Donnie Mays
You can read more of his story, or assist him and his family at: http://freedonniemays.com/index.html.
If you
were to look in Webster's Dictionary for the definition of victim, you would see
a picture of Donnie Mays.
Donnie Mays has been victimized beyond any conceivable imagination. His story
will make the most gentle of us fume with anger.
Samuel Beckett spoke of man's inhumanity towards man in his tragicomedy Waiting
for Godot. Donnie is a direct, as well as indirect, victim of such inhumanity.
Although greed, selfishness, pride, and lack of concern for another are all
human faults, it became inhumane how several people let these faults within
their personalities dictate how they treated Donnie.
Several people are
responsible for where Donnie is today. Each of them acted to further their own
agenda. Each of them acted without regard for the terrible impact that their
deeds have had on Donnie and his family.
I will attempt to relate Donnie's story for you simply and unembellished. I am
not a professional writer, only someone who loves Donnie and witnessed what
happened. If you read Donnie's story, you will appreciate how easily it could
happen to you. If you know Donnie's story, maybe you will strive to keep such
injustices from happening to others.
Donnie and Grandma Mae Crawley Donnie and Madeline Dennis, Donnie, and Wanda at Easterling Correctional
Justice Unserved
On the way to a Maundy Thursday service at “X” Church on April 12, 2001 Donnie Mays (age 35 and a successful district level manager for a financial services chain in the Southeast) told his wife of 10 years that he had received a very strange phone call from his corporate headquarters that day. Someone had apparently forged his signature on expense reports.
During the trip home from the church service Kaye admitted that she was the one
that had forged Donnie's signature. Not knowing the severity of wrongdoing and
not expecting that Kaye had actually stolen money from Donnie’s employer, he
suggested that they should call his boss at home and let him know of this.
After all, Donnie and Kaye both were close to Mr. “M”, almost like family.
However Kaye decided that it would be best to wait for the next morning to get
this resolved. She suddenly refused to consider talking to Mr. “M” on that
Thursday night.
Donnie attempted to talk to Kaye about the expense reports, but she also refused
to discuss it. Kaye was high strung. Donnie is a gentle and calm person. He
agreed to wait until the next day to learn about it.
After going though their normal bedtime routine Donnie and Kaye tucked their 4 ˝
year old daughter Madeline into bed, read her a nighttime story, and kissed her
good night. It was about 9:15 PM. Donnie and Kaye walked across the hall to
their bedroom where they proceeded to prepare for bed and went to sleep.
At 10:35 PM Donnie got up from sleep (as he usually did) to take Madeline to the
potty. He walked across the hall to her bedroom. Donnie picked Madeline up and
placed her on the potty. Madeline began to potty but was interrupted by a loud
explosion from across the hall. Donnie placed Madeline back into her bed, told
her to go back to sleep, and ran across the hall. He turned on their bathroom
light and saw Kaye lying motionless on her side of the bed. Donnie shook Kaye to
try and awaken her, pulled the bed covers back, and noticed a large amount of
blood on her. He immediately called Kaye's parents, his parents and 911.
Donnie's parents lived only a short distance away and arrived within a matter of
minutes. Donnie's dad went into the bedroom, pulled back the covers, shook Kaye
to try and get a response and then covered her back up. He noted that the back
of her head was very "mushy" and that she was lifeless. He also noticed a
shotgun, which was under the covers with only the barrel noticeable. He left
the gun where it had relocated after the covers were pulled back.
Kaye's parents arrived shortly after that but did not go to the bedroom. A police vehicle finally arrived and the officers proceeded to seal the house off. They inspected the bedroom many times with multiple people going in and out. The police, and subsequently the D.A., maintained that the position of the spent shell casing, the position of the bed covers, the position of the weapon, and the position of Kaye’s body in the bed indicated that it was impossible for Kaye to have shot the weapon. Therefore, Donnie was suspected of murdering her as she slept. Donnie was questioned and interrogated by the police until 6:00 AM, consistently maintaining his innocence and denying the police version of what occurred.
Earlier, the EMT personnel had gone into Madeline's bedroom and brought her to
her grandmothers who were standing outside. As they handed her to them,
Madeline told them that her daddy had her on the potty when they heard a loud
bang. Kaye's mother admitted that Kaye had “finally done it, and she snapped”.
