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True Crime Story It Couldnt Happen Here S02E03 New Albany Mississippi
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00:04I am a pastor in this community for over 42 years. One of the things I've learned,
00:14love is greater than hate. If you have been injured, injustice, mistreatment, or whatever,
00:23can you suffer that without seeking revenge or becoming bitter? But God, look, without God,
00:35it ain't no way we could take this.
00:53We are pulling into Union County, Mississippi. This is the Little Tallahatchie River. I grew up
01:02listening to that song, Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge, and so
01:07this is my first time laying eyes on it. New Albany is the county seat. And is this the courthouse?
01:15Oh, yeah, there's the Union County courthouse. God, that doesn't even look real. New Albany,
01:20super cute. USA Today named it one of the most beautiful southern towns. I mean, this is a
01:27feather in the cap of Mississippi. Mississippi is known as the hospitality state, and we live up to
01:34that name. New Albany is a place that's still small-town America. If you got in trouble, usually
01:41your parents knew about it before you got home. My neighborhood is young and old, black and white.
01:48They tiptoe lightly around politics. I would like to think I live in a great town that is all about
01:55justice for all. But, you know, our history tells us that that's not always the case.
02:06So this is the historic town center of New Albany. Back on May 15th in the year 2000,
02:15this small town found itself crying out for justice after the brutal murder of a beloved community
02:22member. But whether or not justice was served depends on who you ask. Just like six or seven
02:29blocks from here, a man named Hugh David Purnell was out delivering newspapers in the pre-dawn hours.
02:35And a little after 5 a.m., he is shot. He had been a familiar face at the post office
02:43for over 30 years.
02:45He was a deacon at the Presbyterian Church. He was a father of three. His death rattled this entire town.
02:54And so the community wanted answers, and they wanted them right away.
03:03I remember that morning. I was called early. I recall, you know, us dropping everything.
03:10I was district attorney from 1996 until 2004. At 5.15 on a Monday morning, a call came in on
03:209-1-1 reporting a shooting.
03:22I just saw somebody get shot in my front yard. Okay, uh, Walsh, uh, you have to walk, block street.
03:29The eyewitness Charles Rice, he heard a horn honk. Uh, he goes to the front window. It wasn't quite daylight,
03:36but he sees from the car lights one vehicle has stopped the other in front. And then an individual gets
03:41out of the car
03:42behind, walks around to the driver's side of the front car. Charles Rice saw the murder from a window in
03:48his home.
03:59One of the investigators in the case, Tim Kent, who is now mayor of New Albany, went to the scene.
04:05And of course, when they got up to the car, he knew who he was. The victim was identified as
04:10David Parnell.
04:11He was shot one time in the heart.
04:14When Mr. Parnell was shot to death, he was tossing those papers, driving slowly down the street.
04:23And I think in many ways, people felt like, well, gee, that could happen to me if I took the
04:28car out to go pick up some milk in the morning.
04:30And it made a lot of people nervous.
04:32I'm Patsy R. Brumfield, and I've been a journalist since 1964.
04:37When somebody is murdered, there's a lot of questions that come to the local newspaper.
04:43And it's helpful to be able to provide the readers with an accurate idea of what has happened.
04:51The only thing that's certain in this case to me is that David Parnell is dead.
04:59That was a horrible tragedy.
05:01I knew Mr. Parnell from the community, a great guy.
05:05He lived right here on the north side of town.
05:06So it was a very surprising situation.
05:11Mr. David was a very industrious fellow.
05:15He may have had dogs bite him, but I don't think he was the kind of guy that would bite
05:18your dog.
05:18Most people wanted to know why would anybody feel like he was a threat and want to shoot him.
05:25And number two, who could that person be?
05:28That morning, there was an anonymous tip came in to one of the investigators that an individual named Curtis Lipsy
05:35was involved.
05:44They go into the police.
05:46They sit down.
05:47They tell the police, you're looking for us.
05:49Why are you looking for us?
