Dawn breaks over courthouse on alleged Blood's judgment day
Bulletin: A McLennan County Jury found
Rickey Cummings guilty of capital murder after about 2 hours of
deliberation. The Court gave jurors the case at 10:30 a.m. On Monday
morning, Judge Ralph T. Strother will charge them with the task of
assessing Mr. Cummings' punishment for the murder of two Waco youths
who died by gunshot wounds in a March, 2011, attack.
If they feel he is likely to be
a continuing threat to society, they will assess the penalty of death
by lethal injection. If there is any mitigating circumstance that
would lead them to believe he will not be a threat to corrections
officers and other prisoners, he will be sentenced to a life term in
the penitentiary without the possibility of parole.
Waco
- An accused gunman who the State of Texas has characterized as a
gang banger awaits his fate in district court where his trial for
capital murder concluded this morning.
According
to published reports, jurors listened while prosecutors called
accused gunman Rickey Cummings a murderer. Greg Davis and Michael
Jarrett urged them to find him guilty of the capital murder of two
east Waco youths, one of whom they insist Mr. Cummings conspired to
kill in retaliation for the murder of a close friend.
Judge Strother pets Sam, the Sheriff's drug dog, who has been on patrol the past two weeks during a murder trial
They
told jurors that evidence and testimony points to an affiliation with
a nationwide crime syndicate of drug sellers called the Bloods, who
hail from Chicago.
Defense
attorneys Walter Reaves and Russ Hunt, Sr., described him as a smart
man who not only handled himself well as a witness in his own
defense, but as an individual who should be acquitted of the crimes
for which he has been on trial for the past two weeks. According to
Mr. Reaves, there is no evidence that he killed, nor is there any
proof of gang activity on his part.
Judge
Ralph T. Strother told newsmen he will sequester the jurors if
necessary until they arrive at a verdict.
Waco - Following two weeks of testimony, jurors will begin deliberations in the case of People v. Rickey Cummings this morning following final arguments and the judge's charge. Mr. Cummings, if found guilty, will face either a recommendation of life without parole or execution by lethal injection for his alleged role in a double murder that left two other young men wounded. Prosecutors have theorized that the motive for the gun attack that took place at a subsidized housing project in March of 2011 in east Waco involved retaliation for a murder that took place in April, 2010.
An all-white jury of 12 persons and one alternate, 7 women and 6 men, watched this video yesterday concerning the murder of Emuel "Man Man" Bowers, III, at Hood Street Park in 2010. (Click here for an earlier report)
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Para Ordnance .45 Cal. "Wild Hog" concealment model
Waco – As the grueling two hour cross examination of accused
capital murderer Ricky Cummings wore on, the 23 year-old man began to
look more and more bewildered.
His
forthright demeanor weakened, his tone softened until he was barely
audible. Judge Ralph T. Strother reminded him repeatedly to speak
more directly into the microphone in front of his face where sat in
the witness stand.
As
the rapid questions came at him, fired with blazing speed from a
proven prosecutor, a major dude from Big D and Georgetown with a lot
of stuff on the hard ball, a pattern began to emerge, that of a
beleaguered young man in way over his head and trying to bluff his
way past the incisive questions of a seasoned prosecutor.
His
tone and demeanor becoming more and more belligerent as the exchange
wore on, finally, lead prosecutor Michael Jarrett said in acidic
tones of Mr. Cummings' performance after a terrified woman slammed
the apartment door in his face where he had attempted to enter and
finish off the two wounded men, “Like the coward you are, you ran
away.”
He
made no attempt to hide his disgust. He has a resume that includes stints as lead prosecutor in ultra-conservative Dallas and Williamson Counties.
In
a fashion similar to all the other answers to those kind of
penetrating questions, Mr. Cummings said that no, he didn't run away
because he had nothing to run from. He simply was not present when
the shooting took place.
Contrary
to what Mr. Jarrett asked him, said Mr. Cummings, he had no need to
shoot the two wounded men and eliminate any witnesses to the
killings. He simply wasn't there.
In
fact, he hitched a ride to a location a few blocks away with an
acquaintance, and “inadvertently” left his cell phone and pistol
in a large pocket on the back seat of the gang bangers' car when he
alighted. That's when he heard the dozens of reports of rifle and
pistol fire at Lakeside Villas, he testified.
“What's
the single most important tool when you're selling drugs?” the
prosecutor asked. Ricky Cummings couldn't answer. He wasn't selling
drugs. The prosecutor filled in the blanks for him. He told the
jurors it's the cell phone. Next most important, the gun.
Then
he waved the .45 caliber Para Ordnance Wild Hog slim subcompact
stainless steel concealment model ACP pistol in his face. It's just
over $1,000 the copy new – about $500 used.
The
same went for any questions regarding his status as a local chieftain
in a street gang affiliated with the national crime syndicate, the
Bloods, an organization founded in Chicago decades ago.
“Wouldn't
it be disrespectful to say you were a Blood up till now, then say
you're not?” the prosecutor asked him.
No,
that wasn't a problem, for he had never said he is a Blood.
There
is the tattoo that covers his entire back. It's a mural devoted to
the death of his close friend, a “brother” named Emuel Bowers,
III, who perished at the hands of gunmen in a park on Hood Street.
The prosecutor showed a photo of the tattoo on the projector screen
in the court room.
