Perry March's Current Wife Talks About His Arrest
eartha...@yahoo.com
http://www.newschannel5.com/content/perry_march/13487.asp
Perry March's Current Wife Talks About His Arrest
Posted: 8/3/2005 3:56:00 PM
Updated: 8/4/2005 11:06:05 AM
Perry March moved to Mexico after becoming a suspect in his wife
Janet's disappearance from their Nashville home. After moving to
Mexico, Perry March got remarried. His new wife, Carmen, watched
Wednesday as her husband was taken into custody.
Carmen March, who is a Mexican National, remained in Ajijic, Mexico
Wednesday, but she spoke to NewsChannel 5 by phone about seeing her
husband being taken away outside a busy restaurant.
"Eight men grabbed him and covered his mouth. Put him in a truck and
took him away. So, when you know it's a policeman you're like, 'Okay.
I know where to go.' But, when you have no clue who was it, then it's
bad you know. I'm thinking the worst. And, we called the airport and
I'm going to get a court order to see if they can give me that he was
kidnapped. So filed and reported a kidnap," Carmen said.
Carmen remained in Mexico with Arthur March, Perry's father. Carmen and
Arthur have so far retained custody of the two children Perry March had
with his first wife, Janet.
When she spoke to NewsChannel 5, Carmen March said the two children,
Samson and Tzipora, had not yet been told that their father was
arrested.
JonesieCat
<eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1123225736....@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Oh, this is going to be worth watching. Thanks for posting this. But I
thought the two children had already been sent back to live with their
maternal grandparents. Obviously not. Does sound like he was 'kidnapped' -
Or is it American undercover authorities, given spec permission to do it by
Mex authorities? JC
eartha...@yahoo.com
Pictures at
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050805/NEWS03/50805008
Friday, 08/05/05
New wife says photo raises 'murder' doubt, but police skeptical
By AILENE TORRES and SHEILA BURKE
The Tennessean
Perry March's wife says a photograph from last year's Olympics in
Athens shows Janet March is possibly alive, casting doubt on his murder
indictment.
Janet March's own family, Lawrence and Carolyn Levine, called the
claim laughable last fall. They said the published picture looked more
like a teenager than the 41-year-old woman she would be today.
But Carmen March, the second wife of the former Nashville attorney,
told The Tennessean that she had handed the photo over to federal
agents yesterday as evidence.
"Compare the picture and tell me if it's Janet or not," Carmen
March said from the couple's restaurant, Media Luna, in Ajijic,
Mexico. "She isn't 17 years old like the Levines said. I think
maybe she tasted freedom and she liked it."
Perry March was arrested Wednesday at the restaurant in connection with
the 1996 disappearance of his first wife, Janet, whose body has never
been found. He is expected to be extradited to Nashville to face
charges that include second-degree murder.
Perry March maintains that he and Janet were having marital
difficulties, she left him at their Forest Hills house, and he never
saw her again.
The picture was of four women at the 2004 Olympics in Greece. Last
year, Perry March sent the photo to Metro police investigating the
case, after it was published in a Mexican magazine.
"We gave it to the police department in Tennessee, but I guess they
didn't look into it," said Carmen March, a Mexican citizen who met
March after he moved there in 1999. "When I saw the picture, I said,
'This is it. This is her.' "
FBI agents were visiting the restaurant yesterday, Carmen March said,
although she would not say why. She said she gave them a copy of the
magazine to see if they could investigate further.
"I asked them if they could," Carmen said. "I certainly don't
want my husband to be accused of something he didn't do."
Metro Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said yesterday, "We
obviously do not believe it's a photograph of Janet March."
Ed Yarbrough, a Nashville defense attorney and a former prosecutor,
said, "I think it would be interesting to know if the police
investigated or followed up on any of that. But to send in a look-alike
picture? No, I don't think it would have a lot of evidentiary
value."
Another local attorney said the picture could be used in Perry
March's defense, if prosecutors can't produce Janet's body. But,
he said, it could backfire if the picture appears to be a ploy by the
defense.
"If the picture is at all credible, I would certainly raise it, but I
wouldn't hang my hat on it," said Patrick Frogge, a Nashville
criminal defense attorney. "The photograph could be used as part of
an overall defense strategy to show a jury that prosecutors can't
prove that Janet March is dead."
At any rate, the prosecution has a difficult case, said Nashville
lawyer Tommy Overton.
"They have to prove to the jury in this murder case that, number one,
that Janet March is dead, and two, that Perry March committed her
murder," Overton said. "I'm not saying it can't be done."
Carmen March declined to comment on the whereabouts of Samson and
Tzipora, the children from Perry March's first marriage, or of Arthur
March, Perry's father.
After he was identified as a suspect in the case in 1996, March
relocated with the children to Chicago and then Mexico, and fought with
Janet March's parents over their custody.
Carmen March said her husband's arrest could be the necessary next
step toward their future happiness. "Maybe this is the best thing -
all the pain that we have to go through - for us to be done with
it," she said.
'Something's changed'
As to the prosecution of the case, it's not clear what kind of
evidence will be presented. Most legal experts contacted believe the
district attorney's office sought an indictment last fall because of
some type of new evidence.
"I would suspect that something's changed, and one guess is that a
witness has come forward," Frogge said, while being careful to add
that it is speculation.
There could be new evidence that would help prosecutors show that March
disposed of the body, Yarbrough said. If that's the case, he believes
it makes their job much easier in the absence of a body.
"If they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Perry March
disposed of a corpse, they've got a pretty strong circumstantial
case," Yarbrough said.
Prosecutor Tom Thurman declined to identify any new evidence.
"It's been thousands of hours of investigation for nine years,"
Thurman said. "Obviously, we have more information than we had nine
years ago. I can't comment specifically what that might be."