05:50I'm Billy Richardson.
05:52I've been blessed to practice law for over 40 years.
05:57The statement, they basically say they retraced their steps from that night to the time of the shooting.
06:02And they basically say they picked up a young man named Marlon Howell.
06:07Supposedly, there was a conversation about Marlon needing money to pay off a probation fine the next morning or he
06:14might be going to jail.
06:16Marlon Howell was already in trouble with the law for getting arrested on drug sale charges.
06:22Marlon apparently said, let's find an easy lick, which is street language for committing a robbery.
06:28They see this car come up.
06:31Marlon apparently said, stop the car.
06:33They say they blinked their lights.
06:35They say when Mr. Purnell stopped, Marlon got out of the car.
06:39Lipsy says that Howell gets out of the vehicle, walks around to the vehicle, is demanding.
06:44Can't hear the conversation, but he sees him jump back and then he pulls a gun out and shoots the
06:49driver.
06:51Lipsy said that he and Marlon LaTodd Howell, the shooter, and Adam Ray go to Brandon Shaw's house, who had
06:59been riding around with them earlier.
07:01Adam Ray runs in and tells Brandon Shaw that Howell had shot the newspaper delivery man.
07:09So law enforcement went to Shaw's house.
07:12Brandon Shaw gives a written statement stating that they all came back to his home about 5, 25 in the
07:19morning.
07:19When Howell comes in, he's got something covered up in a shirt.
07:23They were going to take him home, but before they leave, Howell goes around behind Brandon Shaw's house, and then
07:29he comes back out.
07:30He gets in the car.
07:31They take him to where Howell's parents lived.
07:34So law enforcement searched behind Shaw's house and found the gun.
07:38My recollection, it was a .380 caliber pistol that was consistent with the gunshot wound.
07:43So you've got two witnesses in the vehicle that gave written statements saying that Marlon LaTodd Howell was the shooter.
07:51And then you have Brandon Shaw stating that they all talked about the murder when they came back to his
07:57home.
07:58It wasn't long.
07:59It might have been, you know, after lunch or that afternoon that we knew he was the one that committed
08:04the murder.
08:10I was in the office playing the game of solitary, and the doorbell rang, and my porch was covered with
08:17police officers.
08:19And they asked me, was Marlon Howell here?
08:23I said, no, he isn't.
08:26David Grisham was among them, the chief of police of New Albany.
08:30And he said, I am David Grisham, and pointed his finger in my face, in case you don't know.
08:37And you tell Marlon Howell, I want him.
08:41I thought it was about, you know, his probation.
08:43And I said, well, he was down there with you at the courthouse all morning.
08:48Y'all just now looking for him?
08:50And that threw them off, because they start looking at one another.
08:53And they left.
08:55After some time, the doorbell rang again.
08:58It was the deputy of Union County.
09:01He said, we found him, we found him.
09:04He was playing basketball up the street.
09:07They threw him to the ground to handcuff him.
09:15There's an arrest made on Marlon LaTide Howell for a probation violation.
09:20He wasn't arrested for capital murder at that point.
09:23He was brought in for questioning.
09:25He gave some bogus story about he was with some girl and he didn't know her name.
09:30The next day, Charles Rice's eyewitness that had called 911.
09:34He came in and identified Marlon LaTide Howell in a lineup as the shooter.
09:41At that point, Marlon LaTide Howell, Curtis Lipsy, and Adam Ray were charged with capital murder.
09:54The police talked to his father and told him that they got him for capital murder.
10:01And we both cried and cried because we knew we had lost him to the state of Mississippi.
10:08I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
10:11That you hear somebody tell you, your baby child, your child being arrested for murder.
10:18What I first heard was that Marlon had killed the mailman.
10:23I couldn't believe it.
10:24I really could not believe it.
10:26Marlon was a hard worker.
10:28He's a very peaceful young man.
10:30I coached him.
10:31He was a great kid.
10:33And so when we, as a coaching staff, heard about this, we were very shocked.
