extracted text

Property of the Center

■

10n

ran
Vol. 16 Jssue 3
Fall 2001

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Deborah Cooper - Little Rock
Yvonne Croston- NLR
Sybil Cunningham - Little Rock
Amy Edgington - Little Rock
Sarah Facen - Little Rock
Linda Kamara - Little Rock
Barb L'Eplattenier - NLR
Laura Miller - Little Rock
Freddie Nixon - Little Rock
Brenda Olive - North Little Rock
Tammy Roberson - Little Rock
Annette Sanders - Little Rock
Annette Shead - Little Rock
Celia Wildroot - Hot Springs
Precious Williams - Ogden

STAFF
Felicia Davidson
Angeline Echeverria
Lynn Frost
Dee Dee Green
Judy Matsuoka
Pat Schuyler
Tufara Waller Muhammad
Suzanne Pharr, Staff Emeritus

INSIDE
2000
Women's
Watch care
Network Log

2000 BiasViolence
in Arkansas
Dee Dee Green
For the last 20 years, the
Women's Project has been working to create social change
through public education and
community organizing. In those
years we have survived Klan rallies, unjust public policies, Republican-controlled legislatures, sexist
murders of women, Y2K and the
"selection" (if I may borrow from
the Reverend Al Sharpton) of
George W. Bush as the 43rd
President of the United States.
The social climate of years before
and those to come demand that
the Women's Watchcare Network continue monitoring bias
and violence against people
based on race, gender, religion,
age, disability, sexual orientation
and religious identity.

federal hate-crime law by extending civil rights-era protections for
the first time to include violence
based on gender, sexual orientation and disabilities. However,
the bill died in the House thanks
to Asa Hutchinson's opposition
(according
to the Arkansas
League of Women Voters study
of hate crimes legislation).
•

Throughout the last decade, the
Women· s Project has worked in •
coalition with communities across
the state to impact policy that •
addresses crimes against Arkansans based on bias. In the eighties, we worked toward the inclusion of violence against women •
as a crime of hate on the local
and national levels, with the following results: in 2000, the U.S.
Senate voted 57-42 to strengthen

A hate crime is defined by
the U.S. Congress as a crime
in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in
the case of a property crime,
the property that is the object of the crime, because of
the actual or perceived race,
color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.
By 1980, only five states had
passed hate crime legislation.
New Jersey was one of the
first states to adopt a hatecrime law banning acts of
racial or ethnic intimidation.
Missouri is the fourth state in
the nation to pass legislation
prohibiting racial profiling
and requiring police depart-

2000 Bias Violence
in Arkansas.
From page 1

•

ments statewide to keep racial
statistics on all police stops.
To date, Arkansas is one of
only five states without hatecrime legislation.

dered youth, a parent was
charged with the killing. What is
noteworthy concerning these and
other Log entries is the relationship between experiencing violence and victimization at an
early age and perpetrating violence during adulthood.
Youth
begin learning to commit violent
acts such as harassment, rape, assault or murder at a young age. It
is critical that we make the connection between children's experiences at a young age and their
behavior as adults, because it is
the only way we can stop the cycle of violence. Based on a training manual produced by the
Northeast Arkansas Council on
Family Violence:

The Women's Watchcare Log is
published each year, documenting
every case of bias and hate violence that we can verify by a
named source around the state.
In addition to bias and hate, we
pay close attention to the connections between perpetrators, victims and the crimes. For example,
many of the Log entries include •
sexist murders of women, but
they also include men murdered
by women. Two of the women •
who murdered men in 2000
claimed self-defense and/or a history of abuse.
Most domestic •
homicides are the end result of a
pattern known as the cycle of violence. The cycle is broken only if
the violence ceases or someone is
killed.
•
Another example is this edition's
inclusion of murders of youth and
gun and school violence. According to the Democrat-Gazette
(3/19/00), 17 children were expelled from Arkansas public
schools for making threats or taking weapons
onto campuses.
Many of the perpetrators and victims included in the 2000 Log are
Arkansas youth. 35 of the 68 entries (51.5%) included individuals
under the age 25. In 30 (86%)
of the 35 incidents involving
youth, the victims were youth.
22 of those 35 entries (63%) include youth assailants. In 44% (8
out of 18) of the cases of mur-

•

50% of the time there is both
child abuse and domestic violence in the same home.
Children from violent homes
have a 74% chance of committing crimes against people.
Children from violent homes
are 24 times more likely than
chi ldren from nonviolent
homes to commit rape and
other sexual assaults.
Children from violent homes
are 1000 times more likely to
abuse as adults.
63% of all boys ages 11-20
arrested for homicide have
killed their mother's assaulters.

Another form of violence the Log
monitors and records is violence
against the elderly, disabled and
people with HIV/AIDS. Sometimes elderly and disabled people
are assaulted because they are
perceived as weak or physically
vulnerable. The perpetrator may
also assume that they are less
valuable. Nursing homes are now
required by law to notify the

Coroner's office whenever a resident dies. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (3/15/00) stated that
the Coroner's office reported 15
possible cases of abuse and neglect in Pulaski County nursing
homes alone since the law was
enacted.
The Log contains other entries directly or indirectly related to bias
and/or hate such as Klan activity,
satanic activity, racist violence/
climate, lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgendered
(LGBT) violence
and/or climate of intolerance and
police brutality. Some of the categories of violence may contain
few entries. Others were omitted
completely,
such as violence
based on religious identity. This is
not to suggest that the incidence
of this type of violence is minimal
or does not exist. Bias crimes and
hate violence often go underreported or unreported.
Sometimes, when a woman is
struck by her husband or significant other, she is not able to call
the police. Episodes of intimidation or harassment reported to
authorities based on a person's
religion, race or sexual orientation
are not always recorded as hate
crimes.
Bias and violence are processes
that work to intimidate, harass
and assault not just individuals,
but the communities to which
they belong.
The Women's
Watchcare
Network
continues
working to educate, empower
and organize communities to take
a stand against hate in Arkansas.
The Log is an important tool that
we use to carry out this work ■

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 2* Transformation * Fall 2001

Racist Violence
January 1, Eureka Springs
A Eureka Springs resident phoned the
Women'.s Project after a man threatening him with
a knife accosted him. The African American told
the local police that after sliding on the ice and
hitting another vehicle, he attempted to apologize
to the driver who was white. The white male
pulled a knife and threatened him while shouting
racial slurs.
The man was discouraged from
continuing the assault by his passenger who said,
"He's not worth it."
Victim's Account

Racist Climate
April 5, Little Rock

Don

Sexist Murders of Women
February 5, Magnolia
The body of 15-year-old Brittini Pater was
found in a gravel pit in Columbia County around
3:30 a.m. Brittini was twelve weeks pregnant and
was leaving her parents' home with her boyfriend,
16-year-old Matthew Elliot, to seek an abortion at
2:00 a.m. the same morning. Her parents found a
note left by Brittini insisting that she cared for them,
but there was something that she desperately
needed to take care of.
Elliot and 17-year-old William Davis were
charged with murder after Davis' brother-in-law
discovered the bludgeoned body while hunting and
reported his discovery to authorities. First denying
the fetus' paternity and

AIDS!

t~~~:

least t:ii~~:n 191:·mea~
t t catch
~~ar~:;, inn~~:nt
have
filed
lawsuits
eventually confessed to
plotting for three weeks
against
Di II a rd' s
department store chain
to kill Brittini because
citing
a 11 e g e d 1.Intravenous
drugabusers
she
was
pregnant.
discrimination based on 2. Bisexuals
"Brittini was bludgeoned
3. Blacks(heterosexual
Blackmalesare14times with a long piece of
race.
as likelyasWhitesto beHIVcarriers)
metal and possibly run
Eleven women
filed a federal lawsuit
NATIONAL
ALLIANCE
over by a car. Deputies
against
Di II a rd' s
believe that tire marks at
department
store
POB90• Hillsboro
•WV24946
the crime scene suggest
claiming that they were
(304)653-4600
that Matthew
circled
discriminated
against
Checkourwebsite:WWW1nata11.com
Brittini and then possibly
Send$6far1oostickerspos1paid(asktorsticker#S19).
ran over her to make
because of their race.
th at
They contended
Hate group propaganda. like this business card
sure she was dead."
Elliot was found
security gua rd s subjected distributed by the National Alliance. contributes to the
racist climate in Arkansas.
guilty and sentenced to
them to unreasonable
search and seizure. Of
life without parole after
the eleven women, ten
Brittini's parents agreed
were stopped due to suspicion of shoplifting. Of not to pursue the death penalty.
Davis was
those ten, only two of the women were criminally awaiting an October trial date.
charged.
Charges against one woman were ADG: 2/7. 2/8. 2/9. 2/10. 2/18. 3/1, 4/5, 4/9, 4/20,
dismissed. The other was found innocent.
9/29. 10/30, 10/31
Two other women filed suit around a year
later alleging discrimination. A representative from March 15, Little Rock
Dillard's stated, "At no time has Dillard's ever
Darwin Shields, 21, strangled to death his
profiled or targeted any person because of their 17-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Stafford, at Interstate
race or age for any kind of suspect of shoplifting. Park. Her naked body was discovered buried under
There is no policy for anyone to be singled out. It's trash and debris in a patch of woods behind Shields'
wrong and it doesn't make good business sense."
mother's home in Wrightsville. Sarah was killed
after arguing with Shields about her unborn child
ADG: 4/5, 9/28

Don'thavesexwith:

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 3* Transformation * Fall 2001

who she claimed he fathered.
Shields'
first-degree
murder charge was upgraded to
capital murder. During his trial,
the autopsy
report
revealed
"evidence of an internal stab
wound near Sarah's cervix that
happened
sometime after she
died. Dr. Steven Erickson of the
state Crime Laboratory testified
that he discovered "a small
foreign object that looked like the
end of a stick had been rammed
into Stafford's vagina, causing
internal injuries."
Shields was convicted in
November and sentenced to life
without parole.
Sarah was a
junior at McClellan High School.
ADC: 2/18, 3/17, 6/10, ll/14,
ll/15

for June 30.
ADC: 7/12
The couple
has two
children who were two and three July 9, Mena
years old at the time Lucilla was
Jesse Heath, 32, walked
murdered.
into Rich Mountain
Nursing
ADC: 6/25, 1/17/01
Home and Rehabilitation Center,
SW Times Record· 6/23
shot and killed his wife, Marita
Jonesboro Sun: 6/26
Heath, 25, while she was working
El Dorado News-Times: 6/26
in the kitchen.

Benton County Daily Record: ADC: 7/10
6/26
Southwest Times Record: 7/ll
NW Arkansas Times: 6/23
De Queen Daily Citizen: 7/10
De Quenn Bee: 7/13
June 23, Brinkley
Camden News: 7/10
A relative of Jerlene Britt,
68, discovered her body and the
body of her husband, Charles
Britt, 73. Authorities believe that
Britt shot Jerlene and then shot
and killed himself.
ADC: 6/29

June 22, Fayetteville
July 4, Hope
Jerry Lura! Edmond shot
Before a battered Lucilla
Flores, 21, died, she told medical Maxine Turner, a female friend, in
personnel at Washington Regional the head at the residence they
Medical Center that her estranged shared just south of the Hope city
husband was responsible for her limits. Authorities reported that
beating. Angel Chevez Flores, 28, Edmond shot and killed Maxine
was charged
and eventually after an argument between the
convicted of first-degree murder two ensued.
after striking, kicking and choking ADC: 7/6
Lucilla in her home the morning
of her death.
July 4, Bentonville
Angel Flores discovered
Bonnie Cabral, 23, was
Nicholas Reyes, 23, at Lucilia's shot and killed by her husband
home. Flores attacked him with a Robert Daco Cabral, 24. Cabral
knife, but Reyes managed to told authorities that his wife shot
escape and contact Fayetteville herself inside of their home while
authorities. The police arrived to he was "backing out of the
find Lucilla lying unconscious with driveway." He later changed his
a bloody nose and a bruised neck. story to say, "His wife was
According to authorities, Flores accidentally shot after the couple
has a history of abuse. On May struggled with one of Cabral's
30, Lucilla petitioned
for a pistols." Relatives of the victim
temporary
restraining
order told authorities that they have
against her husband. She wrote in seen Cabral threaten his wife with
the petition, "[he] threatened to a gun and that they frequently
kill me if he finds me and told a a r g u e d
about
Cab r a I· s
friend he is going to beat and kill "girlfriend."
me."
The hearing for a full
Cabral was charged with
restraining order was scheduled capital murder.

July 21, Fayetteville
A
murder-suicide
perpetrated by Michael Estes, 47,
left him and his estranged
girlfriend dead in their rented
home. Police found the charred
body of Tonya Burrow, 26, lying
face down with a gunshot wound
to the back of her head.
Her
body
was
burned
beyond
recognition. Estes' body was lying
next to the bed with a gunshot
wound to the forehead. His body
was burned, but not as badly as
Tonya's.
A jug of flammable
liquid was found near the bodies.
Police reported that the
couple was preparing to move
from the residence and separate.
According to friends, "Estes was
upset over an impending breakup
and had talked about suicide in
recent days."
Neighbors told
authorities that they heard the
couple "bickering" a number of
times since moving into the home.
They were scheduled to move on
August 1.
ADC: 7/29

El Dorado News-Times: 7/29
Pine Bluff Commercial: 7/29
July 22, Jacksonville
Ricky Modlin, 30, beat
his wife, Evelyn Modlin, 23, to
death with a wrench after an
argument at a motel where the

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 4* Transformation * Fall 2001

couple worked and lived. The
couple's two sons witnessed the
attack.
Earlier, Modlin confessed
to his cousin that he wanted to
kill his wife.
Carl Holland,
Modlin's cousin, tried talking
Modlin out of the murder.
Several
days later,
Holland
discovered
the body
in a
bathroom next to the Modlin's
suite. Evelyn's body remained in
the bathroom for four days while
Modlin and the boys continued to
live in the suite. Modlin ducttaped the bathroom to conceal
the odor.
Modlin confessed and
was charged with first-degree
murder
after
the
police
apprehended him.
Custody of
the children was awarded to a
maternal grandparent.