She went on to say that Kaye had some type of suicidal ideation in the past. It
was later noted that Kaye was bulimic and anorexic and had visited her physician
the day before the suicide. She also suffered from a condition known as
Munchausen’s by proxy syndrome. None of which was investigated by the
prosecution or the defense.
After Donnie was taken to the police station and interrogated all night, he was
booked for the murder of his wife. The interrogation lasted many hours and was
carried out by 2 police detectives. They repeatedly told Donnie that the
Coroner's reputation was on the line so he never made a mistake. They
repeatedly stated (as can be seen on the interrogation film) that the Coroner
never makes a mistake. The coroner had concluded that Donnie had shot Kaye with
the shotgun at a distance of between 2 and 5 feet from a standing position. He
based his conclusion on the evidence he found at the suicide scene. He assumed
that the scene was sterile and had not been altered. Of course, pulling back
the bed covers, shaking the victim, moving the weapon and other items did not
constitute a sterile scene. His conclusions were based on wrong information.
This too was not pursued by the prosecution or the defense.
The next morning (Good Friday) Mr. “B”, a prolific attorney in Mobile, went to
see Donnie at the Mobile County Jail. His family thought this to be a Godsend.
None of Donnie's family had any experience with the legal system, did not know
who to call or even what to do. Therefore, this attorney showing up and
offering to represent Donnie appeared to them as surely a good thing. His
family agreed to hire the attorney and paid him $25,000 up front. A few days
later Donnie was released on bail until the trial. Donnie was in jail during
the funeral services for his wife and was unable to attend.
Over the next several weeks many changes occurred which we now know was the
result of urgings of the district attorney and police. Donnie’s in-laws
suddenly turned against him. They no longer remembered that Kaye was
high-strung and potentially suicidal. It was obvious that they were convinced
by the D.A. and police that Kaye could not have killed herself. Gratuitously,
the guilt that Kaye’s father had voiced on the evening of her death was erased.
Although he had stated that Maundy Thursday night that he shouldered some blame
for Kaye’s suicide for being overly stern and unloving, he no longer needed to
blame himself for failing to show her the love she deserved. Now he could blame
Donnie. That was certainly easier.
Likewise the members of Donnie’s church, “X” Baptist, turned on Donnie. They,
too, needn’t share any guilt for Kaye’s death. It’s much easier to blame
Donnie...and, after all, the police say he did it.
In the days that followed the tragedy much potential evidence was altered or
destroyed. Donnie's father-in-law entered Donnie’s home and removed a filing
cabinet that contained financial records and Kaye’s personal files. The police
removed Donnie and Kaye’s personal computer, extracted a single email from it to
use as evidence against Donnie and promptly “lost” the computer so that Donnie’s
defense team would not be able to search for evidence. The court allowed Kaye’s
father to lock Donnie’s savings account, making it impossible for Donnie to get
to his own money that was needed for the attorney's fees. Kaye’s father should
have been charged with burglary and obstruction of justice, but this too was
never pursued. Kaye's family filed for custody of Madeline and won. In
each of these situations, our attorney, Mr. “B”, kept quiet and urged us to do
likewise.
The police, prosecution, and Kaye’s family all recognized the potential exonerating evidence that Madeline possessed. They were intent on keeping Madeline away from Donnie and his family. They succeeded, largely because we put up no fight at all. The police, through the court, issued an order that prohibited Donnie or his attorney from discussing the events of the evening with Madeline. As absurd as this may sound, Donnie’s attorney did not file a request to have the only alibi witness available questioned. He entered the trial without the most crucial evidence to exonerate Donnie. In all, Donnie’s family paid Mr. B. $70,000+ for his defense work. Donnie’s family believed all along that this attorney would do everything he could for them. Instead, he repeatedly advised us to keep quiet and things would work out. Donnie is now serving a life sentence for something he did not do largely because of a poor defense effort.
During the more-than-a year period prior to the trial, Donnie and his family
maintained their belief in the justice system. They never suspected that the
prosecution and court would convict Donnie of a crime that he did not commit.