10:40We are turning into the neighborhood where David Purnell was killed.
10:45Everyone in this community knew him.
10:48To have a man like that gunned down in a quiet neighborhood like this was beyond shocking.
10:56But what's also shocking is that all these years later, there are a lot of people in this community
11:03who still have reservations about how this investigation unfolded.
11:08We are going to meet with Billy Richardson, who is an attorney that is super knowledgeable about this story,
11:14in order to understand how this case played out.
11:19Hi.
11:20Hi, how are you?
11:21I'm Billy.
11:22It's so nice to meet you.
11:23I'm Hillary.
11:24Yeah, I'm so much about you.
11:26Well, I'm excited to sit down with you.
11:28Yeah.
11:29Well, let's talk a little bit about Marlon's probation situation.
11:32What had he been in trouble for?
11:34Prior to the shooting, he had a marijuana conviction.
11:39While he was in high school, an undercover officer was working there and apparently pestered him to get a joint.
11:45This is the original indictment for sale of a controlled substance, less than one ounce of marijuana,
11:54the sell or transfer of 6.8 grams of the sum of $40.
12:00And so what happens when he is arrested for this drug bust? Is he kicked out of school?
12:04Oh, yeah.
12:05Marlon was put on house arrest and probation.
12:08This was clearly a defining moment in Marlon's life.
12:11When Marlon was a teenager, he was a very popular kid.
12:16I was hoping that he went pro football because I had said he was always my pro player.
12:24That's how good he was in his sports.
12:27Marlon tried to finish school, but I guess the trouble he got in delayed his education.
12:34He didn't graduate.
12:36Adam Ray and Curtis Lipsy are the two boys that implicate Marlon the day of the murder.
12:43But after Marlon's been arrested, he says, I was with a girl all weekend.
12:49We went round and round on this.
12:51But what we later learned was Marlon, he admitted that.
12:54He was riding around that night with Lipsy and Ray.
12:59He says that night that these guys were up to no good.
13:02Okay.
13:04And he called this girl that he looked at one in the morning and says,
13:08get me out of here. Come pick me up.
13:10So he says this young lady picks Marlon up, brings him home.
13:14Right.
13:15Does anyone hear him come in the door?
13:17Yes.
13:18Marlon's dad says he let Marlon in the house that night.
13:21It was still dark outside.
13:23We was here at home, sleep.
13:26And Marlon came home.
13:28It was still night.
13:32I opened the door.
13:33I let him in and went back to sleep.
13:38Later on, when he woke me up, which would have been three hours after this man was murdered,
13:46and I got to go to the courthouse to get an extension about these parole fines.
13:53I said, well, wait a minute.
13:54I'll get up and take you.
13:56Four hours after the murder, Marlon Howell was in court with his dad.
14:01It strikes me.
14:03Anybody who had committed a murder four hours before that would be halfway in front of a judge.
14:08Why come he didn't run?
14:10Why come he didn't hide?
14:12Because if you're not guilty, you don't have no reason to run.
14:18When Mr. Purnell was murdered, people were very disturbed and called for acts of violence.
14:30One guy said, you might well pick a tree and go out there and hang him up.
14:37There are comments that were made publicly where the community wanted a different kind of justice.
14:44But what experience has taught us, that's not true justice.
14:48Because a lot of times you can make a mistake.
14:50You don't want to prosecute the wrong person.
14:53The way you do that, you've got to have a jury of your peers that are fair and impartial.
14:58The defense asked that the trial be moved out of Union County.
15:03We were getting the petitions to move the trial.
15:08We couldn't get nobody to sign the petition.
15:11And one man, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, I can't sign that.
15:21Said, they'll ruin my business.
15:28Now they cut deals with Lipsy and Ray in order to facilitate a conviction.
15:35In exchange for their deal, they had to say Marlon did it.
15:38They were both given 20 years on a manslaughter charge, 10 on a robbery.
15:43It wasn't like these guys got some great deal.
