17 y.o.tortured girl-slave in NC,is threatened with legal murder unless she plea bargains Guilty to the murder of a 10 y.o.girl,& agrees to testify against the 2 younger boys charged w/same rape-murder,accepts deal,gets LIFE w/no parole chance sentence
Joe1orbit
Well, now I am starting to run out of posting time for today. Wanna try to
squeeze in THREE more items, so commentary will have to be brief. This child
torture-murder story ut of North Carolina, provides a perfect example of the
perverse, two-faced hypocrisy of your judicial system, in regard to the DOUBLE
STANDARD of how it treats LEGAL SLAVEOWNERS who kill children, as opposed to
"strangers" who kill children. We have a young girl, BARELY 18 years old, who
HELPED two younger boys, aged 15 and 17, to kidnap, rape, and brutally beat to
death with a bedpost, a TEN year old girl. The 10 year old did KNOW her three
killers, but only in a casual way, as children who live in the same
neighborhood often do.
Prosecutors say that 18 year old Dorthia was jealous that the ten year old
girl may have written "love notes" to the 17 year old boy, that she clearly
fancied. So she LURED her much younger "romantic rival" to her house, and got
both boys to participate in the rape-murder. So, guess what prosecutors did, to
this female CHILD who may very well have had NOTHING to do with actually
INFLICTING the fatal blows upon 10 year old Tiffany?? They THREATENED to get a
jury to LEGALLY MURDER her, unless she agreed to BETRAY her two younger male
friends, who were too young to be eligible to face legal murder, and testify
against them at trial.
Sure enough, our tortured girl-slave gave in to the latest act of societal
torture being committed against her, and turned on her two friends, as part of
a plea bargain deal. Her reward?? She ESCAPES with her LIFE, but still gets
sentenced to a LIFE prison sentence with NO CHANCE for parole, despite the fact
that there is not an IOTA of proof that she even COMMITTED this murder. The
odds are STRONG that the two boys played the PRIMARY role in inflicting the
fatal blows. And yet you DISEASED hypocrites demonize this CHILD-victim, for
DARING to play ANY role in the killing of another child, that she was NOT the
legal owner of! Absolutely outrageous!
Can you IMAGINE a 17-18 year old womb excretor who OVERTLY and SOLELY murders
her newborn, getting a Life prison sentence with no parole eligibility?? No!
How about an 18 year old WIFE and mother, who is accused of "participating" in
abuse of her slave, together with her hubby and another male RELATIVE,
resulting in the slave's death?? She would not even be CHARGED with murder, in
a situation like that. Very simply, your ULTRA-PERVERSE society OFFICIALLY and
absolutely ENCOURAGES young women to torture and murder their OWN slaves,
promising to treat them with leniency if they do so, while at the SAME time,
trying to TERRORIZE these very same gals into believing that they have
ABSOLUTELY no right to torture or murder ANY other humans, not their parents or
bosses or strangers, and CERTAINLY not children that they did not CREATE and
hold no Sacred familial OWNERSHIP rights over.
If only she had gotten herself impregnated and PERSONALLY MURDERED her
newborn, at age 17-18, with her own HANDS, without any help from anyone else,
she would most likely NOT be charged with murder, and receive a 6-30 MONTH
prison sentence, at MOST. But because she merely PARTICIPATED in the fatal
beating of this OTHER child, that she was not the Sacred Mommy of, and despite
the fact that she LIKELY did NOT deliver the fatal blow, she is DEMONIZED as a
"monster", threatened with MURDER, and condemned to Life in prison! There is NO
other rational or sane way to EXPLAIN this perverse double standard in
prosecution and sentencing. The TOXIC Sacred Family Unit doctrine INFECTS you
humans and your society, resulting in this type of deranged demonization of a
child like Dortia.
You can view a facial photo of Dortia, looking, well, looking like a TORTURED
victim-creation of a DERANGED society, as well as pics of the 10 year old
harvestee, and Dortia's 17 year old fornication partner, over at:
http://www.msnbc.com/local/WNCN/65514.asp
Guess what? All three murder defendents are Black. Tiffany, is White. Ahhh,
this makes Dortia's JEALOUSY over a TEN year old girl writing love letters to
her 17 year old boyfriend, MUCH more understandable. The ultra-diseased society
of amerikkka STRIPS everything away from it's Black slaves, JUST as brutally
today as in 1900, only in DIFFERENT ways. It's perfectly understandable, the
RAGE that a 17 year old Black girl ight feel, over the thought of a 10 year old
White girl STEALING her boyfriend away from her.
