Chapter 59

Tuesday started off well enough. There were no contractors on the job today yet. Bill Yoder, one of the new part-time day guys who worked in construction, said that the concrete needed a day or two to cure before they could put up the walls.

I met Jenny at ten to go with her to the news conference. This was to be the closure about the rapes. I was going to get to stand on stage looking silly while the politicos took credit and beat their chest, but so is life.

Jason Coles, president and Jenny Coles, special prosecutor represented the task force. Major Charles Ashley, commander of the C-town state police, Dustin Banks C-town, police chief and Howard Ward, county sheriff, Bob Jackson and I were there from the college.

Jason opened the news conference with an overview then the specifics on the four attackers.

Mickey Stoops, aka Smack, 39 born in Philadelphia, was the driver of the van that I had killed. He had been arrested 39 times for small crimes starting as a teen and has served only 2 years total. There was an open warrant on a probation violation for him. DNA connected him to all eight rapes at the college. It also connected him to 32 rapes in four states over the last 6 years. Two of his victims had been killed or died in New York two years earlier. The gun he had was stolen from a robbery in Newark N.J.

His parents had a summer house on South High Street that was used to carry out the college rapes. According to the two attackers that survived he was the one that tortured the victims. If I had any bad feelings about killing him they were now gone, I thought.

Darrell Walks Jr. aka Dom, 37, was born in Atlanta Ga. He had been in the back of the van to help subdue their victims once they were thrown inside. He was the one that came around the back of the van and shot me in the chest and I had killed in return. He had been arrested 15 times, mostly in the south. He served 5 years in juvenile detention and 5 in the Alabama state corrections system. DNA connected him to 4 of the college rapes and a total of 24 with Mickey Stoops. He had acquired the palm gun he shot me with in a house invasion / assault and robbery in Camden, N.J.

Tony Toomey, 27, was born in Wilmington Delaware. Served four years at Sussex Correction for aggravated sexual assault and was on probation. He was the first one out of the van at the cross-walk. Lorrie was his intended victim. DNA connected him to 5 of the college rapes and 15 other assaults and rapes in 3 states with Mickey ad Darrell. He was going to be permanently blind in both eyes as a result of the finger pokes. His front teeth were all missing, his nose and jaw broken as well as one of his testicles had to be removed.

Jeff Heath, 26, was born in Washington DC. He served 4 years for car theft and armed robbery. There was an open warrant for probation violations in Virginia. His DNA connected him to the last four college rapes and 9 in 3 states with Mickey. He was second out of the van; Vicky was his intended target. He was going to be permanently blind in one eye. His nose was broken and many teeth were missing. Both of his testicles had to be removed. Vicky had been wearing very pointy shoes and had kicked him twice.

If you believe that it bothers me that I trained the girls to inflict that kind of damage in self defense, then sorry, but I wish they had done more to them. I'm proud that they walked away unharmed. I feel no sorrow for those bastards.

The investigation found that the group communicated via an internet chat room to do their planning. They would go to an area and stay till they found a suitable victim or victims over several days. Then they would move on to a different location and support the group through other criminal activities. They were stealing copper wire and pipe at some locations. When they were in the New York area it was cars and pickups that went straight to scrap yards. They were coming came back to this area the first of the month because Mickey had to check the house for his folks, plus they had always been successful finding victims.

Jason ended his presentation there and let the others speak.

The C-town chief gave his speech on how safe the town was due to the hard work of his department and he gave his thanks to the other agencies for their help.

The county sheriff must have copied the speech - only the names were changed.

Major Ashley thanked everyone for their assistance in the investigation. He then turned it back to Jason.

Jason opened to floor to questions from the media. That is when the B.S. hit the fan.

Elaine Summers, Kent county Gazette to Mr. Coles, "How long has the task force been involved in this investigation?"

Jason. "We have been actively involved for 4 weeks and a couple weeks longer in a minor way."

Elaine, " We have a serial rapist at work for a year and the task force only got involved in the last four weeks, why is that?"

Jason, "The task force cannot take over an investigation unless we are requested to by the local agency or directed to by the Governor and that request usually comes from a local law enforcement agency to the Governor."

Dan Devine, NCBS news Baltimore, "Are we to understand that it took eleven months for the local agency to request the expertise of the task force or was the task force that long in responding?"

Jason, "We did not get a request from the local agencies. The primary agency is the local police department and in this area the county sheriff's department could have as well. That did not happen. BJ - excuse me - Security Director Jones requested information from a member of the task force and followed up with more requests for assistance in an assault case. At that point we needed to seek directional advice from the Governor on how to proceed with requests from a non-judicial agency.