15:46I mean, they're doing a hard time.
15:52As they're putting this jury together, how do they find jurors that don't know the victim?
15:58Or do they?
15:58Well, it's very difficult in a county this size.
16:02They went through and said we were going to excuse for cause because they knew the person.
16:06And the defense quite properly raised the issue like Michael Joe Reed.
16:13He was the young man that knew Mr. Burnell and his son.
16:17At that point, why wouldn't the judge just excuse that gentleman for cause?
16:21So he doesn't in this case.
16:23Not only do members of the jury pool know the victim, but they're asking them if they know
16:27members of law enforcement who have been involved in the investigation.
16:32And they're saying yes, and they're still not being removed from the jury pool?
16:37No.
16:38And not only that, there were only two jurors that were of color.
16:41They were called to be considered as sitting on the jury in the entire panel.
16:47Really?
16:47Yeah.
16:48In this case, the state took off all the white jurors.
16:53Marlon had a jury of his peers, all white jurors.
17:01In this case, it was so ironclad.
17:04We put on Curtis Lipsy who was in the car and identified Marlon LaTodd Howell as the murderer.
17:10And then you have Brandon Shaw stating that they all talked about the murder when they came back to his
17:17home.
17:17Marlon Howell's probation fees.
17:20Ain't gonna go find somebody to rob to get that, and then be dumb enough to kill somebody delivering newspapers.
17:27Jim Hood calls up Charles Rice.
17:29And how does he introduce Charles Rice to the jury?
17:34He is a model citizen.
17:35Unlike the defendant, he gets up and works for a living.
17:39Charles Rice said from 70 feet at 5 o'clock in the morning, he saw Marlon Howell kill Mr. Purnell.
17:48But Charles Rice also said he didn't see but two guys in the car.
17:52That was so complication.
17:54Well, if there are two people in the car, it's Ray Lipson and Marlon.
17:57Right.
17:57It isn't Marlon's car, it's Adam Ray's car.
18:00It isn't Marlon's gun, it's Adam Ray's gun.
18:02The defense also has Marlon's alibi, which is what?
18:06The defense attorney called Marlon's father, Reverend Howell, to the stand and his sister.
18:11And they both testified essentially the same thing.
18:14When Marlon came home, it was pitched our blackout.
18:18His father and sister tried to alibi him as being home.
18:22I asked the question of Howell's father.
18:25Had he talked to other family members about the timing of when his son came in?
18:30He said, yeah, we all had family meetings, including the sister.
18:33Well, when the sister got on the witness stand, she gave a different version saying,
18:36no, we didn't have any meetings.
18:37There was an inconsistency.
18:38Very few times in a trial do you see kind of a Perry Mason moment,
18:43where I remember looking over at that jury, kind of was like,
18:48that was one of those situations where you know that somebody's lying.
18:52Jim Hood is just a fighter.
18:54People love that.
18:56That's what they elect district attorneys and prosecutors to do, is to fight.
19:01I was hoping and praying that he got a non-guilty verdict.
19:06But that wasn't the case.
19:09He was guilty of capital murder.
19:12And he would be sentenced to death.
19:18I'm relieving the moment.
19:23We got to spend some time before they took him away.
19:31They had to take my hands off of him.
19:34And as they was pulling me away and I was still reaching for him.
19:38You know your children.
19:41And I know he didn't do this.
19:46Once you're convicted, it's not just one person goes to prison.
19:50The whole family goes to prison.
19:54We are meeting with Marlon's parents.
19:56I want to listen to what this has done to their family.
20:00Because there is a human cost.
20:02And I want to learn what their experience has been.
20:13Hi.
20:14Hi.
20:15How are you?
20:16I'm so happy to see you.
20:19Glad to have you here.
20:21This is such a beautiful space.
20:23We built it ourselves.
20:24It is beautiful.
20:26Can we go sit and talk?
20:28Absolutely great.
20:28Yes, we can.