More photos of ALL three defendents, as well as an archive of articles on
this case, are at:
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/trial.shtml
The FACT is, ALL FOUR of these tortured child-slaves are NOTHING but VICTIMS,
of society, and do not deserve to be subjected to ANY sort of punitive
punishment, much less Life in prison. I will post a VERY long follow-up
article, right after this item, in which the torturous, abusive lives of all
four victims is detailed.
Stay Strong, Dortia!
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of yesterday's Associated Press news wire:
NC Woman Gets 124 Years in Slaying
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A woman was sentenced Monday to at least 124 years in
prison for the kidnapping, sodomy and beating death of a 10-year-old girl.
Dorthia Bynum, 18, was sentenced on her guilty pleas to second-degree murder,
rape and kidnapping. Two boys, one 15 and the other 17, face trial in Tiffany
Long's slaying.
Tiffany, who was acquainted with Bynum and the boys, was abducted and killed in
October 1998 in Burlington. Her body was discovered behind a vacant house,
where all three teens had once lived.
Bynum had agreed to testify against the boys as part of a plea bargain. Unlike
the boys, who were both under 17 at the time of the slaying, Bynum could have
faced the death penalty without the deal.
Prosecutors said Bynum, jealous that Tiffany may have written notes to the
older boy, Harold Jones, lured the girl to the home. Tiffany was held down and
raped, then beaten with a bed rail, prosecutors said.
AP-NY-02-14-00
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 2/14/00 online edition of The WNCN-TV,
local Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina NBC-TV affiliate station web site:
Murder trial opens in Fayetteville
Dorthia Bynum agreed Monday to uphold her plea agreement by testifying against
her two co-defendants.
FAYETTEVILLE, Feb. 14 – Dorthia Bynum, one of three people charged in the 1998
murder of Tiffany Long, will testify Monday against her former boyfriend and
his nephew.
Dorthia Bynum now will testify against two other defendants in the
Tiffany Long murder case.
Prosecutors withdrew their objection to a plea agreement when Bynum
suddenly said she wouldn’t testify against Harold and Joseph Jones. Now, she
will testify against them in ten-year-old Tiffany’s slaying.
Bynum, 18, pleaded guilty in Cumberland County Superior Court on February
4th to several charges in Tiffany’s death.
Police say Bynum, her former boyfriend Harold Jones and his nephew Joseph
Jones, kidnapped, raped and murdered the ten-year-old girl in October 1998 in
Burlington.
Bynum will serve at least 124 years in prison and a maximum of 153 years
for the slaying.
Prosecutor Rob Johnson agreed to drop his motion to oppose the plea
agreement after discussions in Judge Lynn Johnson’s chambers for more than an
hour between Bynum, her attorney and the prosecutor.
The judge in the case also ruled that there will be separate trials for
Joseph and Harold Jones. The trial of Joseph Jones, which was moved to
Cumberland County because of pretrial publicity, is scheduled to begin Monday.
No date has been set for Harold Jones.
------------------------------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 2/13/00 online edition of The
News-Record newspaper:
NAACP upset about treatment of defendants in murder case
2-13-00
By MIKE FUCHS, Staff Writer
News & Record
GRAHAM -- The NAACP's Alamance County chapter held a sparsely attended prayer
vigil Saturday to chastise the legal system's handling of three defendants
charged with murdering Tiffany Long.
All three defendants are black. Harold Jones, 17, his then-girlfriend Dorthia
Bynum, 18, and his nephew Joseph Jones, 15, are accused of kidnapping, raping
and killing the 10-year-old girl in October 1998.
"Only God knows who committed this crime," said Alamance County chapter
president Ernestine Lewis, addressing eight gatherers in a courthouse parking
lot in Graham. "These are three children who do not have the family support or
financial means to have the representation of the best legal services. These
children's civil rights have been violated."
Lewis, who is an Alamance County commissioner candidate, did not elaborate.
"If they did the crime they should be punished," she said. "But I just wanted
them treated fairly."
District Attorney Rob Johnson, who is prosecuting the case, could not be
reached for comment Saturday. Attorneys representing the three defendants also
could not be reached for comment.
The vigil was held two days before Harold and Joseph Jones are scheduled to
stand trial Monday in Cumberland County Superior Court. The trial was moved
about 100 miles southeast to Cumberland County because of pretrial publicity.
The case has drawn international attention.
Harold and Joseph Jones face charges of first-degree murder, first-degree
kidnapping and first-degree rape. Harold Jones also faces four counts of
first-degree sexual offense. Joseph Jones is charged with two counts of
first-degree sexual offense.
Bynum pleaded guilty Feb. 4 to second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree
sex offense, kidnapping and two counts of first-degree rape. But she changed
her mind Tuesday and wants to plead not guilty, family members say.
