Reid Guilty
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Reid Guilty
April 15, 1999
Reuters
(NASHVILLE) -- It took a jury from Knoxville only three hours to convict
Paul
Reid on all counts in the Captain D's murder trial. Reid was convicted
yesterday on two counts of premeditated murder, two counts of felony
murder in
the deaths of Steve Hampton and Sarah Jackson, and one count of
aggravated
robbery. Reid hung his head as the verdict was read. The victim's
families
didn't say much as they left the courtroom but did give a thumbs up as
they
entered the courthouse elevator. They said they do not want to talk
until
Reid's penalty phase is complete. That begins Saturday. Prosecutors are
seeking
the death penalty.
--------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/15/99 online edition of The
Nashville
Tennessean newspaper:
Jury finds Reid guilty of murders, robbery
By Kirk Loggins / Tennessean Staff Writer
A Criminal Court jury convicted multiple murder suspect Paul Dennis Reid
last
night of killing two people while robbing a Captain D's restaurant in
Donelson
in February 1997.
The jury, brought here from Knoxville for the trial, deliberated for
about
three hours before finding Reid guilty of premeditated murder and felony
murder
-- both forms of first-degree murder -- and especially aggravated
robbery.
The guilty verdicts set the stage for a second phase of the trial, at
which
prosecutors will ask the jury to sentence Reid, 41, to death.
First-degree
murder is the only crime which carries the death penalty under Tennessee
law.
Reid, an admitted armed robber and would-be country singer from Texas,
has been
charged with murdering seven people during robberies at three fast-food
locations in Middle Tennessee early in 1997.
Judge Cheryl Blackburn told the jurors in the Captain D's case to take
two days
off while the lawyers prepare for the sentencing phase of the trial,
much of
which will focus on mental problems Reid has experienced since
childhood.
Blackburn told the lawyers in the case to return to court at 9 a.m.
tomorrow to
iron out plans for the sentencing phase, which she set to begin Saturday
morning.
The delay is due in part to rules handed down last year by the Tennessee
Supreme Court, which said prosecutors in death penalty trials can't find
out
what a defendant has told mental health professionals until the
sentencing
phase. That's to keep the prosecution from using statements, made by
defendants
in the psychological evaluation process, to help convict them of murder.
Lawyers for Reid and other murder suspects facing the death penalty had
asked
the Supreme Court to rule that they did not have to give prosecutors any
notice
of what mental health evidence they planned to present at the sentencing
phase
of their trials.
In the first of Reid's three murder cases to come to trial, prosecutors
presented a chain of circumstantial evidence over the last three days in
an
attempt to prove that Reid, who was a part-time cook at a Shoney's
restaurant
in Donelson, shot two Captain D's employees to death during a robbery on
Feb.
16, 1997.
Witnesses for the prosecution described Reid, who had enrolled in
Volunteer
State Community College in January 1997, as "desperate" for cash early
in
February. But he spent money freely -- including $5,100 in cash to lease
a new
car -- within days after the Captain D's was robbed of more than $7,000.
Several witnesses testified that they saw Reid at the Captain D's the
night
before and the morning of the robbery, but there was no evidence inside
the
seafood restaurant -- or at his rented room on Ordway Place in east
Nashville
-- linking him to the execution-style shootings of manager Steve
Hampton, 25,
and McGavock High School student Sarah Jackson, 16, who worked at the
Captain
D's part-time.
The strongest single piece of evidence against Reid was a movie rental
card
used by Hampton, which the robber apparently tossed out on Ellington
Parkway.
Once Metro police focused on Reid, after he argued with his former
Shoney's
boss in June 1997, they matched his thumbprint to a print lifted from
the movie
rental card in February.
Reid did not take the witness stand during his trial.
If he had, prosecutors could have asked him about his conviction in a
series of
armed robberies in his home state of Texas in 1982. The jury was not
aware of
Reid's prior criminal record, and Blackburn did not permit any mention
of the
other murder charges against Reid in front of the jury.
Reid, who often called reporters from jail before Blackburn imposed a
gag order
on him March 1, dropped his head when the jury foreman announced the
guilty
verdicts last night.