20:29Absolutely.
20:29What was Marlon's world like?
20:31Who were his friends?
20:32He loved people in general.
20:34And that was not in his character to take another human's life.
20:39Having an off-white jury, they was going to give Marlon a guilty verdict no matter what.
20:44Well, we were honest and decent people.
20:49And it really hurts me to be portrayed like I'm not an honest and decent person.
21:02Do you feel like that's how you've been portrayed?
21:04We wasn't respected as human beings during this thing.
21:12Yeah.
21:13That's why I argued so forcefully about this trial should have never been held there.
21:21Because everybody in a southern type system we under down here know what is expected of them.
21:34And it's almost to the point of people feel a moral obligation if police arrest you for anything.
21:41We are duty bound to convict you.
21:44That's right.
21:51They told us, said, ain't a lawyer in the state of Mississippi going to take this case.
21:56You going to need somebody that ain't a part of the good old boy's system.
22:01So, we had a relative that suggested that we might try Billy Richardson.
22:09I remember the conversation that I had with Marlon's dad and what that family had been through.
22:14I need to do something to help.
22:17And I said, but we're going to start from scratch.
22:19We all went out and started investigating this thing.
22:23My name is Chuck Mims.
22:25I was the investigator handling the case.
22:28I am a retired police chief from the state of North Carolina.
22:32I also have 18 years in criminal justice consulting and private investigations.
22:36When I first was approached by Billy about this case, I was skeptical.
22:42I'm a police officer.
22:44I always have been, probably always will be.
22:47Billy Richardson and I took a trip to New Albany to investigate this case.
22:53The first thing we did when we got to New Albany is really study eyewitness identification.
22:58We were directed to a wonderful expert, Dr. Loftus.
23:01Dr. Loftus is a psychologist that works in the field of perception.
23:08We brought him on to study the scene using as similar as lighting conditions as we could possibly use.
23:15Same time of the day, Dr. Loftus determined in his opinion,
23:20Charles Rice most likely could not have seen what he claims he saw
23:23and that he should not have been able to identify Marlon Howe.
23:32So this is it?
23:34Yeah, this is the house that Rice lived in.
23:37When the shooting occurred and then he said he heard a horn
23:41and he looked out the side window he was looking at.
23:45Okay.
23:46And then the cars were stopped almost right by this sign here.
23:52Okay.
23:52He said the person got out of the car and went over to the driver's side.
23:58He's having to look through the car to see the driver's face.
24:02Bingo!
24:04Can you imagine when the sun is about 10 degrees below the horizon?
24:08Studies show the equivalent of seeing somebody with the sun at 9 degrees below the horizon.
24:16At 70 feet is like seeing somebody in broad daylight at 200 feet.
24:21I mean, it's just not possible to pick out a black man from 70 feet away in that lighting condition.
24:28Rice didn't see what he said he saw.
24:30It's just that simple.
24:33Charles Rice was presented during the initial trial as being a very upstanding citizen
24:39and that you should be able to believe what he's testifying to.
24:44We checked out Mr. Rice's background and we found him to have an extensive criminal record
24:50to include incarceration for quite some time.
24:54He was a member of a white gang while in prison.
24:57If those facts had been presented to the jury,
25:01that would have given his testimony a different perception than just being,
25:05oh, this is a great guy and he's telling us the facts.
25:08So you dig in, you find out that not only had he gone to prison...
25:13We found that he had more record than Marlon did.
25:15What made matters worse is the problem with the line-up.
25:19Well, okay, so tell me about that.
25:21First and foremost, to make a fair line-up, you want everybody dressed the same,
25:25you want everybody the same height, same weight.
25:27Marlon's just clearly taller than everybody else in there.
25:30I said, well, wait a minute, why is everybody wearing flip-flops except Marlon?
25:34Everyone else in this line-up had on orange shower shoes from jail.
25:41Marlon had on tennis shoes.
25:43You might as well have put a neon light over Marlon's head with an arrow point down on him
25:48with it saying, pick me!
