Similar Transactions: A True Story

by S. R. Reynolds

  Steve had his arms around her. “Oh, baby,” he said, stunned. Not sure what else to say or do, he got her a Coke.

  Amanda took down several large gulps and then yelled, “He tried to rape me!” Then she threw up on the floor.

  At five-forty-five p.m. the DeKalb County Police arrived at Stone Mountain Billiards. Officer Philip Cresti took the initial report, and the police forensic squad went to work. They photographed Amanda, the red marks and bruising around her neck, and took tissue samples from beneath her nails. Then they lifted the assailant’s prints from her car.

  Two of the teens volunteered to look for Amanda’s missing shoes and found one in the middle of the street near the intersection of Hambrick and Village Square Road. They turned the badly scraped and torn shoe over to Amanda. The police then collected it along with the cigarette box that had the Pacer’s tag number written on it.

  Detective Gwen Horne with the DeKalb Police Youth and Sex Crimes Division arrived to interview Amanda, her boyfriend, Decker, and two teenage witnesses. Based on their description of the suspect and the events, Case Detective Horne issued a BOLO—an official Be On the Look-Out—to metro area police precincts and a teletype with the same information to sheriffs’ departments and other law enforcement agencies.

  The alert described a white male between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-five, approximate height five feet eight inches, weighing 175 to 195 pounds with collar-length, reddish-brown, bushy hair and a mustache. He was noted to be a possible suspect in a reported kidnapping and sexual assault. The Krystal uniform the suspect had been wearing was also in the report, as well as a description of the dark-colored, two-door ’76 AMC Pacer with the tag number SKM 213.

  Later on the evening of Friday the 13th, Amanda was called down to the DeKalb Police Station to view a photo lineup. Detective Horne had located a picture of the owner of the AMC Pacer. That image was mixed in with five other similar ones.

  “Take your time. Tell me if you recognize any of these men,” the detective instructed her.

  Amanda studied the photos for only a few minutes. None of them were of Larry Lee. “No, I don’t recognize any of these,” she told the detective in a mildly disappointed tone. “He isn’t here.”

  Early on the morning of Saturday, October 14th, 1989, before daylight, Deputy Sheriff Michael Stapp was on patrol for the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Department in Conyers, Georgia. Semi-rural Rockdale County, part of the greater metropolitan area of Atlanta, shares a border with the counties of Fulton to the west, Gwinnett to the north, and DeKalb to the east. Stapp’s department had received an alert from the DeKalb County Police to be on the lookout for a black ’76 Pacer with Georgia tags driven by a white male fitting Larry Lee’s description.

  Officer Stapp spotted such a car exiting the Majik Market on West Avenue in Conyers just before five o’clock in the morning. The black Pacer turned in the direction opposite that of the passing patrolman, but Officer Stapp made a U-turn and pulled up behind the car while it was stopped at a traffic light.

  Deputy Stapp checked the BOLO; the tag number identified was a match to the black Pacer in front of him. He switched on his patrol lights. A panicked Larry Lee sped through the red light and up onto Interstate-20.

  Officer Stapp radioed for backup and followed the black Pacer onto the interstate, siren wailing, his cruiser lights pulsating electric red and blue against the predawn sky. At this point, Larry Lee must have known he couldn’t escape. He turned off at the next exit, and pulled into a Kroger parking lot. Two flashing cruisers pinned him in, but he didn’t resist. When the officers got him back to the Rockdale County jail, a DeKalb County officer was dispatched to pick up their man.

  Amanda and some of the other witnesses were asked to return to the DeKalb County Police headquarters, to the Criminal Investigation Division, where they were shown a new photo lineup. This set of images included Larry Lee’s recently taken mug shot.

  One by one the witnesses, including Amanda, fingered the photo of Larry Lee. Some identified him as the messy- haired man who had driven off with Amanda. Others had seen him when he arrived back at Stone Mountain Billiards approximately forty-five minutes later, racing toward the Pacer as Amanda stumbled toward the pool hall disheveled and distressed. Either way, they all confirmed it: he was the guy.

