Kathy Stevens testimony changes and is not consistent with the facts

Benito first called Kathy Stevens on March 7, 1985. This
was two days after Barbara DeCarr’s March 5th deposition in which
she indicated she went to Mr. Tompkins’ mother’s house at
“approximately 9:00 am.” (DeCarr depo. at 16). In her undated
statement, she further indicated that Mr. Tompkins had already
arrived at his mother’s house and “stayed at his mother’s house
until approximately 10:00 am when he left to get some newspapers
to pack dishes with.” In her deposition, she indicated Mr.
Tompkins “could have been” gone “[t]wenty minutes, half an hour.”
(DeCarr depo. at 20). He subsequently left again with his
stepfather (DeCarr depo. at 21).

Kathy’s new version of the facts included her sneaking into
Lisa’s bedroom window at 6:30 AM on March 24th because she and
Lisa were planning to run away after getting in trouble at
school. In the early morning meeting, Kathy said that Lisa

40).

After the body was found, Mrs. DeCarr told the police that
Wayne Tompkins, her ex-boyfriend, was the last person to see Lisa
alive on the morning of March 24, 1983, the day she disappeared.
Based upon Mrs. DeCarr’s claims and the discovery of the body,
Mr. Tompkins was indicted. In early 1985, Mrs. DeCarr was deposed
by Mr. Tompkins’ counsel.

Immediately afterwards, the prosecutor,
Mike Benito, started looking for more evidence or another
witness. He contacted Kathy Stevens in March of 1985.8 At first
she maintained that her statements to school officials were true,
that Lisa had runaway to New York and kept in touch with Kathy.
Kathy said that after laying awake and talking to her pillow, she
called the prosecutor.

After she was given authorization to visit
a boyfriend who was incarcerated, she changed her story and
claimed that she witnessed Lisa being strangled by Mr. Tompkins
on the morning of March 24, 1983, at around 8:30 AM.

announced she was not running away after all. So Kathy left.
Later, she realized that she left her purse and had to go back to
get it. When she got there at around 8:30 AM, the front door was
open. She went in and saw Mr. Tompkins strangling Lisa. Lisa
called out for her to call the police. But instead, she went to
the nearby store and ran into Lisa’s boyfriend, Junior Davis.
When she told him what she had just witnessed, he seemed
unconcerned. So, Kathy put the incident behind her and went to
school. In her trial testimony, Kathy said that she went back
later to get her purse with her girlfriend, Kim Lisenby. It was
then Kim who knocked at the door, not Kathy, and may have spoken
with Mr. Tompkins. Kathy indicated that this conversation was
between Kim and Tompkins while she “was at the corner waiting.”
She stated, “I did not hear it” (Stevens depo. at 14).

In her deposition, Kathy gave a different version. There,
she said that Kim Lisenby was with her when she saw Lisa being
strangled. After Lisa told her to call the police, she “grabbed
[her] purse and [ ] left.” (Stevens depo. at 10) “I shut the
door. And I told Kim, I said, ‘Come on, Kim we got to call the
police.’ She said, ‘Don’t get involved.’ And I said, ‘Why?’ And
she said, ‘Because you don’t need to.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ And I
went to the store and that’s when I ran into Junior.” Id.

In her deposition, Kathy indicated that she “grabbed her
purse” when she left at 8:00 am. (Stevens depo at 10). She also
indicated that after she talked to Junior, “me and [Kim] went
back to the school. I cleaned out my locker, and I went to my
stepmother’s and sat on her porch until she got back. And then I
met Kim at school at 2:00 o’clock. And she cut class. And we went
to go check on Lisa” (Stevens depo. at 14). “It takes about
twenty minutes to get from the school to her house. It was about
2:20, 2:30, something like that.” Id.

Kathy Stevens’ deposition occurred on June 12, 1985.
Kenneth Turco’s deposition occurred on July 15, 1985.