Opinion ID: 2390579
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The March 4th Interview

Text: Perry was scheduled for a polygraph test at 2:00 p.m. on March 4th. The police had assumed that he would arrive with Miller, who was also scheduled for a polygraph that day. When Miller arrived without Perry, the police asked Miller to find Perry and bring him back. Miller returned at noon without Perry. Miller informed Inspector Milbury and Detective Beverly that Perry would not come to the station until after he had purchased and used drugs. Realizing that Perry's drug use would cause another postponement of the twice-delayed polygraph, Milbury and Beverly set out to find Perry before he could purchase or use drugs. After looking unsuccessfully at several known Camden drug-dealing locations, they drove by Miller's 1189 Landsdowne Avenue address where they spotted Miller's car. Knowing Miller to be at the police station, they stopped to look for Perry. Entering through the partially-open door, Milbury and Beverly saw Perry at the top of the stairs. He said that although he knew that he was supposed to be at the detective bureau taking a polygraph, he wished to mellow out prior to the interview. He asked the detectives if he could then inject the drugs. They said no and confiscated the drugs, a spoon and a hypodermic needle. While under arrest for unlawful possession of those drugs and the paraphernalia, Perry stated that he nonetheless wanted to continue with the previously-scheduled polygraph test because he wanted to clear himself. After being taken to the detective bureau for that purpose, Perry again went through a pre-test interview, in which he basically repeated the same story he had previously given. James Bandock of the Camden County Prosecutor's Office then conducted the polygraph examination. In common parlance, he failed the lie detector test. The examiner told Perry the results. Perry then changed his story several times in several ways. He then agreed to give a taped statement to Detective Beverly and Inspector Milbury. In that statement, he confessed to killing Jerome Redd on Thursday, February 27, 1986. Q. Okay, Arthur, will you describe to me in your own words exactly what you know concerning the commission of this crime? A. There was a dispute over monies. He and the people he worked for was trying to get me to distribute drugs so I could have drugs free of charge and to make them money. By them knowing that I didn't need that, they pursued coming around the job, coming around our home, to give me drugs. On that Thursday when Clark got me out of prison, out of jail, and bailed me out, the young man came around to the home with two bundles to try to give me both of them so I could sell some for him. When I resisted and, to do so, we got into an argument. I did not mean to kill this man [Jerome Redd].         He stood as tall as I did, so I had to grab him. I grabbed him in the fashion that I learned in the Marine Corp., by the neck, and locking him. When we fell, the pressure of my grip strangled him obviously. He got limp for a few minutes, then he broke out into a rage as if he was trying to really get loose. I guess that's when he was losing his life. And I held him for another minute or so and he just collapsed; he died. I panicked, searched his body for any weapons or any other drugs, took him downstairs, attempted to get rid of his body out of my place, but it was too early to do so, so I camouflaged his body behind an air-conditioning unit in the basement. Didn't want to touch his body so I took a cord that was given to me and tied him up and drug him to the area which he was found and camouflaged him as much as I could.         Q. Okay. Now, again, how did this argument develop while you and he were in the residence? A. Over monies that they say that I had owed them.         Q. Now, was the victim, Jerome Redd, already in the house at that time? A. A, he had shortly came in just before I even got a chance to do anything with what I had. Q. Were you in the process of shooting your drugs . .. A. Yes. Q. Even when he came in ... A. Right.         Um, he told me he had something nice. Q. Referring to drugs? A. To the drug. I said, well, let me do this and let me check out what you've got. And he said, you know that you owe us money. I said, look, as far as I know all my debts are paid. He said, well, we can work around that; I have something for you if you want to take it and every four bags you sell you get one for yourself; if you fuck us around, you know you can't be here no more. I said, I don't have to do all of that, you know. He started cursing me out and, um, went into this little rage, and he came towards me just as I was injecting and I took one, I didn't have even a chance to boot as they call it, and I took the syringe out of me and I told him, I said, look M.F., you better back the fuck up and wait until what I got to do, figuring I could pump enough fear in him to make him shut up and wait. It didn't work. He came at me as if he had something, that's why I searched him after what went down.         A weapon. I thought he had a gun or a knife or something, cause he was too anxious to come at me. And, um, before I had gave him a chance to do such, when he walked towards me cause its a narrow room, I gave him enough room to get close enough to me where when he pointed at me, I moved to the side and I grabbed him and threw him back over me, you know. And, um, it was a method I learned from the Marine Corp. I grabbed him, threw my knee up and threw him down on it and kept him locked like that to restrain him. And, I seen that he wasn't gonna cool out and he just broke into a rage and we scuffled for a few.         And, um, I just held on to him as tight as I could, and he relaxed for a second. Now, I know when you strangle somebody the first thing that they pass out. I assume that's what happened. As soon as I gave a little bit of leeway is to let him go. He broke on me again and he had strength that I've never felt before and I knew if I let him go it was either me or him. That's when I grabbed him with the death grip and didn't let him go for at least thirty to a half a minute or even a minute. When he had no more movement in his body, I let him go. I could see then that I did something that I didn't want to do because his tongue was puffed sticking out the side of his mouth. I don't know if he was dead at that time. Maybe I could have saved his life if I would have called the police right away and an ambulance, but I didn't do that. I was scared to death and, um, I searched him for a weapon.         I did it by myself; didn't mean to do it; didn't know what was gonna happen afterwards. I was scared to death; never killed nobody in my life. Beside confessing to the method and circumstances of the killing, Perry admitted several other things. He described taking money and drugs from the lifeless Redd. He also told of carrying Redd to the basement, wrapping him in a blanket, and tying an electrical cord around his neck, thereby allowing him to drag the body across the basement floor without touching it further. He also admitted taking Redd's sheepskin jacket and selling it to one of Redd's friends. That admission corroborated information police would later receive from Sir Walter Alexander Pitt, III, who had witnessed a transaction involving the sheepskin coat on Friday, February 28, 1986. On August 20, 1986, the Camden County Grand Jury returned an eight-count indictment charging Perry with first-degree murder, contrary to N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3a(2) (count one); felony murder, contrary to N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3a(3) (count two); first-degree robbery, contrary to N.J.S.A. 2C:15-1 (count three); four counts of third-degree hindering his own apprehension, contrary to N.J.S.A. 2C:29-3b, alleging that defendant had concealed, moved, and disguised the victim's body (count four), and had nailed shut the door to the basement where the body was found and further had barricaded it with a refrigerator (count five); volunteering false information to police (count six); concealing the victim's identity and manner of death from Miller, a material witness (count seven); and possession of heroin, contrary to N.J.S.A. 24:21-20a(1) (count eight). After Perry had pled not guilty, the State filed notice of its intent to seek the death penalty because of the alleged presence of two aggravating factors, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(c) (murder involving torture/aggravated assault, or murder evidencing a depraved mind), and N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(4)(g) (murder committed in the course of a felony).