  Larry Lee was brought from his holding cell in the DeKalb County jail to the interview room for questioning. On duty to conduct the interview was Detective L. M. Moore of the DeKalb County Youth and Sex Crimes Division.

  Pulling out a chair opposite Larry Lee at the rubber-topped table, the plain-clothed detective extended her hand, locked his gaze briefly and introduced herself: “Hello, Mr. Smith. I’m Detective Moore.”

  10. MATTERS OF THE COURT

  On January 9, 1990, nearly a year after Larry Lee’s flight to Georgia, FBI Special Agents Joe DeVuono and Grey Steed met at the Knoxville Police Department with KPD Investigator Randy York and his superior, Lieutenant Charles Coleman. Since Larry Lee’s departure, no real progress on Michelle’s case had been made. The purpose of the meeting was to review an investigative strategy proposed by the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, which had completed a psychological profile of the suspect. Lt. Coleman was hesitant to commit the department to the rigorousness of the proposed plan, however, and the group explored a compromise: the FBI would provide assistance in the parts of the plan that the KPD felt were beyond their means.

  Following that meeting, the supervising FBI Special Agent in Charge, William E. Baugh, Jr., issued an internal memo reviewing and outlining the proposed and revised investigative strategies. He expressed concern that “unless the FBI continues to play a role in this investigation, a rare opportunity to resolve this homicide will pass.”

  York’s first move was to attract some attention in the local press. The case had received little coverage since the first weeks after Michelle’s body had been discovered. And now, a year later, the story was all but forgotten. York wanted to keep it fresh on people’s minds, so he contacted Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Jim Balloch and asked him to write a new piece. He wanted it be a “one-year-later” type story to remind the public that the case was unsolved and the killer still out there. It couldn’t name Larry Lee directly—his lawyer was already threatening York and the KPD with harassment—but it could certainly hint at his involvement.

  Balloch turned the story into a front page feature. It was the longest newspaper piece written to date about the disappearance and death of Michelle. It included a large, somber image of Anita standing in front of a mantle covered with framed photos of her murdered daughter.

  Even though Balloch did not name Larry Lee Smith, the article was the first mention in print that his version of events was suspect: “It is clear the investigators do not believe everything they were told by some of the people who were last seen with Michelle,” Balloch wrote. He then quoted York: “We are now looking into the possibility that she was never let out of that truck on Cherry Street, which is what we were originally told.”

  York hoped that either Larry Lee or Chas would see the article, panic, and start pointing a finger at the other. At the very least, they’d sweat knowing the investigation was still moving forward. Unfortunately, Larry Lee wouldn’t see the article. At least not immediately. When it ran in Knoxville, he was incarcerated in a Georgia jail, awaiting trial for the kidnapping and assault of Amanda Sanders.

  Three weeks prior to the investigative team’s meeting at the KPD, four nail-filled pipe bombs had been mailed through the USPS to several locations across the Southeast. One killed a judge in Birmingham, another an attorney in Savannah, Georgia. The other two packages were intercepted—one at the federal courthouse in Atlanta and the other in the Jacksonville office of the NAACP—and disarmed. The FBI labeled the case VANPAC. Joe DeVuono was among the agents sent to Atlanta to assist in the investigation. He arrived the last week of January 1990.

  Agent DeVuono knew that Larry Lee had gone
to the Atlanta area. During his downtime, he set out to track Larry Lee’s activities in the region. He followed his trail of employment and spoke with former supervisors and coworkers. At a landscaping job Larry Lee held from late March through early August of 1989, he’d claimed an injury to his back—although the manager suspected the condition was exaggerated—and filed for workers’ compensation. He hadn’t shown up for months while he was being treated by a chiropractor. After that, he’d returned to the fast-food industry, to which he was more accustomed. He obtained two jobs, one at a Krystal and the other at a Wendy’s.

  According to his former coworkers, Larry Lee had been transient for a period of time, sleeping out of his vehicle, first the small truck in which he’d traveled from Knoxville, then an older model AMC Pacer that he’d borrowed from a friend. It had originally been yellow before someone spray painted it black. After that, he began sharing an apartment in Lawrenceville with a coworker, Monica Houston and her husband, Joseph—the owners of the Pacer—and their two daughters, ages nine and twelve. Apparently, there had been some concerns about Larry Lee being left alone with the girls. Some accusations were made, but none of the coworkers knew anything specific.