Blackburn has ordered the participants in the case -- including the
victims'
relatives -- not to talk to reporters until the trial is concluded.
But members of the two victims' families hugged each other after the
guilty
verdicts were announced, and they cheered once they got onto an elevator
to
leave the Metro Courthouse.
"They're extremely pleased," said Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman,
who
headed the prosecution team. "It's been a long, hard road for them."
Reid denied any involvement in the Captain D's slayings, during a
videotaped
statement to Metro police detectives just before he was arrested in June
1997.
But he failed to come up with an explanation, during the police
interrogation,
for how his fingerprint got on Hampton's movie rental card.
Assistant Public Defender David Baker told the jury, during his closing
argument yesterday afternoon, "There are too many unanswered questions
in this
case to convict anyone."
He questioned the reliability of the witnesses who said they saw Reid at
the
Captain D's, and he faulted prosecutors and police for not trying harder
to
determine who left three cigarette butts inside the restaurant. DNA
tests
showed the cigarettes were not smoked by Reid or the victims.
Baker suggested to the jury that Reid could have touched the video
rental card
when his car broke down on Ellington Parkway sometime after the robbery.
But Thurman responded that Baker pulled that theory "out of the air."
Baker questioned why prosecutors showed the jury the videotaped police
interrogation, during which Reid came across as what Baker called "a
very
bizarre, weird person."
"You can tell from that statement, and I mean no disrespect to my
client, that
Mr. Reid is sort of a pitiful person," Baker said.
Thurman said the videotape made it clear that, while Reid denied any
involvement in the Captain D's deaths, he had no explanation for his
thumbprint
on Hampton's card.
The videotape showed Reid giving Metro police detectives Pat Postiglione
and
Mike Roland a rambling account of his belief that he has been under
"24-hour
government surveillance" for years.
Thurman told the jury Reid was careful not to leave any evidence behind,
even
picking up the shell casings after he fired 12 shots from a .32-caliber
revolver at Hampton and Jackson, who had been herded into the
restaurant's
walk-in cooler.
"I'm sure they thought he was going to lock them in the cooler, and then
he
executes them," Thurman said.
"He almost made it, except for that little thumbprint he tossed out
there ..."
Reid is set to be tried in Clarksville beginning Aug. 30, on charges
that he
abducted and murdered two young women who worked at a Baskin-Robbins ice
cream
store there in April 1997.
Blackburn has not set a trial date in the third murder case against
Reid,
stemming from the shooting deaths of three people during a robbery at a
McDonald's restaurant in Hermitage in March 1997.
------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/14/99 online edition of The
Nashville
Tennessean newspaper:
Videotape gives Reid jury look at murder suspect's mind
By Kirk Loggins / Tennessean Staff Writer
A jury got a stunning look last night at the strange mind of multiple
murder
suspect Paul Dennis Reid, as prosecutors played a videotape of his
interrogation by Metro police just before his arrest in June 1997.
The videotape showed Reid repeatedly denying any involvement in the
execution-style shooting deaths of two employees during a robbery at a
Captain
D's seafood restaurant in Donelson in February 1997.
The tape was edited to remove references to charges that Reid, a
restaurant
cook and would-be country singer, also murdered three employees at a
McDonald's
restaurant in Hermitage, five weeks later.
"I am certain that I am not the triggerman," Reid said at one point
during the
42-minute videotape that was played for the Captain D's jury. "I can
positively
confirm that to you."
But the tape also showed the convicted armed robber from Texas giving
rambling
accounts of his belief that he has been the focus of "government
surveillance"
for years.
It reflected the mixture of paranoia, politeness and delusions of
grandeur Reid
has demonstrated in letters to government officials in Texas in 1993 and
in
repeated telephone calls to Nashville news organizations since he was
first
confined to the Metro Jail in June 1997.
Reid began talking almost incoherently when homicide detectives Pat
Postiglione
and Mike Roland asked him, on the videotape, how his thumbprint got on a
movie
rental card taken from Captain D's manager Steve Hampton's wallet and
then
discarded on Ellington Parkway in east Nashville.
"Lord, this is crazy," Reid said, apparently unaware that he was being
videotaped, after the two detectives left the small interrogation room.
