Jordan v. Blount Cnty.
| Decision Date | 30 April 2020 |
| Docket Number | No. 3:16-CV-122-PLR-CCS,3:16-CV-122-PLR-CCS |
| Citation | 458 F.Supp.3d 870 |
| Parties | Douglas JORDAN, Plaintiff, v. BLOUNT COUNTY, James Brooks, and Scott Carpenter, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee |
Mary Eugenia Lewis, T. Scott Jones, Banks & Jones, Michael Stephen Bernard, Ogle, Elrod, & Baril, PLLC, Knoxville, TN, for Plaintiff.
Craig L. Garrett, Craig L. Garrett, Attorney at Law PLLC, Maryville, TN, Gary M. Prince, O'Neil, Parker & Williamson, Knoxville, TN, for Defendant Blount County.
Craig L. Garrett, Craig L. Garrett, Attorney at Law PLLC, Maryville, TN, Gary M. Prince, Nathaniel Craig Strand, O'Neil, Parker & Williamson, Knoxville, TN, for Defendant Scott Carpenter.
Plaintiff Douglas Jordan was convicted of second-degree murder in October of 2002. Following denial of his direct appeal, Jordan filed a petition for post-conviction relief. In the post-conviction proceedings, Jordan discovered that Blount County detectives found a knife during their investigation that was never provided to his criminal defense attorney. Jordan also discovered investigative documents – one detailing how the knife was discovered, and a memo dated March 13, 1998, regarding interviews with potential other suspects in the case that were never disclosed. On January 25, 2011, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals determined that Jordan was entitled to a new trial due to the non-disclosure of the knife and investigative documents. Jordan v. State , 343 S.W.3d 84, 97-100 (Tenn.Ct.App. 2011). Jordan was retried and acquitted on March 28, 2015.
Jordan sues defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violation of his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and for common law negligence stemming from suppression of exculpatory evidence.
The facts pertaining to the murder of Jennifer Byerly and the investigation are taken from the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals post-conviction relief order and the record in this case. Jordan v. State of Tennessee , 343 S.W.3d 84 (Tenn.Ct.App. 2011).
On March 11, 1998, Jennifer Byerly, who was deaf and mute, was at the End Zone bar on Alcoa Highway near the Knoxville airport. An employee at the bar, Mary Roberts, who was a neighbor of Byerly, saw her "talking to the Mexicans" who frequented the bar, and, because she felt the men were acting inappropriately toward Byerly, she asked them to leave. Byerly, who was crying, stayed in a booth. Jordan, whom Roberts had seen in the bar several times previously, asked about Byerly and then obtained a paper and pencil before going to sit with her in the booth. Roberts saw the two pass notes before Jordan stood and went to the restroom. Jordan then left the bar through a back door at about 11:30 p.m., and Byerly left through the front door.
At trial, Roberts testified that during the two years Byerly had been a patron of the End Zone, she had pretty much exclusively hung around the Mexicans. Although she initially denied having prevented Byerly from leaving with the Mexicans on the night of her death, Roberts stated that the Mexicans left the bar at 11:30 p.m., only minutes before Byerly departed.
Earl Horton, a bartender at the End Zone who knew Byerly and Jordan as patrons of the bar, testified that sometime between midnight and 1:00 a.m., Byerly and Jordan "had a discussion" after which Jordan left quickly though the back door and Byerly seemed upset. He testified that when Byerly left through the front door, he followed her outside and asked if she was "okay." Because he was concerned for her safety, he walked to the edge of the building to watch her leave. He saw that Jordan was waiting outside the building and when Byerly walked up to him, Horton asked if they were "okay." Jordan replied, "Yes, we're fine." Byerly nodded her head affirmatively and the two walked away in the direction of the motel next door.
At approximately 6:30 a.m. on March 12, Byerly's body was discovered on the side of Wheeler Road in Blount County about 1.2 miles from the End Zone and less than one-half mile from her apartment. She had been strangled and her throat slashed post-mortem.
