6 Found Dead in Tennessee House; 3 Others Injured

[Unamused Cat]

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=B90A60B7AB60948712F8122EC93746CA ?contentId=5930507&version=8&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WHBQ FOX13 myfoxmemphis.com) -- Memphis Police are investigating a residence on Lester Street near Faxon Avenue in Binghampton where six have died and several children have been taken away in critical condition.

Three injured victims have been transported in critical condition to LeBonheur Children's Hospital: an 7-year old male, a 10-month old female, and a 4-year old whose sex is unknown at this time.

Police have confirmed that there were six victims dead on arrival at the scene, four were adults and two were children.

[Unamused Cat]

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A convicted killer recently released from prison was charged Saturday in the deaths of six people, including his brother and two children, authorities said.

Jessie L. Dotson, 33, was arrested on Friday — five days after the bodies were discovered in a small rental house in a rough, low-income neighborhood called Binghampton. Three other children were found critically wounded.

Dotson was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted first-degree murder, police said. Among those killed was Dotson's brother, Cecil, 30, who was the father of all the children ages 9, 7, 5, 4 and 2 months. Police have not said which children died.

Dotson is accused of shooting his brother during an argument and then killing the others to get rid of witnesses.

"He tried to kill everyone in the house. He thought everyone in the house was dead," said Lt. Joe Scott, a homicide detective.

The surviving children remain under police custody at a children's hospital and authorities refused to give the extent of their injuries. Also killed were Hollis Seals, 33, Shindri Roberson, 25, and Marissa Rene Williams, 26, the mother of four of Cecil Dotson's children.

Police said the victims were killed Sunday morning. The bodies were discovered Monday.

The adults were shot, while the children were stabbed with a knife and bludgeoned, police said.

Cecil Dotson and Seals each had extensive criminal records that include possession of illegal drugs and firearms. Cecil Dotson is identified in jail records as a known gang member.

Records also show that Jessie Dotson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1994 and spent 14 years in prison. He was released from prison in January.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ipvUldxt3XcfSY6a9mjNakU9_NRAD8V9HD702

[~Absynthe~]

By Trevor Aaronson (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, June 26, 2008

The four adult victims of the Lester Street murders suffered a combined 20 gunshot wounds and the two minor victims were stabbed multiple times, according to final autopsy reports released today.

One week after the March 1 mass killings, police charged Jessie Dotson, the 33-year-old brother of one of the victims, with the murders.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jun/26/autopsy-documents-ghastliness-lester-street-murder/

[w8ng4msrgt]

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a320/w8ng4msrgt/2008%20Pictures/crise/dotson.jpg

[Jaded]

Psycho fuck!!! Damn...it sounds like a bloodbath. How terrifying.
Let's just put him out of everyone's misery now, shall we?? :mad:

[CelticMyth]

Forget the adults, I don't understand how anyone could do that to kids, especially his own nieces and nephews. Of course after 14 years in prison, with the oldest being 9, he probably didn't really have a true family connection to them.

Still I hope he fries, and I feel very happy that he most likely will. That much carnage just screams for the death penalty.

[Shadow]

it baffles the mind how anyone could stab a child, regardless of why they did it.

it is my hope that they don't 'fry' him, but that they stab him once, every day, for every time he stabbed one of those children, (start with his limbs, and be sure not to hit major arteries) and that they shoot him in the foot, or knee, once every day, for each time he shot the adults. (no pain meds or medical attention given) I honestly don't care *why* he did it, but I do agree he needs to reap what he sowed. Maybe he needs to suffer the way he made his victims suffer. This earth is too good for him, a waste of air and resources.
or maybe they could do thousands of paper cuts in various places all over his body, then submerge him in lemon juice... just a thought

~ceisdsgil

:mad2::twitch::laser:

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Prosecutors to seek death penalty in Tennessee murder rampage

A convicted killer accused of slaying four adults and two young children during a March rampage was indicted Thursday on first-degree murder charges. Prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty.

Police say Jessie Dotson, who spent 14 years in prison for killing a man during a drug deal, is accused of killing his brother after an argument and going after the other victims to get rid of witnesses.

He is charged with six counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and illegal possession of a handgun.

"We have identified seven different factors which qualify him for the death penalty under state law. That's pretty extraordinary," said Bill Gibbons, the lead state prosecutor in Memphis.

