My son, Jeff Dicks, was living with his pregnant wife in Kingsport, Tennessee in February of 1978. He had befriended Donald Strouth and was trying to help him. One day they were out riding when Strouth told Jeff to pull over in front of a used clothing store. Jeff pulled over and Strouth jokingly said he was going to rip the store off. Jeff thought he was fooling around and he laughed.
Strouth went inside the store and Jeff sat there waiting for Strouth to come back out laughing about everything. Five minutes went by and Jeff became worried. Strouth came runing out and Jeff knew in that instant...something had gone down.
Jeff learned later that night the shopkeeper had been killed and robbed of two hundred dollars. Jeff had taken no part in the murder, and had taken none of the robbery money. Jeff turned himself in to authorities. At that time we had no idea how the justice system worked, or didn't work as it turned out. We had been brought up watching Perry Mason where the good guy went free and the bad guy went to prison.
So many errors occurred from this point on, it almost becomes a comedy — except that the end result is a sheer horror story. Jeff had turned himself in to NC authorities because that is where I was living at the time. The Tennessee TBI came over to question him. Detectives refused a stenographer as is usually done in these cases when they question a suspect. Detectives said we did not need an attorney present during questioning as they knew Strouth was the one who had murdered the shopkeeper and spent the robbery money.
Jeff gave a statement without an attorney present, telling the whole truth like we'd been brought up believing. His statement put him at the scene of the crime..outside in the car. The two boys were tried separately, which was smart on their side because during Jeff's trial, all testimony was ruled heresay and not admissible for his jurors to hear.
During Strouths trial, his girlfriend Barbara Davis testified that Strouth had blood on his jeans...then she took police to where they had buried them. She admitted that Strouth told her he had done what he had to do. He had bought an old used car for the two hundred dollars robbery money. Another witness told police Strouth told him he had killed someone during a robbery. The pathologist testified that the old man was unconscious with Strouth standing over him, when he slit his throat. The blood squirting upwards to the bottom of Strouths jeans. The blood stains were on the both pant legs at the bottom.
Detectives tried telling the jurors at Jeff's trial that they found two sets of footprints outside the store that day...trying to implicate Jeff in the crime. They hadn't taken any plaster footprints, which is standard when finding footprints. They said they had gone back and taken two rolls of colored film but the camera malfunctioned. Yet the pictures of the victim lying in a pool of blood all came out. The camera hadn't malfunctioned at that time. Jeff wears a size 11 boot....not too many footprints are that big. The store had a back alleyway where winos drank and partied. There were plenty of footprints there, and if the camera had malfunctioned, they could have gotten another camera.
During Jeff's trial, they only had his statement putting him there as he told the truth. He also said Strouth said he was going to rip the store off, but he hadn't believed him. Testimony was not allowed as to anything Strouth told anyone. It was ruled heresay. The pathologists changed his testimony to "someone could have held the old man up while his throat was being cut. They were trying to place Jeff inside the store. They didn't address the fact if the man was standing in an upward positon when he was being killed, the blood would have spurted on Strouth's shirt and not on the bottom of his pant legs the way it happened, and the way it was testified to at the first trial.
Jeff didn't have a competent attorney who had ever handled a capital case before.