ADC,: 7/27, 8/1
White River Journal: 7/27
Jacksonville Patriot: 7/26
August 22, Bentonville
Eunice Belinda Bradley's
body was set on fire after a man
with whom she allegedly had an
affair shot her to death. Benton
County firefighters discovered her
charred body as they fought a
large brush fire in a field behind a
vacant house. Roger Dale Barrett,
41, told his wife and her friend
that he accidentally shot 40-yearold Eunice.
Barrett's wife, Nola, and
a friend, Debbie Steenblock, told
authorities how Barrett attempted
to conceal the murder.
They
admitted having seen Bradley's
body inside the Bradley home on
the day that her remains were
discovered in the fire.
"Nola
Barrett
told
investigators her husband had
been having an affair with Bradley
but was trying to end the
relationship," according to the

investigator's affidavit.
ADC,: 8/28
El Dorado News-Times: 8/28

participating in her disappearance
and death.
He later led
investigators
to her • body.
Authorities believe that his motive
August 22, Mountain Home
was jealousy because Carolyn had
Major L. McPherson, 77, left him.
shot and killed his wife, Carol, 56, ADC,: ll/30
then shot and killed himself.
McPherson was a retired Baxter December 16, Lewisville
County sheriffs deputy.
Carol
Barbara Jones, 33, was
McPherson's son found the bodies shot and killed by the father of
at the couple's home. Relatives her two-month-old child. Stanley
told authorities that the couple Wyrick, 37, shot himself in the
"quarreled" the night before their neck after authorities pursued him
bodies were discovered.
in connection
with Barbara's
ADC,: 817, 8/23
death.
Wyrick was in critical
condition in a Louisiana hospital.
September 2, North Little Rock
No further information on his
Six children playing near condition is available.
a carwash discovered the body of
Two of Barbara's relatives
Alice Marie Page, 33, who had and her infant child were at the
been stabbed to death.
Police house during the time of the
picked up her live-in boyfriend, shooting, but no one else was
Bobby Lee Russell, 35, at his harmed.
sister's home in Little Rock.
Texarkana Gazette: 12/19
Authorities suspect that
after Alice returned home from
work, she and Russell "got into a
disturbance."
At that point,
Russell got a large kitchen knife
and stabbed his girlfriend in the
back.
It is believed that she
collapsed
behind
her house January 1, Little Rock
attempting to get help for her
Audrey
Skinner,
48,
injury.
stabbed and killed her live-in
ADC,: 9/3, 9/6, 9/8
boyfriend, Lee Holmes, 51, just
Harrison Daily Times: 9/8
five hours into the New Year. She
pied innocent after being arrested
November 14, Malvern
at their home. She told officers
Darrell Wayne Piltcher, that she and Holmes argued after
39, who had just been released he returned home at 4 a.m.
from jail on kidnapping and instead of midnight. They began
battery charges against his former fighting and she "realized that she
girlfriend, Carolyn Farley, 41, was cut on her hand." She saw
killed her and dumped
her that Holmes had a knife and
remains. Her body was found in stated she didn't know how, but
the Ouachita
River between she got the knife away from him
Interstate 30 and Malvern.
and stabbed him in the chest.
Carolyn was reported ADC,: 1/2, 1/4
missing
and
investigators
suspected
Piltcher
in her February 18, Mountain Home
disappearance.
He admitted to
Bobbie Elder, 43, shot her

Men Murdered
by Women

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 5* Transformation * Fall 2001

husband, Leonard Eric Elder, 33,
in the chest. Officers found Elder
dead in the living room after
Bobbie Elder called to notify them
that she had shot her husband.
Mrs. El~er had "cuts and bruises
and a knot on her head the size of
a baseball," according to Baxter
County Sheriff Joe Edmonds.
Mrs. Elder alleged that
she experienced a history of abuse
from her husband. She petitioned
for protective orders in 1998 and
1999. Sheriff Edmonds said that
Leonard Elder had also beaten
and threatened his former wife.
ADC: 2/19

July 18, Little Rock
On
four
separate
occasions, Dale Dunn. 48, had
protective orders filed against
him.
He went to his exgirlfriend's job, harassed and
threatened
her after she had
police escort her to return his
belongings to him. His history of
abuse ended when he entered the
home of his former girlfriend,
Carole Edwards, 46, shot her,
shot at her son and shot and
killed himself. Carole Edwards
recovered
from her gunshot
wounds.
Authorities reported that
Dunn broke into his recently
married
ex-girlfriend's
home
disgruntled over their breakup.
Carole Edwards' husband, Larry
Edwards, locked himself in a
room and phoned 911. Three
hours after the first shots were
fired, S.W.A.T. members entered
the home to find Dunn's body.
Bayou ADC: 7/19

Other Related
Domestic
Murders

February
9, Locust
(Calhoun County)
Ben Williams, 38, was
shot and killed after attempting to
aid a woman as she frantically left
the home of Larry Heggler, 49.
Earlier, Heggler gave the woman
(name unknown) a ride to his
home full of weapons.
Officers
suspect that Heggler may have
known the woman since she
accepted a ride from him. After
entering his home, he claimed
that all of the guns were loaded.
The woman became nervous and
ran from Heggler's trailer.
Williams was passing the
area
when
he heard
the
unidentified woman yelling for
help. He got out of his truck and
Heggler pointed one of his guns
at Williams. He fired one shot at
Williams and then another into
his back after he collapsed from
the first shot.
ADC: 2/10

December 30, Little Rock
A Little Rock attorney
and gym owner shot his wife in
the face and killed himself.
Officers found Samantha Grace,
43, lying on the floor of a room
at the Best Western Governors Inn
Suites with a bloody towel
covering her face.
Unable to
speak,
she pointed
to her
wedding band when authorities
asked her who shot her. William
Lee Grace, 43, was found dead in
the bathtub.
The couple was staying at
the hotel due to the winter ice
storms.
ADC: 12/31, 1/1/01

Children from violent
homes are 24 times
more likely than
children from
nonviolent homes to
commit rape and other
sexual assaults.

Transformation
Published four times a year
by the Women's Project,
2224 Main Street, Little Rock,
Arkansas 72206
Phone: 501-372-5113
Spanish line: 501-907-0529

Letters to the editor are welcome.

Editors
Production
Layout

Amy Edgington
Yvonne Croston
Dee Dee Green
Staff

Women's Project Staff:
Felicia Davidson, Angeline
Echeverria, Lynn Frost, Judy
Matsuoka, Dee Dee Green, Pat
Schuyler, Tufara Waller
Muhammad

Staff Emeritus:
Suzanne Pharr
* Printed on recycled paper. *

2001 The Women's Project

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 6* Transformation * Fall 2001

Property of the Center

Hate Group Activity
Several . business cards containing hate
group contact information were left in
and circulated around highly public areas
in the city such as the public library and
the campus of UALR. These are some
sample cards.
The Southern Poverty Law Center's
Intelligence Report, a magazine that
documents and reports on hate violence
throughout the US, reported that the
following organized hate groups were
active in Arkansas in 2000 in their Spring
2001 issue:

NATIONAL ALLIANCE

Toward
a NewConsciousness;
a NewOrder;a NewPeople

•--------------------1111

Imperial Klans of America: Magnolia,
Plainview
International Keystone Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan: Parkin
Invisible Empire National Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan: Luxora

"We believe ...

That the future is what we make it• That we
have a responsibility for the racial quality of
the coming generations of our people • That
no multi-racial society is a healthy society •
That if the White race is to suNive we must
unite our people on the basis of common
blood, organize them within a progressive
social order, and inspire them with a common
set of ideals• That the time to begin is now."

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan: Harrison
South Arkansas Knights: Smackover

Churchof the CreatorNo. 14
PO Box 1023
PineBluff, AR 71613

National Alliance: Little Rock, Unionton

cotcl4@wcotc.com
World Church of the Creator: Cabot, Pine
Bluff
RangerSkin Nation: Pine Bluff
Christian Research: Eureka Springs
Crusade for Christ: Little Rock

www.front14.org/cotc 14/

The World Church
of the Creator
P.O. Box 2002
E. Peoria, IL61611
Hotline - (309) 699-0135
Web Site:http://www.creator.org

Kingdom Identity Ministries: Harrison
League of the South: Mayflower
American Front: Harrison
Council of Conservative Citizens: Little Rock

www.womens-project.org/

August 5, Siloam Springs
Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
rallied outside the Siloam Springs Administration
Building. Area churches turned out Siloam Springs
residents to protest the Klan. The events took place
without incident.
ADG: 6/17, 8/1
*Page 7* Transformation

* Fall 2001

After learning of the
festival, some area churches and
the Arkansas Family Council
bought a full-ad that appeared in
is published four times
the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record
every year. In each issue,
A stud~nt at Henderson State The ad was an "open letter to the
members receive analysis
University came back to his dorm community regarding the Gay
of contemporary issues,
room one evening and found the Pride Festival." "Christians in Hot
work "FAG" written in large Springs should not have any information about Women's
Project upcoming events
block letters that took up his hateful
attitudes
about
and activities, book
entire dry-erase message board on homosexuals. God's Word clearly
the door. The student is openly teaches His displeasure with the
reviews, and more. If you
gay and was leading SPECTRUM!, homosexual lifestyle." The letter
are not a Women's Project
the LGBT group during that time. stated
that
the sponsoring
member and would like to
He reported the incident to the churches "desire that Hot Springs
continue receiving the
HSU police and they came to the continue to be a 'family-friendly
journal, please fill out the
It called for the
dorm room to take pictures and community."
membership form below.
fill out a report. Later, after he festival's opponents to "make
erased the word "FAG" from the your views known to others,
businesses
that._ ____
....._
board, someone wrote "alarmist" including
on his door.
associated themselves with the ,!Ac
festival." After the controversy Ir- - - - - - - - - - - - - _,. I
Yes, I would like to
I
In a separate incident at the became public, businesses were I
join the Women's
I
University one of SPECTRUM's sprayed with "derogatory" graffiti I
Project.
:
first signs was vandalized.
The and cars parked at participating :
words "shoot a queer" were businesses were vandalized.
A
written on the bottom.
The caller phoned one restaurant I Name
incident was never reported to owner and threatened to pour I Address
officials.
kerosene on him and set him
City
afire. He also received several
Victim/Witness Account
Zip
I State
calls from "ministers" who recited
I Phone/day
Memorial Day Weekend, Hot Bible passages.
I
Phone/evening
After the ad appeared,
Springs
"Calling for the Christian Tillman met with three local I E-mail
community to boycott businesses ministers. They called for Tillman
I
is not
a fun thing,
but to promise that there would be I D $25 regular D $100 supporting
unfortunately it's sometimes the no second Gay Pride Festival. I
only way to let people know that Tillman agreed never to organize I D $50 sustaining D $15 low income
I
we're opposed," said Reverend another event.
I I'd like to pay by D check D credit
Terry Thompson
of Second Arkansas Times 6/16
I
Visa
Mastercard
Baptist Church in Hot Springs
I
regarding the Mid-South Gay
I
I
Pride Festival. Despite opposition
I Account No.
to the event, Davis Tillman,
I Exp. Date
Festival organizer,
told
the
I Signature
Arkansas Times, "This was a good
event, a very positive event."
Make checks payable to:
:
The Festival, Freedom 2000,
Women's Project
I
raised $7000.00 for the Arkansas
2224 Main Street
I
AIDS Foundation
and HPWA
Little Rock, AR 72206
I
(Helping People With AIDS).
Donations are tax-deductible.
I

LGBT Climate of
Intolerance

Trans/ ormation ...

0

.._- - - - - - - - - - - - _..I
I

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 8* Transformation * Fall 2001

Murdersof
Youth
January 11, Pine Bluff
Brittany Ashley, 3, was
pronounced dead by the Jefferson
County coroner's office.
Her
father. Garrick Ashley. 19. was
charged with capital murder.
ADC: 1/20
January 19, Pine Bluff
Antonio Smith, 8-weeksold, died as a result of multiple
blunt-force trauma to the head.
His mother, Kelly D. Pike-Smith.
21, was charged with capital
murder.
ADC: 1/20

boyfriend, Bryant Flores, 21, was
convicted
of second-degree
murder.
His mother, Karen
Stephens, 21, was charged with
capital murder.
ADC: 11/3

months-old. bled to death from a
three inch cut to his throat. His
father, Jerome DeAsis; 26, was
hospitalized after being pulled
from a fire that destroyed the
family's home.
DeAsis was
charged with the murder of his
March 31, Little Rock
son.
Eugene
Hulum.
25. ADC: 6/19, 6/22
smashed the head of his 19month-old son, Marquis Hulum. January 12, Fayetteville
Scharel Burley, 43, was
He then "swung his corpse like a
club while attacking the officers charged with first-degree murder
who
arrested
him,"
said after being accused of jamming a
authorities.
Hulum was charged plastic thermometer cover into
with capital murder.
the anus of her 18-month-old
nephew. Samuel Sams. Samuel
ADC: 4/1, 8/2, 9/30
died from acute peritonitis.
A
April 3. Little Rock
tear in the baby's bowels caused
Harry Allen Carter, 58. the infection.
shot and killed his 15-year-old ADC: 1/16,2/28, 6/22, 8/8
grandson, Farrin Jamel! Carter
after the two argued over a July 31. Little Rock
missing cellular phone.
Carter
Aaron Floyd. 18. was shot
and his wife. Marie. had adopted and killed at a bus stop by a man
their grandson and raised him wearing a red bandanna over his
from an early age.
face. according to a witness.
ADC: 4/4, 4/5
ADC: 8/1

February 9. Rogers
Christopher John Steimel,
Jr., 11-months-old. was shot in the
head and killed by his father.
Christopher Steimel. who shot
and killed himself.
ADC: 2/10
May 2, Hot Springs
Amata Colley. 44. shot
February 16. Wynne
and killed herself and her son.
Paige d r i an n a
Lee Matthew Colley, 10, in their
Jennings, 6-weeks-old, died of home.
Calley's sister, Mary
asphyxiation.
The infant had Hazen, lived in the basement of
multiple bruises covering her the home and contacted police
body and 15 fractured ribs. Her after discovering the bodies.
father, Joshua Jennings, 17, was ADC,: 5/2
charged with capital murder.
ADC: 3/29
June 6, Jacksonville
Rodger Lewis Nunn, Jr.,
March 20. Little Rock
18, was fatally stabbed in a
Antwan Jones, 17, died of mobile home park just north of
a gunshot wound to the neck. Jacksonville.
A 22-year-old
Brandon
Hardman,
16, was resident of the park, who police
arrested and charged with first- did not identify, was charged with
degree murder.
the murder.
ADC: 3/23, 3/24
ADC: 6/7
March 26, Hot Springs
June 18, Bentonville
Victor Stephens, 3, was
Dominic
DeAsis,
beaten to death and his mother's

August 2, Little Rock
Eldrick Williams. 17. was
shot in the back of the head
during a robbery.
20-year-old,
Kareem Holloway and Phillip
Williams, 19, were arrested.
ADC,: 8/3, 8/17
August 14, Little Rock
Thierry Thomas. 19, was
shot and killed as the result of an
argument over a barbeque grill.
Rodrick Moorehead.
24, was
arrested and charged with firstdegree-murder.
ADC: 8/14

September 20, Forrest City
Tawana Blunt, 19, was
discovered dead in her home.
The woman who discovered her
5- body said it appeared as though
she died from "strangulation."