There
are depictions of crime scene tape, a skull wearing ear phones and
the notation “See no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil.”
Mr.
Jarrett asked if that doesn't mean “You'd better not say anything.”
Then
there's a crescent moon and five-pointed star, “Death before
dishonor” - in remembrance of the time he almost joined the
Marines, then backed out - and incidences of the letter “s”
crossed out and replaced with the figure 5 – a national symbol of
the Bloods to commemorate an important date in their founding in May
of a year several decades in the past.
Mr.
Cummings denied it all, but his story was getting weaker and weaker.
Matters
had gone downhill for him from the get go when jurors were handed a
transcript to interpret the lyrics of a brief video made “In loving
memory of” Emuel Bowers, III.
The
lyrics, written by Mr. Cummings' younger brother when he was still in
high school, have such things as “Starch it down, fire it up.”
It's a veiled reference to shooting people, according to the
prosecutor.
Cummings
denied it all.
He
had never heard of an organization called the “Hood Street Boys,”
but he is in a video with his brother that begins with a golf cap
imprinted with their logo doused in an accelerant and lit off with a
match – going up in flames.
In
all questions regarding the video, he said he didn't write the
lyrics, so he doesn't know what they mean. "Come on!" Mr. Jarrett fairly shouted. "This is about shooting people, isn't it?"
Mr Cummings finally admitted saying that, “If I wasn't paying attention, I
would think someone in that car was trying to hurt me” when the
Mercury Marquis, the car in which the young men were sitting when
they were shot, swerved in the parking lot of Lakeside Villas where
he was walking, as if to clip him as it passed.
With
each question and answer, the prosecutor put more evidence in the
minds of the jurors that will place Ricky Cummings on the scene of
the fatal shootings.
“What
you're doing is you're trying to build an alibi, aren't you?” Mr.
Jarrett asked him.
He
doesn't need an alibi. He was not there, said Ricky Cummings, though
three women said he was there. They saw him. One of them, a terrified
woman wounded by a stray bullet that penetrated the wall of her
apartment and grazed her leg, said she stood terrified and watched as Mr. Cummings tried to clear a
“stove pipe” round in the expensive .45 Mr. Jarrett referred to
as “The gun you fell in love with.”
But
Ricky Cummings said he does not need an alibi. And then the defense rested.
Closing
arguments begin tomorrow on the third floor of the McLennan County
Courthouse in 19th Criminal District Court. All spectators
who are not seated will be barred from the entire floor. No cell
phones will be allowed, according to a ruling from Judge Strother. What jurors saw in the video...
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The
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to the violence of the explosion.
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Polls
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votes cast in the House of Representatives to determine the winning
presidential ticket once the popular vote has been canvassed.
Waco
– In classic testimony uncompelled by the criminal justice system and its intricate
rules, an accused gunman took the witness stand in his own defense
and contradicted eyewitnesses.
He
said he was nowhere near “the gardens,” as Lakeside Villas are
called, at the exact moment of the killings for which he faces a
charge of capital murder.
If
convicted, he will be sentenced to either death by lethal injection,
or life in the penitentiary without the possibility of parole.
Audio portion of testimony captured by "multi-box"
Ricky
Cummings will again take the stand this morning to answer questions
from prosecutors asked in cross examination about his actions on the
night of March 28, 2011. He and three other assailants who are
scheduled to be tried separately later next year are accused of an attack by ambuscade on four men who sat smoking in a gang banger sedan
in the parking lot of a subsidized housing project in east Waco. The shooting left two dead and two others severely wounded.
Young
Mr. Cummings calmly admitted on direct examination by his attorney
that he is accused of retaliating for the gun slaying of an associate
named Emuel Bowers, III, in April 2010 at a nearby park.
He
denied his alleged culpability for the crime detailed in eyewitness
testimony elicited by prosecutors during their phase of the capital
murder trial that took place last week before the state abruptly
rested in a move that surprised the judge and left opposing counsel
off balance and seeking additional time to prepare the defense phase
of the trial.
Another
told jurors that she saw Mr. Cummings and two others running, guns in
hand, toward the scene of the shooting just prior to the attack. Yet
another young woman testified that she saw a “long gun” in a car
in which Mr. Cummings was seated and heard him say “I'm about to
shoot somebody.”
One
witness recalled that “it sounded like a war zone out there.”
The
violence is believed to be part of a conflict between rival gangs
affiliated with the nationwide combinations of the “Bloods,” who
wear red colors, and the “Crips,” who are typically seen dressed
in blue.
Both
organizations are involved in sales of “crack” cocaine throughout
the North American continent, coast to coast.
The
Bloods, a criminal syndicate that originated in Chicago, typically
wears bright red colors. The Crips, a south central Los Angeles
combination, affects blue bandanas, ball caps, and jackets.
Tensions
are running high between members of the families of the alleged
gunmen and the victims. They are forced to sit on opposite sides of a
cramped third floor courtroom of the 19th Criminal
District in the Victorian-era beaux arts limestone and granite
double-domed Italianate McLennan County Courthouse, an edifice built
when men still went armed with Colt peacemakers, and cigar-smoking
caballeros used cuspidors conveniently placed in the corridors and
galleries.
Jurors
are fearful their identities will be revealed amid reported threats
to witnesses that have brought arrests. Judge Ralph T. Strother has
banned the open display of cell phones anywhere on the third floor of
the building.
