Opinion ID: 2785783
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: At the time of the murder, Cropper lived in Building 26 of the San Juan unit at Perryville prison. The building was divided into four pods—A, B, C, and D—with each pod having an upper and lower tier. Cropper lived in Cell No. 258 on the D pod’s upper tier. Cropper’s cellmate was Lloyd Elkins. Cropper and Elkins had been cellmates for about one month in Building 24 before they were transferred to Building 26 on March 3, 1997, four days before the murder. KYZAR V. RYAN 5 While Cropper was living in Building 24—but before he was cellmates with Elkins—Kyzar gave him a nine to twelve inch steel knife with electrical tape wrapped around the base to form a handle. A few weeks later, after Cropper and Elkins became cellmates, Elkins saw Cropper in possession of a second knife with a serrated blade. According to Elkins, Cropper generally knew where to find knives buried around the prison yard. With respect to the prevalence of knives at Perryville, Cropper testified at trial that “[e]verbody on the yard ha[d] some type of weapon.” On the day of the murder, Deborah Landsperger, a correctional officer assigned to Building 26, discovered that mops and brooms were missing from the equipment room. Around 10:30 A.M., Landsperger and Brent Lumley, another correctional officer, decided to conduct a cell-to-cell search for the missing items. They started searching in the D pod’s upper tier of cells. Cropper and Elkins lived in the second cell searched. After Landsperger noticed tattoo patterns on top of a cabinet, she ordered Cropper and Elkins to exit the cell. Lumley did a pat down search of the inmates. The officers ordered Cropper and Elkins to wait outside the cell until the search was over. Landsperger and Lumley confiscated several items of contraband during their search of Cell No. 258, including more tattoo paraphernalia, a serrated knife blade without a handle, and either a “cement nail,” or a four to six inch “railroad spike.” At some point during the search, Cropper came back into his cell and called Landsperger a “corncob cunt” and a “bitch.” Lumley told Cropper, “Don’t be doing that,” which prompted Cropper to curse at Lumley too. 6 KYZAR V. RYAN Cropper acknowledged that his tirade was so loud that other inmates in D pod probably heard him. Landsperger and Lumley ordered Cropper to sit in the dirt area on the bottom tier of the D pod for the remainder of the search. Joshua “Tiny” Brice, an inmate who lived in the B pod of Building 26, saw Cropper standing by the stairs during the search. As Brice walked by, Cropper said that his cell was being shaken down. The search concluded around 11:30 A.M. because Landsperger and Lumley needed to count the inmates and take them to lunch. Landsperger showed her supervisor, Lieutenant Hugh Matson, the knife she had confiscated from Cropper’s cell and recounted his verbal tirade. Matson, Landsperger and one or two sergeants went to Cropper’s cell to address his behavior. When asked if he had been verbally abusive towards Landsperger, Cropper said, “Fuck that bitch. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.” Cropper told Matson, “Fuck you, punk. Get out of my fucking house, you little punk. Step off. I’ve got nothing to say to you.” Id. Cropper also declared, “It’s on,” which Matson interpreted as a direct threat of violence. Cropper agreed that his words were a threat of revenge. Matson placed Cropper and Elkins on lockdown pending a disciplinary investigation. Cropper kicked or punched his cell door as the officers were leaving. Id. After the correctional officers left, Cropper had a conversation with Eugene Long through the vent between their cells. Long lived in the neighboring cell, No. 257, with Bruce Howell. According to Elkins, Long characterized the shakedown of Cropper’s cell as a form of harassment and said there “needed to be a fallout on the yard.” Elkins testified KYZAR V. RYAN 7 that Cropper was acting “like a maniac” after this conversation and ranting about how the correctional officers had disrespected him. About twenty minutes after his first conversation with Long, Cropper said through the vent, “Hey, homeboy, go get Dino and Blue for me.” Dino Kyzar and Sean “Blue” Gieslin were inmates who lived together in the A pod of Building 26 and exercised authority over the other white prisoners. A week or two before the murder, Gieslin told Dave Fipps, another inmate in Building 26, that Kyzar was running the yard to deflect attention from Gieslin. According to Fipps, Kyzar and Gieslin were the people to see