Under Tennessee law, prosecutors must show "aggravating circumstances" surrounding a crime that warrant asking a jury to return a death sentence.http://www.theleafchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008812050358

[DarkPrincess]

That man should never see the light of day.

[Silvahalo]

So fucking unbelievable. This sick bastard needed to stay in prison and rot..he is a waste of space and should not be allowed to live.

I'll be looking to read which innocent children died and of those that lived will be scared forever.

Rest in peace little ones...

I'm out of thanks so thank you UC !

[Hellsbells]

Prosecutor: Argument, fear of returning to jail motivated man to kill 6 in Memphis


MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Jessie Dotson had been out of prison several months when an argument at his brother's house turned violent, authorities said, and he gunned the man down. Desperate not to return to jail, he tried to rid the scene of witnesses — shooting and killing three other adults, then using knives and boards to kill two of his brother's children and seriously injure three others, a prosecutor said at his trial Monday.

A defense attorney countered in his own opening statement that there isn't enough evidence to convict him of one of the city's worst mass killings, and that the brother had gang ties that could have played a role in the killings.

Dotson, 35, has pleaded not guilty to six first-degree murder charges in the slayings at the Memphis house in March 2008. Dotson also is charged with three counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Prosecutor Ray Lepone said Dotson shot his brother Cecil Dotson over their argument, then attacked the rest of the people in the house to eliminate witnesses. Authorities said he then fled on a child's bicycle.

"He wasn't going back to jail, ladies and gentlemen, and he did whatever he had to do to get out of that house with no witnesses," Lepone said.

Lepone displayed crime scene photos that showed blood on living room couches, bedroom floors and a bathtub. One photo of an X-ray showed a knife blade sticking out of the skull of Cecil Dotson Jr., then 9, who survived the attack and is expected to testify.

Dotson, who served prison time for murder and was released about seven months before the killings, confessed to police and to his mother days after the bodies were found, Lepone said.

Defense attorney Marty McAfee argued prosecutors don't have enough evidence. There is no DNA connecting Jessie Dotson to the scene, while police also found several unidentified fingerprints and hair from an unknown Asian person, McAfee said. The victims and the suspect are black.

McAfee also said Cecil Dotson had ties to Memphis' "Gangster Disciples" and suggested the killings could have been gang-related. Cecil Dotson recently had a falling out with a gang member and even called the police to a gang member's house, McAfee said.

"If your theory doesn't match the physical evidence, you change your theory," McAfee said. "The evidence is going to compel you to decide not guilty."

The jury was chosen last week in Nashville in an effort to find people unfamiliar with the case. In addition to national media coverage, the investigation was featured on A&E's reality crime television series "The First 48."

Shot to death were Jessie Dotson's 30-year-old brother Cecil; Marissa Williams, the brother's 27-year-old girlfriend; and Hollis Seals, 33, and Shindri Roberson, 22, a couple who were at the house visiting.

Four-year-old Cemario Dotson and 2-year-old Cecil Dotson II also were killed.

http://www.q13fox.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-memphis-six-killed,0,16614.story

[gee]

This was shown on the "First 48 hours" This Asshole admitted he killed all of them. The nephew survived and can identify him. WTF is this defense attorney thinking. This seems like open and shut case to me. Everyone who saw that episode saw him confess and cry to his mother that he killed his family.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jul/15/16lesterweb/

[Hellsbells]

Lead Homicide Detective Shows Graphic Evidence


(Memphis 09/28/2010) -On day two of the trial for the Lester Street murders the jury hears more gruesome testimony about the killings and sees disturbing pictures of the crime scene. Jessie Dotson is accused of killing six people including two children. Most of them were members of his own family.

Sgt. Tony Mullins, the bald headed detective who was often featured on the A&E network show, The First 48, had a starring role in court today talking about the evidence investigators collected.

Using a scale model constructed by the FBI, homicide detective Sgt. Mullins described what 722 Lester Street looked like after the murders. He showed the model, sketches and even the section of ceramic wall pulled out of the house that shows the bloody palm print of one of the children beaten and stabbed to death. He suited up in protective gear to show jurors clothing of one of the victims.

Talking to the jury Mullins said, "These were the pants that were removed from Shindri Roberson. There's quite a bit of dried blood. A bullet hole went right there."

Accused murder Jessie Dotson could often be seen smiling. However, family members of the victims sitting in the courtroom say the graphic details are difficult to see and hear.

