Opinion ID: 854128
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Arlanda and Joseph Landers

Text: Sixteen-year-old Arlanda Landers and her nineteen-year-old brother, Joseph, lived with their mother next door to Jackson and McEwen. Arlanda's testimony was neither internally completely consistent nor fully consistent with other accounts. She testified that she let Jackson use her telephone that night to call Bowie because Jackson's car would not start. Jackson then went back to her car and quickly became involved in an altercation with McEwen in the street. Arlanda first testified that she did not see anything that occurred, but next stated that McEwen struck Jackson in the back of the head with the Club device. Although Arlanda did not see the stabbing, she did testify that Jackson struck McEwen back (with what, if anything other than her fists, is unclear from Arlanda's testimony) and the two fought for possibly fifteen minutes. After the melee, McEwen returned to his house and Arlanda went outside to find that Jackson was in bad condition. Bowie soon appeared and the police were called. When asked whether Jackson said anything during the fight, Arlanda testified: She was like stop, help and that's like she just blanked out. Under cross-examination, more inconsistencies appeared in Arlanda's account. For example, she admitted that she had told police after the killing that she did not see the struggle. Joseph Landers testified that he got home around midnight and saw that Jackson was using the telephone at his house. As Joseph worked on his car in front of his house, Jackson returned to her car and there was like a loud noise like something metal hitting the ground ten to fifteen minutes later. He next heard a dragging sound, possibly caused by a person being dragged across the ground, and saw Jackson lie down on her back in the Landers driveway. Bowie soon appeared and, after briefly examining Jackson, knocked on the door of the Landers house asking that someone call 911 because Jackson had been stabbed. Joseph then saw Jackson's stab wounds and waited with the others until emergency assistance arrived. It does not appear from Joseph's testimony that he observed any struggle between Jackson and McEwen.