25:50If Charles Rice is the crux of the case against Marlon,
25:53do you go and speak with him directly?
25:57Yeah, we basically just listen and ask questions.
26:01When we spoke to Charles Rice, we wanted to get clarified from him as to how he saw what he
26:08saw.
26:09He gave it some thought, and he decided that maybe it was not Marlon Howell that committed this crime,
26:16and maybe it wasn't Marlon that he saw.
26:19So this is the Charles Rice statement.
26:21Right.
26:22He says, I have a very real and substantial reasonable doubt as to whether or not Marlon Howell is the
26:27man I saw on the morning of May 15th of 2000.
26:30Therefore, I wish to recant my identification.
26:33Right.
26:35We wanted to re-interview everybody that's involved in the case.
26:40When I got around to interviewing Adam Ray and Curtis Lipsey, Curtis Lipsey mentions law enforcement officers investigating the case,
26:49ripped up his initial statement.
26:52In his original statement, Curtis Lipsey says, I said, we did not shoot anyone, which included Marlon Howell.
27:03That didn't fit their theory of what they were looking for.
27:08Curtis Lipsey says, my first statement, which I signed, angered the officers.
27:13They ripped it up without my permission and told me I was going to get death or life if I
27:19did not cooperate.
27:21And then Adam makes several points, one being Marlon was not violent.
27:27He also states that no one had any intent or plan to rob anyone.
27:34He admits that he didn't see Marlon do this.
27:42During the investigation, one of the people that we spoke with was Takesha Purnell, who was Brandon Shaw's girlfriend at
27:48the time of this crime.
27:50She was present after the shooting when Curtis Lipsey and Adam Ray arrived.
27:58And you'll notice I didn't say when Marlon Howell arrived.
28:02She says in this affidavit, Kurt and Adam came back about one hour later without Marlon.
28:08Adam had a gun.
28:10They were acting scared, saying we shot a white guy.
28:13She clearly says the last part of the night Marlon went there, which cooperates with Marlon saying.
28:19I mean, it's a very powerful affidavit.
28:22We identified approximately 30 different points that we felt like should be looked at to give Marlon a new trial.
28:32The courts looked at those, returned it back to us for an evidentiary hearing on three of those points.
28:39One was this not being a proper lineup.
28:43Two was Charles Rice's recontention.
28:45And the third one was Takesha Purnell's statements.
28:48Going into the evidentiary hearing was hopeful that we're going to bring Marlon home.
29:01When the hearing began, my job was to be there in the courtroom to reflect to our readers what was
29:09happening, what was said, what the new evidence was.
29:12The very first point that we tried in this evidentiary hearing was the fact that Charles Rice gave a recantation
29:20to his original statement.
29:23When we first put Charles on the stand, we expected him to say, I don't think I was correct in
29:30my first identification.
29:31Well, that's not what he said.
29:33They claimed that he had recanted his testimony.
29:36He got up and testified that he didn't recant his testimony.
29:40He immediately started with, I was wrong on the recantation, and I felt pressured, and that's why I gave it
29:47to you.
29:48And that really threw us for a loop.
29:51He was going to get married the next day, and he just signed whatever the lawyer was trying to get
29:55him to sign to get him to go away.
29:56When it came his time to testify, I started attacking his credibility because basically he was saying that I forced
30:04him to do that.
30:05One of the team members, Jim Wade, was handling that examination, and Mr. Wade asked several questions of Mr. Rice
30:14in reference to it.
30:15These two separate stories.
30:18Finally, the judge asked Mr. Wade what he was attempting to show, and Mr. Wade said, I'm trying to prove
30:24that he's not telling the truth, that he's lying.
30:26And the judge said, well, you've shown that he's lying. What else do you need?
30:29Our defense team believed at this point that we had a major win when the judge ruled that Charles Rice
30:37was no longer a credible witness that he had lied.