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 9* Transformation * Fall 2001

Her body was sent to the state March 15, West Fork
A 14-year-old student was
Crime Lab for an autopsy.
arrested
after
a 9 mm
ADC: 9/20
semiautomatic and two empty
November 18, West Helena
magazines were found inside of
Kim Amos, 18, and Karen his backpack at West Fork Middle
Stiles, 20, were killed by a co- School.
The boy showed the
worker, Brian Winston, 24. He weapon to a friend at school who
was arrested on charges of later reported it to the principal.
aggravated robbery and capital The gun belonged to his brothermurder.
in-law who kept the gun locked
ADC: /1/19
up inside a workshop.
ADC: 3/15
December 4, Little Rock
5-year-old Jamal Wood April 10, Benton
Three teens were arrested
was shot and killed as he rode in
his family's vehicle on Roosevelt in the stabbing of a Benton High
A bounty was
Road. The family recognized the School student.
shooter as a family relative. Sgt. placed on the student's head
Jeff Norman reported, "As far as a because she had "narked" on
motive, we're not sure yet, but some people, according to an
certainly we don't think a 5-year- affidavit.
old was the intended victim."
ADC: 4/18
ADC: 12/5
May 11, Prairie Grove
A 12-year-old seventh
grade student shot a Prairie Grove
police
officer
near
Lower
Elementary School. The student
was dropped off at school but
apparently left school grounds,
returned home to get a shotgun
and was returning to school,
according to officials. The student
shot at Sgt. Greg Lovett five times
March 15, Newport
A Tuckerman High School hitting him in the face, chest, back
The officer
student told classmates that he and buttocks.
was going to "shoot to kill when returned fire hitting the boy in the
the time came." The 17-year-old stomach.
Both were released from
was
charged
with
felony
terroristic threatening and arrested the hospital. The juvenile was
after running away from his foster charged with attempted capital
parents' home. He admitted to murder.
investigators that he had compiled ADC: 5/12, 5/13, 6/5, 6/7, 8/20
a "hit list" only as a scare tactic.
White was later cleared of August 21, Conway
A teen-age girl, 15, and
all charges. He allegedly tore up
the list and no weapon was ever her boyfriend, 16, plotted to kill
her mother.
The boyfriend
found.
entered
Patsy Bailey's home,
ADC: 3/18
struck her, slashed her wrists and
left her to die in a bathtub,

Gun/School
Violence
Perpetrated by
Youth

according to police.
Officers
found a note in the daughter's
bedroom that read, "Mom must
die."
Patsy Bailey was treated
and released. Both teens were
charged as adults. The boy was
charged with attempted murder.
Bailey's daughter was charged as
an accomplice.
ADC: 8/22, 8/23
September 15, Springdale
A Springdale High School
student was arrested in the
shooting and wounding of a
classmate after an argument at a
fellow classmate's home.
The
police were looking for a second
suspect, within whose home the
incident occurred. The boy was
treated and released the same
day.
ADC: 9/15
November 3, Conway
Police arrested a 17, 18
and 20-year-old in connection
with bomb threats at Conway and
Mayflower
High
Schools.
Authorities would not comment
on the motive.
ADC: /1/4

Elderly, People
w/Disabilities,
HIV/AIDS
January 4, DeQueen
Police investigated
a
homicide
after Dean Sherill
Whitten was found dead in his
home. He was believed to be 64
years old.
ADC: 1/5
January 22, Little Rock
A 68-year-old

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 10* Transformation * Fall 2001

woman

was raped after a neighbor broke
into her home.
Joe Darryl
Thompson, 38, was sentenced to
30 years in prison after pleading
guilty to the charges.
ADC: 10/31

fraudulently obtain credit cards,
according to a warning issued by
Attorney General, Mark Pryor.
ADC: 9/19

March 15, El Dorado
Hugh P. Watson, 80, was
found dead in his home. Police
investigated the murder as a
homicide.
ADC: 3/16

October 30, Manila
C.B. Murphy, 74, was
killed after a screwdriver was
lodged in his throat. Jimmy Ray
Smart, Jr., 19, confessed to the
murder. Robbery was said to be
Spring 2000, Paris
the motive.
Bill Walker, 53, filed a
ADC: 10/31
complaint in U.S. District Court in
December 8, Pulaski County
Fort Smith seeking compensation
Michelle
Wilson
was for injuries that he suffered at the
arrested in connection with a hands of two former Logan
string of nursing home robberies. County deputies.
She entered several nursing homes
The officers
arrested
around the county claiming to be Walker at a neighbor's home for
related to residents and leaving reportedly leaving the scene of an
with their belongings such as accident in Subiaco. The arrest
televisions
and videocassette was caught on video compliments
recorders. She was charged with of a neighbor.
Walker was
residential burglary and theft.
handcuffed on the porch and
ADC: 12/22
dragged down the steps. Police
then led Walker behind a bush
December 13, Russellville
outside the view of the camera.
Frederick Kain, 71, was Walker emerged with a bloody
shot and killed by 17-year-old head and a swollen bruise below
Vann Clark Tucker at his home the right eye.
near Russellville.
One of the officers was
ADC: 12/21
convicted of misdemeanor battery
and fired from his job.
ADC: 9/13

October 10, Fort Smith
Misanni Lewis, 83, was
beaten and robbed in her home
January 25, Bentonville
Carl Glenn Hunter, 61, by a man who was released from
was found dead from a gunshot prison in June after serving time
wound in the Ozark National for robbing and beating another
elderly woman.
Forest.
ADC: 1/25
ADC: 10/11

May 11, Camden
The body of 79-year-old
R.L. Nash was found on his living
room floor.
Due to evidence
found at the scene, the state
police investigation unit and the
state Crime Lab were notified.
ADC: 5/12
July 11, Hot Springs
A 20-year-old and two
18-year-olds were arrested in
connection with the robbery and
slaying of a disabled man. Jack
Anthony Wright, 46, died from a
single gunshot wound.
ADC: 7/12
August 10, Little Rock
Two men were arrested
and charged with sexually abusing
a blind woman in her home.
ADC: 8/19

altercation after a routine traffic
stop, according to authorities and
witnesses. The officer walked to
Cavallaro's car and the two
argued.
Witnesses
said,
"Cavallaro pointed his finger at
the officer,
and
the
two
exchanged heated words. Turner
then swung a roundhouse punch
at
Cavallaro
and
began
pummeling him to the ground."
He was knocked unconscious and
remained in a coma until he died
November 10.
On
November
14,
Turner's charge changed from
first-degree battery to murder.
ADC: 12/27

Police
Brutality''c

August 18, Little Rock
* Race is not necessarily a factor
Elderly Black Arkansans
in these instances of police
were the target of a "cruel scam"
brutality.
that promised them $5000.00 if
they
provided
personal
information to a Washington, DC May 8, Edmondson
address.
The
personal
Edmondson police officer,
information could be used to David Turner, beat Leo Cavallaro,
establish a false identity and Jr., 48, unconscious following an
www.womens-project.org/ *Page 11* Transformation * Fall 2001

WOMEN WORKING
FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Our goal is social change, or, as the poet
Adrienne Rich writes, "the transformation
of the world."
We believe this world can be changed to
become a place of peace and justice for
all women.
We take risks in our work; we take
unpopular stands.
We work for all
women
and against all forms of
discrimination
and oppression.
We
believe that we cannot work for all
women and against sexism unless we also
work against racism, classism, ageism,
anti-Semitism,
heterosexism
and
homophobia.
We see the connection
among these oppressions as the context
for violence against women
in this
society.
We are concerned in particular about
issues of importance to traditionally
underrepresented women: poor women,
aged women, women of color, teenage
mothers,
women
with
disabilities,
lesbians, women in prisons, etc. All are
women who experience discrimination
and violence against their lives.
-

Oemoc;,a• -,Cl(

MeFAAI.ANI

Pulaski County shonffs depuhes are IOV8Stiqatingthe placing of two pentagrarru
on a walkway al Woodson Cemetery ,n south Pulaski County. Depuhes sa11
someone took !lowers from nearby graves 1111d
created one of the do<igns. TI1<
second was outnnod with white cha!k and pine needles The pentagrams wen
do:co"""9dThur9d.-.vmomu,q

This photo was included in the August 18, 2000
edition of the Democrat-Gazette. The photo was
taken by Rick McFarland. The caption reads:
Pulaski County sheriff's deputies are investigating
the placing of two pentagrams on a walkway at
Woodson Cemetary in south Pulaski County.
Deputies said someone took flowers from nearby
graves and created one of the designs. The second
was outlined with white chalk and pine needles.
The pentagrams
were discovered
Thursday
morning.

We are committed to working multiculturally, multi-racially, and to making
our work and cultural events accessible to
low-income women.
We believe that
women will not know equality until they
know economic justice.
We believe that a few committed women
working in coalition and in consensus
with other women can make significant
change in the quality of life for all
women.
The Women's Project is a community-based,
nonprofit organization working to eliminate all
forms of oppression.

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 12* Transformation * Fall 2001

1

Univiliill~llll~lf
jjij)
~l~1111[1i111111m11imi11d,
OK

M 001 111 351
Property of the Center

AREYOU A
FEDERALEMPLOYEE?

Make
Your
Combined
Federal
Campaign
Pledge
Work
for
Women.

Support groups for
women in prison
Lending library of
Women's and AfricanAmerican literature

Community response to
acts of religious, racial,
sexual, anti-gay/lesbian
violence and the activities
of hate groups in
Arkansas

A leadership development program for
African-American women

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 13* Transformation * Fall 2001

Women's Project
2224 Main Street
Little Rock, AR 72206

Non-Profit Organization
U.S. Postage Paid
Little Rock, Arkansas
Permit No. 448

.,

HerlandSister Resources
2312NW
39th
Oklahoma
City, OK73112



Property of the Center

■

10n

ran
Vol. 16 Jssue 3
Fall 2001

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Deborah Cooper - Little Rock
Yvonne Croston- NLR
Sybil Cunningham - Little Rock
Amy Edgington - Little Rock
Sarah Facen - Little Rock
Linda Kamara - Little Rock
Barb L'Eplattenier - NLR
Laura Miller - Little Rock
Freddie Nixon - Little Rock
Brenda Olive - North Little Rock
Tammy Roberson - Little Rock
Annette Sanders - Little Rock
Annette Shead - Little Rock
Celia Wildroot - Hot Springs
Precious Williams - Ogden

STAFF
Felicia Davidson
Angeline Echeverria
Lynn Frost
Dee Dee Green
Judy Matsuoka
Pat Schuyler
Tufara Waller Muhammad
Suzanne Pharr, Staff Emeritus

INSIDE
2000
Women's
Watch care
Network Log

2000 BiasViolence
in Arkansas
Dee Dee Green
For the last 20 years, the
Women's Project has been working to create social change
through public education and
community organizing. In those
years we have survived Klan rallies, unjust public policies, Republican-controlled legislatures, sexist
murders of women, Y2K and the
"selection" (if I may borrow from
the Reverend Al Sharpton) of
George W. Bush as the 43rd
President of the United States.
The social climate of years before
and those to come demand that
the Women's Watchcare Network continue monitoring bias
and violence against people
based on race, gender, religion,
age, disability, sexual orientation
and religious identity.

federal hate-crime law by extending civil rights-era protections for
the first time to include violence
based on gender, sexual orientation and disabilities. However,
the bill died in the House thanks
to Asa Hutchinson's opposition
(according
to the Arkansas
League of Women Voters study
of hate crimes legislation).
•

Throughout the last decade, the
Women· s Project has worked in •
coalition with communities across
the state to impact policy that •
addresses crimes against Arkansans based on bias. In the eighties, we worked toward the inclusion of violence against women •
as a crime of hate on the local
and national levels, with the following results: in 2000, the U.S.
Senate voted 57-42 to strengthen

A hate crime is defined by
the U.S. Congress as a crime
in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in
the case of a property crime,
the property that is the object of the crime, because of
the actual or perceived race,
color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.
By 1980, only five states had
passed hate crime legislation.
New Jersey was one of the
first states to adopt a hatecrime law banning acts of
racial or ethnic intimidation.
Missouri is the fourth state in
the nation to pass legislation
prohibiting racial profiling
and requiring police depart-

2000 Bias Violence
in Arkansas.
From page 1

•

ments statewide to keep racial
statistics on all police stops.
To date, Arkansas is one of
only five states without hatecrime legislation.

dered youth, a parent was
charged with the killing. What is
noteworthy concerning these and
other Log entries is the relationship between experiencing violence and victimization at an
early age and perpetrating violence during adulthood.
Youth
begin learning to commit violent
acts such as harassment, rape, assault or murder at a young age. It
is critical that we make the connection between children's experiences at a young age and their
behavior as adults, because it is
the only way we can stop the cycle of violence. Based on a training manual produced by the
Northeast Arkansas Council on
Family Violence:

The Women's Watchcare Log is
published each year, documenting
every case of bias and hate violence that we can verify by a
named source around the state.
In addition to bias and hate, we
pay close attention to the connections between perpetrators, victims and the crimes. For example,
many of the Log entries include •
sexist murders of women, but
they also include men murdered
by women. Two of the women •
who murdered men in 2000
claimed self-defense and/or a history of abuse.
Most domestic •
homicides are the end result of a
pattern known as the cycle of violence. The cycle is broken only if
the violence ceases or someone is
killed.
•
Another example is this edition's
inclusion of murders of youth and
gun and school violence. According to the Democrat-Gazette
(3/19/00), 17 children were expelled from Arkansas public
schools for making threats or taking weapons
onto campuses.
Many of the perpetrators and victims included in the 2000 Log are
Arkansas youth. 35 of the 68 entries (51.5%) included individuals
under the age 25. In 30 (86%)
of the 35 incidents involving
youth, the victims were youth.
22 of those 35 entries (63%) include youth assailants. In 44% (8
out of 18) of the cases of mur-

•

50% of the time there is both
child abuse and domestic violence in the same home.
Children from violent homes
have a 74% chance of committing crimes against people.
Children from violent homes
are 24 times more likely than
chi ldren from nonviolent
homes to commit rape and
other sexual assaults.
Children from violent homes
are 1000 times more likely to
abuse as adults.
63% of all boys ages 11-20
arrested for homicide have
killed their mother's assaulters.