"I
mean, why would they do this to Paul Reid?"
Reid, 41, appeared to follow a transcript of the videotape closely.
When the tape was over, he lowered his head and clasped his hands in
front of
him, as if in prayer. He then wiped his eyes, which did not appear to be
wet.
The prosecution is expected to close its case this morning.
Reid's lawyers refused to say whether they will call him to the witness
stand.
If he is convicted of first-degree murder, prosecutors will then ask the
jury,
in a separate hearing, to sentence him to death.
Reid's lawyers have given notice they will present expert testimony
about his
longstanding mental problems if the trial reaches that stage.
Prosecutors suffered a setback earlier yesterday when Judge Cheryl
Blackburn
refused to let the jury hear evidence about the McDonald's murders.
Blackburn ruled in August there were so many similarities between the
two
restaurant robberies she would probably allow prosecutors to present
testimony
from the sole survivor of the McDonald's robbery during Reid's trial on
charges
of murdering the Captain D's employees, where there were no surviving
eyewitnesses.
Prosecutors said they needed testimony about the McDonald's case, which
has not
been set for trial, to help them convict Reid of murdering Hampton, 25,
and
Captain D's employee Sarah Jackson, 16, on Feb. 16, 1997.
But Blackburn said yesterday it would be almost impossible for the jury
to
follow the law and consider testimony about the McDonald's murders only
as it
relates to identifying Reid as the killer in the Captain D's case.
The law limits evidence of other crimes because of the danger jurors
will think
it proves a defendant has a propensity to commit the crime for which he
is
being tried. The jury in the Captain D's case is not aware, for example,
that
Reid was convicted of a series of armed robberies in his home state of
Texas in
1982.
Blackburn, a former Davidson County prosecutor, went to Knoxville to
pick a
jury because of massive publicity in Middle Tennessee about Reid's
alleged
murder of five restaurant workers in Nashville and two employees at a
Baskin-Robbins ice cream store in Clarksville, all within a three-month
period
early in 1997.
Lawyers who are not involved in the Reid case said Blackburn risked a
reversal
if Reid were to be convicted of the Captain D's murders, based partly on
testimony about the McDonald's robbery.
Prosecutors presented more testimony yesterday about Reid's financial
problems
in the weeks before the Captain D's robbery -- and his payment of $5,128
in
cash to Crown Ford to lease a new car within days after the robbery.
The jury also heard from several Metro police fingerprint examiners, who
said
Reid's right thumbprint matched a print found on a movie rental card
Hampton
had used, which someone tossed out on Ellington Parkway after the
robbery.
But the defense pointed to several unidentified fingerprints and shoe
prints
inside the restaurant and to the fact hairs found on Sarah Jackson's
pants leg
did not match her, Hampton or Reid.
------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/13/99 online edition of The
Nashville
Tennessean newspaper:
Fast-food murders motivated by greed, prosecutors claim
By Kirk Loggins / Tennessean Staff Writer
"Lust for money" prompted Paul Dennis Reid to plan and carry out the
robbery
that took the lives of two Captain D's restaurant employees in February
1997,
prosecutors said yesterday.
Reid, a part-time Shoney's cook and would-be country singer, was
"desperate"
for cash early in 1997, Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman told the
jury that
is hearing murder and robbery charges against Reid.
Danny Tackett, Reid's self-described "best friend in Nashville,"
testified last
night that Reid was attending Volunteer State Community College, working
"15
hours a week, maybe," and had a "broken-down" car shortly before the
Captain
D's robbery on Feb. 16, 1997.
Tackett, now a Shoney's restaurant manager, said that Reid asked him and
his
wife to purchase a handgun for him early in 1997. When they refused,
Tackett
said, another acquaintance offered to sell Reid a shotgun, but Reid said
that
weapon was "too big" for his needs.
Reid used his 9-year-old Ford Escort as security for a $200 loan on Feb.
4,
1997, the manager of a "title pawn company" on Gallatin Road testified
last
night.
But he went on a "spending spree" -- including a $2,000 cash payment to
lease a
new car -- two days after the Captain D's seafood restaurant in Donelson
was
robbed of $7,140, Thurman told the jury in his opening statement.
