Opinion ID: 170999
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Nathaniel Madison

Text: Nathaniel Madison was the first witness. He testified as follows: In late September 1995 Damon Tate drove Mr. DeLozier, Bo Madison, Bubba Oliver, Paradise Wooten, and him to a campsite on the Glover river that they called the Tate bus because of a bus on the site that had been converted for camping. The next day they all smoked marijuana but were not high because the marijuana was not good. In the afternoon Mr. DeLozier, Bo, Bubba, and he left the camp on four wheelers to look for a generator that they had heard the previous night; they had agreed to steal it. They found the generator at the Morgan camp, where they saw Morgan and Bullard and stopped to talk. Nathaniel noticed the generator, ice chests, and various other camping equipment. When they returned to the Tate bus, Mr. DeLozier again brought up the idea of stealing the generator. Nathaniel, Bo, and Bubba thought that it was a good idea. As they were sitting around a campfire that evening, Mr. DeLozier suggested that they just shoot the men and take everything that they had. Bo and Nathaniel, but not Bubba, agreed. After a discussion of 15 or 20 minutes, Bo, Nathaniel, and Mr. DeLozier decided to lie down, intending to wait a while so that the victims would be asleep when they arrived at the Morgan camp. Later they noticed that the generator had stopped running, so the three men walked to the Morgan camp through the woods. Mr. DeLozier carried a shotgun and Bo carried a .22 caliber rifle. Upon arriving at the campsite, Mr. DeLozier and Bo each stepped into the camper, fired a shot toward the back of the camper, and then hid behind a pickup at the site (Morgan's pickup). From there, Bo fired additional shots into the camper. As instructed by Mr. DeLozier, Nathaniel began yelling for the occupants to come out. About 20 minutes later Morgan came to the door of the trailer. Mr. DeLozier told him to come out, assuring him that nothing would happen to him. But when Morgan finally emerged, Mr. DeLozier stepped out from behind the truck and shot him with the shotgun. Mr. DeLozier then took the .22 from Bo and shot Morgan in the face. After the shooting the three men loaded goods from the camper into Morgan's pickup and drove it back to the Tate bus. They later returned, again filled the pickup with goods, and drove back to the Tate bus. Among the items that they took were two automatic shotguns and a .22 rifle. Some time after the first trip, Michelle Tate (Mr. DeLozier's sister), Damon Tate (her husband), and Shawn Smith arrived at the campsite. Michelle asked where they had gotten the truck and the goods. Mr. DeLozier answered that they had borrowed the truck and ... got the stuff at the getting place. R. Vol. 8 at 572. Mr. DeLozier and the Madisons later set out in the pickup on a third trip to the Morgan camp. But they met an oncoming vehicle on their way. Mr. DeLozier pulled the truck to the side of the road and they fled. The Madisons went in a different direction than Mr. DeLozier did, and they never saw him again. As the Madisons walked back to the Tate bus, about five minutes after fleeing the truck, Nathaniel saw the truck catch on fire. Ten minutes later he saw the Morgan camper catch on fire and assumed that Mr. DeLozier had started the fires. When Nathaniel and Bo arrived at the Tate bus, they changed clothes, grabbed the guns used in the shootings, and walked to Damon Tate's house. Damon drove them to meet Nathaniel's mother. In exchange for the ride, Nathaniel gave Damon the .22 used in the shooting; Nathaniel returned the shotgun to the owner, his brother Tim. Nathaniel was arrested early the next morning. He was then interviewed by an investigator with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), and he was interviewed again the next day. He had not yet retained an attorney nor been offered a plea agreement. Mr. DeLozier's attorney, Robert Perrine, cross-examined Nathaniel. Although Nathaniel had testified on direct that his testimony was consistent with what he had said in both interviews with the OSBI, Perrine pursued possible inconsistencies: Nathaniel had testified that Mr. DeLozier was the one who had first spoken of killing Morgan and Bullard, but Perrine suggested that (1) in Nathaniel's initial interview he had said that there had been no talk of killing the victims before they went to the Morgan camp and (2) in the later interview he had said that Bo spoke of killing the men before their first trip to the camp. In response, Nathaniel admitted that it was possible that he had lied during his second interview. Also, although Nathaniel had testified that the murders occurred on the first trip to the Morgan camp and that he, Mr. DeLozier, and Bo were together on every trip made to the camp, Perrine intimated that Nathaniel had told OSBI agents in his first interview that Mr. DeLozier had made a trip to the camp by himself and, when he returned, told Nathaniel and Bo that he had set fire to the campsite. Nathaniel admitted that if he had said that, it was a lie. On further cross-examination Nathaniel admitted that he and Bo, not Mr. DeLozier, had left the camp area with the murder weapons. Perrine then elicited that in return for testifying against Mr. DeLozier, Nathaniel would be charged with conspiracy to murder, rather than murder in the first degree, and his punishment would be only ten years' imprisonment and ten years' probation. Perrine also questioned Nathaniel about a letter that he had written to Paradise Wooten saying that he would lie to get even and advising her to lie under oath if she found herself in trouble. Asked whether he was capable of lying under oath, he admitted that he was.