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The Clinton Avenue Five is the case of five young men who disappeared on August 20, 1978, in Newark, New Jersey. The five teenagers, Melvin Pittman, aka "Ricky", and Ernest Taylor, both 17, and Alvin Turner, Randy Johnson and Michael McDowell, all 16, came to be known as "The Clinton Avenue Five" after the street where they were last seen. The case became a cold case and was labeled a disappearance. Detectives looked as far as Chicago after the discovery of 33 young men in the basement of serial killer John Wayne Gacy; Atlanta, where another serial killer murdered nearly 30 children in the late 1970s and early 1980s; and Jonestown, where more than 900 people died in a mass suicide in 1978. In November 2008, while in police custody on an unrelated charge and after a 13-hour interrogation, Philander Hampton confessed that he and cousin, local contractor Lee Anthony Evans, had lured the youths to his former Newark residence, 256 Camden Street, with the promise of work. Angry at them for allegedly stealing marijuana from his home, Evans had Hampton hold two of the teens at gunpoint while he rounded up the other three. They were led to a third-floor bedroom closet at gunpoint and locked in; when Evans set fire the house with five gallons of gasoline, the five were burned alive. After making this confession, Hampton led investigators to the site of the fire, where authorities searched the grounds using sonar equipment for human remains, but found none. On March 22, 2010, Evans and Hampton were arrested and charged with felony murder and arson and each was held on $5 million bail at the Essex County Jail. Shortly thereafter, Rogers Taylor, brother of victim Ernest Taylor, who would become a key witness in the case, said Evans confessed to him in 2008 about his involvement in the murders. Despite this confession, Judge Peter Vazquez noted Evans’ strong ties to the community, his lack of a criminal record, and the prosecution’s difficult case as reasons for his decision to lower bail from $5 million to $1.25 million, then to $950,000, a sum Evans' family posted in the form of three pieces of property. Evans was released on August 20, 2010, the 32nd anniversary of the teens' murders. ==Trial== Hampton pleaded guilty to the murders at his August 2011 trial and was sentenced to ten years in prison plus $15,000 in relocation expenses upon his release. In September 2011, Floria Turner-McDowell (no relation to victim Michael McDowell), mother of victim Alvin Turner, had her son declared dead and filed a wrongful death suit against Evans and Hampton two months later. On November 2, 2011, during the trial, Rogers Taylor falsely accused a court watcher of going to his home and taunting him about the case. The court watcher, Gary Ewing, was brought before the court at a side bar before being interrogated by law enforcement and ordered by Judge Patricia Costello not to attend the trial anymore because of alleged "witness tampering". Judge Costello's order was reversed four day's later by the appellate court on "due process grounds". Once Ewing returned to the court room as a court watcher, Taylor recanted his story and there were no further hearings concerning his accusations. Ewing was allowed to once again attend the trial. Evans represented himself at his November 2011 trial and was acquitted, officially closing the 33-year-old cold case. In November 2013, he filed a lawsuit against the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, Newark Police Department, and U.S. Senator Cory Booker, claiming he was the victim of malicious prosecution and that his arrest was a political conspiracy to get then-Mayor Booker re-elected to a second term. State and city officials filed motions on January 22, 2015, to dismiss the complaint, citing, in part, that Evans has not provided a factual basis to conclude that any of the ECPO Defendants subjected him to a deprivation of his constitutional rights. A third man has also been considered a suspect in the case, Maurice Woody-Olds, who died of natural causes in 2008. All of the three suspects are cousins. To date, the remains of the five teens have not been located. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clinton Avenue Five」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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