A judge Monday morning will also consider Johnson's request that her guilty
plea be thrown out because she has refused to testify against her
co-defendants.
Bynum was the only one old enough at the time of the crime to be eligible for
the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.
She was facing a minimum 124-year prison term under the plea deal that is in
jeopardy.
During Saturday's vigil, Lewis told gatherers she is concerned about whether
the defendants are mentally able to understand what is happening.
Lewis said the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People
vigil was also held to draw attention to better educating children,
particularly African-American students.
Lewis said Bynum was in the 10th grade before her arrest in October 1998. But
she has the education level of a second-grader and was confused about the plea,
she said.
Bynum's cousin, Evelyn Rogers, said last week Bynum didn't want to admit guilt
because she says she wasn't present during the crime.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The following two news articles both appear courtesy of the 2/15/00 online
edition of The News-Record newspaper:
Dorthia Bynum receives minimum 124-year prison term
2-15-00
By MIKE FUCHS, Staff Writer
News & Record
FAYETTEVILLE -- In a move that caught her own family by surprise, Dorthia Bynum
decided to stand by her plea Monday in the Tiffany Long murder case. She then
was sentenced to a minimum 124-year prison term.
Her sentence came on the first day of what was scheduled to be the trials of
co-defendants Harold Jones, 17, and his 15-year-old nephew Joseph Jones in
Cumberland County Superior Court.
But Superior Court Judge Lynn Johnson agreed to try them separately. That
decision came after Alamance County District Attorney Rob Johnson withdrew his
request Monday that they be tried together.
Joseph Jones will be tried first. Harold Jones' trial date was not set.
Jury selection for Joseph Jones' trial began Monday afternoon and was expected
to resume this morning.
Harold and Joseph Jones each face charges of first-degree murder, first-degree
kidnapping and first-degree rape. Harold Jones also faces four counts of
first-degree sex offense. Joseph Jones is charged with two counts of
first-degree sexual offense.
During a hearing Feb. 4, Bynum pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree
murder, two counts of first-degree sex offense, one count of first-degree
kidnapping and two counts of first-degree rape.
Although Tiffany was killed in Burlington, the case is being tried in
Cumberland County about 100 miles away because of immense pretrial publicity.
Two potential jurors in the Joseph Jones trial were excused Monday afternoon
after telling Judge Johnson that media exposure has prevented them from being
fair to the defendant.
During earlier proceedings Monday, Judge Johnson sentenced Bynum to a range of
124 years to 153 years and five months in prison. She must serve the minimum
sentence.
Bynum, 18, wearing back jeans, flip flops and a T-shirt bearing a vulture logo,
sobbed after Judge Johnson pronounced sentence. Bailiffs led her away in
handcuffs.
Under North Carolina law, Bynum is not eligible for parole because the crime
occurred after Oct. 1, 1994, when structured sentencing took effect.
Her decision to proceed with the plea bargain Monday came six days after family
members say she wanted to back out of it. Her family members said she
complained Feb. 8 that she was confused about the plea and said she hadn't been
there during the crime.
But she stood by the plea after meeting privately with her attorneys Monday
morning.
"She made the right decision for herself and for her family," defense attorney
Andy Hanford said. "She chose life."
Bynum had faced a first-degree murder charge, which would have made her the
only one of the three defendants old enough to be eligible for the death
penalty.
Although the plea hinged on Bynum's agreement to testify against her
co-defendants, Rob Johnson said in court Monday that he no longer intends to
call her as a witness.
He also withdrew his request filed Feb. 8 that Bynum's plea bargain be thrown
out because she refused to testify.
Johnson did not elaborate and declined to speak to the media Monday.
Bynum still could be called as a witness against Joseph and Harold Jones
because she has been subpoenaed to testify, said her attorney Craig Thompson.
During the sentencing phase of Bynum's hearing, Rob Johnson said Bynum "lured"
the 10-year-old victim to a vacant house under the guise they were friends.
There, Tiffany was raped, choked with a television coaxial cable and bludgeoned
to death with a bed rail, Johnson said.
Her body was then dragged through the house, leaving trails of blood, and
discarded in the backyard near the garage, Johnson said.
"It was indeed torturous for that child," he said. "Torture of the worst kind."
Rob Johnson also summarized the physical evidence concerning the case. He said
a pubic hair found on the victim matched Joseph Jones' DNA. Blood on a pair of
blue jeans found in the defendants' apartment also matched Tiffany's DNA, he
said. A head hair found on Tiffany matched Bynum's hair, Rob Johnson said.
In sentencing Bynum to a term that guarantees she'll spend life in prison,
Judge Johnson said the crime was "especially heinous, atrocious and cruel."