They certainly did not think that the court would allow a story to be so twisted
by the prosecution. They believed that all that was necessary was the truth.
Donnie and his family were told that there was expert testimony that showed that
Kaye had indeed killed herself and that no matter how the prosecution weaved its
case, the truth would prevail. They did not know that relatively little effort
was being made by defense team, and there was a very concerted and effective
effort on the part of the prosecution to build their case. Not only had the
prosecution effectively turned Donnie’s in-laws and church against him, they
convinced his attorney that Donnie’s only alibi witness, Madeline, was no longer
available or credible. Donnie’s attorney chose not to pursue testimony from
her, a strategy other defense attorneys have called unforgivable.
Donnie came from a God-fearing family. His father was a Baptist minister.
Donnie and Kaye had been very active in their church. Much reliance was put in
faith that Donnie would not be convicted. Donnie had no knowledge of the legal
system. He did not know that he should have kept constant contact with his
attorney to make sure that work was being done on his case. He did not know
that he should have instructed his attorney to fight for custody of Madeline.
He was so wrong!
Police actions on the scene were less than professional. Many officers and
staff were in and out of the “crime scene”. They made the decision early that
the scene as they had found it would be considered as sterile and previously
unaltered. They had been told that Donnie and his parents had been in and out
of the bedroom before the police came in, but chose to ignore it. The county
coroner was called to the scene about 3 hours after the suicide occurred and was
told it was a “sterile” scene.
Donnie was never checked for powder burns or residue because the police felt
that Donnie had washed his hands and thereby removing the gunpowder. It is
common knowledge that gunpowder residue will stay on the skin for many hours
perhaps days afterward even washing. Had the police chose to do the very simple
test, Donnie would never been charged, or at least the prosecution would have
had to overcome damaging evidence. The police had chosen to make Kaye’s suicide
a murder and gathered evidence that pointed only to Donnie’s guilt. To
accomplish their mission, they wisely chose not to perform the paraffin test.
Donnie’s trial was a comedy of errors. Judge “W” presided over his first murder
trial, and it showed. Every single one of the 70 objections Donnie made during
the trial was overruled. Every single objection made by the prosecution was
upheld. The first day of the trial Donnie asked for a continuance in order to
develop a defense to some allegations of the prosecution that were announced
only days before. Because the trial had been continued earlier because the
State of Alabama had run out of funds to operate its court system, Judge “W”
denied Donnie’s request stating that the State had gone long enough without a
trial and it was time to start. No regard was given to the fact that the
prosecution intentionally kept the allegations from Donnie so he could not
prepare an adequate defense.
During the trial Donnie presented evidence from a weapon's expert that showed
the oil spray from the shotgun was on the undersurface of the sheets, therefore
making it impossible for the gunshot to occur from a 30 degree angle and above
the sheets like the coroner had stated. During cross-examination, the
prosecution skillfully portrayed the expert to be a “hired gun” rather than to
present contradictory evidence. Our attorney did nothing to convince the jury
otherwise. Judge “W” even referred to the expert as Donnie’s “Hired Gun”.
Although Donnie was not notified until a few days prior to the trial that the
prosecution intended on presenting evidence that Donnie had participated alone
in the embezzlement of funds from his company, Judge “W” denied the motion for
more time to gather evidence and prepare a defense for the embezzlement
allegation.
The prosecution skillfully spent many hours of their trial presentation to the
jury (3 days) to prove that Donnie was an embezzler, creating a motive that he
killed Kaye to cover his tracks. Again skillfully, the lengthy process wore
down the jury and convinced them that he had embezzled funds. The prosecution
very effectively convinced the jury that Donnie was an embezzler. With this
seed very firmly set in the jurors’ mind, it was easy to convince them to
overlook the contradictory forensic evidence. Donnie was convicted of
embezzlement and sentenced for murder! Judge “W” allowed the prosecution to
proceed with information and with a strategy that gave the jury an unfairly told
and biased story. Judge “W” disallowed Donnie the opportunity to defend himself
effectively.
Donnie's only crime prior to the trial was a speeding ticket. Judge “W”
sentenced Donnie to life in prison.