Blount County Detective Scott Carpenter executed a search warrant at Byerly's apartment. He found no signs of a struggle. Officers also searched Jordan's residence, a second-floor motel room at the Airport Inn and found a crumpled note in the garbage can under the sink. The note contained a communication between Jordan and Byerly. In an interview by Detective Carpenter on the day after the murder, Jordan stated that he met Byerly four or five nights earlier while playing pool at the End Zone. He explained that because Byerly was deaf and mute, they communicated by writing notes and that Byerly asked for his address after their initial meeting and visited his residence later that night. Jordan told the detective they communicated in writing for about thirty minutes and he drove her home. Jordan stated that on the evening of the murder, he was shooting pool when Roberts asked for someone to help Byerly because people were taking advantage of her. He explained that he discouraged Byerly from leaving the bar with another man and that after her Mexican friends had gone, Byerly declined his offer of a ride home. Jordan stated that Byerly left first and that he finished his beer before leaving through the back door. He initially maintained that was the last time he saw Byerly, but, later, when confronted with the note police had found in his trash can, he admitted that Byerly had been in his room that night. He stated that Byerly was waiting outside the End Zone and followed him home. Because he was interested only in sex and refused a romantic relationship with her, Byerly left his apartment after approximately fifteen minutes. Jordan denied having sex with Byerly that night and denied having killed her. He agreed to provide police with blood and hair samples and consented to have his car impounded for examination. Byerly's blood was not found in the car.
In an interview five days later, Jordan acknowledged that he was angry with Byerly on the night of the murder because "she couldn't take no for an answer." He denied, however, that he had been angry enough to kill Byerly and further denied having hit her or harmed her in any way.
Dr. David Gilliam, medical examiner, estimated that Byerly had been dead for three to five hours before her body was found. He testified that although her throat had been cut, the cause of death was manual strangulation. The cuts to her throat were done post-mortem.
Sharon Monterrosol testified that she first met Byerly at the residence of a friend the November prior to her murder. She recalled that Byerly, who was with her boyfriend, Marco Villo-Gomez, had a black eye. Monterrosol stated that at some point after Christmas 1997, some two months before the murder, she overheard Villo-Gomez say that he was going to kill "her." Monterrosol stated that Villo-Gomez did not identify Byerly by name and that he had been drinking and was angry at the time of the remark. She further testified that later, she again overheard Villo-Gomez, whom she described as "very drunk" and "very angry," say in Spanish that he was "going to kill the bitch." During cross-examination, Monterrosol acknowledged that Villo-Gomez appeared to care about Byerly and was "very protective" of her. She stated that in March of 1998, Villo-Gomez lived in Morristown but would sometimes visit on weekends, staying with relatives in Byerly's apartment complex.
At trial, the defense introduced documents concerning an April 9, 1998, plea of guilty by Villo-Gomez to a charge of assault involving Byerly. The warrant completed by Byerly stated that on October 16, 1997, while at her own residence, she and Villo-Gomez became engaged in an argument when without provocation Villo-Gomez "struck her several times about the arms and chest in a knowing, intentional, and reckless manner." The judgment reflected that Villo-Gomez received a sentence of eleven months, twenty-nine days for assaulting Byerly.
Rhonda Gillespie testified that Byerly and Villo-Gomez ended their romantic relationship at the beginning of December 1997, and Gillespie had not seen Villo-Gomez since that time.
David Cockrill, Byerly's next door neighbor, testified that Byerly generally frequented with Mexicans who lived in the apartment complex. He stated that Byerly was unemployed and received a Social Security disability check every month but that she would often use her money to purchase beer and cigarettes for the Mexicans. He recalled being awakened at approximately 3:00 a.m. the night of Byerly's death by a disturbance at her apartment. Cockrill described overhearing a male voice shouting angrily in Spanish, which he could not understand. He could also hear Byerly grunting, which "was about the only noise she could make." Cockrill told police about the incident, which he estimated to have lasted for about five minutes.
Connie Collins resided at the Cerritos West Apartments and lived upstairs and one door over from Byerly. She testified that she was awakened between the hours of 2:30 and 4:00 to loud arguing. It was coming from Byerly's apartment. She could hear Byerly grunting as if she was arguing back. She also heard a Hispanic male with broken English arguing with her. After the argument stopped, Collins heard the apartment door slam and she saw a red Camaro leave the parking lot in a hurry. She reported the incident to her landlord the next day. Detective Carpenter testified that Collins made a report to the police at a gas station. Detective Carpenter stated that he gave the report regarding Collins to ADA Brooks. Defense counsel Whitt admitted he had information that Collins heard a disturbance in the morning hours of March 12, but he never spoke to Collins and did not recall whether he attempted to locate Collins.
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