Murder charges a case of mistaken identity

Kim Smith

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2002 | 11:12 a.m.

Murder charges were dropped Friday against a 16-year-old boy who spent a week in jail after being wrongly accused of beating a 59-year-old man to death.

Jamal Brown, a Western High School junior, was arrested Sept. 24 and charged with murder in the death of Henry Davis, 59.

Davis, 59, was beaten July 2 in the 1000 block of Cunningham Drive near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Washington Avenue and died seven days later.

Brown was arrested after two witnesses told police that two young men, named Jamal and Isaiah, had beaten Davis and a third witness said he looked similar to one of the suspects.

Deputy Public Defender Nancy Lemcke said that immediately after his arrest, relatives of Brown's began calling her.

"The witnesses kept asking me why the police had arrested Jamal Brown when they had told them that (the other) Jamal had beaten the victim up," Lemcke said.

Brown and his family were not immediately available for comment.

Lemcke said she had to find a way to prove that Jamal Brown was not involved in the beating despite the fact Davis was attacked because he was mistaken for a man who had allegedly beaten Brown's mother a few days prior.

Her job was made harder because the 18-year-old man who allegedly did take part in the attack is a relative of Brown's, as were two of the three witnesses.

"I think the police were a little reticent to believe the idea that there were two Jamals," Lemcke said. "I think they believed the witnesses made up the story about the other Jamal to cover for my Jamal."

Lemcke asked her investigator, Steve Yoshida, to look into the matter.

Yoshida was able to find an old police report that revealed the other Jamal truly existed and had a friend named Isaiah, Lemcke said. A picture attached to that police report was clearly not Brown.

Although no new arrests have been made, Brown was released from the Clark County Detention Center Oct. 2 and the murder charge was dismissed with prejudice -- meaning it can never be refiled -- Friday.

Deputy District Attorney Scott Mitchell said he was told that it wasn't until after Davis died that the relatives of the Jamals provided detectives a completely truthful statement.

"Once they realized that it had turned into a murder charge they became more forthcoming and they didn't want the 16-year-old Jamal facing a false murder rap," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he has never personally handled a case in which a person was wrongfully accused.

"What makes this case especially extraordinary is this is a 16-year-old kid," Mitchell said.

Lemcke praised her investigator and Metro detectives Mark McNett and Jeff Rosgen for their work on the case.

"I think if the detectives had been so inclined, they could have said 'We've done the necessary investigation, and we're done.' I suppose they could have said 'If you believe we're in error, tell your story to 12 jurors.' Instead, they did the incredibly honorable thing and followed up on the information I gave them," Lemcke said.

Lemcke said her client is happy to be back at school and working at his part-time job.

"The first time I saw him at the jail he was very timid, kind of a deer in headlights is the best way I can analogize it," Lemcke said. "He was very much in shock and horrified by what was going on around him."

Metro Sgt. Ken Hefner declined to speak about the specifics of the case. He did, however, say that anytime someone has an "agenda" and provides detectives false information it makes their job that much tougher.

The case continues to be investigated, Hefner said.