if you needed a weapon because they were effectively in charge among the white inmates. Shortly after lunch, Kyzar and Gieslin arrived at Cropper’s cell. Elkins, who was sitting on his bed, overheard the conversation that took place through the cell door window. Cropper told Kyzar, “I want the good one,” while making a stabbing motion. A “good one” is prison slang for a knife or “shank” with a handle on it. Kyzar responded, “I ain’t got it. You got it.” Cropper replied, “Give me any one.” Kyzar then cautioned Cropper about his apparent intentions, “Well, are you sure about this? How much time you got, homeboy?” Cropper said, “It don’t fucking matter. I’m a career criminal anyway.” Id. As Kyzar and Gieslin were leaving, Cropper said, “You guys need to get off the yard,” an expression that was not defined at trial. The entire conversation between Cropper and Kyzar lasted about two minutes. As Joshua Brice was returning from lunch, Gieslin, Kyzar, and Long approached him near a picnic table in the B 8 KYZAR V. RYAN pod. Kyzar instructed Brice to “[s]how Eugene [Long] where the shank is.” Brice responded that he did not know exactly where to find a knife. Kyzar replied, “Just show him the general area.” Id. Brice complied because of the respect Kyzar commanded among the white inmates. Brice indicated to Long a dirt area in the B pod where another inmate had buried a knife about one month earlier. Brice watched for guards while Long started digging in that area. As Long was digging, Clifford Settle, an inmate who lived on the B pod’s bottom tier near where Long was digging, asked Brice if he was looking for a knife. Brice said no, but indicated that Long was trying to find a shank. After Brice summoned Long, Settle told them a knife was hidden between two concrete slabs outside his cell. Long straddled the concrete slabs, pulled out a knife, and concealed it in his pants. Brice and Long then walked back to their respective cells. Meanwhile, Kyzar and Gieslin encountered Dave Fipps in the yard as they were heading to the administration building. Gieslin cryptically instructed Fipps to go to Long’s cell to see if everything had been handled. When Fipps arrived at Cell No. 257, Howell was standing outside keeping watch while Long and Brice were inside the cell. Fipps reported that Kyzar and Gieslin wanted to know if everything was being handled. Brice said yes. According to Brice, Fipps held two flyswatters that Long had taped together while Long taped the knife he had retrieved to the flyswatters. Long stood on the toilet in his cell and called through the vent, “Hey, Padlock,” which was Cropper’s nickname. Elkins heard Long tell Cropper, “I got it,” to which Cropper responded, “Let me see it.” After Long KYZAR V. RYAN 9 showed Cropper the knife, Cropper said, “That ain’t the good one. Fuck it. Send it through.” Id. Elkins testified that Long used the flyswatters to pass the knife to Cropper through the vent between their cells. Cropper also asked for a righthanded glove, which Long passed through the vent using the same technique. After wrapping a boot lace around the bottom of the knife, Cropper asked Long to spin the lock on his cell. Long complied. Elkins then heard either Long or Howell say, “It’s open. Go, go, go.” Landsperger, who had just finished writing a report in the control room for the C and D pods about the items confiscated from Cropper that morning, saw Long playing with the lock on Cropper’s cell. When Landsperger heard Long say, “Oh shit,” she ordered him to come down and talk with her. As Long was talking to Landsperger, whose back was turned to the control room where Lumley was writing his own report, Cropper escaped from his cell. Cropper went directly to the control room and stabbed Lumley to death with the knife Long had passed to him only a few minutes earlier. All four pods in Building 26 were immediately placed on lockdown. Brice was in the administration building when the lockdown was ordered. As Brice was walking back to Building 26, Gieslin and Kyzar approached him in the main recreation yard. All three men were detained in a fenced in area outside Building 26 along with other inmates. As Brice, Gieslin, and Kyzar were waiting to reenter the building, they saw Howell, Long, Cropper, and Elkins escorted across the yard in restraints. The guards were yelling at Cropper and crying as they brought him out of Building 26. Brice, Gieslin, and Kyzar also saw an ambulance and helicopter arrive and then leave. Shortly before Brice was removed 10 KYZAR V. RYAN from the fenced in area, Kyzar told him to keep his mouth shut.