SURVIVOR STORIES
James Evans
James Evans
Victim of Madison County, Illinois, Corruption
On June 24, 1995, Nekemar Pearson of Alton, Illinois, was reported missing. Over five months later, on December 2, his body was found in a wooded area 5 miles from Alton, in Godfrey, Illinois. Three and half years later, on January 6, 1999, James Evans was arrested by the U. S. Marshall in Los Angeles, California, where he had moved to work with a friend, Ed Klaeger, and learn about investment banking. When arrested he was told he had been charged in a secret Madison County, Illinois, indictment for Pearson’s murder.
In two separate trials in August and November, 1999, On March 13, 2000, Evans was convicted by all-white juries of murder, solicitation of murder, and conspiracy to commit murder. The sheriff and chief prosecutor, Keith Jensen, had constructed an elaborate and mind-boggling web of conspiracy with Evans at the center of it. He was sentenced to at least 120 years in prison. There are two major problems with his conviction, however:
The victim of the murder, Nekemar Pearson, was seen by a police officer walking in good health on the street ten days after he was allegedly murdred by Evans.
The “confession” by Evans recorded in jail by his cousin Tommy Rounds was severely doctored.
In the course of establishing evidence of these crimes prosecutors utilized professional jailhouse snitches and gave several criminals “Get Out Of Jail Free” cards, even for murder, in exchange for perjured testimony against Evans. What they did to get this one man seems almost unbelievable. Evans cannot explain this personal vendetta against him except for his having had a loud, public confrontation with the Madison County State’s Attorney, William Haine, who was with a Sheriff’s Detective, in public, at the courthouse. This happened a year and a half after Pearson’s murder and a year and a half before Evans’ indictment. Haine told Evans that he was a marked man.
At the heart of that conspiracy was an alleged grudge that Evans held against Pearson. Evans had reported to the Alton Police that on April 13, 1995, a group of people had invaded his home, assaulted him, tied him up, blind-folded him, loaded him into his own truck, and told he was going to be killed. He had $20.00, which they took. He escaped from his kidnappers after they drove him to an apartment complex nearby. The truck was later found abandoned and stripped of its console, and stereo system.
Evans says he had had no idea who the masked robbers were until the police told him that it had been Pearson, Kendra Wilson, Michelle Young, and Marcus Holloway.
The latter three testified at Evans trial for the murder of Pearson that they and Pearson had done this crime. At the time of the home invasion Pearson had been charged with the murder of Will Nicholes, a friend of his, and was under house arrest. At Evans’ trial Wilson, Young and Holloway testified that Pearson would leave his house through a window to avoid detection from his mother.
A big question is why did they target Evans? What they did was extreme. The masked gunmen were Pearson and Holloway. Young and Wilson set it up – visited Evans’ house and made sure the doors were unlocked. Evans had met Wilson and Young through Kietra Caldwell, with whom he had had intimate relations over a period of years. Evans recalls that Pearson also started a relationship with Caldwell after he pled guilty to killing Nicholes and was on presentencing release. Pearson and Caldwell had a son that was born after Pearson's death.
When Holloway testified at Evans’ first trial the prosecutor asked him a leading question about whether he had searched Evans’ house for drugs and money. Holloway responded, "No, just money". Kendella Pearson, Nekemar's sister, and Wilson both blurted out in court, “He sold drugs!”, to which Evans’ counsel objected and the jury was instructed to ignore.
Holloway, Young, and Wilson gave full confessions to police but were given a free pass in exchange for their testimony against Evans.
Prosecutors speculated at Evans’ trial, however, that Evans suspected Pearson of being part of the group of robbers, and that together with Eugene Brian Warr and Clifton Wheeler, killed him on June 24 as revenge. Then, they said, Evans organized others to murder Lester Warr (Brian’s father) and Wheeler from his County Jail cell after he was arrested in January 1999.
The source of all the evidence against Evans was testimony by four men – Demond Spruill, Tommy Rounds, William Jenkins, and Jody Wesley – all of whom claimed Evans had confessed the crimes to them while they shared a cell with him in jail. They were all professional “snitches” – people placed by police in a cell with a suspect for the purpose of gathering self-incriminating statements. They are rewarded with special favors and leniency. Such snitches have a strong motive to lie for the favors they receive. Clifton Wheeler also testified against Evans at both his trials.