  It was from one of these former coworkers that Agent DeVuono learned of another arrest. On May 20, 1989, a young school girl named Caroline Leigh Bronti, selling fundraising items door-to-door with her friend, had knocked at the door of the shared Lawrenceville apartment. Larry Lee answered.

  “Come in,” Larry Lee coaxed the young girl.

  “No, thank you,” Caroline anxiously replied. Larry Lee continued to try and lure the girl into the apartment, but when his efforts failed, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her inside. Caroline’s friend raced away and quickly summoned help. Larry Lee was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault. He eventually struck a deal and pleaded guilty to the lessor misdemeanor charge of simple battery. He served sixty days in jail and received an additional ten months of probation.

  Larry Lee was constantly propositioning female customers, his former coworkers told DeVuono; the man was vulgar around women. And he had a regular habit of telling lies. A coworker laughed about one lie in particular: Larry Lee claimed he had a “memory impairment” that allowed him to recall only six months into the past.

  His supervisor at Krystal said that Larry Lee had abruptly stopped working at the restaurant sometime in October. He had not been seen nor heard from since.

  No one Agent DeVuono interviewed knew that Larry Lee Smith was, as they spoke, sitting in a jail cell in adjoining DeKalb County. Agent DeVuono needed to return to Knoxville and would not learn of that development for several months.

  It was Tuesday morning, April 3, 1990, and Agents DeVuono and Steed and Investigator York attended a meeting at Knoxville’s City-County building with Knox County Attorney General Ed Dossett. The purpose of this gathering was to reach an agreement between the local and federal authorities as to what type of immunity and/or protection could be offered to Chas for his cooperation in providing evidence against Larry Lee, if he could or would do that. (The investigating officers still suspected that Chas knew more than he was telling.) Through his attorney, Chas had agreed to undergo hypnosis, and the FBI agents were attempting to negotiate payment for this procedure through the attorney general’s office. Ed Dossett endorsed this plan.

  Following this meeting, York, Steed and DeVuono filed out of the second-floor office and into the atrium hallway. As they made their way down the wide, cutaway stairs, they passed attorney Rupert Keener, who’d had occasion to represent members of the Smith family in the past, including Larry Lee.

  “Investigator York,” the attorney said with a nod of his head as he clutched a thick leather briefcase.

  “Hello there, Rupert,” York said in his friendly East Tennessee drawl. He introduced Agents DeVuono and Steed and alluded vaguely to the meeting they’d just left. “You know, Larry Smith was the last person with Michelle Anderson the night she disappeared. We’re tryin’ to see if we can’t get some help and some answers,” York said. “He was in the Atlanta area. Not sure where he’s gotten to now.”

  “Well, I heard he’s been arrested over there again. Charged with assaulting another girl,” Keener said. “He’s in jail in Decatur. Been there for some months.”

  “You don’t say?” York replied, catching the narrowed eyes of both DeVuono and Steed. “Thank you for that update, Rupert. We’ll look into it.”

  The attorney nodded again to the three men, who continued their descent to the first-floor lobby. “Geez, I’m glad we ran into ol’ Rupert,” York mused as the three made their way down the glass-lined corridor and exited the building into the morning chill.

  “At least we know where Smith is,” Steed observed as he reached for his lapels and pulled them together in an effort to block out the unseasonal cold front that had moved in the day before.

  “I’ll get right on this,” DeVuono said. He was somewhat dazed by the attorney’s news—news his recent research hadn’t uncovered. The first thing he did upon arrival back at his desk was to put in a call to Georgia.

  “DeKalb County Police Department. How may I direct your call?”

  “This is Special Agent Joe DeVuono with the FBI office in Knoxville, Tennessee. I want to speak to the officer handling the case against a Larry Lee Smith, who I understand is currently incarcerated over there.”

  “Detective L. M. Moore,” a female voice responded after three rings.