From Good Friday, 2001 until today, custody of Donnie's daughter is awarded to
his in-laws. Donnie's house and all of his belongings were awarded to his
in-laws. Neither Donnie nor any of his family is allowed contact with Madeline.
Donnie's rights have been constantly violated.
Attempts to send the case through the Court of Criminal Appeals and the Supreme
Court resulted in denial. After all, that is what a rubber stamp process
results in. No real look at the argument.
Another attorney was hired to present a case that Donnie’s previous attorney
erred by not pursuing Madeline’s exonerating testimony. By law, the hearing was
given to Judge “W”. The case was made that the key witness, Madeline, was never
put on the stand to give her testimony. A taped interview with an experienced
psychiatrist and Madeline was given to the judge. It showed Madeline stating
that she was on the potty with her dad when a loud explosion was heard. The
attorney also presented evidence that Madeline's IQ is extremely high, only 2
points below that of the highest category. Judge “W” continued his streak by
denying the motion for a new trial.
Assertions
That Point to Donnie’s Innocence
1. Mobile City police staged the scene to meet their criteria for a homicide.
2. The detective in charge that ultimately made the decision to consider Kaye’s
suicide a murder had graduated from the police academy only 18 months
previously. The first police to arrive were rookies. The detective was looking
to put a “notch” on his gun handle.
3. The detectives that conducted the interrogation continually tried to convince
Donnie to confess because the coroner was very thorough and knew that he would
loose his job if he made a mistake.
4. At no time did the police check Donnie's hands for powder burns or residue.
However the police did remove 4 light switch plates to check for gunshot
residue. Apparently there was none. That is a fact that was never entered into
evidence during the trial. Amazing!
5. The trajectory of the gunshot makes it impossible for it to occur from 2-5
feet away from a standing position (as was asserted by the prosecution). Donnie
is 76" tall and Kaye slept with her head on a pillow. For the bullet to enter
under her chin and end up in the superior posterior portion of her skull, the
trajectory had to come from bed level. This point was never questioned by
Donnie’s attorney. Amazing!
6. The coroner testified that it was impossible for Kaye to have pulled the
trigger of the weapon because her arms were too short. Under cross-examination
the coroner admitted that he never physically measured Kaye’s arms, but
estimated her arm’s length from photos. Amazing!
7. A letter was sent to our attorney from a male friend of Kaye's. He had
committed suicide several weeks after Kaye. In the letter he admitted to having
an affair with Kaye and that he could not go on living because of Kaye’s death
and many other things. Our attorney took the word of the male friend’s wife
that no affair had occurred. No further investigation was carried out.
Amazing!
8. Our attorney displayed little preparation for Donnie’s defense, and the judge
was a rookie that never before had presided over a murder trial.
9. We know that Donnie’s church was attended by many "old money", “old Mobile”
attorneys and politicos. It was rumored that pressure phone calls were made to
the rookie judge suggesting that no slack be given to Donnie during the trial.
We suspect this to be true but proving it would require an exceptional
investigator.
10. Madeline’s testimony, through her grandmother, was deemed as hearsay by the
judge and our attempt to have it admitted, as an excited utterance was not
permitted. This testimony would have exonerated Donnie. Our attorney chose not
to let Donnie’s only alibi witness speak directly to the jury. Double amazing!
11. The prosecution said that Donnie was covering up embezzlement and that that
was the motive Donnie had to murder. Our attorney was notified of this only two
weeks before the trial. Because we did not have adequate time to obtain
evidence to counter the embezzlement charges, we objected to its admittance
until we were given time. We asked for a delay in the trial, but were over
ruled by the judge. (As a matter of fact, not a single objection made by
Donnie’s attorney [there were 70 objections raised] during the entire trial was
upheld, and not a single objection made by the prosecution was over ruled.
Amazing!)
12. The trial judge over Donnie’s objection allowed the prosecution to force the
jury to watch a videotape of the police interrogation of Donnie the night of
Kaye’s suicide. The tape was several hours long; the sole purpose of the
prosecution using the videotape was to paint Donnie as an embezzler and
murderer. There was no opportunity for Donnie to challenge the allegations on
the videotape or to cross-examine the interrogators. It was very unfair to
Donnie and his defense to allow the jury to hear hours of conjecture and
allegations with no basis without any opportunity to defend himself. This was
one of many dirty tricks used by the police and prosecution to convict Donnie.