Nancy Long, Tiffany's grandmother and legal guardian, cried during Johnson's
remarks as she sat two rows behind the prosecution table. She left the
courthouse without comment.
Although Bynum's plea spares her from a possible death sentence, her cousin
Evelyn Rogers expressed dismay over the prison term. "She's going to die in
prison anyway," Rogers said.
Ernestine Lewis, president of the Alamance County chapter of the NAACP, said
Bynum is not mentally capable of deciding what to do and must have been
pressured into pleading pleading guilty.
"There's so much confusion going on," Lewis said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Opening arguments begin in Long trial
2-15-00
News & Record
From Staff reports
Opening arguments will begin at 4:05 p.m. Tuesday in the Tiffany Long murder
trial. A jury of 7 men and 5 women were selected earlier in the day in the
trial of Joseph Jones, 15, one of three teenagers charged in the rape of
10-year-old Tiffany Long of Burlington on Oct. 16, 1998.
Jones is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and
first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense. His uncle,
Harold Jones, 17, is also charged in the murder and will be tried at a later
date. The third defendant, Dorthia Bynum, pleaded guilty to one count of
second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree sex offense, one count of
first-degree kidnapping and two counts of first-degree rape. She was sentenced
Monday to a minimum of 124 years in prison.
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Joe1orbit
As promised, here is the VERY long article that details just some of the
TORTUROUS abuse and mistreatment and traumatization, that ALL four child
victims in this case have been subjected to, for their ENTIRE lives. How
absolutely and utterly PERVERSE it is that you EVIL creatures give yourselves
permission to DESTROY the lives of the three SURVIVING victim-creations of YOUR
society!
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of the 2/13/00 online edition of The
Greensboro News-Record newspaper:
Children left adrift
2-13-00
By MIKE FUCHS AND TOM STEADMAN, Staff Writers
News & Record
BURLINGTON -- Joseph Jones was 13 years old, abandoned and angry.
His uncle, Harold Jones, 16, was mildly retarded, quiet, with the potential to
be a bully.
Dorthia Bynum, 17, was sweet-natured, but jealous -- even obsessive -- when it
came to boyfriend Harold Jones.
Tiffany Long, 10, chubby, shy and eager to please, loved her dolls and feared
the Jones boys.
Police say these young lives collided horribly in a small rental house at 614
Lakeside Ave. on Oct. 16, 1998. The older youths allegedly raped and sodomized
Tiffany, choked her with a TV cable and then bludgeoned her to death with a bed
rail.
Authorities charged Harold Jones, Joseph Jones and Dorthia Bynum with
first-degree murder. The three had been living until recently in the rental
house where Tiffany's body was found. She was less than two blocks from home.
Harold and Joseph Jones go on trial Monday in Fayetteville, where the case was
moved because of intense publicity. If convicted, both will spend the rest of
their lives in prison. Dorthia Bynum, who recently withdrew a guilty plea,
could face the death penalty.
The gruesome crime brought national attention to this normally peaceable city
of 42,000 souls, 20 miles east of Greensboro on Interstate 85.
Fifteen months after Tiffany Long's killing, people are still trying to make
sense of it all. Who were these children, and what went so desperately wrong to
leave one of them brutally murdered and the other three looking at life in
prison? Who was watching these kids?
The search for answers yields only more questions. The tale is one of four
children adrift, with few people even to speak for them. It is a story of
absent parents and at-risk children with little or no adult supervision.
Here is what is known of the different paths each child followed to that deadly
day.
FROM JERSEY, WITH AN ATTITUDE
Homes, schools, families -- nothing seemed to last very long for Harold Wesley
Jones, now 17, and his nephew, Joseph Osmar Jones, now 15.
Their young lives have been spent in a shabby succession of low-income
apartments, rental homes and, now, the respective jails where they await trial
this week for rape and murder. Joseph, 13 when arrested, is one of the youngest
first-degree murder defendants in the state's history.
Though uncle and nephew, Harold and Joseph Jones were more like brothers. They
were usually seen together, along with Harold's girlfriend, Dorthia Bynum. They
were their own best friends, because they had found few eager playmates over
the years.
The Jones boys could be bullies, neighbors say, teaming up to terrorize young
neighborhood rivals, especially children whom they sensed feared them.
"They came down here with that gangsta attitude. They thought they were going
to take over," says Jean Byrd Turner, a former neighbor. In the months before
Long was murdered, Harold and Joseph Jones beat up Turner's son, she says. She
called police, who came to the scene but filed no charges.
Joseph, in particular, was known to play too roughly for many kids his own age.
A teenage neighbor says that Joseph once grew violent when she refused to give
him aspirin for a headache. She says he twisted her arm behind her back so hard
that she was taken to the hospital for treatment. The girl and her mother did
not want their names published.
