Although I have given considerable attention to the Brandon McClelland case in Paris, Texas I haven’t joined the “hate crime” chorus.  

Certainly, if the men accused of intentionally dragging Brandon beneath their truck are guilty as charged this case qualifies as a hate crime.

But are Shannon Keith Finley and Charles Ryan Crostley responsible for Brandon’s death?  I have always tied to maintain an open mind on that score.  Friends of Justice isn’t in the business of denouncing hate crimes; our mission is to restore respect for due process to the American criminal justice system.  Among other things, that means taking the presumption of innocence seriously no matter how damning the evidence initially appears or how much we want the defendant to get his just deserts.

Howard Witt’s article in the Chicago Tribune doesn’t claim that a key witness sang in harmony with the state in exchange for lenient treatment on unrelated charges, but the facts create an uneasy feeling. 

And what happened to the carnage police investigators initially discovered on the undercarriage of the truck?  Sophisticated forensic testing has failed to corroborate the official version of the facts.  How do we explain the discrepancy?

This doesn’t mean the state has no case; it means that, pending a full disclosure of the discernible facts, we all need to ride loose in the saddle.

Evidence frays in murder case

Forensic tests don’t back initial claim in racially charged dragging death

By Howard Witt

Tribune correspondent

12:58 AM CDT, April 13, 2009

PARIS, Texas – Four months after a grand jury indicted two white men in connection with the dragging death of a black man in this racially troubled northeast Texas town, key evidence against the pair appears to be evaporating amid growing optimism by one defense attorney that he can win an acquittal when the first case comes to trial in July.

Police had alleged that Shannon Keith Finley and Charles Ryan Crostley, both 28, had used Finley’s pickup truck to run over and drag to death Brandon McClelland, 24, on a rural road before dawn Sept. 16. Local civil rights activists denounced the case as a racially inspired hate crime.

But an initial police claim that investigators had found blood on the underside of the pickup has not been confirmed by more thorough forensic testing, which failed to verify the presence of any human material or DNA beneath the truck, special prosecutor Toby Shook confirmed to the Tribune.

“Initial scientific analysis of the truck didn’t show anything,” Shook said, noting that there was evidence that the suspects had washed the truck before it was impounded by investigators. “We are sending it back for further tests.”

Moreover, a crucial prosecution witness-to whom police said Finley allegedly confessed details of the killing-has been challenged on his credibility, which could undermine any testimony he might give against Finley.

The witness, James Mitchell Laster, told police that Finley had told him that he had intentionally run over McClelland and dragged his body beneath his truck for about 40 feet, according to a police affidavit.

But Laster has a lengthy criminal record, and in January 2008 was charged with aggravated assault for allegedly beating Finley. The Lamar County district attorney later dismissed the charge.

“Laster almost killed Shannon,” said Ben Massar, Finley’s defense attorney. “This guy is not a credible person. He is a violent person.”

Finley and Crostley, who claimed to have been friends of McClelland’s, have denied to police that they were involved in his death. Instead, Finley told police and McClelland’s family that the pair had picked up McClelland for a late-night beer run and that later, after a quarrel over Finley’s ability to drive safely, McClelland had asked to be let out of the truck so he could walk home.

After McClelland’s body was discovered, Finley fled to Wichita, Kan., where he was arrested.

Massar said he has an alternative theory of the crime that he intends to present to the jury when Finley, the first defendant to be prosecuted, goes on trial in three months. The trial will be moved from Paris to nearby Hopkins County because Massar persuaded a Lamar County judge that publicity about the case had tainted the local jury pool.

The two-lane road where McClelland’s body was found is a common route for large trucks carrying gravel from a nearby pit, and Massar said the battered state of McClelland’s partially dismembered body was consistent with having been struck by a heavy gravel truck traveling at high speed.

“We have two witnesses that will be very good for us – two guys from Arkansas that came upon the body just moments after they were run off the road by a gravel truck,” Massar said. “Look, this case is a tragic situation. The fact that somebody died is difficult to overcome. But we’re very confident in this case.”

McClelland’s mother, Jacqueline, said she remains convinced that Finley and Crostley killed her son and is distressed that the case against them seems to be unraveling.

“I feel like everyone is trying to get these guys off,” she said. “The stories are changing up so much. One minute they tell me they found blood on the truck, and then they say they didn’t find anything. All I want is justice for my son’s murder.”

hwitt@tribune.com