Acquittal in ’96 slaying leaves 2 families in tears

Raymond Robert Lee Douglas (left) and his attorney, Ronald Davis Jr., react Wednesday in Fayetteville to the jury’s acquittal of Douglas in the death of 65-year-old Goldie Thornsberry.
Raymond Robert Lee Douglas (left) and his attorney, Ronald Davis Jr., react Wednesday in Fayetteville to the jury’s acquittal of Douglas in the death of 65-year-old Goldie Thornsberry.

— Members of two families once brought together by marriage gushed with conflicting emotions after a jury acquitted a man accused of killing his then-mother-in-law.

The jury deliberated for less than two hours before exonerating Raymond Robert Lee Douglas, who police said killed Goldie Thornsberry, 65, in 1996 and shoved her dismembered body into an abandoned cistern.

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On Tuesday, Reta Flowers testified against Douglas, her ex-husband, saying he confessed to her in 1999 that he had killed her mother by hitting her over the head with a clock radio and then strangling her with a cord.

Thornsberry was last seen alive in Fayetteville in January 1996. Her remains were found in Little Rock’s Pankey community in 2000. The bones were not identified as Thornsberry’s until June 2010 through the use of DNA.

After Wednesday’s verdict, Debbie McClure wept as she held a bottle containing her mother’s ashes. She talked about how difficult it has been for her family to endure so many years not knowing what happened to Thornsberry, and about how the real pain began when her mother’s remains were identified.

“The worst part was going in the funeral home and seeing what was left of my mom in a 12-by-28-inch box,” she said. “I touched every bone and held her skull to my heart and kissed her forehead and told her I loved her.”

Flowers and Douglas, who divorced in 1999, where both charged with first-degree murder shortly after Thornsberry’s remains were identified. At the time, Douglas lived in Benton and Flowers in Little Rock.

Flowers pleaded guilty last week to hindering apprehension in exchange for her testimony against Douglas. She testified Tuesday that prosecutors told her she could expect to be released from prison within five years.

Whether Douglas’ acquittal will change that likelihood remains unclear.

Washington County Prosecuting Attorney John Threet said Wednesday afternoon that a sentencing hearing for Flowers should be set in the coming days and that her plea agreement will be discussed at the hearing.

Also uncertain is what will happen with the couple’s 16-year-old son, who has been living with McClure in Fayetteville while his parents were jailed.

McClure and her sister Barbie Carnes said outside the courtroom that they support their sister.

“Reta Kay did not raise her hand to our mother,” Carnes said.

The women said they were angry that Flowers remained in jail while Douglas would be free.

Douglas’ sister, who declined to give her name, struggled to dry tears streaming down her face before walking past cameras in the hall outside the courtroom.

“The whole time I was praying for him, I was praying for her too,” she said. “I just feel so bad for her family. They still don’t know what happened.”

As bailiffs escorted Douglas out of the courtroom, he reached out to his sister and kissed her hand. He was processed out of the Washington County jail later in the day, free to return to Little Rock with his family.

As Douglas’ sister walked past Thornsberry’s family, she quietly said, “I’m sorry.”

The gesture sparked an eruption of emotion, with Carnes screaming, “Your brother killed my mother!”

Lead defense attorney Ronald Davis Jr. said that although he was pleased with the verdict, he could hardly celebrate the victory because of Thornsberry’s death.

“We sympathize and empathize with the family greatly,” he said.

Davis said his client was overwhelmed by the verdict and planned to return to Little Rock as soon as he resolved an outstanding traffic violation in Bentonville.

Threet said he was disappointed with the verdict, but had known that the case would be challenging.

“Anytime you have a cold case that’s that old, it’s tough,” he said. “We still felt like we had the right man. We still do.”

In his closing statement Wednesday morning, Threet said it was no accident that Thornsberry’s dismembered remains were found a three hour drive from where she disappeared in a cistern only a few blocks from where Douglas grew up.

“Who would know that that is there?” Threet asked. “Someone who calls that area his stomping grounds. Someone who was raised there. That person would know ... about the well [cistern]. Goldie didn’t know anyone in Little Rock. Why would she go to Pankey? There’s no reason, and there’s no evidence.”

Threet pleaded with jurors to use their common sense in deciding the case.

“We use circumstantial evidence every day in our lives,” he said. “We don’t stop using it today. You are reasonable human beings. Use your abiding conviction about what you believe to be accurate. Use your common sense and apply it to the law.”

Davis’ closing statement focused on whether jurors could believe Flowers’ testimony. Flowers, he said, told police that Douglas admitted killing her mother only after she herself was charged in the murder.

“To any rational person, there is no way on God’s green Earth that a person would wait 11 years to tell the police that someone killed my mama. My mama!” his voice boomed.

Flowers is “an admitted liar,” he said, pointing out that she conceded during Tuesday’s testimony that she’d lied to police about at least six things and that she kept information about her mother’s disappearance under wraps for more than a decade.

“You are the sole judges to weigh the credibility of any witness,” Davis said. “You saw her smiling yesterday. She’s smiling when I’m questioning her about the death of her mama?”

He asked jurors to set aside suspicion that Douglas killed Thornsberry and confusion about how the woman’s body came to be in Little Rock. Instead, he said, jurors should look at the evidence.

“You don’t have to figureit out. That’s not your job. That’s their job to prove it out, and they did not do that,” he said.

Fayetteville police Sgt. Tim Franklin, who has been in charge of the case since Thornsberry disappeared, said Wednesday’s verdict was difficult to take.

“It’s tough,” he said Wednesday evening. “It’s a 16-year-old case. You have to respect the jury’s decision. But I think that Ms. Thornsberry deserved a lot more than that.”

Franklin said Douglas was a “person of interest” in Thornsberry’s disappearance long before police confirmed their suspicion that she had been killed.

“I feel pretty confident we had the right guy,” he said. “There’s never been any other leads in this case that would suggest that anyone else was involved.”

Prosecuting anyone else in the murder is highly unlikely, he said.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/27/2011

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