Amazing!
13. As noted by Donnie's Statement, Kaye admitted to him that she had embezzled
this money; however no attempt to investigate Kaye's possible involvement was
carried out by either the prosecution or the defense. There was never a 2nd
bank account opened. Kaye took care of all of the finances. At the very least,
she should have been considered a willing accomplice, not a victim. Amazing!
14. A single email sent by Kaye the evening of her suicide was extracted off
Donnie and Kaye’s computer and was used by the DA as "key evidence" by the state
to "prove" that Kaye had no intention of committing suicide. There was no
rebuttal from our attorney or any attempt to show that most suicides are not
“telegraphed” by the victim. There was no cross-examination asking email
recipient if she knew when the email was actually written vs. when it was sent.
The police unbelievably “lost” the computer after they extracted the single
email and disallowed Donnie the opportunity to search for other emails that
might have supported our assertion that Kaye was unstable. Amazing!
15. Donnie was not permitted to testify on his behalf. While this could be part
of our attorney's strategy it turned out to be inappropriate.
16. The jury was never told that Donnie had not been charged with embezzlement,
even though the first 3 days of the trial was an attempt to convince the jury
that Donnie was an embezzler. There was less than $34,000 in question, but the
prosecution successfully painted Donnie as a multi-million dollar type of
embezzler.
17. During the trial the prosecution’s expert witness said it would have been
impossible for Kaye to pull the trigger with her finger. The coroner never
actually measured the length of Kaye’s arms, but used photos of Kaye to estimate
the length of her arms. Amazing! We countered with an expert witness who said
that Kaye could have pulled the trigger with her socked toe. In final arguments
the prosecution made mockery of this theory and our attorney did not counter.
Amazing!
18. The Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court are renowned
rubber stampers of decisions made by the lower courts. It is highly likely that
not a single justice read a single sentence of our appeal briefs. That’s just
the way the court operates regarding non-high profile cases. Amazing!
19. Kaye had already exhibited suicidal ideations, anorexia, bulimia, and
Munchausen’s by proxy syndrome. These facts were not investigated by either the
police or Donnie’s attorney. Kaye's physicians' records were not subpoenaed.
Neither were the records from Madeline's pediatricians. Amazing!
What Really
Happened on Maundy Thursday, 2001
(Maundy Thursday: Commemorates the Last Supper and Christ’s Washing
of His Disciples’ Feet).
What an awful day. It was approximately 11:00 AM. Donnie got a call from Ms.
“T”, his administrator Customer Service Representative. She was in the Ft.
Walton Beach office and he was in the Biloxi office. She said she just received
a call from accounting in headquarters… said she they needed her correct Post
Office Box number. Ms. “T” told them that she did not have a P.O. Box. Ms. “A”
in accounting told Ms. “T” that she had some returned expense checks from a P.O.
Box and gave her the number.
Ms. “T” asked Donnie to call Ms. “A” to find out what was going on. He did.
Ms. “A” was cold to him and said they were checking into the problem and told
him not to worry about it. Ms. “A” said it was probably the wrong address typed
on the checks. Donnie talked with Ms. “A” several times that afternoon.
He called Ms. “T” who was still in Fort Walton Beach and told her what Ms. “A”
said. He and Ms. “T” were concerned. The day went on and around 3:00 PM. Mr.
“Mc”, head of auditing, called Donnie and asked if he knew there was a problem
with Ms. “T’s” expense reports? He said yes, that Ms. “T” had called him. He
asked Donnie if he thought Ms. “T” would do something like this. Donnie said,
NO! Mr. “Mc” said, don’t worry about this and his office would investigate
tomorrow (Friday). Donnie called Ms. “T” and told her he talked with Mr. “Mc”.
An hour later, Mr. “M”, Donnie’s direct supervisor called him from the Atlanta
airport and asked what was going on. He told Donnie not to worry about it; he
would get with him on Friday. Donnie had scheduled to take Friday off, but
could still call from home.