The crime and the investigation
James Evans and Nekemar Pearson were both present at a BBQ on June 23, 1995, at the home of Judy Huff in Alton, Illinois. The next day Pearson’s mother, Shirley Thomas, reported him missing to Alton Police. On December 2, 1995, more than five months later, Pearson's body was found in a wooded area in Godfrey, 5 miles from Alton. At Evans’ trial the prosecutor speculated that Evans suspected that Pearson had been involved in the April invasion of his home, which motivated him to kill Pearson later the day of the BBQ or the next day.
A year after Pearson’s body was found Evans was at a hospital to support his nephew, James Shannon Patterson, who had been shot on January 30, 1997, along with another man, Daryl Womack. Both died. Police were there, and told Evans they wanted to speak with him. The next day he drove to the Alton PD HQ, where police asked him questions about Clifton Wheeler, whom they said they were investigating for the murder of Dwight Riddlespriger. During the interview police also asked Evans about the murder of Pearson. Madison County Sheriff’s Detective Bradley Wells was there and told him he was a suspect in the that crime.
For about a year people had been telling Evans that Wells was offering money and freedom to Madison County Jail inmates who could provide information that could lead to the arrest of Evans and Warr for the murder of Pearson.
Eugene Brian Warr and Clifton Wheeler, alleged Evans accomplices
On August 4, 1998 Eugene Brian Warr had gone to St. Anthony's Health Center in Alton and was admitted to the psychiatric ward the next day. He left St. Anthony’s six days later. On September 8 Warr met with Detective Wells, and allegedly confessed to kidnapping and murdering Pearson, implicating Evans as the shooter. Wells did not detain or arrest Warr.
On September 10, 1998 Det. Wells alleged before the Madison County grand jury that Clifton Wheeler had also confessed that that he, Evans and Warr had murdered Pearson, confirming Warr’s confession. At the time he allegedly confessed to the Pearson murder Wheeler was being held in Madison County Jail charged with the murder of Dwight Riddlesprigger. The prosecutor, Keith Jensen, brokered a plea bargain with Wheeler for the murder of Riddlespriger – 23 years in prison at 50 per cent and immunity for his confessed involvement in kidnapping and murdering Pearson, in exchange for his testimony against Evans at Evans’ trial.
So Eugene Brian Warr and Clifton Wheeler both confessed to Det. Wells they had participated with Evans in kidnapping and murdering Pearson, but neither were charged or arrested. The indictment of Evans was secured by Assistant State’s Attorney Susan Jensen, the ex-wife of prosecutor Keith Jensen, using Wells’ hearsay testimony about the alleged confessions.
Evans was tried twice. The first trial was for conspiracy to murder Lester Warr. The second was for the Pearson murder itself. Both trials were heard by all-white juries, and both convicted Evans of the charges before them.
The Witnesses and the Trials
Robert Fletcher
In June of 1998, Robert Fletcher, a well-known leader of the Crips street gang was arrested for possession of a gun and drugs. At the time of his arrest Fletcher was on parole for illegally possessing a firearm and having shot an Alton man in August of 1995. He was released from custody, the gun and drug charges were dropped, and his parole violation was ignored. When he was released Detective Wells told him that Evans and Warr had killed Nekemar Pearson, who was his gang subordinate and close friend. Wells also told Fletcher where Warr and Evans lived and hung out. Madison County Sheriff’s Deputy John Lakin told him that he had the “approval of State’s Attorney William Haine and the Judge in his case to release him before the completion of his sentence” if he would physically and verbally confront Evans and Warr, accusing them of killing Pearson. On September 11, 1998, Eugene Brian Warr was shot and killed by someone who approached the parked car in which he was sitting behind the steering wheel.
Larry Greer
Larry Greer was with Warr when he was murdered. Greer allegedly had arranged with Fletcher that he would have Warr drive him to a spot where Fletcher could approach the car and shoot and kill him. Madison County Prosecutor Keith Jensen told the jury in Fletcher’s subsequent trial that when Fletcher found out that Warr had confessed to Det. Wells that he and Evans had killed Pearson, Fletcher became determined to kill Warr in revenge. ASA Jensen implied to the jury that Evans was involved in Warr’s murder, when it was they who set the things in motion for Fletcher to confront Evans and Warr by allowing Fletcher to walk free from his parole violation and new gun and drug charges, and by allowing Warr to walk free after confessing to murdering Pearson.
Greer was charged with obstruction of justice when he said that he could not identify who shot Warr even though he had driven him to the spot at which the shooting occurred. He was given consideration, however, for saying he knew that Fletcher was an enemy of Warr’s. Walter Dent, a friend and Crips gang member of Greer, posted $1500.00 bond for his release.