The boys had no parents to complain to. In summer 1998, when they moved to the
Lakeside Avenue rental in the working-class Elmira neighborhood, their only
caretaker was AlNeisa Jones, Harold's 23-year-old half-sister. A single mother
struggling to provide for her own children, AlNeisa Jones had taken on the
added burden of looking after a brother and two nephews.
"They had no parental guidance whatsoever," says Lisa Bridgett, a 32-year-old
Burlington resident who lived near the Joneses for a time. "They could do what
they wanted, when they wanted. Those boys would stay outside playing until 3
a.m."
Neither boy ever had much parental guidance.
Both were born in Newark, N.J. Doctors say Harold was born in 1982 with fetal
alcohol syndrome. His mother drank during pregnancy, defense attorney Charles
Thompson said in a pretrial hearing. Harold told a state psychiatrist that his
mother died in 1997, when he was 15.
Joseph was born in 1984 to Harold's older half-sister, Attilah. There would
never be a father in either boy's life.
Ultimately, Harold would end up in Greensboro and then Burlington, living in a
succession of homes rented by AlNeisa Jones. Two years ago, Joseph Jones and
his younger brother, Eric, joined the household when Attilah Jones visited
sister AlNeisa in Burlington. She returned to New Jersey abruptly, leaving her
boys in North Carolina. Kevin Morse, Joseph's attorney, says Attilah hasn't
been heard from since.
After an early burst of TV and newspaper exposure when her brother and nephew
were arrested in October 1998, AlNeisa Jones has declined to talk about the
case.
"It ain't going to help Harold," says AlNeisa, now living in Greensboro. But
she did tell police that Joseph, tall for his age at 13 and usually sullen, had
terrorized her children and herself, according to pretrial court testimony.
She also told police she was sure that Joseph could commit murder. Morse, the
attorney, said during pretrial hearings that AlNeisa Jones was trying to shift
the blame away from Harold. Friends and former neighbors say AlNeisa and Joseph
never got along well; he was too rough with her children, and she was not his
mother.
A Burlington police officer testified last November that AlNeisa told him
Joseph "has been violent with the kids. I was going to send him back to New
Jersey."
No one seemed to want him.
"As far as Joseph was concerned, he didn't have a family," says Deborah
Dickson, Tiffany Long's aunt. Dickson was a friend of AlNeisa Jones, and
Dickson's children, Monique and Sacara Thomas, played with Harold and Joseph.
Details of Joseph Jones' short life are hard to come by, even for Morse, the
boy's court-appointed attorney in Greensboro.
What is known is that Joseph was reared in a shambles of a home in Newark. His
father, a man named Joseph Purvis, spent time in prison, and is nowhere to be
found. A year or two before coming south, Joseph Jones lost three toes from one
foot in an elevator accident.
It only added to his image as an outcast. He was known to wear his hair and his
fingernails long.
"I always thought he'd probably end up in the prison system before he was 21,"
says Monique Thomas, Dickson's 15-year-old daughter.
Today, barely more than a year after the murder, few traces remain of the two
scant years the Joneses spent here.
With AlNeisa struggling financially, they hopscotched from rental unit to
rental unit, often being asked to leave for nonpayment of rent. Many of their
onetime neighbors, too, are gone a year later.
Teachers and counselors in the Alamance-Burlington and Guilford County school
systems have declined to talk about the children. Teachers say they don't
really remember them that well. Because the family moved so often, the boys
tended to change school districts every few months. Joseph made better than
average grades, but Harold was not a good student.
"I always thought (Harold) was a little incompetent," says Bridgett, the former
neighbor.
Harold was thin, with pained eyes and unkempt hair that gave him a wild look.
Accounts differ on Harold's mental competency. AlNeisa Jones said at the time
of her brother's arrest that he was "slow." Defense attorney Charles Thompson
decribes Harold as "retarded," with an IQ of 56, which would classify him as
mildly retarded.
But a special-education teacher at Harold's jail has testified that he is able
to solve math problems and can do better school work than other inmates.
Monique Thomas says that Harold could do algebra and helped her sister, Sacara,
with her long-division homework.
Family members describe him as passive. AlNeisa Jones has said that her brother
wasn't violent, that she often left her own small children in his care.
Others say Harold was known to have a temper, especially when under the
influence of his younger, sharper, angrier nephew.
Deborah Wilson, who lives beside the Lakeside Avenue house where the Joneses
once lived, says Harold could be polite. He would come to her door to apologize
after she caught him sneaking into her back yard to jump on her trampoline.
But Wilson also saw Harold and Joseph push down Dorthia during a spat behind
the house one day. Wilson says Dorthia would come to her house crying at times,
saying the boys were picking on her.