Another form of violence the Log
monitors and records is violence
against the elderly, disabled and
people with HIV/AIDS. Sometimes elderly and disabled people
are assaulted because they are
perceived as weak or physically
vulnerable. The perpetrator may
also assume that they are less
valuable. Nursing homes are now
required by law to notify the

Coroner's office whenever a resident dies. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (3/15/00) stated that
the Coroner's office reported 15
possible cases of abuse and neglect in Pulaski County nursing
homes alone since the law was
enacted.
The Log contains other entries directly or indirectly related to bias
and/or hate such as Klan activity,
satanic activity, racist violence/
climate, lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgendered
(LGBT) violence
and/or climate of intolerance and
police brutality. Some of the categories of violence may contain
few entries. Others were omitted
completely,
such as violence
based on religious identity. This is
not to suggest that the incidence
of this type of violence is minimal
or does not exist. Bias crimes and
hate violence often go underreported or unreported.
Sometimes, when a woman is
struck by her husband or significant other, she is not able to call
the police. Episodes of intimidation or harassment reported to
authorities based on a person's
religion, race or sexual orientation
are not always recorded as hate
crimes.
Bias and violence are processes
that work to intimidate, harass
and assault not just individuals,
but the communities to which
they belong.
The Women's
Watchcare
Network
continues
working to educate, empower
and organize communities to take
a stand against hate in Arkansas.
The Log is an important tool that
we use to carry out this work ■

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 2* Transformation * Fall 2001

Racist Violence
January 1, Eureka Springs
A Eureka Springs resident phoned the
Women'.s Project after a man threatening him with
a knife accosted him. The African American told
the local police that after sliding on the ice and
hitting another vehicle, he attempted to apologize
to the driver who was white. The white male
pulled a knife and threatened him while shouting
racial slurs.
The man was discouraged from
continuing the assault by his passenger who said,
"He's not worth it."
Victim's Account

Racist Climate
April 5, Little Rock

Don

Sexist Murders of Women
February 5, Magnolia
The body of 15-year-old Brittini Pater was
found in a gravel pit in Columbia County around
3:30 a.m. Brittini was twelve weeks pregnant and
was leaving her parents' home with her boyfriend,
16-year-old Matthew Elliot, to seek an abortion at
2:00 a.m. the same morning. Her parents found a
note left by Brittini insisting that she cared for them,
but there was something that she desperately
needed to take care of.
Elliot and 17-year-old William Davis were
charged with murder after Davis' brother-in-law
discovered the bludgeoned body while hunting and
reported his discovery to authorities. First denying
the fetus' paternity and

AIDS!

t~~~:

least t:ii~~:n 191:·mea~
t t catch
~~ar~:;, inn~~:nt
have
filed
lawsuits
eventually confessed to
plotting for three weeks
against
Di II a rd' s
department store chain
to kill Brittini because
citing
a 11 e g e d 1.Intravenous
drugabusers
she
was
pregnant.
discrimination based on 2. Bisexuals
"Brittini was bludgeoned
3. Blacks(heterosexual
Blackmalesare14times with a long piece of
race.
as likelyasWhitesto beHIVcarriers)
metal and possibly run
Eleven women
filed a federal lawsuit
NATIONAL
ALLIANCE
over by a car. Deputies
against
Di II a rd' s
believe that tire marks at
department
store
POB90• Hillsboro
•WV24946
the crime scene suggest
claiming that they were
(304)653-4600
that Matthew
circled
discriminated
against
Checkourwebsite:WWW1nata11.com
Brittini and then possibly
Send$6far1oostickerspos1paid(asktorsticker#S19).
ran over her to make
because of their race.
th at
They contended
Hate group propaganda. like this business card
sure she was dead."
Elliot was found
security gua rd s subjected distributed by the National Alliance. contributes to the
racist climate in Arkansas.
guilty and sentenced to
them to unreasonable
search and seizure. Of
life without parole after
the eleven women, ten
Brittini's parents agreed
were stopped due to suspicion of shoplifting. Of not to pursue the death penalty.
Davis was
those ten, only two of the women were criminally awaiting an October trial date.
charged.
Charges against one woman were ADG: 2/7. 2/8. 2/9. 2/10. 2/18. 3/1, 4/5, 4/9, 4/20,
dismissed. The other was found innocent.
9/29. 10/30, 10/31
Two other women filed suit around a year
later alleging discrimination. A representative from March 15, Little Rock
Dillard's stated, "At no time has Dillard's ever
Darwin Shields, 21, strangled to death his
profiled or targeted any person because of their 17-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Stafford, at Interstate
race or age for any kind of suspect of shoplifting. Park. Her naked body was discovered buried under
There is no policy for anyone to be singled out. It's trash and debris in a patch of woods behind Shields'
wrong and it doesn't make good business sense."
mother's home in Wrightsville. Sarah was killed
after arguing with Shields about her unborn child
ADG: 4/5, 9/28

Don'thavesexwith:

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 3* Transformation * Fall 2001

who she claimed he fathered.
Shields'
first-degree
murder charge was upgraded to
capital murder. During his trial,
the autopsy
report
revealed
"evidence of an internal stab
wound near Sarah's cervix that
happened
sometime after she
died. Dr. Steven Erickson of the
state Crime Laboratory testified
that he discovered "a small
foreign object that looked like the
end of a stick had been rammed
into Stafford's vagina, causing
internal injuries."
Shields was convicted in
November and sentenced to life
without parole.
Sarah was a
junior at McClellan High School.
ADC: 2/18, 3/17, 6/10, ll/14,
ll/15

for June 30.
ADC: 7/12
The couple
has two
children who were two and three July 9, Mena
years old at the time Lucilla was
Jesse Heath, 32, walked
murdered.
into Rich Mountain
Nursing
ADC: 6/25, 1/17/01
Home and Rehabilitation Center,
SW Times Record· 6/23
shot and killed his wife, Marita
Jonesboro Sun: 6/26
Heath, 25, while she was working
El Dorado News-Times: 6/26
in the kitchen.

Benton County Daily Record: ADC: 7/10
6/26
Southwest Times Record: 7/ll
NW Arkansas Times: 6/23
De Queen Daily Citizen: 7/10
De Quenn Bee: 7/13
June 23, Brinkley
Camden News: 7/10
A relative of Jerlene Britt,
68, discovered her body and the
body of her husband, Charles
Britt, 73. Authorities believe that
Britt shot Jerlene and then shot
and killed himself.
ADC: 6/29

June 22, Fayetteville
July 4, Hope
Jerry Lura! Edmond shot
Before a battered Lucilla
Flores, 21, died, she told medical Maxine Turner, a female friend, in
personnel at Washington Regional the head at the residence they
Medical Center that her estranged shared just south of the Hope city
husband was responsible for her limits. Authorities reported that
beating. Angel Chevez Flores, 28, Edmond shot and killed Maxine
was charged
and eventually after an argument between the
convicted of first-degree murder two ensued.
after striking, kicking and choking ADC: 7/6
Lucilla in her home the morning
of her death.
July 4, Bentonville
Angel Flores discovered
Bonnie Cabral, 23, was
Nicholas Reyes, 23, at Lucilia's shot and killed by her husband
home. Flores attacked him with a Robert Daco Cabral, 24. Cabral
knife, but Reyes managed to told authorities that his wife shot
escape and contact Fayetteville herself inside of their home while
authorities. The police arrived to he was "backing out of the
find Lucilla lying unconscious with driveway." He later changed his
a bloody nose and a bruised neck. story to say, "His wife was
According to authorities, Flores accidentally shot after the couple
has a history of abuse. On May struggled with one of Cabral's
30, Lucilla petitioned
for a pistols." Relatives of the victim
temporary
restraining
order told authorities that they have
against her husband. She wrote in seen Cabral threaten his wife with
the petition, "[he] threatened to a gun and that they frequently
kill me if he finds me and told a a r g u e d
about
Cab r a I· s
friend he is going to beat and kill "girlfriend."
me."
The hearing for a full
Cabral was charged with
restraining order was scheduled capital murder.

July 21, Fayetteville
A
murder-suicide
perpetrated by Michael Estes, 47,
left him and his estranged
girlfriend dead in their rented
home. Police found the charred
body of Tonya Burrow, 26, lying
face down with a gunshot wound
to the back of her head.
Her
body
was
burned
beyond
recognition. Estes' body was lying
next to the bed with a gunshot
wound to the forehead. His body
was burned, but not as badly as
Tonya's.
A jug of flammable
liquid was found near the bodies.
Police reported that the
couple was preparing to move
from the residence and separate.
According to friends, "Estes was
upset over an impending breakup
and had talked about suicide in
recent days."
Neighbors told
authorities that they heard the
couple "bickering" a number of
times since moving into the home.
They were scheduled to move on
August 1.
ADC: 7/29

El Dorado News-Times: 7/29
Pine Bluff Commercial: 7/29
July 22, Jacksonville
Ricky Modlin, 30, beat
his wife, Evelyn Modlin, 23, to
death with a wrench after an
argument at a motel where the

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 4* Transformation * Fall 2001

couple worked and lived. The
couple's two sons witnessed the
attack.
Earlier, Modlin confessed
to his cousin that he wanted to
kill his wife.
Carl Holland,
Modlin's cousin, tried talking
Modlin out of the murder.
Several
days later,
Holland
discovered
the body
in a
bathroom next to the Modlin's
suite. Evelyn's body remained in
the bathroom for four days while
Modlin and the boys continued to
live in the suite. Modlin ducttaped the bathroom to conceal
the odor.
Modlin confessed and
was charged with first-degree
murder
after
the
police
apprehended him.
Custody of
the children was awarded to a
maternal grandparent.

ADC,: 7/27, 8/1
White River Journal: 7/27
Jacksonville Patriot: 7/26
August 22, Bentonville
Eunice Belinda Bradley's
body was set on fire after a man
with whom she allegedly had an
affair shot her to death. Benton
County firefighters discovered her
charred body as they fought a
large brush fire in a field behind a
vacant house. Roger Dale Barrett,
41, told his wife and her friend
that he accidentally shot 40-yearold Eunice.
Barrett's wife, Nola, and
a friend, Debbie Steenblock, told
authorities how Barrett attempted
to conceal the murder.
They
admitted having seen Bradley's
body inside the Bradley home on
the day that her remains were
discovered in the fire.
"Nola
Barrett
told
investigators her husband had
been having an affair with Bradley
but was trying to end the
relationship," according to the

investigator's affidavit.
ADC,: 8/28
El Dorado News-Times: 8/28

participating in her disappearance
and death.
He later led
investigators
to her • body.
Authorities believe that his motive
August 22, Mountain Home
was jealousy because Carolyn had
Major L. McPherson, 77, left him.
shot and killed his wife, Carol, 56, ADC,: ll/30
then shot and killed himself.
McPherson was a retired Baxter December 16, Lewisville
County sheriffs deputy.
Carol
Barbara Jones, 33, was
McPherson's son found the bodies shot and killed by the father of
at the couple's home. Relatives her two-month-old child. Stanley
told authorities that the couple Wyrick, 37, shot himself in the
"quarreled" the night before their neck after authorities pursued him
bodies were discovered.
in connection
with Barbara's
ADC,: 817, 8/23
death.
Wyrick was in critical
condition in a Louisiana hospital.
September 2, North Little Rock
No further information on his
Six children playing near condition is available.
a carwash discovered the body of
Two of Barbara's relatives
Alice Marie Page, 33, who had and her infant child were at the
been stabbed to death.
Police house during the time of the
picked up her live-in boyfriend, shooting, but no one else was
Bobby Lee Russell, 35, at his harmed.
sister's home in Little Rock.
Texarkana Gazette: 12/19
Authorities suspect that
after Alice returned home from
work, she and Russell "got into a
disturbance."
At that point,
Russell got a large kitchen knife
and stabbed his girlfriend in the
back.
It is believed that she
collapsed
behind
her house January 1, Little Rock
attempting to get help for her
Audrey
Skinner,
48,
injury.
stabbed and killed her live-in
ADC,: 9/3, 9/6, 9/8
boyfriend, Lee Holmes, 51, just
Harrison Daily Times: 9/8
five hours into the New Year. She
pied innocent after being arrested
November 14, Malvern
at their home. She told officers
Darrell Wayne Piltcher, that she and Holmes argued after
39, who had just been released he returned home at 4 a.m.
from jail on kidnapping and instead of midnight. They began
battery charges against his former fighting and she "realized that she
girlfriend, Carolyn Farley, 41, was cut on her hand." She saw
killed her and dumped
her that Holmes had a knife and
remains. Her body was found in stated she didn't know how, but
the Ouachita
River between she got the knife away from him
Interstate 30 and Malvern.
and stabbed him in the chest.
Carolyn was reported ADC,: 1/2, 1/4
missing
and
investigators
suspected
Piltcher
in her February 18, Mountain Home
disappearance.
He admitted to
Bobbie Elder, 43, shot her

Men Murdered
by Women

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 5* Transformation * Fall 2001

husband, Leonard Eric Elder, 33,
in the chest. Officers found Elder
dead in the living room after
Bobbie Elder called to notify them
that she had shot her husband.
Mrs. El~er had "cuts and bruises
and a knot on her head the size of
a baseball," according to Baxter
County Sheriff Joe Edmonds.
Mrs. Elder alleged that
she experienced a history of abuse
from her husband. She petitioned
for protective orders in 1998 and
1999. Sheriff Edmonds said that
Leonard Elder had also beaten
and threatened his former wife.
ADC: 2/19

July 18, Little Rock
On
four
separate
occasions, Dale Dunn. 48, had
protective orders filed against
him.
He went to his exgirlfriend's job, harassed and
threatened
her after she had
police escort her to return his
belongings to him. His history of
abuse ended when he entered the
home of his former girlfriend,
Carole Edwards, 46, shot her,
shot at her son and shot and
killed himself. Carole Edwards
recovered
from her gunshot
wounds.
Authorities reported that
Dunn broke into his recently
married
ex-girlfriend's
home
disgruntled over their breakup.
Carole Edwards' husband, Larry
Edwards, locked himself in a
room and phoned 911. Three
hours after the first shots were
fired, S.W.A.T. members entered
the home to find Dunn's body.
Bayou ADC: 7/19

Other Related
Domestic
Murders

February
9, Locust
(Calhoun County)
Ben Williams, 38, was
shot and killed after attempting to
aid a woman as she frantically left
the home of Larry Heggler, 49.
Earlier, Heggler gave the woman
(name unknown) a ride to his
home full of weapons.
Officers
suspect that Heggler may have
known the woman since she
accepted a ride from him. After
entering his home, he claimed
that all of the guns were loaded.
The woman became nervous and
ran from Heggler's trailer.
Williams was passing the
area
when
he heard
the
unidentified woman yelling for
help. He got out of his truck and
Heggler pointed one of his guns
at Williams. He fired one shot at
Williams and then another into
his back after he collapsed from
the first shot.
ADC: 2/10

December 30, Little Rock
A Little Rock attorney
and gym owner shot his wife in
the face and killed himself.
Officers found Samantha Grace,
43, lying on the floor of a room
at the Best Western Governors Inn
Suites with a bloody towel
covering her face.
Unable to
speak,
she pointed
to her
wedding band when authorities
asked her who shot her. William
Lee Grace, 43, was found dead in
the bathtub.
The couple was staying at
the hotel due to the winter ice
storms.
ADC: 12/31, 1/1/01

Children from violent
homes are 24 times
more likely than
children from
nonviolent homes to
commit rape and other
sexual assaults.

