Woman, kids held hostage

Karen Zekan

Wednesday, May 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

HENDERSON -- A 49-year-old man and his girlfriend were behind bars today on felony child endangerment charges after barricading themselves and two children inside an apartment for 10 hours.

Two local television news teams assisted Henderson Police with an elaborate strategy, one providing the services of its helicopter to distract the couple and another a camera in the first of two attempts by the department to get inside the upstairs unit.

James Everfield was under investigation on allegations of child abuse and had been told by a judge and law enforcement to stay away from his girlfriend's Hampton Court residence at 1030 Center St., east of Boulder Highway. The complex's manager notified Henderson Police at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday that the man had returned to the property.

Everfield refused to come out of the apartment when officers responded to the address, instead locking the door and sliding a refrigerator over to block it, Capt. Mike Mayberry said.

Patrol supervisors and Mayberry responded to the building from which almost a dozen families were evacuated. Conditions temporarily were complicated in the early afternoon when Sewell Elementary School let out for the day and special parental and teacher escorts were required.

Hostage negotiators and SRT members -- Henderson's special weapons and tactics team -- assembled on site shortly after noon.

Mayberry said the team of three negotiators was able to maintain constant contact with Everfield over the phone, during which Mayberry said the man drifted in and out of coherency.

Negotiators also were able to speak with Everfield's girlfriend, Nichelle Jackson, 26, and established that she and her children, Terry Jackson, 5, and Larry Jackson, 6, -- no relation to Everfield -- wanted to get out of the apartment, Mayberry said.

An eerie image periodically formed in the window throughout the afternoon and evening as Everfield pulled back the curtain, phone in hand, to look down at media positioned across the street and police in the area.

Mayberry said the Jackson children's safety was a primary concern, but defended the department's decision not to bust into the apartment. "We don't want to do something that will provoke him to violence," he said.

By about 7:15 p.m., the strategy began to change.

KVBC Channel 3's helicopter, which had been circling overhead during the standoff, was requested by police to hover directly over the building and create a loud distraction while SRT members positioned a fiber-optic camera to monitor Everfield's movements, Mayberry said.

Electricity to the apartment, which had been cut off to deny the occupants any chance to learn via television of police's covert operations, was restored temporarily to give police a better view inside the unit.

An hour later, Everfield requested that negotiators arrange an interview with KTNV Channel 13, whose white truck had been parked across the street in full view of the apartment's window since midday.

Everfield promised to move the refrigerator out of the way and hold the interview in the doorway, which police saw as an opportunity to get its SRT members inside.

Channel 13 photojournalist Erich Albl volunteered to participate, but said he was denied the chance by station supervisors concerned for his safety. Albl released his camera to SRT Officer Joe Molinaro who, about 9:15 p.m., headed upstairs in shorts and a T-shirt to Jackson's apartment with SRT Officer James Insley, dressed in a polo shirt and jeans.

Everfield never opened the door and instead screamed through the window screen: "Don't try to (expletive) me, you're a cop!"

"He (Everfield) started yelling for his girlfriend to come to the window and ID me as a cop," Insley said later of their foiled encounter. "He knew I was a cop."

Shortly after 10 p.m., a series of loud bangs could be heard as SRT members used a device to knock the door off its hinges and force their way into the apartment. Several seconds of screaming followed before two officers emerged on the porch, each one carrying the Jackson children.

"The little girl (Terry) wasn't even crying," Mayberry said. "Neither was the boy (Larry). They seem to be just fine.

"We reached a point after nine hours of negotiations with Mr. Everfield where we felt any further negotiations would be fruitless. Fearing for the safety of the kids and the neighbors in the area, we made the decision that a forced entry was necessary."

Everfield is charged with felony child endangerment and misdemeanors for obstructing an investigation and trespassing. Police said he will undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Mayberry said Nichelle Jackson also will be charged with felony child endangerment because she allowed her boyfriend into her apartment, violating a verbal agreement she had with Henderson Police and a judge involved with the ongoing child abuse investigation.

The children were taken to Child Haven.

A handful of neighbors who endured the long wait outdoors behind the plastic yellow police line cheered as police escorted a handcuffed Everfield into the patrol car, and hooted praise as SRT members filed out of the apartment.