DNA tests show that semen found in the body of Deborah Sykes more than ten years ago didn't belong to Darryl Hunt, the man convicted twice of killing her.
Hunt's attorneys, who sought the tests, hailed the results and said that Hunt should be released from prison.
"This evidence not only frees Darryl Hunt; it also frees the prosecution to pursue the real killer of Debbie Sykes," said James E. Ferguson, one of Hunt's attorneys.
But prosecutor Eric Saunders disagreed.
"I don't think that any results on Darryl Hunt alone is dispositive of this case," Saunders said. "All it shows is that he didn't have vaginal intercourse with her."
Prosecutors indicted Sammy Mitchell in 1990, before Hunt's second trial, but have made no moves to try Mitchell.
If Hunt participated in the crime in any way, including just acting as a lookout, he is as guilty under the law as any other participant. But because the information is new evidence, it gives Hunt a stronger argument for winning a third trial from the N.C. Supreme Court.
Hunt has been convicted twice of murder in Sykes' killing and is serving a life sentence. His attorneys announced the test results yesterday at the Hall of Justice and filed motions asking Judge Melzer A. Morgan of Forsyth Superior Court to dismiss the murder charge against Hunt and order his immediate release from prison, where he has been since 1985 except for a few months between his first and second trials.
Larry Little, a former alderman who has fought to prove Hunt's innocence since his arrest, said he has agreed to take custody of Hunt.
Hunt's attorney's also filed a motion in the N.C. Supreme Court asking to freeze Hunt's appeal there until Morgan can rule on the other motions. Morgan denied a request for a third trial from Hunt's attorneys in August. They argued then that prosecutors intentionally withheld evidence that should have cast doubt on Hunt's guilt, but Morgan said that the information defense attorneys uncovered did not merit a third trial. Morgan's order went to the N.C. Supreme Court, which is still waiting for further arguments from state appellate prosecutors and hunt's attorney's before issuing a final ruling.
If Morgan denies the new requests from Hunt's attorneys; then all of the information will join Hunt's full appeal before the state Supreme Court.
Morgan's secretary said yesterday that the judge is on vacation until next week. Hunt's attorneys said they hope to schedule a hearing with him within a few weeks.
Saunders and Donald K. Tisdale, who was the district attorney during Hunt's first trial, said they were not surprised by the test results. "It doesn't prove anything one way or the other," Tisdale said. "It doesn't absolve him."
Saunders agreed. "It's been my position since I've been involved in this case that Mr. Hunt and Mr. Mitchell were involved together," he said.
Saunders said he has begun preparations for a warrant to draw a blood sample from Mitchell to compare with the sample from Sykes. Mitchell is in prison on an unrelated murder conviction.
If the test results are positive for Mitchell, Saunders said he will probably seek the death penalty at Mitchell's trial.
Saunders also said for the first time that he may seek a warrant to test Johnny Gray, also known as Johnny McConnell, who was a witness against Hunt. Attorneys and leaders of the black community who have rallied around Hunt have said for years that Gray alone killed Sykes.
As recently as August, Saunders said he had no plans to prosecute Gray. Saunders said then that he believed that Gray was involved but didn't have any creditable evidence against him. Gray is also in prison on another murder conviction.
Saunders said yesterday that he hasn't yet decided when he will seek a blood sample from Gray or if it will be before or after he receives test results from Mitchell.
This doesn't mark the first time that physical evidence has confused the question of Hunt's guilt or innocence. Preliminary blood typing test in 1985 showed that Hunt has blood type B and Mitchell has blood type A while the semen found in Sykes was blood type O. But experts later testified that substances in Sykes' body could have altered the results of the blood test on the semen. DNA tests are viewed as more accurate.
Mark Rabil and Hunt's other attorneys say they are angered by Saunders' statement that Hunt is still guilty of the rape as Mitchell's accomplice, because they day that contradicts the picture of the crime that prosecutors presented to jurors at Hunt's two trials. Prosecutor H. Dean Bowman, for example, graphically argued to jurors in 1990 that Hunt himself was responsible for the rape.
"Their theory is that Darryl Hunt raped her and then killed her," Rabil said. "To shift gears and argue a different theory as to the same person really doesn't make sense."
Little, the Rev. Carlton Eversley and others have said that Hunt has been wrongly accused by a power structure too arrogant to admit that it targeted the wrong man.
"Ten years of Darryl Eugene Hunt's life have been washed away in the prison system of this state," Eversley said. "We will now see if there is a shred of decency in Mr. (District Attorney Tom) Keith and the other officials of this state."
Keith referred all questions about the case to Saunders.
Little said he is angry."For 10 years we've had to battle people who question our interest in truth and justice. You get some information and you feel relieved, but at the same time you feel angry because we shouldn't have to.
"When the citizens of the city of Winston-Salem realize that the state blew this case from the beginning ... they're going to say, 'How the hell could this happen?'"