Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [114]
“Is the court aware,” Damien’s lawyer persisted, that “we have a thousand pages of discovery from the state alleging a cult-related killing?”
Judge Burnett only replied, “That doesn’t mean they have to prove motive.”
Change of Procedure
The question of whether or not Fogleman and Davis would raise the occult or satanism as a motive for the crime remained unsettled as the proceedings resumed in open court. Detective Ridge was questioned further, without the word “cult” being mentioned. Then Dr. Frank Peretti, of the medical examiner’s office, took the stand. Prosecutor Davis’s questioning was brief. Handing Peretti the knife that was discovered in the lake on Fogleman’s hunch, Davis asked Peretti if Christopher’s wounds were “consistent with the serrated portion of that knife.” Peretti answered that some of them were. That was all. The prosecutor sat down.
On cross-examination, Jason’s attorney got Peretti to admit that most serrated knives—not just this one in particular—could have caused the injuries. Then Damien’s lawyer got up and handed Dr. Peretti what he called “the John Mark Byers knife.” He asked if Christopher’s injuries were consistent “with wounds being inflicted by this type of knife.” Peretti again said yes, and that “some of the smaller serrated wounds” were consistent with the serrations on that knife.
Davis turned the questioning to certain injuries on Michael Moore. He asked about bruises that Peretti said he’d found on the boy’s ears and about abrasions inside his mouth. Peretti said the injuries were of a type “we generally see in children who are forced to perform oral sex.” Davis asked if there could have been other causes. “Well,” Peretti said, “you can get them by—the lip injuries—by putting an object inside the mouth. You can get those type of injuries also from a punch or a slap. Or you can get those type of injuries from the hand over the mouth and pressing the hands very tightly up against the mouth.” Peretti also said that Michael had “defense type wounds” on his hands indicating that he had fought his attacker. He testified that the boy had suffered “multiple fractures” to his skull, causing bruising of “the entire brain.” In addition, he said, the boy’s lungs were filled with water, indicating that, “when he was in the water, he was breathing.”
When questioned about Stevie Branch, Peretti noted that “multiple, irregular, and gouging type cutting wounds” were evident on his face. When Davis asked for possible causes, Peretti said “an object such as a knife or glass or any sharp object” could have made the marks, if the object were twisted or the child had been moving. “What is important to note,” Peretti elaborated, “is that on the forehead region, we have an abrasion or scrape that left a pattern. And inside the pattern, you can see, it’s almost like a dome shape. And that injury, you see, it’s typical of a belt injury. The belt has a little buckle…. That type of injury we typically see with belts.” Peretti said that Stevie Branch’s body showed injuries to the ears and mouth similar to Michael Moore’s. He said that like Michael, Stevie had fluid in his lungs, and had also suffered a massive blow to the back of his head. “The base of the skull, the back of the skull, showed a three-and-one-half-inch fracture, which had multiple extension fractures.” He added graphically: “If you have ever dropped an egg, and you see how you have fractures of the egg; that is basically what happened.”
Davis asked Peretti to “generally describe” Christopher’s wounds. “Well,” the doctor replied, “Christopher also had head injuries, as well as neck injuries, genital-anal injuries, right leg injuries, left leg injuries, back injuries, right arm injuries, and left arm injuries.