Opinion ID: 2581123
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: autry's testimony[1]

Text: {26} Autry was the third eyewitness at trial. Dunlap testified that Autry was present at the party on January 1, 1982, but Knight testified that Autry was not there. Autry testified that he was not at a party on January 1, 1982, but that Worley picked him up at a Dairy Queen. With Worley were Case, Brown, Tweedy, Dunlap, and Mitchell. They drove around for a while and then went to Six Mile Dam. While they were there, Worley reached out to pinch Mitchell on the breast and she slapped him, so he hit her and knocked her down to the ground. Autry testified that when she tried to get back up, Case pushed her down once. He thought that Brown appeared to have something like a stick or a piece of pipe, and he said that Brown hit her with it. While she was on the ground, Autry saw Worley grab Mitchell's pants and rip them open, and the other boys all jumped down on her like a bunch of vultures, holding her down and trying to tear her clothes off. He ran home once he saw what was happening. {27} After that day, Autry testified that he received a number of threatening calls from Worley and Case. When the police first interviewed him he did not tell them what had happened, because he said that he and his family had been threatened. He told the police that he was not present when Mitchell was attacked, but he failed a lie detector test when he claimed he did not know what happened to her. After the test, Autry decided to tell the police what happened that night. Autry testified that he did not see either Knight or a truck during the events he witnessed. During cross-examination, he stated that he did not see anyone have sexual intercourse with Mitchell. Autry also acknowledged that he had initially been charged with Mitchell's rape and murder, but he was told that if he testified to what he knew, he would go home.