Harold Jones has gotten into further trouble since his arrest. While awaiting
trial, authorities say, he participated in an attack on a 16-year-old inmate at
Alamance County Jail. He and three other teenage inmates were indicted May 10
on charges including sexual assault.
Joseph Jones celebrated his last two birthdays in jail and has adapted well to
inmate life, says attorney Morse.
"He's getting three meals a day," Morse says. "It was pitiful; he was tickled
to death about the food he was getting. He's a kid who has known nothing except
sitting in a bare apartment with other kids all his life."
In the year since he was arrested, Morse says, Joseph Jones has had no family
visits. No relatives have called, not even his mother, Attilah, or his missing
father.
"It would appear that I'm the only one in the world at this point who cares
about this kid," Morse says.
ROMANCE OR OBSESSION?
Dorthia Bynum was a sweet-natured teenager who loved babies and hoped to raise
her own family one day, say friends and relatives.
But they say those dreams evaporated after she fell in with the wrong crowd,
taking a path that would ultimately lead her to prison.
Bynum and her older sister, Timeca, were reared by their father, Larry
Phillips, and Catherine Crawley, Phillips' aunt, in a small house Crawley owned
in north Burlington.
Bynum's mother, Rodessa Bynum, says she was unable to care for her children
because she had pressing personal problems she had to take care of in Chapel
Hill. She would not elaborate. The children's parents never married.
Phillips, who has spent most of his life on disability because of high blood
pressure, eventually moved out of his aunt's house and married Loretta Phillips
five years ago. Dorthia Bynum stayed behind with Crawley.
According to court testimony, Dorthia Bynum was enrolled in special-needs
classes at school.
"She did have a learning disability or something," says Evelyn Rogers, 53,
Crawley's daughter and Bynum's cousin. "She's slow."
As a teenager, Bynum was a doting daughter, often calling her father to ask if
he needed her to pick up his medication at the pharmacy, Larry Phillips says.
Monique Thompson, Tiffany's 15-year-old cousin, says she was Bynum's best
friend. They often hung out together, shopping and attending neighborhood
cookouts. Deborah Dickson, Monique's mother, let Bynum spend the night. They
also became good friends.
"She called me Mom," Dickson says.
Bynum sometimes played the role of caretaker, friends and neighbors say. She
would routinely visit neighbor Deborah Wilson on Lakeside Avenue, cradling
AlNeisa Jones' baby in her arms.
"Dorthia comes across as so sweet, easy to talk to," Wilson says.
Then, in high school, Bynum began dating Harold Jones.
Rogers thought nothing of it.
"Dorthia and him were just like a retarded couple to me because they didn't
bother nobody," Rogers says.
But Bynum's mother thought differently.
"I tried to get her to leave him alone, point-blank, because he had no job, no
nothing," says Rodessa Bynum, a fast-food restaurant worker who lives in
Graham. "I figured you could do better by yourself."
Bynum's father describes Harold Jones as manipulative.
"He controlled her and told her what to do," Larry Phillips says.
Bynum had never been in trouble before, Rogers says.
Though police raided Crawley's home in June 1998 and arrested two of Crawley's
relatives on drug charges, Bynum was not involved.
At the time, Crawley was disabled and bedridden because of an illness, Rogers
says. She would die a month later in July 1998, forcing Bynum to find some
place else to live.
But before Crawley died, she warned Bynum about hanging around with Harold and
Joseph.
Rogers says Crawley told Bynum, "Them boys are going to get you in a world of
trouble one day."
After Crawley's death, Rogers says Bynum stayed at her house a block away. But
friends, including Monique Thomas, say that Bynum spent most of her time with
Harold, Joseph and AlNeisa Jones in the Lakeside Avenue rental less than two
blocks from Tiffany's house. They moved out of that house three weeks before
Tiffany's murder.
A Williams High School social worker who testified at a pretrial hearing Nov.
30 described Dorthia Bynum as a good and caring person. But Bynum's demeanor
changed during her involvement with Harold Jones, social worker Pamela Burney
testified.
Burney said Bynum told her she was upset because of a rumor that another
student liked Harold Jones. She described Bynum as "possessive" of him.
Dickson says Bynum was more than possessive.
"When it came to Harold, she was obsessive," Dickson says.
Bynum told police she went to the Lakeside Avenue house the day Tiffany was
murdered at the instigation of Joseph Jones, who told her Tiffany was involved
with Harold and she could come there to see the proof.
Tiffany's family members say the 10-year-old had no romantic interest in Harold
Jones.
"She was scared of Harold," Sacara Thomas says.
And Bynum's cousin, Evelyn Rogers, contends that Dorthia was never jealous of
Tiffany.