In 2000 Fletcher was convicted and sentenced to 60 years in prison for the murder of Warr. Larry Greer was also convicted on accountability for the murder of Warr and sentenced to 40 years.
Tommy Rounds
Evans’ cousin, Tommy Rounds, was questioned in December 1998 by Sheriff’s Detective Wells, seeking information about Pearson's murder. When Evans got to the Madison County Jail in 1999 he was put in a cell with Rounds. Rounds wore a “wire” and testified at Evans’ trial that Evans ask him to arrange for the murder of Lester Warr, Eugene Brian Warr’s father. He said he told Evans that Det. Wells had told him that Lester Warr had information against Evans and Wheeler. He said Wells had told him that Warr and Wheeler were the only ones who knew about Evans’ role in Pearson's murder. Evans says that Rounds pushed him to agree to let him arrange for Lester Warr’s murder, but he refused. Rounds also told Evans he could arrange for Wheeler to be killed in jail.
Rounds testified that this was the plan suggested by Evans.
Rounds would sign a statement implicating Evans in the Pearson murder.
Rounds would kill Lester Warr
Rounds would go to Texas and pick up $35,000 from Ed Klaeger, money that Evans had given to him to invest in a company that was about to go public.
He’d give half the money to Evans' mother, Mary L. Berry, for legal fees.
Rounds would also arrange for Wheeler to be murdered in jail.
The recordings of these conversations with Evans made by Rounds were edited in such a way that confirmed this story, and they were played at Evans' trial. Rounds also testified at the trial that Evans gave him a letter with Ed Klaeger’s name and number in Dallas, TX, and Lakisha Steele ‘s contact information in Alton so Steele could collect the money. This letter, which Evans wrote and gave to Rounds in jail, was introduced as evidence against Evans at his trial.. In it he requested Klaeger to liquidate his investments because he needed money for a lawyer, and Rounds to give the money to Steele for his legal expenses. Evans had no reason to think that his cousin would manufacture this story against him.
Rounds also testified that Evans told him he broke his hand hitting Pearson before he was killed. It is likely that Det. Wells told Rounds that Warr, in his confession of the murder of Pearson, had said Evans had broken his hand, and Rounds dutifully regurgitated this, attributing the story to Evans. Although they were never introduced into evidence because they would have exposed this lie, an x-ray of Evans’ hand in 1993, compared with the ex-ray of Evans hand made before trial at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, showed that it had been broken two years earlier.
Demond Spruill
Demond Spruill, was a “professional” jailhouse snitch. He had testified in prior nine trials, six of which were for murder. On October 30, 1997, Spruill was brought before a grand jury and implicated Evans and Warr in the Pearson murder. Spruill testified at Evans’ trial for the murder of Person. He said that Evans had confided in him that he had murdered Pearson.
William Jenkins
William Jenkins testified at the preliminary hearing against Evans and at both his trials, one for the murder of Pearson and one for conspiracy to murder Eugene Brian Warr. He said that while he was in the county jail in 1998-99 for aggravated discharge of a firearm, he shared a cell with Evans. He testified that Evans had told him how he had murdered Pearson and taken care of arranging for the murder of Warr. Jenkins was released after agreeing to testify to this. A month after Evans’ sentencing hearing in April 2000, Jenkins raped and sodomized his elderly neighbor. He was sentenced to 18 years for the rape, to be served at 50 per cent, and was released in September 2010. Jenkins was arrested again in January of 2022, for a murder in December of 2021 and is currently awaiting trial.
Jody Wesley
Jodey Wesley was being held on a federal warrant when he was placed in a cell with Evans after his arrest. Wesley testified at Evans’ trial for conspiracy that Evans told him that he had arranged for murder of Eugene Brian Warr and Clifton Wheeler, who he said Evans told him had witnessed his shooting of Nekemar Pearson. At the trial of Fletcher and Greer for the murder of Warr, Wesley testified that both Fletcher and Greer had confessed to him, although both said they had never seen him before. The prosecutor offered Wesley consideration for helping in the prosecution of Evans. This was never mentioned at Evans’ trial and was only learned later through his testimony at the Fletcher-Greer trial. There is evidence that Wesley may have served as a confidential police informant for almost 20 years. This is still being investigated but was never mentioned at trial.
Julius Newton
Julius Newton was a witness that did not work out for the prosecution. On November 14, 1997, Newton, a friend of Warr’s, testified before the grand jury that he had told Wells that Evans and Terrance Colley (Eugene Brian Warr’s cousin) committed the murder of Pearson, after being pressured and offered $1000.00. He said these statements were false and that Wells was offering money for information linking Evans and Warr to Pearson’s murder to anyone who claimed to have it. Newton was not brought to testify before either jury as a witness.
