Tense Florida Murder Case: Justice Or Racism?

CROSS CITY, Fla. - On a cool January night outside the Classic Tiffany Lounge in the black section of this North Florida town, a white man and a black man fought. The white man grabbed a rifle.

He fired into a crowd of blacks.

The crowd attacked him, but the gunman escaped somehow - only to reload, return, fire again and kill a bystander.

A Dixie County grand jury of 14 whites and four blacks indicted the white man on a charge of first-degree murder - and five black men in the crowd on charges of third-degree murder, riot, felony criminal mischief and battery.

Some say justice is taking its course. Others cry racism.

Their anger boiled over last week as about 20 demonstrators walked a half-mile from the shooting site to the county courthouse, shouting: "What do we want? Justice!"

As a judge decided not to set a trial date, callers from Miami, New Jersey, California and Washington state dialed the courthouse demanding the release of the black men they are calling the "Cross City Five."

Many blacks here find fault with the investigation, the legal representation of the five men and the long delay in the emergency response to the dying man.

But they are most angry at the charges, because they believe the blacks acted in self-defense. And, they ask, if this had happened in a white neighborhood and a black man had killed a white, would whites be charged?

"No way," said Larry Williams, 36, a witness to the shooting and a friend of the dead man, Royce Rutledge. And if a black man had done the shooting, "he wouldn't get out alive."

But prosecutor David Phelps said the bottom line is that the grand jury found merit in the charges.

"The grand jury is made up of a cross-section of the community. I'm not going to say that racism doesn't exist in this world. I'm not that naive. But we're treating this case like we would any other."

`ESCALATING SITUATION'

Phelps said that as the evidence unfolded in statements taken from 10 black witnesses, "it became obvious that this killing was a direct result of an escalating situation. It escalated into a riot situation and resulted in the killing of an innocent bystander."

All six defendants are locked up. The white man charged is Jody Akins, 30, a gas-station attendant and son of a former councilman. He is being held at the Dixie County Jail without bond. A public defender, Baya Harrison, represents Akins.

The five blacks charged are Michael Carter, 22, on leave from the Navy and son of the town's suspended police chief; Tommy Lee Carter Jr., another son of the chief; Eugene "Peewee" Carter, 30, a Miami native and brother of the chief; Gary Washington, 28, a seasonal worker in watermelon fields; and Bennie Walker Jr., 20, a student. Each is held on $50,000 bond.

If convicted of third-degree murder alone, they would face 15 years. Under Florida law, it's third-degree murder if you commit a felony that plays a direct role in someone's death.

PRIVATE ATTORNEY

The five men also are represented by the public defender's office. But to avoid conflict in representing Akins, the office referred the case to a private attorney, Angela Ball.

She represents all five.

"I've had little time for the cases," she said. Last week, when a reporter interviewed four of the defendants on their 92nd day of incarceration, she had seen them briefly twice - not time enough to hear their stories or show them the statements the police say they made.

"I can't say the charges are racially motivated, but the black community feels that it is," Ball said. "It's a bad situation for everyone involved."

The case is just now attracting notice outside Cross City, 100 miles southeast of Tallahassee. Last month, a black resident contacted the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement in Oakland, a group that fights for constitutional rights of blacks. The group alerted Junis Wilson, a member of its St. Petersburg chapter, and Wilson traveled to Cross City in late March. On Monday she returned for the pretrial hearing; her group organized the call-in protest.

Wilson has labeled the community racist. She calls the charges "an attempt at a legal lynching."

"We see Cross City in the same light as Mississippi in the pre-civil rights '60s. We see it as that dangerous," she said.

But many whites and some blacks here believe that Wilson doesn't understand their town. They say Cross City may be segregated, but it's not racist.

Bill Pyle, 69, a white: "White people don't disassociate from blacks. Black people live with their own. It's not something that's forced on them. The best city councilman we have is black."

He's Dolphus Peppers, 48, councilman for 18 years, assistant principal at Dixie County High School: "Our town here is just a small place. If people know you - black or white - you can get along in Dixie County."

But Peppers said the charges are stirring up ill feelings. He doesn't understand it either: "Why are all those guys charged with third-degree murder?"

200 PAGES OF INTERVIEWS

According to more than 200 pages of police witness interviews and The Miami Herald's interviews with two dozen people, this is what happened:

Near midnight on Jan. 10, Jody Akins drove into the Quarters and bought crack cocaine twice, witnesses said. Akins denied it.

A little later, Akins stopped his pickup truck under two tall oak trees in front of the Classic Tiffany Lounge. About 40 blacks were in the area.

Akins said Michael Carter approached him and called him a narc. Michael Carter said that Akins mistook him for a drug dealer and called him a "nigger" for selling fake crack for $20.

"The guy was drunk," Michael Carter said in the prison visitation room. "And I didn't like what he was saying. I hit him in the face."

Akins pulled out a .22-caliber rifle. As Michael Carter ran, Akins fired, hitting no one.

A bystander, Lonnie "Papa Clean" Harris, snatched the rifle.

Harris said several blacks jumped Akins. He named Eugene Carter, Tommy Carter Jr., Walker and Washington. Eugene Carter, he said, smashed a truck window with an ax. Others pelted the truck with bottles, rocks and bricks.

But witnesses interviewed by The Herald said it was impossible to single out any individual who was hitting Akins.

"They could have charged every person who was there that night," said Williams, Royce Rutledge's friend. "If they are going to charge those five with third-degree murder, why not charge everybody?"

Akins escaped from the crowd. He grabbed his gun and drove off. Minutes later he stopped to reload his rifle, then raced back.

In a taped statement, he told police he was looking for a black to hit at "about 50 miles an hour."

But he hit no one, and he opened fire again. One bullet killed Rutledge, 24.

Said witness Earl West: "Royce fell and the last thing I remember him saying was, `He shot me and I ain't done nothing to him.' "

Akins sped away. Police caught him within an hour.

Unrepentant, Akins confessed.

Witnesses told The Herald that Cross City officer Robert Lee declined to medically assist Rutledge.

"I said to him, `Do something! Do something!' " recalled Denise Strong. "He said, `I don't know what to do, I don't know about this stuff.' "

Lee wouldn't comment, and he stopped further questions: "If you want to keep you and me at peace, that'll be all."