"She didn't hardly know that little girl," Rogers says.
Bynum's father, Larry Phillips, blames Harold and Joseph Jones for Dorthia's
alleged involvement in the crime. And he says Harold threatened his daughter
after their arrests if she told anyone what had happened.
On Feb. 4, Bynum agreed to do just that. She pleaded guilty to second-degree
murder and other charges in exchange for her testimony against Harold and
Joseph Jones. Bynum was the only defendant old enough under state law to face
the death penalty. So prosecutors offered her a 124-year prison term in
exchange for her testimony.
Bynum conferred with relatives and her pastor, the Rev. Thomas Headen, before
accepting the deal. But four days later, she said she had changed her mind. She
wouldn't testify. She wasn't even there when the murder occurred, Bynum told
relatives. District Attorney Rob Johnson has asked the court to set aside
Bynum's guilty plea. The death penalty is likely to go back on the table.
Bynum was confused about what the plea-bargain meant, says Ernestine Lewis,
president of the Alamance County chapter of the NAACP and a recent adviser to
the family. Bynum reads at the second-grade level, Lewis says.
Her father believes that Bynum changed her mind because she is afraid of
testifying against Harold Jones.
"I believe she was scared," Phillips says. "She was already frightened."
He also questions her mental state.
"She's still smiling like a child," Phillips says. "Her mind comes and goes.
She don't understand."
IN SEARCH OF ACCEPTANCE
Tiffany Long's life was filled with an insatiable yearning to be accepted. But
she also strove to be obedient. Those desires clashed on her last day of life,
family and friends say.
Tiffany was born Jan. 12, 1988, in Youngstown, Ohio. Her parents, Donald Long
Jr. and Barbara Powell Long, eventually lost custody of Tiffany after they were
deemed mentally incapable by an Ohio court.
Tiffany's older sister, Sasha Long, their only other child at the time, already
had been removed from their care. Nancy Long, Donald Long Jr.'s stepmother,
took custody of Sasha in November 1986.
Alpha Lindberg, Nancy Long's 68-year-old mother, recalls how an Ohio utility
worker had seen Sasha covered in fleas and notified authorities, who then took
action.
Tiffany was born about a yearanda half after Sasha and was promptly put into
foster care. A few months later, in September 1988, Nancy Long, then a social
worker in Canton, Ohio, was awarded custody of Tiffany.
During the next several years, Ohio courts granted Nancy Long custody of Donald
and Barbara Long's remaining children, two sets of twin boys born in July 1989
and August 1990.
The Longs moved often -- to Youngstown in 1989, to Columbus a year later, and
to Palestine, Ohio, in 1992. In 1994, Nancy Long moved to Burlington with
Tiffany, her five siblings and one of Long's children with her late husband,
Donald Long Sr.
Nancy Long had relatives in Burlington and says she wanted to escape some
family problems in Ohio. Tiffany was 6 years old.
They lived at Creekside Apartments in 1994, then moved to a more spacious
single-family rental home off East Ruffin Street in February 1995. They stayed
there until they moved into an even larger six-bedroom rental home off Church
Street in Burlington in February 1998.
In the fall of 1995, Tiffany and her family began attending Lowe Memorial
Baptist Church on West Webb Avenue. There, Tiffany met Dorthia Bynum and Harold
Jones. They all rode a bus that brought underprivileged children to worship.
Though they knew each other, Tiffany and Dorthia didn't socialize because of
their age differences, family members say.
"Everybody keeps saying that her and Tiffany were friends," says Dickson. "I
think she tried to be Dorthia's friend. Tiffany just tried to be everybody's
friend."
In May 1998, Tiffany moved again, when Nancy Long decided to relocate to a more
affordable rental. They picked a single-family home off Logan Street in the
Elmira neighborhood. A park was nearby.
"You drive up the road, and you could always hear children and laughter," says
Long, who at the time worked at a fabric shop in Graham. Now, she works at a
local fast-food restaurant.
"I didn't feel we had to supervise them that much there because it was a safe
neighborhood," Long says. "The playground was real close to the house. You felt
safe."
Tiffany, age 10 by then, was quiet, shy and self-conscious. Nancy Long says
Tiffany had attention-deficit disorder, and her classmates would sometimes pick
on her because she was a slow learner and overweight.
She found comfort by playing with her dolls. She and her older sister, Sasha,
cut up pieces of fabric to make tiny clothes for them. After school, Tiffany
loved to play video games at her friend Michael Tuggle's house on nearby Durham
Street.
During summer 1998, Tiffany often hung out with neighborhood children including
her cousins Sacara and Monique, who lived with their mother off Sharpe Road
less than a mile away.