Keyanna Simpson
Keyanna Simpson was a young woman who testified at Evans’ trial for the murder of Pearson that he had driven with her to Arkansas, where they had intimate relations and he confessed.Evans denies any of this every happened. Simpson later admitted to journalist David Adams that SA Jensen and Det, Wells gave her the story about having sex with her and his confessing, and offered plea deals on good terms to her in several cases pending against her in exchange for her testimony.
Another suspect?
There is evidence that police collected samples of human hair from Pearson’s remains. The State’s Attorney obtained a court order to take a sample of Evans’ hair for comparison. However no mention of this was made at Evans’ trial, from which one may conclude that his hair did not match the hair found on Pearson’s remains. There is no known record of any further investigation to determine whose hair it was.
Affidavits from Fletcher and Greer
In a sworn statement he gave three years and seven months after Evans’ trial, on January 3, 2002, Robert Fletcher said that in June of 1998 he was released from custody, the gun and drugs charges against him were dropped, and his parole violation was ignored. He says that when he was released Detective Wells told him that Evans and Warr had killed Nekemar Pearson, who was his gang subordinate and close friend. Wells also told Fletcher where Warr and Evans lived and hung out. Fletcher’s affidavit also says that Madison County Sheriff’s Det. John Lakin told him that he had the “approval of State’s Attorney William Haine and the Judge in his case to release him before the completion of his sentence” if he would physically and verbally confront Evans and Warr, accusing them of killing Pearson.
Greer has also sworn an affidavit in which he says that Wells told him that he had investigated and established that Evans was responsible for the murder of Warr. Greer says that he had nothing to do with Warr's death. He says he was a drug addict, and that Wells gave him money for drugs in exchange for saying Evans had told him he had murdered Pearson. He implicated himself (Greer) and named Evans as the principal organizer. He says Wells and ASA Keith Jensen fed him and gave him money and freedom. Evans had not heard most of this before.
According to Greer's affidavit and the appellate brief filed by his attorney Daniel D. Yuhas in the 5th Judicial Appellate Court (5-01-0432), each time Greer was arrested for possession of guns and/or drugs he was encouraged to give statements to Det. Wells and ASA Jensen that implicated Evans and himself more and more. Evans’ name became his “get out of jail free” card. Wells and Jensen fed him stories that he would repeat to grand juries. They convinced him to admit to being a co-conspirator in the Warr murder, falsely accusing Evans as organizer of the conspiracy. Each time he was rewarded with freedom, money, or both.
Greer falsely testified against Evans in the Pearson murder trial. Greer's testimony was while they were together traveling through Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, when Evans confessed to him that he had killed Pearson.
Finally, however, when Greer was called to testify in Fletcher's trial for murdering Warr on Jan 20, 2000, he refused, stating instead, on the record, that he was tired of lying. According to Greer's affidavit and appellate brief, he gave false statements to Alton Detectives Golike and Simmons at the direction of ASA Keith Jensen making Evans responsible for Warr's death, but he refused to give perjured testimony to the same effect.
Judge James Hackett, on a motion by ASA Keith Jensen, granted Greer full immunity during Fletcher's trial for the murder of Warr. But Greer still refused to falsely accuse Evans, at which point his immunity was rescinded. In his affidavit Greer stated that he was provided all of Evans’ pretrial discovery by Det. Wells and ASA Jensen to help him develop false testimony that aligned with the prosecution’s theory of the case. Greer told Evans that there were several copies of his (Evans’) pretrial discovery floating around the Madison County Jail.
This is the same thing as Wells did with Wheeler and Warr in relation to the Pearson murder. They confessed but were not arrested. All they had to do was agree to testify that Evans did it and was the shooter. Greer, however, apparently found his conscience. When, at Fletcher’s trial, he refused to tell the final lie that he knew would put Evans on death row, he was excoriated for it. He was accused of perjury and convicted of obstructing justice, with an additional 3 years added to his 40-year sentence for felony (accountability) murder of Warr.
Problems with Evans’ Conviction
Evans was convicted by all-white juries in two trials, one for solicitation and conspiracy to murder Clifton Wheeler and Lester Warr, and one for the murder of Pearson. He was sentenced to 120 years in prison, later modified by the court on review to 107 years.
There are two major problems with the State’s case.
