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A baffling case
The firefighter
explosion case remained one of Kansas City's biggest mysteries for
nine years. Then, after the case was aired on the television show
"Unsolved Mysteries," federal investigators caught a break.
Their
investigation led to a 1996 federal grand jury indictment of brothers
Frank and Skip Sheppard, their nephew Bryan Sheppard and his best
friend Richard Brown, for setting the fires to cover a botched burglary.
Authorities
alleged that the four men, along with Frank Sheppard's girlfriend,
Darlene Edwards, were on the construction site the morning of the
explosion looking for tools, batteries, dynamite and anything else
they could steal and sell for drug money.
"The
defendants set that fire &ldots; purely out of meanness, out of being
ornery, that they were unsuccessful in their thieving attempts,"
Becker stated at the trial.
Becker argued that
they set fire to a trailer containing ANFO, an explosive material
consisting of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, to cover up evidence
that they tried to break into it. He said they also set fire to
security guard Debbie Riggs' pickup as a diversion, even though the
guards had already left the construction site in pursuit of prowlers
by the time that fire was set. They ended up at a nearby convenience store.
Why would anyone
set a diversionary fire when the guards were already gone?
"It's a good
question," Becker said in a recent interview.
It was a tough
case. There was very little physical evidence - it was destroyed in
the explosions - and no eyewitness could place any of the defendants
at the scene.
Most of the
government's evidence came from witnesses who claimed that one or
another of the defendants admitted involvement in the crime.
Defense attorneys,
and even some police investigators, continue to believe that the five
defendants were unfairly prosecuted in a trial that depended largely
on the testimony of jailhouse informants.
Indeed, many of
the witnesses had strong motives for testifying. Some acknowledged
they were after a share of the $50,000 in reward money.
Defense attorneys
repeatedly attacked their credibility.
Becker
acknowledged that while many of the prosecution witnesses were not
sterling citizens, they told consistent stories. As to their
character, he said: "They are from the same neighborhood as the
defendants, so they would logically know these people; it's really
that simple."
In an interview
last year with The Star, he used a phrase common among prosecutors:
"Conspiracies hatched in hell aren't witnessed by angels."
Becker, a
respected prosecutor with an impressive record of wins on difficult
cases, remains steadfast in his belief that the right people went to prison.
Since the trial,
however, four prosecution witnesses have signed affidavits recanting
their testimony and alleging that federal agents intimidated or
threatened them.
One of those is
Becky Edwards, whose testimony was important in obtaining the
convictions. She testified that she remembered all the defendants
gathered around her mother's kitchen table planning the construction
site theft when she was only 11 years old.
However, Becky
Edwards told The Star that her testimony at the trial nine years
later was a lie. She said she felt manipulated and threatened by ATF
agent Dave True, the lead federal investigator. She said True told
her that if she did not testify about the meeting, he would prosecute
her on drug charges.
Becky Edwards also
signed an affidavit for Pat O'Connor, a former local publisher who
has financed legal efforts to overturn the convictions. In her
statement, she said: "No matter what I told agent True, it was
never enough to satisfy him. He always wanted me to say more than I
actually knew about this case."
True, who is now
retired, said he never intimidated any witnesses and in the case of
Becky Edwards, he went through family members before meeting with
her. True also disputed the account Massey gave the ATF.
"I feel there
are some inaccuracies in that. He says the wrong day of the incident.
He's a day off," True pointed out. "There's no question in
my mind the right people are in jail."
Prosecution
witnesses Shannon Reimers, Carrie Neighbors and Joe Denyer also
maintain that federal agents threatened them or offered assistance in
return for false testimony.
Denyer, for
example, said he gave false testimony at the trial against Darlene
Edwards "at the behest of federal agents" because they
offered him assistance if he testified the way they wanted him to.
Reimers told the
newspaper that federal agents once stopped her on the way to the
hospital while she was in labor. She said in an interview that True
later "let me know what he wanted me to say and then finally,
after at least two hours of preparations &ldots; took my statement. I
was completely intimidated by True."
In prison
interviews with The Star, the five defendants continue to maintain
their innocence. Even though some disliked one another, they refused
to testify against one another at the trial - even when authorities
offered five-year prison sentences in return.
All five asked to
take polygraph tests at the time. Authorities tested only three. All passed. |