During the course of the Maundy Thursday service Kaye left to go to the restroom
(something she never did. She often criticized those who
did). The congregation shared communion that evening so services were not over
until 8 PM. On the way home, as they were turning off Airport Boulevard to
Dawes Road, Kaye told Donnie that she needed to tell him something. With tears
running down her face, she told Donnie, “It was me.” She confessed to
falsifying the expense reports under Ms. “T’s” name. She answered Donnie’s
questions about how and why she did it. She showed much remorse and expressed
much fear as to how her actions would be viewed by her parents and the church
membership.
Donnie remembered that Kaye had always had a keen interest in Ms. “T’s”
schedule. He thought it was just Kaye being nosey and desire to be “in the
know”. She knew Ms. “T” was his right hand person. Kaye knew every manager by
name and most every employee. Kaye had always asked a lot of questions about
work.
With tears in her eyes she told Donnie again that she was sorry. She said she
did not feel like talking about it. Donnie asked her to call Mr. “M” in
Evansville, Indiana and tell him what had happened. He told her his plane
should have been in by now. She agreed and then abruptly changed her mind
saying that she would wait and do it Friday morning. She stated that she did
not want to bother him at home after he had been traveling in the Texas
branches. At that point she became very insistent on waiting until the morning
to call Mr. “M”. At that point Kaye said she was through talking about this
until in the morning. Madeline heard Kaye say this, and grabbed Donnie’s hand
and pulled him to her bedroom. This was around 8:45 PM. Madeline shut the door
to her room and they played with her dolls for about 15 minutes.
When Madeline and Donnie finished playing she said she was sleepy. He told her
after he changed his clothes he would read her a book. After Kaye and Donnie
finished changing their clothes they went into Madeline’s room and each read a
book of Madeline’s choice and all 3 took turns saying a prayer. About 9:15 PM
they walked out of her room. Donnie went to the living room and Kaye went to
send some emails. After a while they both retired to the bedroom. Donnie asked
Kaye again to discuss the expense reports situation but she vehemently refused.
Donnie tossed in bed, unable to sleep. Around 10:30 PM he decided to get up and
go into Madeline’s room. A few times each night he would lift Madeline from bed
and place her on a plastic potty next to her bed. Eventually she would tee-tee
and he would place her back in bed. Although both Donnie and Kaye had shared
this duty, Madeline had gotten too big for Kaye to lift.
They kept an air purifier and noise machine in Madeline’s bedroom to disguise
noises from the other parts of the house and traffic outside. This let Madeline
sleep better. That night, as usual, Donnie put Madeline on her potty. After
several minutes of whispering encouragement to Madeline to tee-tee, Donnie heard
a loud bang. He quickly pulled up Madeline’s panties and put her back in
bed and ran to the bedroom. As soon as he got to the door he smelled
gunpowder. He ran up to the bed yelling “Kaye, Kaye, Kaye, Kaye”. It was dark
in the bedroom. He ran to the bathroom and turned on the bathroom light.
Once he got back to the bedside he saw blood everywhere. He saw a gun twisted
up in the sheets and the butt of the gun exposed out from under the sheets.
Again he kept yelling for Kaye to respond. At that point he saw the gun’s
barrel protruding from under the sheets near Kaye’s breast. He pulled the
sheets to try and move it.
He ran to the kitchen and called Kaye’s parents. Kaye’s mom answered the phone
and she said they were on the way. Then Donnie called his parents. He then
called 911 and gave the operator his name and street address and told her his
wife shot herself. The operator asked him some questions and he told her he was
in the kitchen and that Kaye was in their bedroom. He was told to go into the
bedroom. He laid the phone down in the kitchen and ran and picked up the
cordless phone in the living room and ran to the bedroom. The operator asked
Donnie to try and feel a pulse. He said that he did not feel a pulse. She
asked if he could get her on the floor. He said he could not so he was
instructed by the 911 operator to leave her alone; the ambulance is on the way.
Donnie ran through the house to the garage and let up the garage door and waited. He was crying while standing in the garage when his parents arrived. He motioned for them to follow him to the bedroom. All three ran to the bedroom. Donnie’s dad shook Kaye very hard and called her name. His mother touched Kaye on the head.