While Evans was in Stateville Correctional Center awaiting the outcome of his direct appeal he received in the mail a copy of a police report by Alton Police Detective J. D. Cooley Jr. (badge no. 8704) that he witnessed Pearson walking down 9th street in Alton on July 3, ten days after the date Evans allegedly killed him. This report had been withheld from Evans’ defense counsel at trial and was later located in Larry Greer's discovery materials by Evans Appellate Defender Dan W. Evers. Attorney Evers sent the Cooley police report to Evans with a letter dated December 6, 2001, 2 years after Evans’ trial.
An audio recording of Evans' conversations with Tommy Rounds which was played for the jury at Evans trial had been very carefully edited to make it seem they were conspiring to commit murder, but neither the original nor edited recordings have been turned over to Evans’ attorneys for forensic analysis despite four court orders to do so. Evans’ attorney, Jessica Hathaway, told Evans that Judge Shroeder told her the recordings had been lost. Attorney Mike Mettes also told this to him. However, neither of them made any record of this and therefore, there is no record that they are missing, only hearsay.
These two things alone should have been enough to get Evans a new trial and a likely acquittal. Evans filed a timely post-conviction petition based on actual innocence and newly discovered evidence on March 13, 2003 and amended April 17, 2003. Greer’s and Fletcher’s affidavits are now part of this petition. It has been pending ever since because prosecutors refuse to produce court ordered trial exhibits for forensic testing, and the firm representing Evans has created a revolving door of attorneys assigned to the case. Each new attorney assigned requires moths to read all the transcripts and documents in the case.
In summary, the criminal legal system has been stalling the inevitable outcome of justice for James Evans now for over 20 years. The Illinois Supreme Court has long held that little over a year is all that is necessary to complete post-conviction relief. The stall has been so effective in blocking due process, and the new evidence so important, that the 7th Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals has granted Evans a hearing on an appeal from the Southern District Federal Circuit dismissing his petition for habeas corpus relief.
UPDATE
A three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit U. S. District Court In an April 27 opinion determined that Evans’s 2003 postconviction relief petition still pending 20 years later was “indefensible,” vacating and remanding a lower court’s ruling that held Evans had failed to meet the exhaustion of state remedies requirement. The court sent the case back to the U. S. District Court in Southern Illinois for reconsideration. In its ruling the Seventh Circuit expressed its outrage at the 20 year delay, referencing their past determinations of delays of just three to four years as “extreme and tragic.”
Writing for the court Justice Michael Y. Scudder wrote, “A broader perspective of the situation only reinforces our conclusion. At a high level, Evans experienced a breakdown in the state’s postconviction process. We see things that way not just because twenty years have now passed with Evans’s case still pending, but also because the state court docket shows a general lack of action or urgency by all involved. The prosecutors seem intent on allowing the case to linger indefinitely, and the state court, as best we can tell, seems to have done nothing to move things along despite recognizing the barriers to relief that Evans faced.”
The Southern District Court may now conduct an evidentiary hearing on Evans’ claim itself. The legal alternatives range from vacating his sentence and releasing him to remanding the case to Madison County to complete the discovery and move to a evidentiary hearing on his post-conviction petition.
Link to argument in the Seventh Circuit: http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/sound/2023/kra.21-1704.21-1704_02_16_2023.mp3
- Prepared by Ted Pearson
i Wells also said that Wheeler had recanted three previous contradictory statements he had given.
ii See IDOC June 2005 Stock Population report Clifton Wheeler, K88428 https://www2.illinois.gov/idoc/reportsandstatistics/Documents/June%202005%20stock%20pop.xls
iii See “People v Greer, 2012 IL App (5th) 090257-U NO. 5-09-0257 Appellate Court of Illinois Fifth District page 4. See also Alton Telegraph, David Feld, July 1995
iv See Affidavit of Robert Fletcher, cited elsewhere in this document. Wells said that Fletcher had previously had no useful information about the Pearson murder when questioned about the Pearson murder.
v The use of Spruill by Madison County Prosecutors has been sharply criticized by the 5th Dist Illinois Appellate Court (See People v Brown 358 Ill.App.3d 580,294 Ill.Dec. 288,804,831 N.E.2d 1113,1129(5th Dist 2005)) Document other cases of Spruill being used as an informant
vi IDOC June, 2005 Prison Stock Pop, https://www2.illinois.gov/idoc/r. William Jenkins, R12817.
vii James Evans’ defense and journalist David Adams both have copies of this brief.
viii See transcript of Fletcher’s trial for the murder of Warr.
ix People v Kelly 977 N.E.2d 858 Ill. App 1st Dist. 2012