Opinion ID: 2636938
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: 1978 murder of Jack Mackey.

Text: Deborah Baros testified as follows: In approximately March and April of 1978, she, defendant, and their young child Anthony were living in a boardinghouse at 1204 Helen Street in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Baros worked as a waitress at Mom's Kitchen, a soul food restaurant. When she worked evenings, her shift ended at 11:00 or 11:30 p.m. One evening, defendant picked Baros up from work, as was customary, in their brown Camaro. They drove to the service station where they usually bought gas. Anthony was between them in the front seat. After the attendant serviced the car, defendant asked for two packs of Kool cigarettes, his usual brand. Defendant followed the attendant to the center booth, where the cigarettes were kept. After a short time, the two returned to the passenger side of the car. Defendant then ordered the attendant to get into the Camaro. As the attendant entered the backseat, Baros saw that defendant was holding a gun shaped like an L. Baros continued: They left the station, made several turns, and drove toward the mountains. They passed a power plant, then stopped in a desert-like area with sand, gravel, dirt, and rocks. The night sky was well illuminated with lights coming from somewhere. There was a chain link fence and a bunch of jeeps in the background. The weather was cool and breezy. Defendant ordered Baros and the attendant from the car. Baros and the attendant began walking, side by side, into the desert-like area. As they did so, Baros heard three or four shots. When she woke up, defendant was gone. Baros realized she was not hurt, but the attendant lay beside her, facedown, with blood on his back. After a couple of minutes, the Camaro returned. Defendant and Anthony were in the car. Defendant ordered Baros to get in, and she complied. They did not return to 1204 Helen Street, but went immediately to a motel across the street from the old ice plant, where they stayed for several days. During that time, Baros continued to work at Mom's Kitchen. Then she, defendant, and Anthony went to Florida. Baros identified photographs of the station and of Jack Mackey as the murdered attendant. North Las Vegas police officers and other witnesses testified about the unsolved murder of Mackey. In 1978, Margaret Potter and her husband owned a Discount Oil station on Bonanza Road in Las Vegas. Early on the morning of April 20, 1978, police called Potter to the station because it was wide open and unattended. When Potter arrived, cigarettes normally kept in the central booth were strewn on the ground outside the booth, and Mackey, the attendant, was missing. Around 9:00 a.m. on April 21, 1978, a cold and windy day, Mackey's body was discovered on the outskirts of North Las Vegas, in the 2800 block of North Commerce, which was then a largely undeveloped desert area. The site is not far from a power plant, and mountains to the east and north are prominent landmarks. Though there was little nearby lighting in 1978, the area would have received some indirect nighttime illumination from the glow of downtown Las Vegas. When found, Mackey's body was faceup, about 20 or 30 feet from the street. Nearby, a chain link fence enclosed an adjacent construction or trucking yard in which vehicles were parked. [4] Shell casings, expended slugs, and live rounds were found at various locations near and under the body. Examination of the body disclosed five bullet wounds, including shots to Mackey's head, back, and abdomen. The Mackey murder remained unsolved in 1990. Riverside County investigators contacted Baros, whose name was in their files, seeking background information for the instant penalty retrial. Baros was interviewed in early 1990 at her New Hampshire home, then brought to Las Vegas to discuss and recreate the Mackey episode. Without prompting, Baros directed an officer and investigator to Mom's Kitchen and the Discount Oil station, then past a power plant and toward the mountains to the 2800 block of North Commerce, and finally to 1204 Helen Street. She also took them to an old ice plant and described the adjacent motel where she and defendant had stayed after the Mackey murder. Though there was no motel meeting her description in 1990, several had existed in April 1978. On cross-examination of Baros, defense counsel elicited the following: Anthony was born in a Florida hospital in July 1974. In May 1978, a month after the Mackey slaying, Baros, defendant, and Anthony were living in West Memphis, Arkansas, across the river from Memphis, Tennessee. One rainy evening, while Baros and Anthony were passengers in a car driven by defendant, they had a traffic accident on the bridge between the two cities. Anthony was killed. When Baros awoke in the hospital, she learned she had given birth to triplets. Two of the triplets, Otto Lynn and Richard Lee, died within days. The third, Julia Eva, lived five months. All were buried in West Memphis. Baros herself remained in the hospital for four months. Baros remembered things through dreams and believed defendant could communicate with her by telepathy. Testimony by defense and prosecution investigators established that inquiries to hospitals, cemeteries, health departments, and law enforcement agencies in Florida, Tennessee, and Arkansas, based on names variously used by Baros and information provided by her, had produced no record or other evidence of the births, deaths, or burials of Anthony or the triplets, or a May 1978 traffic accident involving Baros, or her hospitalization during that period. Myrtle Askew, who in 1978 owned the boardinghouse at 1204 Helen Street in North Las Vegas, confirmed that defendant and Baros lived in the house during the spring of that year, but Askew insisted that no child was with them, and that Baros never mentioned or showed signs she was pregnant during that time.