Newark Man Acquitted of 1978 Murders on 10 Counts
A Newark man has been acquitted of 1978 murders on ten counts after a jury found him not guilty.
The New Jersey native, Lee Evans, was accused of locking five teenagers in an abandoned home and later burning them to death in 1978. He was allegedly retaliating against the teens for having stolen marijuana.
Evan’s cousin Philander Hampton helped revive the case after commenting against Evans to authorities in 2008. Until then the case lied dormant since no bodies were ever found.
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Since 17-year-olds Melvin Pittman and Ernest Taylor, and 16-year-olds Michael McDowell, Alvin Turner, and Randy Johnson were never found it was declared a missing persons case. It wasn’t until after the fire that the boys were reported missing and the police never investigated the fire site as a crime scene so the two events were never connected.
Evans represented himself and denied killing the boys. He told the court that he lived and worked openly in the bordering city of Irvington where many of the families lived and emphasized that he had nothing to hide.
However, prosecutors set out to prove that Evans had premeditated the victim’s deaths to seek payback for a pound his marijuana that had been stolen the week prior.
Hampton testified that Evans was bent on retaliation because he was angry about the theft of his marijuana.
AP reported: “Hampton said he helped Evans lure the teens to a vacant Newark house after asking them to help move some boxes but then herded them into a closet and secured the door with a 6-inch nail.”
He was later accused of setting the house ablaze.
Although Hampton’s testimony held little weight due to some inconsistencies and his criminal record.
Many of the victim’s family members were deeply emotional as they packed the courtroom throughout the trial. Several of whom said they “had long believed Evans had killed their loved ones,” AP reported.
"Not guilty does not mean innocent," said Terry Lawson, who was 11 when she saw last saw her older brother, Michael McDowell, the night he disappeared.
Another family member of the McDowell family did say that the families felt some relief after learning so much more about what happened to the boys.
