Opinion ID: 1737820
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: leatherwood

Text: At 8:00 a.m. on May 3 Robert Neal (Bob) Hopkins, a detective with the Hattiesburg police department, questioned Leatherwood in his office. Only the two were present. Hopkins read the Miranda warning to Leatherwood, who admitted that he had pinched the victim on the butt and said dirty words to her, but no more. Asked if he would take a polygraph, Leatherwood refused, saying he knew he could not pass it. Hopkins then asked Leatherwood if he would give him a statement as to what he had told me and Leatherwood said, he thought he might ought to talk to a lawyer first. He questioned him no further. Leatherwood was taken before a magistrate that day who entered two orders, both dated May 3, one appointing Jefferson Blakeley Stewart, the county public defender, to represent him, and the other finding that Stewart had been appointed to defend him, that he was charged with capital rape, and that he had been advised in open court that he was not required to make any statements, that he had a right to counsel, and had the right to communicate with counsel, family or friends, and a right to a preliminary hearing. At 10:00 p.m. on May 3 Leatherwood was questioned by Jimmy Dale Williams, a detective lieutenant with the Hattiesburg police department. Williams again gave Leatherwood the Miranda warning, and Leatherwood signed the form acknowledgement. Following this Leatherwood gave a confession to having sex with the victim about a year previously, which was incorporated in a written statement he signed. Aside from the confession reduced to writing, he admitted verbally to having sex with the victim three or four times. This statement was notarized by Hedy Lamar Keyes, deputy clerk with the police department. The grand jury of Forrest County indicted Leatherwood for forcible rape of the victim, in violation of Miss. Code Ann. § 97-3-65(1). Trial began January 27, 1985. At trial he was represented by John Anderson, a successor county public defender to Stewart.