  Agent DeVuono introduced himself and explained the purpose of his call. Detective Moore confirmed that Larry Lee Smith had been arrested in DeKalb County, back in mid-October. He’d been picked up for the kidnapping and attempted sexual assault of an eighteen-year-old in broad daylight in the town of Stone Mountain. He’d remained in jail ever since. She agreed to fax over a copy of her case report.

  The news that Larry Lee had struck yet again troubled Agent DeVuono. The trial was scheduled to begin in less than two weeks, although Detective Moore informed DeVuono that a plea deal may be in the works. Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth MacNamara was prosecuting; the detective gave the agent MacNamara’s phone number.

  Just seconds after hanging up, DeVuono dialed MacNamara’s office and got ahold of her. He outlined the disappearance and murder of fifteen-year-old Michelle Anderson in Knoxville. He even enlightened the prosecutor about Larry Lee’s 1981 rape conviction in Florida. Agent DeVuono said he would fax over documents to support the specifics.

  In turn, Elizabeth MacNamara apprised DeVuono of the strength of the state’s evidence against Larry Lee in the Amanda Sanders matter. She believed that they had a solid case with the accused facing fifty years for his crimes—assault, kidnapping and attempted sodomy. But to prevent Amanda from having to testify, she’d offered Larry Lee a deal of twenty years in exchange for a guilty plea.

  Agent DeVuono and Investigator York faxed their documents on the criminal and psychological history of Larry Lee. After reviewing them, MacNamara placed a call back to DeVuono. She informed him that she’d reconsidered her position. Larry Lee posed too much of a threat. Based on DeVuono and York’s work, she withdrew her offer of twenty years for a guilty plea; MacNamara wanted to go to trial, and she would push for the maximum sentence.

  On the morning of Monday, April 16, 1990, rays of spring sunlight filtered through the blossoming dogwood branches and onto the lawn of the historically ornate DeKalb County Courthouse. The Superior Court trial of the State of Georgia vs. Larry Lee Smith (case #90CR1858) was just getting underway, Judge Curtis V. Tillman Jr. presiding.

  Larry Lee had been arraigned on a four count indictment: (1) aggravated assault with intent to rape, (2) aggravated assault with intent to rob, (3) kidnapping, and (4) criminal attempt to commit aggravated sodomy. He pleaded “not guilty.” Elizabeth MacNamara, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the Emory University Law School, was prosecuting for the state.

  Defending the accused was W. Keith Davidson, who ran his small, pri
vate practice out of nearby Snellville. Larry Lee had hired him, but no doubt Ruby paid his fees. Davidson had also represented Larry Lee on his assault charges in the Caroline Bronti case. He would later claim that his client pleaded guilty in that case only because he needed to focus on the trial at hand.

  Seated in the gallery directly behind the defense table were two of the most important people in Larry Lee’s life: his mother, Ruby, and his sister, Nancy, who had always been like a second mother to her baby brother. After a panel of twelve jurors and an alternate had been selected, a pretrial motion was considered: the defense didn’t want local news cameras in the courtroom.

  W. Keith Davidson, who looked to be in his thirties with blond hair and a thick, muscular build, entered a motion for the television cameras to be removed. He called twenty-nine-year-old Larry Lee to the witness stand to present evidence justifying this request. The defendant had groomed himself for the trial. He wore a gray suit paired with a bold yellow tie and his hair was now cut short and parted on the side. Gone was the unruly mustache that had dominated his upper lip on the day of the assault the previous October.

  Larry Lee took a seat on the wooden witness chair and confirmed to his attorney that he planned to testify in his own defense, which was why he was worried about the cameras. His primary concern was for his personal safety. “While I’ve been in DeKalb County jail, somebody has found out approximately what my charges are and my life has been in jeopardy. I have had to be moved several times, and I am in fear that if my face appears on cameras or on TV, that my life will be in jeopardy.”

  Larry Lee’s other area of concern was that, underneath it all, he was simply a shy kinda guy. “I get nervous in front of cameras,” he admitted. “I believe that I would be so selfconscious of that camera that I would not be able to testify properly.”