"Within two weeks of these murders, Paul Dennis Reid spent over $6,000
in
cash," Thurman told the Criminal Court jury, which was brought here from
Knoxville for Reid's trial.
Prosecutors linked together yesterday a chain of circumstantial evidence
which
they say proves that Reid methodically planned the Captain D's robbery,
in
which manager Steve Hampton, 25, and part-time worker Sarah Jackson, 16,
were
herded into the restaurant's cooler and shot in the back of their heads
before
opening time on a Sunday morning.
Hampton's wife, Deanna Hampton, testified that he left home that morning
too
early to say goodbye to their sleeping children.
Jackson's mother, Gina Jackson, testified that the 16-year-old McGavock
High
School was working that Sunday because she wanted to buy a CD changer
for the
car she had owned for just three weeks.
Jeffrey Potter, who worked with Reid at a Shoney's restaurant in
Donelson,
testified that Reid asked him, early in 1997, "if I knew where he could
get a
gun."
Potter said that Reid, who was dissatisfied with his job, said that
"there were
other ways to make money," specifically, "robbery."
Reid said "that if you done it right, you wouldn't have to work again,"
Potter
testified.
Two employees of the Captain D's restaurant at 2633 Lebanon Road
testified that
Reid came in near closing time on Saturday night, Feb. 15, and said he
wanted
to apply for a job. They said they told him to return the next day and
talk
with Hampton.
Debbie Hinds, who lives near the restaurant, testified that she was on
her way
to church, just before 9 a.m. on Feb. 16 when she saw a man resembling
Reid
talking with Hampton at the front door of Captain D's.
Mark T. Farmer, who was driving down Lebanon Road on the way to
breakfast,
testified that he saw a tall, muscular man walking out of the
still-closed
restaurant at about 9:20 a.m. Farmer said he got a direct look at the
man's
eyes and has no doubt that it was Reid.
Sarah Jackson's parents left the courtroom when prosecutors projected on
the
courtroom wall photographs of the two victims, lying face-down on the
cooler
floor.
Thurman said in his opening statement that Sarah Jackson apparently
survived
the first shot to her head and tried to pull herself up from the floor
before
she was shot again, in the back of the head.
A police identification officer pointed to a blood stain, mixed with
cole slaw,
on the wall beside her body. She was still wearing the gloves she had
been
using to prepare cole slaw for a busy Sunday at the restaurant, the
officer
said.
And an elderly East Nashville man testified that he found identification
cards
for two of Hampton's children discarded on Ellington Parkway, where he
was
picking up aluminum cans later on Feb. 16.
A road cleanup crew found Hampton's driver's license nearby on Feb. 19,
and
that led to a fingerprint match with Reid, once he came to the attention
of
police in June 1997.
Twenty witnesses testified yesterday for the prosecution, in the opening
day of
what are expected to be three murder-robbery trials for Reid.
The Texas native, who spent most of the 1980s in prison for a series of
robberies in the Houston area, still faces trial in Clarksville,
beginning Aug.
30, for abducting and killing two young women at a Baskin-Robbins ice
cream
store there in April 1997. No date has been set for his trial on charges
of
murdering three employees, and attempting to kill a fourth, at a
McDonald's
restaurant in Hermitage in March 1997.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in all three cases.
Reid pleaded not guilty yesterday morning to the Captain D's murder and
robbery
charges. Assistant Public Defender Dawn Deaner, the youngest member of
Reid's
three-lawyer defense team, asked the jury in her opening statement to
"look
carefully" at the prosecution's case against him.
"There will be no physical evidence that points to Paul Reid as the
killer,"
Deaner said.
She asked the jury to consider "alternative explanations" for the bits
of
circumstantial evidence that prosecutors say add up to guilt.
"You must listen to the evidence with an impartial and critical view,"
Deaner
said.
Judge Cheryl Blackburn adjourned for the night at 8:30 p.m. and said the
trial
will resume at 8:30 a.m. today. The trial had been expected to last two
weeks,
but it moved faster yesterday than the lawyers had anticipated.