Transformation
Published four times a year
by the Women's Project,
2224 Main Street, Little Rock,
Arkansas 72206
Phone: 501-372-5113
Spanish line: 501-907-0529

Letters to the editor are welcome.

Editors
Production
Layout

Amy Edgington
Yvonne Croston
Dee Dee Green
Staff

Women's Project Staff:
Felicia Davidson, Angeline
Echeverria, Lynn Frost, Judy
Matsuoka, Dee Dee Green, Pat
Schuyler, Tufara Waller
Muhammad

Staff Emeritus:
Suzanne Pharr
* Printed on recycled paper. *

2001 The Women's Project

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 6* Transformation * Fall 2001

Property of the Center

Hate Group Activity
Several . business cards containing hate
group contact information were left in
and circulated around highly public areas
in the city such as the public library and
the campus of UALR. These are some
sample cards.
The Southern Poverty Law Center's
Intelligence Report, a magazine that
documents and reports on hate violence
throughout the US, reported that the
following organized hate groups were
active in Arkansas in 2000 in their Spring
2001 issue:

NATIONAL ALLIANCE

Toward
a NewConsciousness;
a NewOrder;a NewPeople

•--------------------1111

Imperial Klans of America: Magnolia,
Plainview
International Keystone Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan: Parkin
Invisible Empire National Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan: Luxora

"We believe ...

That the future is what we make it• That we
have a responsibility for the racial quality of
the coming generations of our people • That
no multi-racial society is a healthy society •
That if the White race is to suNive we must
unite our people on the basis of common
blood, organize them within a progressive
social order, and inspire them with a common
set of ideals• That the time to begin is now."

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan: Harrison
South Arkansas Knights: Smackover

Churchof the CreatorNo. 14
PO Box 1023
PineBluff, AR 71613

National Alliance: Little Rock, Unionton

cotcl4@wcotc.com
World Church of the Creator: Cabot, Pine
Bluff
RangerSkin Nation: Pine Bluff
Christian Research: Eureka Springs
Crusade for Christ: Little Rock

www.front14.org/cotc 14/

The World Church
of the Creator
P.O. Box 2002
E. Peoria, IL61611
Hotline - (309) 699-0135
Web Site:http://www.creator.org

Kingdom Identity Ministries: Harrison
League of the South: Mayflower
American Front: Harrison
Council of Conservative Citizens: Little Rock

www.womens-project.org/

August 5, Siloam Springs
Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
rallied outside the Siloam Springs Administration
Building. Area churches turned out Siloam Springs
residents to protest the Klan. The events took place
without incident.
ADG: 6/17, 8/1
*Page 7* Transformation

* Fall 2001

After learning of the
festival, some area churches and
the Arkansas Family Council
bought a full-ad that appeared in
is published four times
the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record
every year. In each issue,
A stud~nt at Henderson State The ad was an "open letter to the
members receive analysis
University came back to his dorm community regarding the Gay
of contemporary issues,
room one evening and found the Pride Festival." "Christians in Hot
work "FAG" written in large Springs should not have any information about Women's
Project upcoming events
block letters that took up his hateful
attitudes
about
and activities, book
entire dry-erase message board on homosexuals. God's Word clearly
the door. The student is openly teaches His displeasure with the
reviews, and more. If you
gay and was leading SPECTRUM!, homosexual lifestyle." The letter
are not a Women's Project
the LGBT group during that time. stated
that
the sponsoring
member and would like to
He reported the incident to the churches "desire that Hot Springs
continue receiving the
HSU police and they came to the continue to be a 'family-friendly
journal, please fill out the
It called for the
dorm room to take pictures and community."
membership form below.
fill out a report. Later, after he festival's opponents to "make
erased the word "FAG" from the your views known to others,
businesses
that._ ____
....._
board, someone wrote "alarmist" including
on his door.
associated themselves with the ,!Ac
festival." After the controversy Ir- - - - - - - - - - - - - _,. I
Yes, I would like to
I
In a separate incident at the became public, businesses were I
join the Women's
I
University one of SPECTRUM's sprayed with "derogatory" graffiti I
Project.
:
first signs was vandalized.
The and cars parked at participating :
words "shoot a queer" were businesses were vandalized.
A
written on the bottom.
The caller phoned one restaurant I Name
incident was never reported to owner and threatened to pour I Address
officials.
kerosene on him and set him
City
afire. He also received several
Victim/Witness Account
Zip
I State
calls from "ministers" who recited
I Phone/day
Memorial Day Weekend, Hot Bible passages.
I
Phone/evening
After the ad appeared,
Springs
"Calling for the Christian Tillman met with three local I E-mail
community to boycott businesses ministers. They called for Tillman
I
is not
a fun thing,
but to promise that there would be I D $25 regular D $100 supporting
unfortunately it's sometimes the no second Gay Pride Festival. I
only way to let people know that Tillman agreed never to organize I D $50 sustaining D $15 low income
I
we're opposed," said Reverend another event.
I I'd like to pay by D check D credit
Terry Thompson
of Second Arkansas Times 6/16
I
Visa
Mastercard
Baptist Church in Hot Springs
I
regarding the Mid-South Gay
I
I
Pride Festival. Despite opposition
I Account No.
to the event, Davis Tillman,
I Exp. Date
Festival organizer,
told
the
I Signature
Arkansas Times, "This was a good
event, a very positive event."
Make checks payable to:
:
The Festival, Freedom 2000,
Women's Project
I
raised $7000.00 for the Arkansas
2224 Main Street
I
AIDS Foundation
and HPWA
Little Rock, AR 72206
I
(Helping People With AIDS).
Donations are tax-deductible.
I

LGBT Climate of
Intolerance

Trans/ ormation ...

0

.._- - - - - - - - - - - - _..I
I

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 8* Transformation * Fall 2001

Murdersof
Youth
January 11, Pine Bluff
Brittany Ashley, 3, was
pronounced dead by the Jefferson
County coroner's office.
Her
father. Garrick Ashley. 19. was
charged with capital murder.
ADC: 1/20
January 19, Pine Bluff
Antonio Smith, 8-weeksold, died as a result of multiple
blunt-force trauma to the head.
His mother, Kelly D. Pike-Smith.
21, was charged with capital
murder.
ADC: 1/20

boyfriend, Bryant Flores, 21, was
convicted
of second-degree
murder.
His mother, Karen
Stephens, 21, was charged with
capital murder.
ADC: 11/3

months-old. bled to death from a
three inch cut to his throat. His
father, Jerome DeAsis; 26, was
hospitalized after being pulled
from a fire that destroyed the
family's home.
DeAsis was
charged with the murder of his
March 31, Little Rock
son.
Eugene
Hulum.
25. ADC: 6/19, 6/22
smashed the head of his 19month-old son, Marquis Hulum. January 12, Fayetteville
Scharel Burley, 43, was
He then "swung his corpse like a
club while attacking the officers charged with first-degree murder
who
arrested
him,"
said after being accused of jamming a
authorities.
Hulum was charged plastic thermometer cover into
with capital murder.
the anus of her 18-month-old
nephew. Samuel Sams. Samuel
ADC: 4/1, 8/2, 9/30
died from acute peritonitis.
A
April 3. Little Rock
tear in the baby's bowels caused
Harry Allen Carter, 58. the infection.
shot and killed his 15-year-old ADC: 1/16,2/28, 6/22, 8/8
grandson, Farrin Jamel! Carter
after the two argued over a July 31. Little Rock
missing cellular phone.
Carter
Aaron Floyd. 18. was shot
and his wife. Marie. had adopted and killed at a bus stop by a man
their grandson and raised him wearing a red bandanna over his
from an early age.
face. according to a witness.
ADC: 4/4, 4/5
ADC: 8/1

February 9. Rogers
Christopher John Steimel,
Jr., 11-months-old. was shot in the
head and killed by his father.
Christopher Steimel. who shot
and killed himself.
ADC: 2/10
May 2, Hot Springs
Amata Colley. 44. shot
February 16. Wynne
and killed herself and her son.
Paige d r i an n a
Lee Matthew Colley, 10, in their
Jennings, 6-weeks-old, died of home.
Calley's sister, Mary
asphyxiation.
The infant had Hazen, lived in the basement of
multiple bruises covering her the home and contacted police
body and 15 fractured ribs. Her after discovering the bodies.
father, Joshua Jennings, 17, was ADC,: 5/2
charged with capital murder.
ADC: 3/29
June 6, Jacksonville
Rodger Lewis Nunn, Jr.,
March 20. Little Rock
18, was fatally stabbed in a
Antwan Jones, 17, died of mobile home park just north of
a gunshot wound to the neck. Jacksonville.
A 22-year-old
Brandon
Hardman,
16, was resident of the park, who police
arrested and charged with first- did not identify, was charged with
degree murder.
the murder.
ADC: 3/23, 3/24
ADC: 6/7
March 26, Hot Springs
June 18, Bentonville
Victor Stephens, 3, was
Dominic
DeAsis,
beaten to death and his mother's

August 2, Little Rock
Eldrick Williams. 17. was
shot in the back of the head
during a robbery.
20-year-old,
Kareem Holloway and Phillip
Williams, 19, were arrested.
ADC,: 8/3, 8/17
August 14, Little Rock
Thierry Thomas. 19, was
shot and killed as the result of an
argument over a barbeque grill.
Rodrick Moorehead.
24, was
arrested and charged with firstdegree-murder.
ADC: 8/14

September 20, Forrest City
Tawana Blunt, 19, was
discovered dead in her home.
The woman who discovered her
5- body said it appeared as though
she died from "strangulation."

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 9* Transformation * Fall 2001

Her body was sent to the state March 15, West Fork
A 14-year-old student was
Crime Lab for an autopsy.
arrested
after
a 9 mm
ADC: 9/20
semiautomatic and two empty
November 18, West Helena
magazines were found inside of
Kim Amos, 18, and Karen his backpack at West Fork Middle
Stiles, 20, were killed by a co- School.
The boy showed the
worker, Brian Winston, 24. He weapon to a friend at school who
was arrested on charges of later reported it to the principal.
aggravated robbery and capital The gun belonged to his brothermurder.
in-law who kept the gun locked
ADC: /1/19
up inside a workshop.
ADC: 3/15
December 4, Little Rock
5-year-old Jamal Wood April 10, Benton
Three teens were arrested
was shot and killed as he rode in
his family's vehicle on Roosevelt in the stabbing of a Benton High
A bounty was
Road. The family recognized the School student.
shooter as a family relative. Sgt. placed on the student's head
Jeff Norman reported, "As far as a because she had "narked" on
motive, we're not sure yet, but some people, according to an
certainly we don't think a 5-year- affidavit.
old was the intended victim."
ADC: 4/18
ADC: 12/5
May 11, Prairie Grove
A 12-year-old seventh
grade student shot a Prairie Grove
police
officer
near
Lower
Elementary School. The student
was dropped off at school but
apparently left school grounds,
returned home to get a shotgun
and was returning to school,
according to officials. The student
shot at Sgt. Greg Lovett five times
March 15, Newport
A Tuckerman High School hitting him in the face, chest, back
The officer
student told classmates that he and buttocks.
was going to "shoot to kill when returned fire hitting the boy in the
the time came." The 17-year-old stomach.
Both were released from
was
charged
with
felony
terroristic threatening and arrested the hospital. The juvenile was
after running away from his foster charged with attempted capital
parents' home. He admitted to murder.
investigators that he had compiled ADC: 5/12, 5/13, 6/5, 6/7, 8/20
a "hit list" only as a scare tactic.
White was later cleared of August 21, Conway
A teen-age girl, 15, and
all charges. He allegedly tore up
the list and no weapon was ever her boyfriend, 16, plotted to kill
her mother.
The boyfriend
found.
entered
Patsy Bailey's home,
ADC: 3/18
struck her, slashed her wrists and
left her to die in a bathtub,

Gun/School
Violence
Perpetrated by
Youth

according to police.
Officers
found a note in the daughter's
bedroom that read, "Mom must
die."
Patsy Bailey was treated
and released. Both teens were
charged as adults. The boy was
charged with attempted murder.
Bailey's daughter was charged as
an accomplice.
ADC: 8/22, 8/23
September 15, Springdale
A Springdale High School
student was arrested in the
shooting and wounding of a
classmate after an argument at a
fellow classmate's home.
The
police were looking for a second
suspect, within whose home the
incident occurred. The boy was
treated and released the same
day.
ADC: 9/15
November 3, Conway
Police arrested a 17, 18
and 20-year-old in connection
with bomb threats at Conway and
Mayflower
High
Schools.
Authorities would not comment
on the motive.
ADC: /1/4

Elderly, People
w/Disabilities,
HIV/AIDS
January 4, DeQueen
Police investigated
a
homicide
after Dean Sherill
Whitten was found dead in his
home. He was believed to be 64
years old.
ADC: 1/5
January 22, Little Rock
A 68-year-old

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 10* Transformation * Fall 2001

woman

was raped after a neighbor broke
into her home.
Joe Darryl
Thompson, 38, was sentenced to
30 years in prison after pleading
guilty to the charges.
ADC: 10/31

fraudulently obtain credit cards,
according to a warning issued by
Attorney General, Mark Pryor.
ADC: 9/19

March 15, El Dorado
Hugh P. Watson, 80, was
found dead in his home. Police
investigated the murder as a
homicide.
ADC: 3/16

October 30, Manila
C.B. Murphy, 74, was
killed after a screwdriver was
lodged in his throat. Jimmy Ray
Smart, Jr., 19, confessed to the
murder. Robbery was said to be
Spring 2000, Paris
the motive.
Bill Walker, 53, filed a
ADC: 10/31
complaint in U.S. District Court in
December 8, Pulaski County
Fort Smith seeking compensation
Michelle
Wilson
was for injuries that he suffered at the
arrested in connection with a hands of two former Logan
string of nursing home robberies. County deputies.
She entered several nursing homes
The officers
arrested
around the county claiming to be Walker at a neighbor's home for
related to residents and leaving reportedly leaving the scene of an
with their belongings such as accident in Subiaco. The arrest
televisions
and videocassette was caught on video compliments
recorders. She was charged with of a neighbor.
Walker was
residential burglary and theft.
handcuffed on the porch and
ADC: 12/22
dragged down the steps. Police
then led Walker behind a bush
December 13, Russellville
outside the view of the camera.
Frederick Kain, 71, was Walker emerged with a bloody
shot and killed by 17-year-old head and a swollen bruise below
Vann Clark Tucker at his home the right eye.
near Russellville.
One of the officers was
ADC: 12/21
convicted of misdemeanor battery
and fired from his job.
ADC: 9/13

