Blair Found Guilty On All Murder Counts

Judge Criticizes Police For Media Coverage

KMBC.com

March 27, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A judge convicted a man Thursday of killing six women whose bodies were dumped along the Prospect Corridor, an area frequented by prostitutes and drug dealers.

Terry Blair, 46, was found guilty of six counts of first-degree murder in the 2004 slayings. But Jackson County Circuit Judge John R. O'Malley acknowledged the case was full of conflicting expert testimony and "small pieces of circumstantial evidence."

Blair had agreed to be tried before a judge instead of jury in return for prosecutors agreeing not to pursue the death penalty. He is to be sentenced to life in prison at an April 24 hearing.

Prosecutors described Blair as calculating and determined to kill as many prostitutes as he could. At least one women had been strangled, but the causes of death of the other women could not be determined because their bodies had decomposed so badly.

Upon hearing the verdict, Blair lowered his eyes to the table while family members of his victims hugged and cried in the gallery behind him. Blair's attorneys left without speaking to reporters.

"I knew from the beginning that it would come out this way because the truth will always survive over lies and evil," said Irene Williams, mother of victim Darci Williams. "You could look in his eyes, and it's a blankness. But when he looks at a woman, it's an evil look. It's just like hatred."

Williams, who has cancer, said she feels at peace with the case.

"What time I have now, I know that justice has been served. Even here on earth he may not get all he deserves, but he will get it in the hereafter," Williams said.

Relatives of other victims said Williams became known as a kind of grandma to the families. The relatives grew close during this long ordeal, which included constant reminders of their loved one's high-risk lifestyles.

"I'm her daughter. She was somebody's mother. They weren't prostitutes, drug addicts -- they were somebody's mother. They were women," said Trish Davis, daughter of victim Patricia Wilson Butler.

Prosecutors showed that Blair's semen was found on the body of victim Sheliah McKinzie and presented evidence they said showed Blair may have been the one who called 911 to tell police where to find the bodies of victims.

Blair has denied involvement in the killings and his defense attorneys said the evidence against him was weak and circumstantial. For example, they said the semen found on McKinzie proves Blair had sex with her, not that he killed her.

But O'Malley said the placement of semen indicated McKinzie hadn't moved or attempted to clean herself after having sex.

"Since we know this semen belonged to Mr. Blair we must conclude he was present as Ms. McKinzie expired, her throat crushed by his hands and by his irrational, evil hatred of women," he said.

In addition to McKinzie, 38, Williams, 25, and Butler, 45, the victims were: Anna Ewing, 42; Carmen Hunt, 40; and Claudette Juniel, 31.

Charges against Blair in two other slayings -- those of Nellia Harris, 33, and Sandra Reed, 47 -- were dismissed in October. Harris, unlike the other victims, was killed in 2003.

Blair also had been charged in three rapes and an assault that involved four victims who survived their attacks. Those charges also were dropped.

Blair was arrested in September 2004 when he was on parole for the 1982 murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Angela Monroe, who was the mother of two of his children. He had served 21 years in prison.

KMBC's Peggy Breit reported that before announcing the verdict, the judge criticized the Kansas City Police Department for its media coverage of the case. The Blair investigation was featured on the cable program "The First 48" on A&E.

The show followed Kansas City detectives as they discovered the women's bodies. A clip of the 7 1/2-hour interrogation appeared on the show. Defense attorneys fought to throw out the interrogation, but the judge decided it did not violate Blair's constitutional rights to a fair trial.

The judge said the police officers should be more concerned about solving crimes rather than television.

"I respectfully suggest, if you don't want problems, you need to pursue the criminals instead of the cameras," O'Malley said.

He also said mistakes were caused by the presence of the cameras, and the sometimes shoddy policework allowed the defense to effectively dispute evidence.

Closing arguments made in Terry Blair trial

Jenn Strathman - NBCActionNews.com

March 21, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The fate of accused serial killer Terry Blair now lies in the hands of a Jackson County judge.

Closing arguments were held in the trial Friday.

Blair is charged with killing six women who worked as prostitutes. Their bodies were found along the Prospect Corridor in 2004.

Charges against Blair in two other slayings were dismissed by Jackson County Circuit Judge John R. O'Malley in October.

Blair agreed to a non-jury trial in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors also earlier agreed to dismiss charges against Blair in the two other killings, three rapes and an assault.

The prosecution alleged Blair killed the six women because he thought all prostitutes were scum, showing pictures of the six women killed and describing how each one was killed.

Earlier in the trial, a former prostitute testified that Blair once told her he wanted to "kill all prostitutes."

Jackson County Prosecutor Michael Hunt said Blair's DNA was found on the women and is the link to the killer.

But the defense argued that hairs and DNA also left links to others. "Some of this DNA is not [Blair's]," defense attorney Cynthia Dryden said. "When you start pulling out part and considering only some…you can make it fit whatever you want."

The defense also questioned the Kansas City Police Department's investigation, specifically how they pinpointed where 911 calls were made. Those calls played a large role in the case.

The prosecution said Blair made the calls that described in detail where the bodies of the women were hidden.

A voice analysis expert testified for the defense that the voice on the calls did not match Blair's voice patterns.

The defense said the prosecution did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Blair committed the murders.

Expert: Anonymous caller likely not Blair

NBCActionNews.com

March 13, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The clipped, matter-of-fact voice on two 911 calls telling police where to find the bodies of five women the caller claimed to have killed is not likely the voice of the man charged in the deaths, a linguistics expert testified Thursday.

Thomas Purnell, an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, testified for the defense in the fourth day of the trial for accused serial killer Terry Blair.

Blair faces first-degree murder charges in the deaths of six women whose bodies were found after an anonymous 911 caller told police in September 2004 about the bodies and where the caller said he had put them.