"It's tough reliving everything. I actually went in after everything was over with. I actually went in the house to look at things but reliving everything is tough," said William Perry, the cousin to victim Marissa Williams.

A large amount of shell casings were recovered along with weapons. Dotson says the crime was not committed by him but likely gangs out to get his brother, Cecil, who we learned died holding a plastic bag filled with marijuana in his hands.

We asked Perry if he believed Dotson's claim somebody else committed the crimes.

Perry said, "I just don't believe it. I just don't believe it."

All of the questions for Mullins have come from prosecutors but Dotson's lawyers are likely to be a lot tougher on Sgt. Mullins. They criticized detectives during opening statements for allowing camera crews to follow them during for the A&E show The First 48. He said, "It's not called moral certainty. It's called The First 48."

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-jessie-dotson-trial-story,0,6947129.story?track=rss

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A boy who was left to die in a bathtub with a knife sticking out of his skull testified Wednesday that his uncle was the one who attacked him in a rampage that left six people dead, including his parents and two siblings.

Cecil Dotson Jr., now 11, was stabbed in the neck and head during the March 2008 massacre.

When prosecutor Reggie Henderson asked where the man was who stabbed him, the boy pointed to his "Uncle Junior," defendant Jessie Dotson, and softly said, "Right there."
[...]

Prosecutors said Jessie Dotson got into an argument with his brother — the boy's father, Cecil Dotson — and shot him, then tried to kill potential witnesses. Authorities said Jessie Dotson, who served prison time for murder and was released about seven months before the killings, confessed to police and to his mother days after the bodies were found.

Defense attorneys contend the killings were done by angry gang members and that the boy's testimony is unreliable because of inconsistencies and the trauma he suffered.

The boy testified that he was watching TV in his sister's room when he heard gunshots. He then saw his uncle pointing a gun at his father.

"I saw sparks and smoke come out of the gun," said Cecil Dotson Jr., who was 9 at the time of the attack.

When the boy tried to call the police, he said, he was accosted by his uncle.

"He stabbed me through my head," said the boy, who has scars on the front and side of his head.

The prosecutor then asked, "He said he was going to kill you like he did your daddy and his friends?"

"Yes sir," responded the boy, who added that his uncle was the only one who attacked him.

During the investigation, Dotson Jr. gave an initial statement from his hospital bed that mentioned a person or people named "Roger" and "Roderick." It was a few days later when the boy told investigators his attacker was "Uncle Junior."

On cross examination, he acknowledged first telling investigators that a man with a bloody mask named Roderick followed an aunt inside the home after she knocked on the door late at night.

He then acknowledged he heard Roderick — who was in a gang — and his father arguing, then some shooting. A former gang member has testified that the boy's father had a falling out with members of the "Gangster Disciples."

"There was a fight in that living room between that man and your daddy?" McAfee said.

"Yes sir," the boy said.
http://www.cltv.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-six-killed-trial,0,904169.story

[gee]

This just breaks my heart that this little boy has to testify to the horrible nightmare that he lived through.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

On day twelve in the Lester Street mass murder trial, Jessie Dotson told his side of the story. The man accused of killing six people on that night in March of 2008 took the stand in his own defense Saturday morning.
[...]

Defense attorney Gerald Skahan asked, "Jessie did you kill your brother?" "No sir," Dotson replied. "Did you kill the other people in that house?" "No sir."

Under cross examination, prosecutor Ray Lepone asked Dotson why he confessed to killing 6 people and injuring 3 children on Lester Street, if he did not commit the crime. Jessie blamed Tony Armstrong, a Memphis police homicide detective at the time, for the coerced confession.

Jessie said, "After I still told him I didn't do it, that's when he said "I'll kill your [expletive deleted] ass myself you cold-hearted, killing [expletive deleted]! That's what he did." "And that made you confess to women and children?" Lepone asked. "No, no," he answered.

He continued to tell the jury that Armstrong threatened his life.

"I sit there, he said 'I got something for you, I'm going to throw your ass on the fourth floor and I'm going to let them kill your [expletive deleted] ass,' so yes, I confessed," Jessie testified.

The 35-year old defendant said he was in his brother's bedroom when he heard gunshots.

"It was a girl that was screaming, when I heard her screaming, I got under that bed," Jessie said.