The three of them walked to the garage. They were stunned and in shock.
They awaited the ambulance. Within minutes 2 very young uniformed officers came
running up the driveway. Donnie’s dad began motioning them to enter the house.
Within seconds a very young plain clothes officer came up the driveway with his
hand on his pistol yelling in a menacing tone towards Donnie’s dad to, “get
back, get back!.” Donnie’s dad was trying to inform the officers that Madeline
was still in the house, but they were too busy acting like NYPD BLUE to listen.
Thank God the EMT’s came quickly and would heed the warning. Kaye’s parents
arrived next and within minutes the EMT came out to tell them that Kaye was
dead. The 5 joined hands and prayed for Kaye’s soul. Kaye’s dad went into a
frenzy, yelling prayers in some kind of tongues.
An officer asked the five to move to the patio adjacent to the garage. Donnie’s
mother asked the EMT to go get Madeline from her room. The EMT told them that
he was no longer allowed in the house. He said he understood why they would be
concerned about Madeline’s well being and said he would try.
Within a few minutes he reappeared with Madeline in his arms. The three men had
walked away before that happened. Madeline was awake and plainly said to
Donnie’s mother and Kaye’s mother that, “Daddy had me on the potty when we heard
a loud bang!”
Over the course of the next few hours, as news of Kaye’s suicide spread, family and friends began to arrive at the home. Much love and support was conveyed. Kaye’s dad told Donnie that he would have to take a large portion of the blame for Kaye’s actions because he never told her that he loved her. (Kaye’s dad was an extreme disciplinarian and hard-shell Baptist. Donnie mentioned to Kaye’s dad that Kaye had admitted to falsifying expense reports that evening to which Kaye’s mother quickly retorted, “You didn’t tell the police that, did you?” Both Kaye’s parents had always been overly concerned about their image in the Baptist community).
Kaye’s mother told Donnie that she had spoken to Kaye over the phone that
evening and that Kaye was not herself. Kaye’s brother said that Kaye had told
him recently that she was an unfit mother. When Donnie confided with Kaye’s dad
that she had been stealing money from his company he encouraged Donnie not to
tell that to the police.
During these 3 hours or so that elapsed between the time that the police arrived
and when an officer came to take Donnie to the police station, several very
inexperienced police officers decided to make Donnie and Kaye’s bedroom into a
“crime scene”. Although throughout the prosecution the bedroom was described as
“sterile”, three people moved about the room and moved objects within the room
before the police arrived. During the trial phase, the bedroom was constantly
purported to be totally unaltered.
About 3:00 A.M. Cpl "E", one of the newbie’s investigating the evening’s event
told Donnie that he would like him to go downtown with him to go over some more
questions. He said that this was just standard, routine procedure and that
Donnie would be back in an hour or two. Several hours of questioning occurred.
Donnie never changed his account of the evening’s event. Several attempts were
made to pull a confession from Donnie that he had indeed killed Kaye and tried
to stage the murder as a suicide. Of course, they were unsuccessful. Finally,
about 6:30 AM, Detective "V" informed Donnie that he was being charged with
murdering Kaye.
During that time period, the police also began to try and convince Kaye’s family
that he had murdered her. They knew that her family would find it easier to
cope with Kaye’s death if they could believe that she did not kill herself. They
also knew that Donnie’s defense would be hampered by a lack of cooperation from
Kaye’s family. And lastly, the police (and the prosecution) knew that having
the grieving and angry family present at the trial would impact the jury.
Donnie’s
Statement Regarding the Letter From “WW”
“WW” was a member of our church family and a good friend. He committed suicide
a few months after Kaye did. He was allegedly involved in embezzlement from his
employer. His death (and alleged crime) was a shock.
About three weeks before the trial Mr. “B” called me one day and said he and
“Mr. C” (another attorney) wanted to meet with me the following Saturday morning
at his office at 9:00 AM. When I sat down in his office he asked me point blank
if I had written a letter or did I know anybody that may have written a letter
on my behalf…I said, “Mr. “B”, I have no idea what you are talking about.” He
told me he got a call from Mr. “U” early in the week that Mr. “U”, (my attorney
friend), Mr. “E” (my pastor) and Mrs. “W” (“WW’s” widow) received a letter from
someone in the Gulfport, MS area. It was stated in the letter that he was
instructed by “WW” to mail the contents of the other letter 1 year after his
death. Mr. “B” and Mr. “C” said it was postmarked from a Gulfport post office.