30:41One interesting part of the case was the issue about whether Marlon Howell had legal counsel when they brought him
30:48in for that lineup.
30:50When I looked at the lineup, Marlon sticks out like a sore thumb.
30:53And I said to myself, what lawyer would not object to this?
30:57Standard operating procedure is that the suspect is supposed to have an attorney present.
31:02Yes.
31:03During the original trial, Chief Grisham identified Reagan Russell as being Marlon Howell's attorney present at the lineup.
31:12So Billy and I went to Reagan Russell's office.
31:16We gave him a copy of the picture and asked him why he didn't object.
31:21His response was, I don't know what you're talking about.
31:25I've never been to a live lineup in my life.
31:28We went back to Chief Grisham's office.
31:32And Chief Grisham said, oh, I'm sorry, it was Tom McDonough.
31:37Billy and I go off and we go to Tom McDonough's office.
31:40We got an affidavit from Tom McDonough.
31:43And guess what Tom McDonough said in that affidavit?
31:48He wasn't there and he didn't represent Marlon.
31:51Once we brought the lineup in the evidentiary hearing on the stand,
31:55after swearing to tell the truth, Chief Grisham said,
31:59Reagan Russell was there representing Marlon Howell at the lineup.
32:05Not only did he lie about Marlon having a lawyer printed line,
32:08he lied about which lawyer was there.
32:10He lied about McDonald being there.
32:12And the darn truth is that there wasn't an attorney there.
32:15But it didn't matter because the lineup was conducted
32:18before he was arrested for capital murder.
32:21He was still being held on the probation revocation.
32:24So he didn't have a right to have a lawyer present during the lineup at that time.
32:30He was just under suspicion for capital murder.
32:32So they were saying he was just arrested on a probation violation.
32:36But we found five documents that say capital murder.
32:40Not the least of which is the officer's own written sting
32:43where he says, I booked him on capital murder.
32:46Takeisha Purnell was our third point of contention.
32:50Takeisha's testimony was to be Marlon was not there,
32:54that Adam and Curtis admitted that they had in fact committed the murder.
33:00Prior to Takeisha being put on the stand,
33:04the prosecution requested to interview Takeisha outside of the court.
33:12They scared her, making her believe that she could get in trouble
33:16if she testified the way she was talking about testifying.
33:21The poor lady was so scared and all over the place
33:24that her testimony was really hard to decipher and understand.
33:28But I certainly understand why.
33:30She was petrified.
33:32After three days, the hearing ends,
33:35and I'm wrapping up my instant blogging.
33:39And we looked down on the website,
33:44and there underneath the post was a comments section.
33:49There's a woman who has said,
33:52as God is my witness, he was with me.
33:55He did not kill this man.
33:59Patsy motioned for me to come over to the computer,
34:02and she said, read my screen.
34:04So I looked at the screen.
34:06It was from a person by the name of Lasagna Gambles.
34:12And I walked up to the front of the courtroom,
34:14and I got Marlon's attention.
34:16I said, tell me who Lasagna Gambles is.
34:19He looked at me and he said, she's the lady that took me home.
34:30We have a witness by the name of Lasagna Gambles,
34:34claims that they took Marlon home before the crime occurred.
34:38And I set up an appointment to interview her on video.
34:42Ms. Gambles, do you mind if we video record this?
34:44I don't mind at all.
34:46Lasagna had gotten a phone call on the night of the crime.
34:50My mother, she come in and woke me up.
34:51She said, well, Marlon wants you.
34:53Lasagna's mom was upset that somebody had called their house at 2 o'clock in the morning.
34:58And he, I like, he was scared.
34:59He said, I need you to come pick me up.
35:01And I said, where are you at? He said, I'm in New Albany.
35:03On the north side of the store.
35:06Lasagna drove from Blue Mountain to New Albany
35:09to a gas station convenience store and picked him up.
35:14How do you know about what time you left Blue Mountain to go into New Albany?
35:18Probably about 1.30, 2 o'clock that morning, probably earlier.