Dotson said he stayed there for 30 or 40 minutes.

"What did you think had happened?" Skahan asked. "What I saw, I didn't think happened," Jessie answered.

Jessie said he never called for help.

"You don't call the police, do you?" Lepone asked. "No sir," Jessie replied. "Not even for your family?" "No sir."

Jessie went on to say, "I'm in a gang, we don't call the police. It's just that simple. We don't call the police. It's not part of what we do. If we call the police, I'll be just like my brother... I'll be just like him, dead."

Earlier testimony revealed Cecil Dotson had called the police on a fellow gang member, just two weeks before he was murdered. Jessie said his brother and the man never settled the dispute, and Cecil argued about it hours before he was murdered.

"My brother yelled out, 'Y'all know where I stay at,'" Jessie said.

Hours later, he was killed along with 3 other adults and 2 children. Jessie said he was blamed from the beginning, but wondered why the jury wasn't able to see his entire interview with Armstrong.

"Let the jury see the 5 hours. Let them see everything, not what you want them to see. Let them see everything," he stated.
[...]
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpp/news/local/100910-jessie-dotson-takes-the-stand-at-lester-street-murder-trial

[ImmortalOne]

Bullshit. He is a fucking liar who needs to get the cock out of his mouth.

I think a live lobotomy would be appropriate for this douchbag. Or a live dissection of the brain.

[Whisper]

Man guilty of 6 murder counts in Memphis rampage

Jurors took less than two hours Monday to convict a man of murdering his brother and five others, including two young nephews, in a bloody rampage in a Memphis home two years ago.
Jessie Dotson, 35, faces the death penalty for one of the city's worst mass slayings. He showed no emotion, looking straight ahead as the verdict was announced.

Jurors concluded that Dotson shot and killed his brother, Cecil Dotson, during a 2008 argument and then went after everyone else in the house with his gun and a knife to eliminate witnesses.
Three other children were stabbed but survived. One of them, Cecil Dotson Jr., now 11, was found in a bathtub with a 4½-inch knife blade embedded in his skull. He was a key prosecution witness against his uncle.

Also killed were 4-year-old Cemario Dotson and 2-year-old Cecil Dotson Jr. II; Cecil Dotson's girlfriend, Marissa Williams; and friends Hollis Seals and Shindri Robinson.

Defense attorney Gerald Skahan said his client wasn't happy with the verdict, but understood it, as did the defense team. The defense was disappointed in the speed of the jury, said attorney Marty McAfee.

"I don't see how they could have looked at everything in that time," McAfee said. "They might have been thinking about as it was being put forward. Everyone in town expected this to be a whipping. Instead it was a fist fight."

Jessie Dotson, in his testimony, blamed the attack on gang members. He said he was at the house on Lester Street, a poor and crime-ridden part of Memphis, and hid under a bed during the slayings. He said he didn't report them to police because he feared for his life.

However, prosecutors put Dotson Jr. — who was 9 at the time of the attack — on the stand last week. He testified that "Uncle Junior" shot his father and then attacked him with a knife. Another survivor, 8-year-old Cedric Dotson, also testified against his uncle.
[...]
"CJ solved it," said prosecutor Ray Lepone, who said the family was pleased with the verdict. "He had the courage to come in here and point out his uncle."


The trial has provided a glimpse into the world of Memphis gangs, with explanations of gang hierarchies and discussions of death violations — actions that result in killing as punishment.

More than 460 exhibits were entered into the record, including knife blades, bullet casings, and grisly color photos that show the bodies and blood-soaked walls, furniture and carpets. Experienced police officers who have testified have said the March 2, 2008, attack left a crime scene that was the most gruesome they've seen.

It was a day later before police were called and found Dotson Jr. in the bathtub. While he was recovering at the hospital he first told police a man named Roger or Roderick attacked his family. He later told officers it was Uncle Junior, the family's name for Jessie Dotson.

The jury was selected in Nashville because of intense local news coverage of the case, and jurors heard more than two weeks' worth of emotionally grueling testimony.

The jury now will decide beginning Tuesday if Dotson should be sentenced to death by injection.
Authorities said Dotson, who served prison time for murder and was released about seven months before the killings, escaped from the house by riding off on a child's bicycle. They introduced a confession to police and said he also confessed to his mother days after the bodies were found.
[...]http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/10/11/memphis-man-convicted-slaying-including-kids/