Newark man acquitted of the 1978 murders
November 24th, 2011 - 1:03 am ICT by Aishwarya BhattNewark, Nov 23 (THAINDIAN NEWS) A New Jersey man has been acquitted of murder more than 30 years after the incident. A jury acquitted 58-year-old Lee Anthony Evans on charges of killing 5 boys in 1978.
With the acquittal of Evans, the gruesome murder remains unsolved. Investigators say the boys were burnt alive in one of the horrifying murder cases in the history of Newark.
After the verdict was read, Evans showed almost no emotions. He later told reporters that, “If you smash something up, tear something up, you can’t put it back together.”
The family of the murdered boys was in the court and after the verdict was read, they gave an audible gasped at the courtroom. The murdered boys are 16-year-old Alvin Turner, 16-year-old Randy Johnson, 17-year-old Melvin Pittman, 17-year-old Ernest Taylor and 16-year-old Michael McDowell. The disappeared on the night of the 20th of August 1978 and the police did not initially investigate the case as a homicide until recently.
Evan’s cousin Philander Hampton came forward in 2008 and confessed to the police that it was Evans who carried out the crime. He told the police that he helped Evans to round the boys up and burn them alive because he suspected they stole his marijuana.
No bodies have since been found.
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Tags: 17 year old, acquittal, anthony evans, courtroom, cousin, emotions, gruesome murder, homicide, investigators, jersey man, marijuana, michael mcdowell, murder cases, murders, newark, philander, randy johnson