October 10, Fort Smith
Misanni Lewis, 83, was
beaten and robbed in her home
January 25, Bentonville
Carl Glenn Hunter, 61, by a man who was released from
was found dead from a gunshot prison in June after serving time
wound in the Ozark National for robbing and beating another
elderly woman.
Forest.
ADC: 1/25
ADC: 10/11

May 11, Camden
The body of 79-year-old
R.L. Nash was found on his living
room floor.
Due to evidence
found at the scene, the state
police investigation unit and the
state Crime Lab were notified.
ADC: 5/12
July 11, Hot Springs
A 20-year-old and two
18-year-olds were arrested in
connection with the robbery and
slaying of a disabled man. Jack
Anthony Wright, 46, died from a
single gunshot wound.
ADC: 7/12
August 10, Little Rock
Two men were arrested
and charged with sexually abusing
a blind woman in her home.
ADC: 8/19

altercation after a routine traffic
stop, according to authorities and
witnesses. The officer walked to
Cavallaro's car and the two
argued.
Witnesses
said,
"Cavallaro pointed his finger at
the officer,
and
the
two
exchanged heated words. Turner
then swung a roundhouse punch
at
Cavallaro
and
began
pummeling him to the ground."
He was knocked unconscious and
remained in a coma until he died
November 10.
On
November
14,
Turner's charge changed from
first-degree battery to murder.
ADC: 12/27

Police
Brutality''c

August 18, Little Rock
* Race is not necessarily a factor
Elderly Black Arkansans
in these instances of police
were the target of a "cruel scam"
brutality.
that promised them $5000.00 if
they
provided
personal
information to a Washington, DC May 8, Edmondson
address.
The
personal
Edmondson police officer,
information could be used to David Turner, beat Leo Cavallaro,
establish a false identity and Jr., 48, unconscious following an
www.womens-project.org/ *Page 11* Transformation * Fall 2001

WOMEN WORKING
FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Our goal is social change, or, as the poet
Adrienne Rich writes, "the transformation
of the world."
We believe this world can be changed to
become a place of peace and justice for
all women.
We take risks in our work; we take
unpopular stands.
We work for all
women
and against all forms of
discrimination
and oppression.
We
believe that we cannot work for all
women and against sexism unless we also
work against racism, classism, ageism,
anti-Semitism,
heterosexism
and
homophobia.
We see the connection
among these oppressions as the context
for violence against women
in this
society.
We are concerned in particular about
issues of importance to traditionally
underrepresented women: poor women,
aged women, women of color, teenage
mothers,
women
with
disabilities,
lesbians, women in prisons, etc. All are
women who experience discrimination
and violence against their lives.
-

Oemoc;,a• -,Cl(

MeFAAI.ANI

Pulaski County shonffs depuhes are IOV8Stiqatingthe placing of two pentagrarru
on a walkway al Woodson Cemetery ,n south Pulaski County. Depuhes sa11
someone took !lowers from nearby graves 1111d
created one of the do<igns. TI1<
second was outnnod with white cha!k and pine needles The pentagrams wen
do:co"""9dThur9d.-.vmomu,q

This photo was included in the August 18, 2000
edition of the Democrat-Gazette. The photo was
taken by Rick McFarland. The caption reads:
Pulaski County sheriff's deputies are investigating
the placing of two pentagrams on a walkway at
Woodson Cemetary in south Pulaski County.
Deputies said someone took flowers from nearby
graves and created one of the designs. The second
was outlined with white chalk and pine needles.
The pentagrams
were discovered
Thursday
morning.

We are committed to working multiculturally, multi-racially, and to making
our work and cultural events accessible to
low-income women.
We believe that
women will not know equality until they
know economic justice.
We believe that a few committed women
working in coalition and in consensus
with other women can make significant
change in the quality of life for all
women.
The Women's Project is a community-based,
nonprofit organization working to eliminate all
forms of oppression.

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 12* Transformation * Fall 2001

1

Univiliill~llll~lf
jjij)
~l~1111[1i111111m11imi11d,
OK

M 001 111 351
Property of the Center

AREYOU A
FEDERALEMPLOYEE?

Make
Your
Combined
Federal
Campaign
Pledge
Work
for
Women.

Support groups for
women in prison
Lending library of
Women's and AfricanAmerican literature

Community response to
acts of religious, racial,
sexual, anti-gay/lesbian
violence and the activities
of hate groups in
Arkansas

A leadership development program for
African-American women

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 13* Transformation * Fall 2001

Women's Project
2224 Main Street
Little Rock, AR 72206

Non-Profit Organization
U.S. Postage Paid
Little Rock, Arkansas
Permit No. 448

.,

HerlandSister Resources
2312NW
39th
Oklahoma
City, OK73112



Property of the Center

■

10n

ran
Vol. 16 Jssue 3
Fall 2001

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Deborah Cooper - Little Rock
Yvonne Croston- NLR
Sybil Cunningham - Little Rock
Amy Edgington - Little Rock
Sarah Facen - Little Rock
Linda Kamara - Little Rock
Barb L'Eplattenier - NLR
Laura Miller - Little Rock
Freddie Nixon - Little Rock
Brenda Olive - North Little Rock
Tammy Roberson - Little Rock
Annette Sanders - Little Rock
Annette Shead - Little Rock
Celia Wildroot - Hot Springs
Precious Williams - Ogden

STAFF
Felicia Davidson
Angeline Echeverria
Lynn Frost
Dee Dee Green
Judy Matsuoka
Pat Schuyler
Tufara Waller Muhammad
Suzanne Pharr, Staff Emeritus

INSIDE
2000
Women's
Watch care
Network Log

2000 BiasViolence
in Arkansas
Dee Dee Green
For the last 20 years, the
Women's Project has been working to create social change
through public education and
community organizing. In those
years we have survived Klan rallies, unjust public policies, Republican-controlled legislatures, sexist
murders of women, Y2K and the
"selection" (if I may borrow from
the Reverend Al Sharpton) of
George W. Bush as the 43rd
President of the United States.
The social climate of years before
and those to come demand that
the Women's Watchcare Network continue monitoring bias
and violence against people
based on race, gender, religion,
age, disability, sexual orientation
and religious identity.

federal hate-crime law by extending civil rights-era protections for
the first time to include violence
based on gender, sexual orientation and disabilities. However,
the bill died in the House thanks
to Asa Hutchinson's opposition
(according
to the Arkansas
League of Women Voters study
of hate crimes legislation).
•

Throughout the last decade, the
Women· s Project has worked in •
coalition with communities across
the state to impact policy that •
addresses crimes against Arkansans based on bias. In the eighties, we worked toward the inclusion of violence against women •
as a crime of hate on the local
and national levels, with the following results: in 2000, the U.S.
Senate voted 57-42 to strengthen

A hate crime is defined by
the U.S. Congress as a crime
in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in
the case of a property crime,
the property that is the object of the crime, because of
the actual or perceived race,
color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.
By 1980, only five states had
passed hate crime legislation.
New Jersey was one of the
first states to adopt a hatecrime law banning acts of
racial or ethnic intimidation.
Missouri is the fourth state in
the nation to pass legislation
prohibiting racial profiling
and requiring police depart-

2000 Bias Violence
in Arkansas.
From page 1

•

ments statewide to keep racial
statistics on all police stops.
To date, Arkansas is one of
only five states without hatecrime legislation.

dered youth, a parent was
charged with the killing. What is
noteworthy concerning these and
other Log entries is the relationship between experiencing violence and victimization at an
early age and perpetrating violence during adulthood.
Youth
begin learning to commit violent
acts such as harassment, rape, assault or murder at a young age. It
is critical that we make the connection between children's experiences at a young age and their
behavior as adults, because it is
the only way we can stop the cycle of violence. Based on a training manual produced by the
Northeast Arkansas Council on
Family Violence:

The Women's Watchcare Log is
published each year, documenting
every case of bias and hate violence that we can verify by a
named source around the state.
In addition to bias and hate, we
pay close attention to the connections between perpetrators, victims and the crimes. For example,
many of the Log entries include •
sexist murders of women, but
they also include men murdered
by women. Two of the women •
who murdered men in 2000
claimed self-defense and/or a history of abuse.
Most domestic •
homicides are the end result of a
pattern known as the cycle of violence. The cycle is broken only if
the violence ceases or someone is
killed.
•
Another example is this edition's
inclusion of murders of youth and
gun and school violence. According to the Democrat-Gazette
(3/19/00), 17 children were expelled from Arkansas public
schools for making threats or taking weapons
onto campuses.
Many of the perpetrators and victims included in the 2000 Log are
Arkansas youth. 35 of the 68 entries (51.5%) included individuals
under the age 25. In 30 (86%)
of the 35 incidents involving
youth, the victims were youth.
22 of those 35 entries (63%) include youth assailants. In 44% (8
out of 18) of the cases of mur-

•

50% of the time there is both
child abuse and domestic violence in the same home.
Children from violent homes
have a 74% chance of committing crimes against people.
Children from violent homes
are 24 times more likely than
chi ldren from nonviolent
homes to commit rape and
other sexual assaults.
Children from violent homes
are 1000 times more likely to
abuse as adults.
63% of all boys ages 11-20
arrested for homicide have
killed their mother's assaulters.

Another form of violence the Log
monitors and records is violence
against the elderly, disabled and
people with HIV/AIDS. Sometimes elderly and disabled people
are assaulted because they are
perceived as weak or physically
vulnerable. The perpetrator may
also assume that they are less
valuable. Nursing homes are now
required by law to notify the

Coroner's office whenever a resident dies. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (3/15/00) stated that
the Coroner's office reported 15
possible cases of abuse and neglect in Pulaski County nursing
homes alone since the law was
enacted.
The Log contains other entries directly or indirectly related to bias
and/or hate such as Klan activity,
satanic activity, racist violence/
climate, lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgendered
(LGBT) violence
and/or climate of intolerance and
police brutality. Some of the categories of violence may contain
few entries. Others were omitted
completely,
such as violence
based on religious identity. This is
not to suggest that the incidence
of this type of violence is minimal
or does not exist. Bias crimes and
hate violence often go underreported or unreported.
Sometimes, when a woman is
struck by her husband or significant other, she is not able to call
the police. Episodes of intimidation or harassment reported to
authorities based on a person's
religion, race or sexual orientation
are not always recorded as hate
crimes.
Bias and violence are processes
that work to intimidate, harass
and assault not just individuals,
but the communities to which
they belong.
The Women's
Watchcare
Network
continues
working to educate, empower
and organize communities to take
a stand against hate in Arkansas.
The Log is an important tool that
we use to carry out this work ■

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 2* Transformation * Fall 2001

Racist Violence
January 1, Eureka Springs
A Eureka Springs resident phoned the
Women'.s Project after a man threatening him with
a knife accosted him. The African American told
the local police that after sliding on the ice and
hitting another vehicle, he attempted to apologize
to the driver who was white. The white male
pulled a knife and threatened him while shouting
racial slurs.
The man was discouraged from
continuing the assault by his passenger who said,
"He's not worth it."
Victim's Account

Racist Climate
April 5, Little Rock

Don

Sexist Murders of Women
February 5, Magnolia
The body of 15-year-old Brittini Pater was
found in a gravel pit in Columbia County around
3:30 a.m. Brittini was twelve weeks pregnant and
was leaving her parents' home with her boyfriend,
16-year-old Matthew Elliot, to seek an abortion at
2:00 a.m. the same morning. Her parents found a
note left by Brittini insisting that she cared for them,
but there was something that she desperately
needed to take care of.
Elliot and 17-year-old William Davis were
charged with murder after Davis' brother-in-law
discovered the bludgeoned body while hunting and
reported his discovery to authorities. First denying
the fetus' paternity and

AIDS!

t~~~:

least t:ii~~:n 191:·mea~
t t catch
~~ar~:;, inn~~:nt
have
filed
lawsuits
eventually confessed to
plotting for three weeks
against
Di II a rd' s
department store chain
to kill Brittini because
citing
a 11 e g e d 1.Intravenous
drugabusers
she
was
pregnant.
discrimination based on 2. Bisexuals
"Brittini was bludgeoned
3. Blacks(heterosexual
Blackmalesare14times with a long piece of
race.
as likelyasWhitesto beHIVcarriers)
metal and possibly run
Eleven women
filed a federal lawsuit
NATIONAL
ALLIANCE
over by a car. Deputies
against
Di II a rd' s
believe that tire marks at
department
store
POB90• Hillsboro
•WV24946
the crime scene suggest
claiming that they were
(304)653-4600
that Matthew
circled
discriminated
against
Checkourwebsite:WWW1nata11.com
Brittini and then possibly
Send$6far1oostickerspos1paid(asktorsticker#S19).
ran over her to make
because of their race.
th at
They contended
Hate group propaganda. like this business card
sure she was dead."
Elliot was found
security gua rd s subjected distributed by the National Alliance. contributes to the
racist climate in Arkansas.
guilty and sentenced to
them to unreasonable
search and seizure. Of
life without parole after
the eleven women, ten
Brittini's parents agreed
were stopped due to suspicion of shoplifting. Of not to pursue the death penalty.
Davis was
those ten, only two of the women were criminally awaiting an October trial date.
charged.
Charges against one woman were ADG: 2/7. 2/8. 2/9. 2/10. 2/18. 3/1, 4/5, 4/9, 4/20,
dismissed. The other was found innocent.
9/29. 10/30, 10/31
Two other women filed suit around a year
later alleging discrimination. A representative from March 15, Little Rock
Dillard's stated, "At no time has Dillard's ever
Darwin Shields, 21, strangled to death his
profiled or targeted any person because of their 17-year-old girlfriend, Sarah Stafford, at Interstate
race or age for any kind of suspect of shoplifting. Park. Her naked body was discovered buried under
There is no policy for anyone to be singled out. It's trash and debris in a patch of woods behind Shields'
wrong and it doesn't make good business sense."
mother's home in Wrightsville. Sarah was killed
after arguing with Shields about her unborn child
ADG: 4/5, 9/28

Don'thavesexwith:

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 3* Transformation * Fall 2001

who she claimed he fathered.
Shields'
first-degree
murder charge was upgraded to
capital murder. During his trial,
the autopsy
report
revealed
"evidence of an internal stab
wound near Sarah's cervix that
happened
sometime after she
died. Dr. Steven Erickson of the
state Crime Laboratory testified
that he discovered "a small
foreign object that looked like the
end of a stick had been rammed
into Stafford's vagina, causing
internal injuries."
Shields was convicted in
November and sentenced to life
without parole.
Sarah was a
junior at McClellan High School.
ADC: 2/18, 3/17, 6/10, ll/14,
ll/15

for June 30.
ADC: 7/12
The couple
has two
children who were two and three July 9, Mena
years old at the time Lucilla was
Jesse Heath, 32, walked
murdered.
into Rich Mountain
Nursing
ADC: 6/25, 1/17/01
Home and Rehabilitation Center,
SW Times Record· 6/23
shot and killed his wife, Marita
Jonesboro Sun: 6/26
Heath, 25, while she was working
El Dorado News-Times: 6/26
in the kitchen.