35:22Okay.
35:23It's only 1.30, 2 o'clock.
35:24About how long did it take you to get there?
35:27It didn't take me probably about 20 minutes to get there.
35:30She took him directly back home.
35:32It was before the time that this crime was to occur.
35:35I asked Lasagna, why have you waited so long to come forward?
35:38And her response was that she was scared.
35:41I felt like I needed to say something, but I was advised not to say anything.
35:46Who advised you?
35:48One of the police officers in New Albany came to my school and told me not to say a damn
35:54thing.
35:55Lasagna said, I was a high school senior. I was pregnant.
35:58She was scared to death that she had gotten in trouble because she knew that Marlin didn't do it.
36:05It seems to be really new evidence.
36:08Someone outside of his own family validated what his own family had reported in the original trial.
36:17So there is his alibi.
36:20We got all the statements together and we asked the judge to consider that in the hearing, which he refused
36:27to do.
36:28We were told it was not one of the three items, so we could not at that point produce that.
36:33Marlin Howell's fate was entirely in Judge Samack Richardson's hands.
36:38He heard three days of testimony.
36:40He takes several weeks to make a decision and basically says, no, no new trial.
36:49I'm not convinced.
36:51Billy did argue his points and they paid that no attention.
36:56They had already decided in the back room what they was going to do.
37:02It makes me angry that I can't do anything for my child.
37:08That's too painful for any mother.
37:11Your son always attested that a girl drove him home.
37:15Did you ever encourage Marlin to just like give her name so that he would have an alibi?
37:21These were kids. They were scared. And so he protected her.
37:28Had he not protected her, we don't know what would have happened to her.
37:34That's horrifying.
37:35You're in the South. You don't think it's equal justice under the law or living just for all.
37:43No, it's not any of that.
37:46It's two different systems.
37:48It's absolutely.
37:50That unspoken understanding in this community is really important for us to understand.
37:56Here's what I want to say about the New Albany community. The picture from the bottom up is different than
38:07the picture from the top down.
38:09Even though you're looking at the same thing.
38:12Yeah.
38:23I was disappointed. I hoped he would get a new trial.
38:27I just felt like there were enough questions left hanging that it ought to be reexamined by an impartial jury
38:37and then let the chips fall.
38:40They've had 20 years of appeals is what we're dealing with.
38:44I sleep every night on this one. This one I know for sure that this guy committed this murder.
38:48That that jury convicted him on evidence that was solid and they gave him the death penalty for it.
38:53I'm a cop. Always will be. And it's hard as a police officer to say it. But I believe there's
39:00an innocent man on death row in Mississippi. And his name is Marlon Howell.
39:06I knew Mr. Purnell. We lived in the same neighborhood. I bought stamps at his window many a day. He
39:16was a nice man. And I do feel great.
39:24Sympathy. For his family. But my son did not do this.
39:34David Purnell's family deserves justice. And it must be hard for them every time this case is questioned. It's a
39:43hard story to tell.
39:44We rolled into town. We all kind of marveled at what a perfect and pristine and beautiful courthouse this was.
39:53And then you get up close to it and you start to see the cracks and you start to see
39:58how imperfect it is up close.
40:00And that kind of feels like the experience we've had here in Mississippi. We've covered a couple different cases like
40:06this where the families are not asking for anything extraordinary.
40:12They're asking for a new trial. Because here's the big question. With all of the stuff that has been discovered
40:19in the years after Marlon's trial, if the jury then knew everything that we know now, would they still have
40:30put this man to death?
40:58We'll see you next time.
41:25She died in a crowded party surrounded by witnesses.
41:29It just happened so fast. On the next episode of It Couldn't Happen Here.
41:34This family is left here with no justice and a lot of questions.
41:40A lot of people was like, he didn't do it. The streets knew more than the detectives.
41:45I honestly feel like this is a hate crime. Would you consider this case solved?
41:50It Couldn't Happen Here.
41:51It Guillermo
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