Moms still scared in West Memphis

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

WEST MEMPHIS — Misty Hood, 11, wasn't afraid Saturday.

"But my mom is," admitted the blond-haired, freckled-faced youngster.

Things may not return to normal for a long time in this city where three 8-year-old boys were killed in May 1993. But the convictions Friday of two teen-agers in the slayings, combined with Saturday's sunny skies, seemed to lift the spirits of residents.

"I'm not afraid either," Misty's friend, Crystal Gage, said as they walked along Barton Street.

Neither girl's parents were present, but they weren't without adult supervision. Luella Gray, 52, took care of that.

"Folks will still be scared for a long time," Gray said.

In parks and fields, children played basketball, flew kites and rode bicycles.

Misty said she wasn't afraid since all three teens authorities charged with committing the killings have now been convicted.

Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 18, of Marion, was convicted last month and sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years for his part in the boys' slayings.

The jury that convicted Damien Wayne Echols, 19, of West Memphis and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, of Marion on Friday sentenced them Saturday to death and life in prison, respectively. The trial was in Jonesboro, 75 miles to the north.

Misty, who lives six blocks from where the boys' bodies were found, said she knew one of the victims, Christopher Byers, and said her mother was friends with Melissa Byers, mother of the slain boy.

Misty said she thought the convicted teen-agers would be freed from prison within a few years, but Gray quickly corrected her.

"No honey, they won't," Gray said. "They won't come out of there until they're buried," she said.

A few blocks away, Ray and Jimmy O'Tinger, relatives of a prosecution witness in Misskelley's trial worked on building a storage shed.

"I'm glad it's over with because it's not going to cost the taxpayers any more money," Jimmy O'Tinger said.

His niece, Debra O'Tinger, testified that she saw the three victims cross her yard. She may have been the last person to see them alive. "I don't think the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt," said Ray O'Tinger, who is Debra O'Tinger's father-in-law.

"But I don't think he (Misskelley) would have confessed if he hadn't been guilty," he added. Misskelley's June 3 statement to police led to the three teens' arrests.

"It's hard to imagine anybody that would do anything like that," Ray O'Tinger said.