Benton County Daily Record: ADC: 7/10
6/26
Southwest Times Record: 7/ll
NW Arkansas Times: 6/23
De Queen Daily Citizen: 7/10
De Quenn Bee: 7/13
June 23, Brinkley
Camden News: 7/10
A relative of Jerlene Britt,
68, discovered her body and the
body of her husband, Charles
Britt, 73. Authorities believe that
Britt shot Jerlene and then shot
and killed himself.
ADC: 6/29

June 22, Fayetteville
July 4, Hope
Jerry Lura! Edmond shot
Before a battered Lucilla
Flores, 21, died, she told medical Maxine Turner, a female friend, in
personnel at Washington Regional the head at the residence they
Medical Center that her estranged shared just south of the Hope city
husband was responsible for her limits. Authorities reported that
beating. Angel Chevez Flores, 28, Edmond shot and killed Maxine
was charged
and eventually after an argument between the
convicted of first-degree murder two ensued.
after striking, kicking and choking ADC: 7/6
Lucilla in her home the morning
of her death.
July 4, Bentonville
Angel Flores discovered
Bonnie Cabral, 23, was
Nicholas Reyes, 23, at Lucilia's shot and killed by her husband
home. Flores attacked him with a Robert Daco Cabral, 24. Cabral
knife, but Reyes managed to told authorities that his wife shot
escape and contact Fayetteville herself inside of their home while
authorities. The police arrived to he was "backing out of the
find Lucilla lying unconscious with driveway." He later changed his
a bloody nose and a bruised neck. story to say, "His wife was
According to authorities, Flores accidentally shot after the couple
has a history of abuse. On May struggled with one of Cabral's
30, Lucilla petitioned
for a pistols." Relatives of the victim
temporary
restraining
order told authorities that they have
against her husband. She wrote in seen Cabral threaten his wife with
the petition, "[he] threatened to a gun and that they frequently
kill me if he finds me and told a a r g u e d
about
Cab r a I· s
friend he is going to beat and kill "girlfriend."
me."
The hearing for a full
Cabral was charged with
restraining order was scheduled capital murder.

July 21, Fayetteville
A
murder-suicide
perpetrated by Michael Estes, 47,
left him and his estranged
girlfriend dead in their rented
home. Police found the charred
body of Tonya Burrow, 26, lying
face down with a gunshot wound
to the back of her head.
Her
body
was
burned
beyond
recognition. Estes' body was lying
next to the bed with a gunshot
wound to the forehead. His body
was burned, but not as badly as
Tonya's.
A jug of flammable
liquid was found near the bodies.
Police reported that the
couple was preparing to move
from the residence and separate.
According to friends, "Estes was
upset over an impending breakup
and had talked about suicide in
recent days."
Neighbors told
authorities that they heard the
couple "bickering" a number of
times since moving into the home.
They were scheduled to move on
August 1.
ADC: 7/29

El Dorado News-Times: 7/29
Pine Bluff Commercial: 7/29
July 22, Jacksonville
Ricky Modlin, 30, beat
his wife, Evelyn Modlin, 23, to
death with a wrench after an
argument at a motel where the

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 4* Transformation * Fall 2001

couple worked and lived. The
couple's two sons witnessed the
attack.
Earlier, Modlin confessed
to his cousin that he wanted to
kill his wife.
Carl Holland,
Modlin's cousin, tried talking
Modlin out of the murder.
Several
days later,
Holland
discovered
the body
in a
bathroom next to the Modlin's
suite. Evelyn's body remained in
the bathroom for four days while
Modlin and the boys continued to
live in the suite. Modlin ducttaped the bathroom to conceal
the odor.
Modlin confessed and
was charged with first-degree
murder
after
the
police
apprehended him.
Custody of
the children was awarded to a
maternal grandparent.

ADC,: 7/27, 8/1
White River Journal: 7/27
Jacksonville Patriot: 7/26
August 22, Bentonville
Eunice Belinda Bradley's
body was set on fire after a man
with whom she allegedly had an
affair shot her to death. Benton
County firefighters discovered her
charred body as they fought a
large brush fire in a field behind a
vacant house. Roger Dale Barrett,
41, told his wife and her friend
that he accidentally shot 40-yearold Eunice.
Barrett's wife, Nola, and
a friend, Debbie Steenblock, told
authorities how Barrett attempted
to conceal the murder.
They
admitted having seen Bradley's
body inside the Bradley home on
the day that her remains were
discovered in the fire.
"Nola
Barrett
told
investigators her husband had
been having an affair with Bradley
but was trying to end the
relationship," according to the

investigator's affidavit.
ADC,: 8/28
El Dorado News-Times: 8/28

participating in her disappearance
and death.
He later led
investigators
to her • body.
Authorities believe that his motive
August 22, Mountain Home
was jealousy because Carolyn had
Major L. McPherson, 77, left him.
shot and killed his wife, Carol, 56, ADC,: ll/30
then shot and killed himself.
McPherson was a retired Baxter December 16, Lewisville
County sheriffs deputy.
Carol
Barbara Jones, 33, was
McPherson's son found the bodies shot and killed by the father of
at the couple's home. Relatives her two-month-old child. Stanley
told authorities that the couple Wyrick, 37, shot himself in the
"quarreled" the night before their neck after authorities pursued him
bodies were discovered.
in connection
with Barbara's
ADC,: 817, 8/23
death.
Wyrick was in critical
condition in a Louisiana hospital.
September 2, North Little Rock
No further information on his
Six children playing near condition is available.
a carwash discovered the body of
Two of Barbara's relatives
Alice Marie Page, 33, who had and her infant child were at the
been stabbed to death.
Police house during the time of the
picked up her live-in boyfriend, shooting, but no one else was
Bobby Lee Russell, 35, at his harmed.
sister's home in Little Rock.
Texarkana Gazette: 12/19
Authorities suspect that
after Alice returned home from
work, she and Russell "got into a
disturbance."
At that point,
Russell got a large kitchen knife
and stabbed his girlfriend in the
back.
It is believed that she
collapsed
behind
her house January 1, Little Rock
attempting to get help for her
Audrey
Skinner,
48,
injury.
stabbed and killed her live-in
ADC,: 9/3, 9/6, 9/8
boyfriend, Lee Holmes, 51, just
Harrison Daily Times: 9/8
five hours into the New Year. She
pied innocent after being arrested
November 14, Malvern
at their home. She told officers
Darrell Wayne Piltcher, that she and Holmes argued after
39, who had just been released he returned home at 4 a.m.
from jail on kidnapping and instead of midnight. They began
battery charges against his former fighting and she "realized that she
girlfriend, Carolyn Farley, 41, was cut on her hand." She saw
killed her and dumped
her that Holmes had a knife and
remains. Her body was found in stated she didn't know how, but
the Ouachita
River between she got the knife away from him
Interstate 30 and Malvern.
and stabbed him in the chest.
Carolyn was reported ADC,: 1/2, 1/4
missing
and
investigators
suspected
Piltcher
in her February 18, Mountain Home
disappearance.
He admitted to
Bobbie Elder, 43, shot her

Men Murdered
by Women

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 5* Transformation * Fall 2001

husband, Leonard Eric Elder, 33,
in the chest. Officers found Elder
dead in the living room after
Bobbie Elder called to notify them
that she had shot her husband.
Mrs. El~er had "cuts and bruises
and a knot on her head the size of
a baseball," according to Baxter
County Sheriff Joe Edmonds.
Mrs. Elder alleged that
she experienced a history of abuse
from her husband. She petitioned
for protective orders in 1998 and
1999. Sheriff Edmonds said that
Leonard Elder had also beaten
and threatened his former wife.
ADC: 2/19

July 18, Little Rock
On
four
separate
occasions, Dale Dunn. 48, had
protective orders filed against
him.
He went to his exgirlfriend's job, harassed and
threatened
her after she had
police escort her to return his
belongings to him. His history of
abuse ended when he entered the
home of his former girlfriend,
Carole Edwards, 46, shot her,
shot at her son and shot and
killed himself. Carole Edwards
recovered
from her gunshot
wounds.
Authorities reported that
Dunn broke into his recently
married
ex-girlfriend's
home
disgruntled over their breakup.
Carole Edwards' husband, Larry
Edwards, locked himself in a
room and phoned 911. Three
hours after the first shots were
fired, S.W.A.T. members entered
the home to find Dunn's body.
Bayou ADC: 7/19

Other Related
Domestic
Murders

February
9, Locust
(Calhoun County)
Ben Williams, 38, was
shot and killed after attempting to
aid a woman as she frantically left
the home of Larry Heggler, 49.
Earlier, Heggler gave the woman
(name unknown) a ride to his
home full of weapons.
Officers
suspect that Heggler may have
known the woman since she
accepted a ride from him. After
entering his home, he claimed
that all of the guns were loaded.
The woman became nervous and
ran from Heggler's trailer.
Williams was passing the
area
when
he heard
the
unidentified woman yelling for
help. He got out of his truck and
Heggler pointed one of his guns
at Williams. He fired one shot at
Williams and then another into
his back after he collapsed from
the first shot.
ADC: 2/10

December 30, Little Rock
A Little Rock attorney
and gym owner shot his wife in
the face and killed himself.
Officers found Samantha Grace,
43, lying on the floor of a room
at the Best Western Governors Inn
Suites with a bloody towel
covering her face.
Unable to
speak,
she pointed
to her
wedding band when authorities
asked her who shot her. William
Lee Grace, 43, was found dead in
the bathtub.
The couple was staying at
the hotel due to the winter ice
storms.
ADC: 12/31, 1/1/01

Children from violent
homes are 24 times
more likely than
children from
nonviolent homes to
commit rape and other
sexual assaults.

Transformation
Published four times a year
by the Women's Project,
2224 Main Street, Little Rock,
Arkansas 72206
Phone: 501-372-5113
Spanish line: 501-907-0529

Letters to the editor are welcome.

Editors
Production
Layout

Amy Edgington
Yvonne Croston
Dee Dee Green
Staff

Women's Project Staff:
Felicia Davidson, Angeline
Echeverria, Lynn Frost, Judy
Matsuoka, Dee Dee Green, Pat
Schuyler, Tufara Waller
Muhammad

Staff Emeritus:
Suzanne Pharr
* Printed on recycled paper. *

2001 The Women's Project

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 6* Transformation * Fall 2001

Property of the Center

Hate Group Activity
Several . business cards containing hate
group contact information were left in
and circulated around highly public areas
in the city such as the public library and
the campus of UALR. These are some
sample cards.
The Southern Poverty Law Center's
Intelligence Report, a magazine that
documents and reports on hate violence
throughout the US, reported that the
following organized hate groups were
active in Arkansas in 2000 in their Spring
2001 issue:

NATIONAL ALLIANCE

Toward
a NewConsciousness;
a NewOrder;a NewPeople

•--------------------1111

Imperial Klans of America: Magnolia,
Plainview
International Keystone Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan: Parkin
Invisible Empire National Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan: Luxora

"We believe ...

That the future is what we make it• That we
have a responsibility for the racial quality of
the coming generations of our people • That
no multi-racial society is a healthy society •
That if the White race is to suNive we must
unite our people on the basis of common
blood, organize them within a progressive
social order, and inspire them with a common
set of ideals• That the time to begin is now."

Knights of the Ku Klux Klan: Harrison
South Arkansas Knights: Smackover

Churchof the CreatorNo. 14
PO Box 1023
PineBluff, AR 71613

National Alliance: Little Rock, Unionton

cotcl4@wcotc.com
World Church of the Creator: Cabot, Pine
Bluff
RangerSkin Nation: Pine Bluff
Christian Research: Eureka Springs
Crusade for Christ: Little Rock

www.front14.org/cotc 14/

The World Church
of the Creator
P.O. Box 2002
E. Peoria, IL61611
Hotline - (309) 699-0135
Web Site:http://www.creator.org

Kingdom Identity Ministries: Harrison
League of the South: Mayflower
American Front: Harrison
Council of Conservative Citizens: Little Rock

www.womens-project.org/

August 5, Siloam Springs
Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
rallied outside the Siloam Springs Administration
Building. Area churches turned out Siloam Springs
residents to protest the Klan. The events took place
without incident.
ADG: 6/17, 8/1
*Page 7* Transformation

* Fall 2001

After learning of the
festival, some area churches and
the Arkansas Family Council
bought a full-ad that appeared in
is published four times
the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record
every year. In each issue,
A stud~nt at Henderson State The ad was an "open letter to the
members receive analysis
University came back to his dorm community regarding the Gay
of contemporary issues,
room one evening and found the Pride Festival." "Christians in Hot
work "FAG" written in large Springs should not have any information about Women's
Project upcoming events
block letters that took up his hateful
attitudes
about
and activities, book
entire dry-erase message board on homosexuals. God's Word clearly
the door. The student is openly teaches His displeasure with the
reviews, and more. If you
gay and was leading SPECTRUM!, homosexual lifestyle." The letter
are not a Women's Project
the LGBT group during that time. stated
that
the sponsoring
member and would like to
He reported the incident to the churches "desire that Hot Springs
continue receiving the
HSU police and they came to the continue to be a 'family-friendly
journal, please fill out the
It called for the
dorm room to take pictures and community."
membership form below.
fill out a report. Later, after he festival's opponents to "make
erased the word "FAG" from the your views known to others,
businesses
that._ ____
....._
board, someone wrote "alarmist" including
on his door.
associated themselves with the ,!Ac
festival." After the controversy Ir- - - - - - - - - - - - - _,. I
Yes, I would like to
I
In a separate incident at the became public, businesses were I
join the Women's
I
University one of SPECTRUM's sprayed with "derogatory" graffiti I
Project.
:
first signs was vandalized.
The and cars parked at participating :
words "shoot a queer" were businesses were vandalized.
A
written on the bottom.
The caller phoned one restaurant I Name
incident was never reported to owner and threatened to pour I Address
officials.
kerosene on him and set him
City
afire. He also received several
Victim/Witness Account
Zip
I State
calls from "ministers" who recited
I Phone/day
Memorial Day Weekend, Hot Bible passages.
I
Phone/evening
After the ad appeared,
Springs
"Calling for the Christian Tillman met with three local I E-mail
community to boycott businesses ministers. They called for Tillman
I
is not
a fun thing,
but to promise that there would be I D $25 regular D $100 supporting
unfortunately it's sometimes the no second Gay Pride Festival. I
only way to let people know that Tillman agreed never to organize I D $50 sustaining D $15 low income
I
we're opposed," said Reverend another event.
I I'd like to pay by D check D credit
Terry Thompson
of Second Arkansas Times 6/16
I
Visa
Mastercard
Baptist Church in Hot Springs
I
regarding the Mid-South Gay
I
I
Pride Festival. Despite opposition
I Account No.
to the event, Davis Tillman,
I Exp. Date
Festival organizer,
told
the
I Signature
Arkansas Times, "This was a good
event, a very positive event."
Make checks payable to:
:
The Festival, Freedom 2000,
Women's Project
I
raised $7000.00 for the Arkansas
2224 Main Street
I
AIDS Foundation
and HPWA
Little Rock, AR 72206
I
(Helping People With AIDS).
Donations are tax-deductible.
I

LGBT Climate of
Intolerance

Trans/ ormation ...