"It's unlikely that the two speakers, the 911 call speaker and Mr. Blair, are the same person," Purnell said.

In his testimony, Purnell described the complex analysis he performed on the 911 calls and telephone conversations between Blair and his grandmother and Blair and a television reporter that were made while Blair was in jail awaiting trial.

Purnell said Blair and the caller shared some voice characteristics, such as being male, African-American and urban. But he said among other things, their pitch and pacing were different.

Blair, 46, is charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the 2004 deaths of six Kansas City women: Ewing and McKinzie; Patricia Wilson Butler, 45; Darci I. Williams, 25; Carmen Hunt, 40; and Claudette Juniel, 31.

Charges against Blair in two other slayings - those of Nellia Harris, 33, and Sandra Reed, 47 - were dismissed in October. Harris, unlike the other victims, was killed in 2003.

Blair agreed to a nonjury trial before Jackson County Judge Circuit John R. O'Malley in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty. Prosecutors also earlier agreed to dismiss charges against Blair in two other killings, three rapes and an assault.

Blair has denied involvement in the killings.

In the 911 calls, which were played by the defense in the courtroom Thursday, the caller, who seems to have a slight accent, tells the dispatcher immediately in the first call that he wants to report a dead body. He tells precisely where the body can be found, down to the color of the house.

"How do you know a dead body is there?" the dispatcher asks.

"I put it there," the caller responds.

When asked to give his name, the caller, says, "Oh, no," and then repeats where the body is.

"Look up under the branches under the bushes by the alley," he says. "It's an abandoned house. It's red." He says the body has been there for two months.

When asked if he knows the victim's name, he says he doesn't.

"She's a prostitute."

So were the other two, he says.

"You killed them also?"

"Yeah."

The dispatcher asks how he killed them. "You strangled her?"

The caller hangs up.

On the second call, which came in the next day, the caller says he wants to report two more bodies of prostitutes. He calls them "scum."

"It's a disgrace," he says. He says one of the bodies has been there a week and is starting to stink. He refuses to give his name, but says he can be referred to as "Scott," and that he will call the next day. He says there are six more bodies to be found.

On cross-examination, Assistant Prosecutor Michael Hunt asked Purnell if the caller could have been disguising his voice because "he's talking to police and telling them about six people he's killed."

"When he's talking to his grandma, the consequences are a whole lot different than when he's talking to the police about six murders he committed," Hunt said.

Purnell said the caller could have been disguising his voice, and acknowledged that he had never performed such an analysis before for court proceedings. He had only done them in the classroom.

Terry Blair avoids death penalty by agreeing to trial without jury

By Joe Lambe, The Kansas City Star

February 2, 2008

Jackson County prosecutors agreed today to no longer seek the death penalty against a man charged with murdering six women whose bodies were found along the Prospect Corridor.

As part of the deal, prosecutors also permanently dismissed charges for two other murders, three rapes and an assault.

In exchange, Terry A. Blair, 46, agreed to a non-jury trial before a judge.

At a hearing this morning, Jackson County judge John O’Malley approved the agreement, which is similar to that given last year to serial killer Lorenzo Gilyard.

Gilyard, also tried before O’Malley, was convicted last year of strangling six women in 1986 and 1987 and sentenced to life without parole.

Based on DNA evidence, Gilyard was originally charged with murdering 13 women but prosecutors elected to try only seven cases. O’Malley found there was not enough evidence in one of those to convict.

Blair’s trial is scheduled to start March 10 on the six murders. All those cases were connected by 911 calls to police that helped them locate the bodies in the corridor between July and September of 2004.

The Kansas City Star

February 1, 2008

Associated Press

Jackson County prosecutors again are making a deal with a suspected serial killer.

This time, the suspect is Terry Blair, who is being allowed to avoid the death penalty in exchange for him agreeing to be tried by a judge instead of a jury, The Kansas City Star reported on its Web site Friday.

Blair, 46, is charged with the 2004 slayings of six women, whose bodies were dumped in Kansas City neighborhoods frequented by drug addicts and prostitutes. His trial is scheduled to start March 10.

Jackson County Circuit Judge John O'Malley approved the agreement between Blair and prosecutors at a hearing. The agreement is similar to one allowed last year for Lorenzo Gilyard, who went on to be sentenced to life without parole for strangling six women in 1986 and 1987.

A spokesman for the Jackson County prosecutor's office did not immediately return an e-mail or phone message from The Associated Press on Friday.

Blair's attorneys had asked the judge to dismiss the murder charges or forbid the death penalty in the case, saying investigators' handling of the evidence had kept the defense from being able to do its job.

For example, they said videotape footage showing someone dumping one of the bodies sat for three years at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., before they were able to look at it.

O'Malley denied the attorneys' requests at a hearing in September but scolded investigators.

The six slayings that Blair is accused of committing were connected by 911 calls to police that helped them locate the bodies in 2004.

Blair is charged with the deaths of Sheliah McKinzie, 38; Patricia Wilson Butler, 45; Darci I. Williams, 25; Anna Ewing, 42; Carmen Hunt, 40; and Claudette Juniel, 31. The women were all strangled.

Charges against Blair in two other slayings — those of victims Nellia Harris, 33, and Sandra Reed, 47 — were dismissed by O'Malley in October. Harris, unlike the other victims, was killed in 2003.

Blair was charged in McKinzie's death in September 2004 after semen left on the victim's body led investigators to link him to the crime. Three months later, charges were added in the other women's deaths.

At the time of his arrest, Blair was on parole after serving 21 years for the 1982 murder of Angela Monroe, his pregnant ex-girlfriend and the mother of two of his children.