Tiffany would tag along with Monique when she visited her friend Bynum at the
Jones' nearby Lakeside Avenue house.
"If Monique and Sacara were going down there, Tiffany would follow," Dickson
says. "The only ones that Tiffany hung out with was little Eric and AlNeisa's
daughter."
Deborah Wilson, a Lakeside neighbor, said she once saw either Harold or Joseph
Jones turn away Tiffany and her younger brothers after they came by to visit.
"He just ran 'em off," Wilson says. "Real rude."
Tiffany and other neighborhood children preferred spending their time playing
at a nearby creek, trying to catch tadpoles.
"All the kids used to go down there," Dickson says. "They had fun."
Neighbors recall Tiffany keeping an eye on her twin brothers.
"She would watch the other kids," says Don Eastwood, 66, a retired paint
contractor who lived catty-corner from the Longs' house. "She was real polite.
The others would raise Cain, and she was the quiet type."
He and others in the Elmira neighborhood say they want to know why kids,
including the Jones and Long children, were always walking up and down the
street, unsupervised. There was too much noise, neighbors say, and pranks such
as firecrackers set off in the street.
"We'd call the cops on them all the time," says Eastwood, who has lived at 703
Wicker St. for 27 years. "We must have called the cops on them 50 times in one
year."
Burlington Police records show 23 visits to the neighborhood during 1988, but
no arrests or referrals to other agencies. Police say the complaints weren't
out of the ordinary.
"This big long history of massive police calls did not exist," Burlington
police spokesman Randy Jones says. "We've got places in town that's got a much
greater call history than this."
At their chaotic house on Logan Street, the seven Long children weren't left
alone after school. While Nancy Long worked during the day, Alpha Lindberg, her
aging mother, drove in from Mebane to watch the rowdy brood.
Tiffany always minded, Lindberg says, until the chill October day she
disappeared.
PANIC, TERROR AND GUILT
That Friday afternoon, Lindberg was starting chili for the evening meal. About
4:30 p.m., Tiffany came inside to ask if she could go play in the nearby park.
Lindberg said no.
"I told her to stay in the yard," Lindberg says.
Tiffany said OK.
By 6 p.m., when Nancy Long got home, Tiffany was missing.
Long didn't panic yet. She and one of the children drove to a neighbor's house
to drop off some extra chili, then cruised the neighborhood looking for
Tiffany.
A neighbor, Teresa Tuggle, told them that Tiffany had been there earlier,
before 4:30, to play video games with her son, Michael. Then Tiffany had gone
home.
Nancy Long thought of checking with the Joneses on Lakeside. But she saw Corey
Farrish, a neighborhood boy, who told her that the Lakeside house was now
empty.
"Corey said he saw Tiffany talking to a girl on a green bike," Long says.
Police say the person on the bike was Joseph Jones.
Long drove back home. Her nerves began to fray.
"I started screaming at Mom," Long says.
She got back in her van and drove through the neighborhood again. Then she gave
up and called police. It was 8:20 p.m.
By then, the terror of Tiffany Long's final moments may already have been over.
A coroner's report was unable to pinpoint the time of death. What is known
about the events of that night can be pieced together only from statements
given to police by the three defendants.
Though their statements differ on many points, all three admit they were at the
house when Tiffany Long was killed. Both Joseph Jones and Harold Jones admit
sexually assaulting Tiffany Long. None of them admits to killing her.
Their statements also vary as to how they ended up in the Lakeside Avenue
house. Dorthia Bynum, upset by Joseph Jones' accusation that Tiffany was
writing love letters to Harold, says she went because Joseph said Harold would
be there with Tiffany. Joseph Jones says Bynum asked him to bring Tiffany to
the house because Bynum had something to give Tiffany.
Tiffany's relatives believe that, either way, Tiffany was lured to the house
because she believed Bynum wanted to see her.
Officers discovered Tiffany's body at 4:55 a.m. the next day.
In the days and months afterward, Tiffany's family has struggled with both
grief and guilt.
"I know we're going to be made out to be the worst parents in the world," Long
says, holding back tears. "Maybe Mom didn't supervise them like she should
have. I think about that. And sometimes I know she forgets. It's not Mom's
fault. I know it's not."
But it took a while before Lindberg stopped blaming herself for Tiffany's
death.
"It was an incredible shock to me," Lindberg says. "I laid there, and I cried
and cried because I just couldn't get over how she got away from me and
disobeyed me because she had been so good about listening to me. I just totally
blamed myself for it."
Tiffany's family hopes that next week's trial will bring them some closure. But
they realize they may never find all the answers.
"I don't know what they were thinking and why they felt they needed to put
their hands on something that was part of me," Dickson said. "Why did they
single out my niece?"
