Opinion ID: 2075877
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Dawson's Apprehension

Text: Patty Dennis (Dennis) testified that she encountered Dawson in the Zoo Bar in Milford, Delaware, on the evening of December 1, 1986. Dennis went to the bar around 6:00 p.m. on that date. Her roommate, Geraldine Ryan (Ryan), entered the Zoo Bar at approximately 7:00 p.m., and began talking to a man Dennis did not know. After a period of time, Dennis, Ryan, the man with whom she was speaking and several others went to another bar called the Hide-A-Way. Ryan's companion was wearing a black leather jacket which was too big for him. The group subsequently left the Hide-A-Way and went back to the Zoo Bar. Ryan's companion was asked to leave the Zoo Bar upon his return. Dennis identified Dawson as Ryan's companion. On December 1, 1986, at approximately 9:25 p.m., Sergeant Keith Hudson (Sergeant Hudson) of the Milford Police Department noticed a person matching Dawson's description leaving the Zoo Bar. Sergeant Hudson testified that the person he saw was approximately five feet ten inches tall, weighed about one hundred seventy-five pounds, had long hair, a beard, and was wearing a black leather motorcycle type of jacket and hat. Sergeant Hudson testified that the person he observed exiting from the Zoo Bar, turned left at a street corner and disappeared. Sergeant Hudson and another officer pursued this individual, without success. However, Sergeant Hudson did locate Mrs. Kisner's 1986 Chrysler LeBaron in a parking lot near the Zoo Bar. The police recovered a Herr's corn chip bag and the cellophane wrapper for a cigarette carton from inside the Kisner car. It was subsequently determined that Dawson's fingerprints were on both of these items. A postcard was also found in the Kisner car. It was signed with Dawson's nickname, Abaddon. [3] Approximately one hour later, at 10:30 p.m., on December 1, 1986, Trooper Douglas Hudson (Trooper Hudson) of the Delaware State Police, responded to a call to investigate a one-car accident on Sussex County Route 207. That accident involved a blue Ford LTD which had been driven across the road into a ditch. The vehicle sustained extensive damage to the left front quarter panel, the front window, and the grill. At approximately 3:55 a.m., the following morning, it was discovered that the Ford LTD had been stolen from a location in the vicinity of the Zoo Bar. A hat, similar to the one which Sergeant Hudson had seen on the person he had chased the previous evening, was found in the vehicle. This caused Trooper Hudson to begin a house-to-house search in the area for Dawson. At 5:25 a.m., the police found Dawson hiding on the floor of a Cadillac, which was parked approximately three-tenths of a mile from the Route 207 accident scene. He had a cut on his ear and blood on his hands. He was wearing the black motorcycle jacket which had been stolen from the Seeneys. In the jacket pockets, the police found four of the pocket watches [4] that had been stolen from the Seeneys. Among the currency seized from Dawson was at least one two dollar bill. A cotton sock, which visually appeared to match the sock used to gag Madeline Kisner, was also taken from Dawson's pocket.