN, 19, FOUND GUILTY OF ASSAULT IN JUNE 11 MELEE

JACKSON -- After the longest jury deliberation in any of the Good Hope melee trials, Sulaymon K. Moore was found guilty of assaulting police.

Moore is the first of six defendants to be found guilty of the assault charge, said Ian Sutherland, Cape Girardeau County assistant prosecutor. The others had trials in Butler and New Madrid counties.

It took the jury over three and a half hours to reach its verdict.

"It shows that they didn't rush through this," Sutherland said.

Moore, 19, was charged with second-degree assault and interfering with an arrest. Because of prior convictions, Moore could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison when he appears before Circuit Court Judge John Grimm on April 10.

"It was the luck of the draw," Sutherland said, explaining the difference in jury verdicts among counties. "I don't think the other juries understood the concepts we were trying to present about accomplice liability."

Since he was part of a crowd throwing objects that injured police, Moore was subject to accomplice liability, said Julie Weinert, assistant prosecutor.

The prosecutor had not proved Moore aided or encouraged others to commit a crime, as the statute on accomplice liability reads, said Kent Hall, head of the Cape Girardeau County public defender's office.

"There was no acting in concert as defined in the law," Hall said. "There were a lot of people in the crowd acting independently."

On June 11, when the riot occurred, two police officers said Moore was standing in the mouth of an alley by the 400 block of Good Hope Street with a crowd estimated at 150 or more.

The crowd had gathered after a confrontation between police and two brothers, Greg and Kenneth Campbell. Police have testified that the brothers stomped on officer Rollin Roberts after he fell down during the confrontation. Police chased Kenneth Campbell into the alley, tackled him and were trying to handcuff him as he lay on the ground.

During the arrest members of the crowd tossed pieces of bricks, concrete blocks and gravel at police. Paramedics who responded to the scene would not drive their ambulance into the alley because of the danger, Weinert said.

Six officers were injured during the melee, with patrolman Robert Ripee suffering head injuries that required 47 stitches.

Under the circumstances, the crowd's anger at police was understandable, said defense attorney Brian Greaser.

"They might have even thought they were seeing a Rodney King situation here," said Greaser, referring to a 1991 incident involving Los Angeles police beating a black motorist who suffered several broken bones.

Two police had reported seeing Moore in the crowd, holding a rock, as they were arresting Kenneth Campbell. Only one officer, Roberts, said he saw Moore throw the "golfball-sized" rock.

Roberts told the court he called to Moore by name, telling him to put down his rock. The officer said he was personally familiar with Moore prior to the riot.

Moore's response was to throw a rock, give a smile, and then fade back into the crowd, Roberts said.

Greaser pointed out to the jury that patrolman Aaron Brown only testified to seeing Moore holding a rock, not throwing it. Although Roberts reported seeing Moore throwing, Greaser said the surrounding conditions and Robert's physical condition probably impaired him.

"Roberts was the only one to look up in the dark alley and see Sulaymon," Greaser said. "And this was after getting his head stomped."

It would have been preferable for Moore's trail to have been held in another county, Hall said.

Other defendants charged with assault in the Good Hope melee received changes of venue. To change a trial's venue, a request to the judge must be made within 10 days of arraignment, Hall said, and at that time his office was not representing Moore.

Other trials were moved because of concerns about publicity and the pressure that area residents might feel in making a negative decision about local police.

As a persistent and prior offender, the assault charge increases from a class B to a class A felony, while the interference charge could be punished by up to 10 years in prison, Sutherland said.

Only two trials remain involving those charged during rioting. Greg Campbell will stand trial in Boone County on May 16, and Kenneth Campbell will appear in court in Jefferson County on May 23.