They asked me if I had been in Gulfport recently. I had not. The letter from
“WW” was an admission of many things including an affair that he and Kaye were
involved in.
Mr. “B” told me that the D.A. wants Mr. “U’s” copy of the letter that he
received in the mail to check for fingerprints. I never heard any further about
the fingerprints. Mr. “U” was instructed by the D.A. not to open his letter
when he received it in the mail.
I assume Pastor “E” faxed Mr. “U” a copy and Pastor “E” had contacted the D.A.
Mr. “U” faxed Mr. “B” a copy of the letter and I read it while I was in Mr.
“B’s” office that morning. While I was in his office reading the letter, Mr.
“B” called my sister Wanda on her cell phone while she was cleaning houses on
Dauphin Island and asked her where he could call her on a land line.
Mr. “C” said it looked like to him it was typed on a typewriter and they asked
me if I had a typewriter. I did not. I said Daddy has an old one. Then a
couple of days later I went by my house and saw Kaye’s typewriter. I called Mr.
“C” at Mr. “B’s” and told him I had forgotten about Kaye’s typewriter, I never
used her typewriter and had forgotten we had it. I offered to bring it to his
office but he did not think there was a need for it.
Mr. “U” talked with Mrs. “WW” about the letter. She said it was not true, that
her husband was not having an affair. All was apparently dropped about the
issue. I don’t know what was ever discovered about the origin or the
authenticity of the letter, but it sure seemed to be an important piece of my
defense. Because the prosecution never pursued it, I now assume that it was
more authentic than my attorney thought. His lack of effort to verify an
admission of evidence that could be potentially damning to the prosecution’s
assertions against me was typical of his preparation for my case.
Donnie’s
Statement Regarding the Post Office Box
Kaye had talked about this for several months. It was the summer of ’99 when
she began to talk about opening a post office box. I asked her why she needed
one. Her mother had a phone bill refund stolen out of their mailbox and cashed
by someone in the Grand Bay area. She had heard about other things stolen out
of some of other individuals she was in contact with.
She had heard about someone going down streets and neighborhoods acting as a
mailman and picking up (stealing) the mail out of the boxes that had just been
delivered by the “real” mailman. He also picked up outgoing mail that had left
in mailboxes during the day. So she wanted to open a post office box.
I agreed and opened the box for her at the Cottage Hill branch. I recall it to
have been December 1999. Kaye had called and inquired about a 6 month box
rental fee and gave me the money to open an account. I went to the post office
and asked the clerk to open a post office box account. I paid for 6 months rent
in advance. The clerk asked for my driver license. I told her I wanted my wife
to have access to the box and she said that she would need her driver license
also.
The clerk put a sticky note on the application and suggested that I tell Kaye
that when she came to the post office to tell the clerk that the application was
there and that she needed to provide them with her driver license.
After I left the post office I called Kaye and told her that the post office
needed her driver’s license in order for her to gain access to the new box.
Kaye said she’d take care of it.
I only received one key to the new box. I walked around the corner and tried
the key. I do not recall the new post office box number. I do remember the
location of the box. It was straight through the front door on the right. On
occasion I would try 3 or 4 boxes before I got the correct box. That night I
gave Kaye the key and the 6-month paid receipt and reminded her of what she
needed to do.
Kaye told me 3 or 4 days later she handled that at the post office…the “some”
man verified her driver license. She found the post office box number and wrote
the number down for her purse.
I never paid the bills, and only wrote a few checks each month. Kaye handled
all the finances as perusal of old reconciled bank statements would show. I
checked the new post office box maybe 5 times in the 2-year period. Kaye would
give me the key and ask me to stop on my way to the Mobile office. I only found
junk mail in the box.
I never changed my address with my credit card companies therefore the monthly
statements still came to McFarland Road. I had nothing going the post office
box. I don’t know what Kaye had going to the post office box………other than her
scheme. If only I knew what the box was really for!!