0

.._- - - - - - - - - - - - _..I
I

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 8* Transformation * Fall 2001

Murdersof
Youth
January 11, Pine Bluff
Brittany Ashley, 3, was
pronounced dead by the Jefferson
County coroner's office.
Her
father. Garrick Ashley. 19. was
charged with capital murder.
ADC: 1/20
January 19, Pine Bluff
Antonio Smith, 8-weeksold, died as a result of multiple
blunt-force trauma to the head.
His mother, Kelly D. Pike-Smith.
21, was charged with capital
murder.
ADC: 1/20

boyfriend, Bryant Flores, 21, was
convicted
of second-degree
murder.
His mother, Karen
Stephens, 21, was charged with
capital murder.
ADC: 11/3

months-old. bled to death from a
three inch cut to his throat. His
father, Jerome DeAsis; 26, was
hospitalized after being pulled
from a fire that destroyed the
family's home.
DeAsis was
charged with the murder of his
March 31, Little Rock
son.
Eugene
Hulum.
25. ADC: 6/19, 6/22
smashed the head of his 19month-old son, Marquis Hulum. January 12, Fayetteville
Scharel Burley, 43, was
He then "swung his corpse like a
club while attacking the officers charged with first-degree murder
who
arrested
him,"
said after being accused of jamming a
authorities.
Hulum was charged plastic thermometer cover into
with capital murder.
the anus of her 18-month-old
nephew. Samuel Sams. Samuel
ADC: 4/1, 8/2, 9/30
died from acute peritonitis.
A
April 3. Little Rock
tear in the baby's bowels caused
Harry Allen Carter, 58. the infection.
shot and killed his 15-year-old ADC: 1/16,2/28, 6/22, 8/8
grandson, Farrin Jamel! Carter
after the two argued over a July 31. Little Rock
missing cellular phone.
Carter
Aaron Floyd. 18. was shot
and his wife. Marie. had adopted and killed at a bus stop by a man
their grandson and raised him wearing a red bandanna over his
from an early age.
face. according to a witness.
ADC: 4/4, 4/5
ADC: 8/1

February 9. Rogers
Christopher John Steimel,
Jr., 11-months-old. was shot in the
head and killed by his father.
Christopher Steimel. who shot
and killed himself.
ADC: 2/10
May 2, Hot Springs
Amata Colley. 44. shot
February 16. Wynne
and killed herself and her son.
Paige d r i an n a
Lee Matthew Colley, 10, in their
Jennings, 6-weeks-old, died of home.
Calley's sister, Mary
asphyxiation.
The infant had Hazen, lived in the basement of
multiple bruises covering her the home and contacted police
body and 15 fractured ribs. Her after discovering the bodies.
father, Joshua Jennings, 17, was ADC,: 5/2
charged with capital murder.
ADC: 3/29
June 6, Jacksonville
Rodger Lewis Nunn, Jr.,
March 20. Little Rock
18, was fatally stabbed in a
Antwan Jones, 17, died of mobile home park just north of
a gunshot wound to the neck. Jacksonville.
A 22-year-old
Brandon
Hardman,
16, was resident of the park, who police
arrested and charged with first- did not identify, was charged with
degree murder.
the murder.
ADC: 3/23, 3/24
ADC: 6/7
March 26, Hot Springs
June 18, Bentonville
Victor Stephens, 3, was
Dominic
DeAsis,
beaten to death and his mother's

August 2, Little Rock
Eldrick Williams. 17. was
shot in the back of the head
during a robbery.
20-year-old,
Kareem Holloway and Phillip
Williams, 19, were arrested.
ADC,: 8/3, 8/17
August 14, Little Rock
Thierry Thomas. 19, was
shot and killed as the result of an
argument over a barbeque grill.
Rodrick Moorehead.
24, was
arrested and charged with firstdegree-murder.
ADC: 8/14

September 20, Forrest City
Tawana Blunt, 19, was
discovered dead in her home.
The woman who discovered her
5- body said it appeared as though
she died from "strangulation."

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 9* Transformation * Fall 2001

Her body was sent to the state March 15, West Fork
A 14-year-old student was
Crime Lab for an autopsy.
arrested
after
a 9 mm
ADC: 9/20
semiautomatic and two empty
November 18, West Helena
magazines were found inside of
Kim Amos, 18, and Karen his backpack at West Fork Middle
Stiles, 20, were killed by a co- School.
The boy showed the
worker, Brian Winston, 24. He weapon to a friend at school who
was arrested on charges of later reported it to the principal.
aggravated robbery and capital The gun belonged to his brothermurder.
in-law who kept the gun locked
ADC: /1/19
up inside a workshop.
ADC: 3/15
December 4, Little Rock
5-year-old Jamal Wood April 10, Benton
Three teens were arrested
was shot and killed as he rode in
his family's vehicle on Roosevelt in the stabbing of a Benton High
A bounty was
Road. The family recognized the School student.
shooter as a family relative. Sgt. placed on the student's head
Jeff Norman reported, "As far as a because she had "narked" on
motive, we're not sure yet, but some people, according to an
certainly we don't think a 5-year- affidavit.
old was the intended victim."
ADC: 4/18
ADC: 12/5
May 11, Prairie Grove
A 12-year-old seventh
grade student shot a Prairie Grove
police
officer
near
Lower
Elementary School. The student
was dropped off at school but
apparently left school grounds,
returned home to get a shotgun
and was returning to school,
according to officials. The student
shot at Sgt. Greg Lovett five times
March 15, Newport
A Tuckerman High School hitting him in the face, chest, back
The officer
student told classmates that he and buttocks.
was going to "shoot to kill when returned fire hitting the boy in the
the time came." The 17-year-old stomach.
Both were released from
was
charged
with
felony
terroristic threatening and arrested the hospital. The juvenile was
after running away from his foster charged with attempted capital
parents' home. He admitted to murder.
investigators that he had compiled ADC: 5/12, 5/13, 6/5, 6/7, 8/20
a "hit list" only as a scare tactic.
White was later cleared of August 21, Conway
A teen-age girl, 15, and
all charges. He allegedly tore up
the list and no weapon was ever her boyfriend, 16, plotted to kill
her mother.
The boyfriend
found.
entered
Patsy Bailey's home,
ADC: 3/18
struck her, slashed her wrists and
left her to die in a bathtub,

Gun/School
Violence
Perpetrated by
Youth

according to police.
Officers
found a note in the daughter's
bedroom that read, "Mom must
die."
Patsy Bailey was treated
and released. Both teens were
charged as adults. The boy was
charged with attempted murder.
Bailey's daughter was charged as
an accomplice.
ADC: 8/22, 8/23
September 15, Springdale
A Springdale High School
student was arrested in the
shooting and wounding of a
classmate after an argument at a
fellow classmate's home.
The
police were looking for a second
suspect, within whose home the
incident occurred. The boy was
treated and released the same
day.
ADC: 9/15
November 3, Conway
Police arrested a 17, 18
and 20-year-old in connection
with bomb threats at Conway and
Mayflower
High
Schools.
Authorities would not comment
on the motive.
ADC: /1/4

Elderly, People
w/Disabilities,
HIV/AIDS
January 4, DeQueen
Police investigated
a
homicide
after Dean Sherill
Whitten was found dead in his
home. He was believed to be 64
years old.
ADC: 1/5
January 22, Little Rock
A 68-year-old

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 10* Transformation * Fall 2001

woman

was raped after a neighbor broke
into her home.
Joe Darryl
Thompson, 38, was sentenced to
30 years in prison after pleading
guilty to the charges.
ADC: 10/31

fraudulently obtain credit cards,
according to a warning issued by
Attorney General, Mark Pryor.
ADC: 9/19

March 15, El Dorado
Hugh P. Watson, 80, was
found dead in his home. Police
investigated the murder as a
homicide.
ADC: 3/16

October 30, Manila
C.B. Murphy, 74, was
killed after a screwdriver was
lodged in his throat. Jimmy Ray
Smart, Jr., 19, confessed to the
murder. Robbery was said to be
Spring 2000, Paris
the motive.
Bill Walker, 53, filed a
ADC: 10/31
complaint in U.S. District Court in
December 8, Pulaski County
Fort Smith seeking compensation
Michelle
Wilson
was for injuries that he suffered at the
arrested in connection with a hands of two former Logan
string of nursing home robberies. County deputies.
She entered several nursing homes
The officers
arrested
around the county claiming to be Walker at a neighbor's home for
related to residents and leaving reportedly leaving the scene of an
with their belongings such as accident in Subiaco. The arrest
televisions
and videocassette was caught on video compliments
recorders. She was charged with of a neighbor.
Walker was
residential burglary and theft.
handcuffed on the porch and
ADC: 12/22
dragged down the steps. Police
then led Walker behind a bush
December 13, Russellville
outside the view of the camera.
Frederick Kain, 71, was Walker emerged with a bloody
shot and killed by 17-year-old head and a swollen bruise below
Vann Clark Tucker at his home the right eye.
near Russellville.
One of the officers was
ADC: 12/21
convicted of misdemeanor battery
and fired from his job.
ADC: 9/13

October 10, Fort Smith
Misanni Lewis, 83, was
beaten and robbed in her home
January 25, Bentonville
Carl Glenn Hunter, 61, by a man who was released from
was found dead from a gunshot prison in June after serving time
wound in the Ozark National for robbing and beating another
elderly woman.
Forest.
ADC: 1/25
ADC: 10/11

May 11, Camden
The body of 79-year-old
R.L. Nash was found on his living
room floor.
Due to evidence
found at the scene, the state
police investigation unit and the
state Crime Lab were notified.
ADC: 5/12
July 11, Hot Springs
A 20-year-old and two
18-year-olds were arrested in
connection with the robbery and
slaying of a disabled man. Jack
Anthony Wright, 46, died from a
single gunshot wound.
ADC: 7/12
August 10, Little Rock
Two men were arrested
and charged with sexually abusing
a blind woman in her home.
ADC: 8/19

altercation after a routine traffic
stop, according to authorities and
witnesses. The officer walked to
Cavallaro's car and the two
argued.
Witnesses
said,
"Cavallaro pointed his finger at
the officer,
and
the
two
exchanged heated words. Turner
then swung a roundhouse punch
at
Cavallaro
and
began
pummeling him to the ground."
He was knocked unconscious and
remained in a coma until he died
November 10.
On
November
14,
Turner's charge changed from
first-degree battery to murder.
ADC: 12/27

Police
Brutality''c

August 18, Little Rock
* Race is not necessarily a factor
Elderly Black Arkansans
in these instances of police
were the target of a "cruel scam"
brutality.
that promised them $5000.00 if
they
provided
personal
information to a Washington, DC May 8, Edmondson
address.
The
personal
Edmondson police officer,
information could be used to David Turner, beat Leo Cavallaro,
establish a false identity and Jr., 48, unconscious following an
www.womens-project.org/ *Page 11* Transformation * Fall 2001

WOMEN WORKING
FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Our goal is social change, or, as the poet
Adrienne Rich writes, "the transformation
of the world."
We believe this world can be changed to
become a place of peace and justice for
all women.
We take risks in our work; we take
unpopular stands.
We work for all
women
and against all forms of
discrimination
and oppression.
We
believe that we cannot work for all
women and against sexism unless we also
work against racism, classism, ageism,
anti-Semitism,
heterosexism
and
homophobia.
We see the connection
among these oppressions as the context
for violence against women
in this
society.
We are concerned in particular about
issues of importance to traditionally
underrepresented women: poor women,
aged women, women of color, teenage
mothers,
women
with
disabilities,
lesbians, women in prisons, etc. All are
women who experience discrimination
and violence against their lives.
-

Oemoc;,a• -,Cl(

MeFAAI.ANI

Pulaski County shonffs depuhes are IOV8Stiqatingthe placing of two pentagrarru
on a walkway al Woodson Cemetery ,n south Pulaski County. Depuhes sa11
someone took !lowers from nearby graves 1111d
created one of the do<igns. TI1<
second was outnnod with white cha!k and pine needles The pentagrams wen
do:co"""9dThur9d.-.vmomu,q

This photo was included in the August 18, 2000
edition of the Democrat-Gazette. The photo was
taken by Rick McFarland. The caption reads:
Pulaski County sheriff's deputies are investigating
the placing of two pentagrams on a walkway at
Woodson Cemetary in south Pulaski County.
Deputies said someone took flowers from nearby
graves and created one of the designs. The second
was outlined with white chalk and pine needles.
The pentagrams
were discovered
Thursday
morning.

We are committed to working multiculturally, multi-racially, and to making
our work and cultural events accessible to
low-income women.
We believe that
women will not know equality until they
know economic justice.
We believe that a few committed women
working in coalition and in consensus
with other women can make significant
change in the quality of life for all
women.
The Women's Project is a community-based,
nonprofit organization working to eliminate all
forms of oppression.

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 12* Transformation * Fall 2001

1

Univiliill~llll~lf
jjij)
~l~1111[1i111111m11imi11d,
OK

M 001 111 351
Property of the Center

AREYOU A
FEDERALEMPLOYEE?

Make
Your
Combined
Federal
Campaign
Pledge
Work
for
Women.

Support groups for
women in prison
Lending library of
Women's and AfricanAmerican literature

Community response to
acts of religious, racial,
sexual, anti-gay/lesbian
violence and the activities
of hate groups in
Arkansas

A leadership development program for
African-American women

www.womens-project.org/ *Page 13* Transformation * Fall 2001

Women's Project
2224 Main Street
Little Rock, AR 72206

Non-Profit Organization
U.S. Postage Paid
Little Rock, Arkansas
Permit No. 448

.,

HerlandSister Resources
2312NW
39th
Oklahoma
City, OK73112