One of the frustrations of this business is believing you know things that you can't write about.
There are legalities to consider, burdens of proof that must be met, editors and lawyers who must be satisfied. One can't just go around accusing people. A circumstantial case isn't good enough for the courts--and it's not good enough for the newspaper.
So you have to write around things, sometimes in a way that feels cowardly. For instance, I think the man who murdered T.C. Edwards in Little Rock four years ago is in federal prison now, but I can't directly accuse him in print. There exists the possibility that he had no involvement in the killing of Edwards, a gentle man beloved by his community. The murderer had the motive, the opportunity, and most certainly the means, but no one has come forward to say they saw what happened. I doubt he could be successfully prosecuted on the charge.
I have to be OK with this. Convictions ought to be difficult for the state to obtain. If anything, it should be harder lock someone away; prosecutors should be less interested in winning cases than serving justice.
That Edwards' killer may be in federal prison now--that he may be off the street--is not justice, but it might be the best we can do under the circumstances. There is always a chance a cold case will be solved--someone will come forward, something overlooked will be discovered, new technologies might allow for new insights.
Edwards' killer will not, as most of us would, be particularly bothered by any interior monologue. You don't become a habitual hurter of people unless you've managed to suppress those kinds of thoughts. The universe promises consequences, but not fairness.
Maybe it is different for another whom I believe is guilty of hurting someone.
He probably does not think of himself as a criminal because he believes it is wrong for the state to forbid him to do what he does, which is spread corn on the ground and wait in the dark for deer to come. He believes he should be able to hunt when he wants, where he wants, the way he wants. And there are plenty of people who agree with him, who might say that he has been targeted for harassment by a prissy nanny state.
What happened was an accident. He was not aiming at what he hit; he could not even see what he hit that September day in 2017. Maybe he did not even notice the commotion that was caused when the bolt got loose and struck a 14-year-old girl. She screamed, but maybe he didn't hear that. I wasn't there, so I don't know.
Maybe if he'd realized that, he would have stopped and tried to help. He might have apologized profusely. He would have stuck around until the police showed up.
But he knows what happened. It was on the television and in the newspaper. They had his black and green Carbon Express Pile Driver 20-inch arrow, they had his bloody broad head. Korean-made, fairly common, available just about anywhere hunting supplies are sold. Pretty much untraceable --though he knows they checked out the bar codes.
Just like they checked out the area they think the arrow came from--a spot behind the pavilion in Allsopp Park. He might have parked his truck there, taken a shot at a buck nibbling on persimmons on the knoll. He overshot and the arrow flew over the knoll and came down in that area east of the softball field where the kids were playing soccer with their dad.
She went to the hospital. He went about his business. That's the theory.
They didn't find any fingerprints on the arrow. Whew. Because if he is who we think he is, they have his prints on file.
They didn't find enough DNA on the nock of the arrow to test it. Whew again. The DNA they obtained from the bolt tip was inconclusive.
But they know. The Little Rock Police detectives know. The Arkansas Game & Fish wildlife officers know. They know more than I know. There are pages that have been redacted. There is information I have not seen.
And there are other people who know something, who might at some point come forward to add their piece to the jigsaw.
"There is a person of interest in this case--but there is no forensic evidence available and not enough probable cause for an arrest warrant," one of the detectives working the case noted in a memo to the state Crime Victims Reparations Program. But the investigation is ongoing. No one has forgotten.
I suspect he is worried. I suspect he feels bad about hurting this girl. It was an accident. No one believes it wasn't.
He has little incentive to make any admissions against his own interest, and he might be preoccupied with other things.
He will probably get away with this.
Because, despite what crime shows teach us to expect, most crimes aren't solved at all, much less quickly and cleanly. Serial murderers walk around free for years and years--the particular one I'm thinking of didn't go to prison until he was in his 70s, and that was after a botched bank robbery. He confessed so his son--also involved in the job--might get a slightly lighter sentence.
He might never have to answer any questions about what happened in Allsopp Park.
The girl will likely be all right. Just a little PTSD, a scar and a story to tell. A bolt from the blue.
In a few years, maybe it will seem like it never happened. Maybe it won't fly up at him every time he nocks a bow. Maybe he'll be able to go days--weeks--without thinking about it. Maybe he can chalk that up to his mental toughness.
Maybe he's more like T.C. Edwards' killer than I give him credit for.
pmartin@arkansasonline.com
www.blooddirtangels.com
MovieStyle on 12/16/2018