Schumaker: Okay, and who did that?
David: Sapp. He did one. Sapp was driving, but see, he put them in the van first.
Schumaker: How did you happen to go to Linden Avenue?
David: Well, we was supposed to be—John and I were supposed to be doing a job for the landlord over there. That’s where everything went down. . . . What I mean is, the two girls was molested up there on Linden Avenue. Sapp, he . . . I don’t like the—use the word; that’s why I said “molested.” And I was trying to help one of the girls, but it didn’t work out the way I wanted it.
(David testified that John Balser was “holding one of the girls” and that Jamie Turner “had the legs” of one of them.)
Schumaker: Okay, and what, if anything, was Mr. Boone doing?
David: Same thing. He was holding them by their leg. That’s when Sapp, he molested them.
Schumaker: Okay. Having intercourse with one?
David: Right. I don’t like . . . I don’t like the word, I guess.
Schumaker: I understand. But you have to understand. We have to know exactly what’s going on. At this point in time, he was putting . . . Was he putting his penis in her? In one of them?
David: Yeah. Then that’s when the girls was . . . They started howling, screaming and stuff. We tried to shut them up, so they took them—put them in the van. Well, we all put them [back] in the van; we carry them.
Schumaker: As much as you can remember, did you carry one?
David: I tried to—I had a bad ankle.
Schumaker: Did you help somebody else carry one?
David: Yeah. John.
Schumaker: So you and John were carrying one. Who was carrying the other?
David: Alex and Jamie. We went over to behind Schuler’s.
Schumaker: Now, at this point in time, are the girls awake?
David: Yeah, they were. They was . . . They were beaten—been beaten.
Schumaker: And who all, prior to going down to the pond, who had hit them?
David: Well, as you already know, I hit one of them. Not meaning to. I thought it was one of the guys trying to hurt me, so I come back like this on one. Everybody did.
Schumaker: Okay, now I don’t want you to just, you know, lump everybody in. Who do you specifically remember hitting them?
David: Alex Boone hit one. Jamie Turner and Sapp.
Schumaker: Okay. So you get down to the pond behind Schuler’s Bakery?
(David nodded yes.)
Schumaker: What do you remember first happening down at the pond? Just take your time.
David: I’m trying to. Well, the girls, I don’t think they was—from Linden Avenue—I don’t think they was, you know, alive or even awake.
Schumaker: They were unconscious? They’d been knocked out?
(David nodded again.)
David: Took the girls up there by Schuler’s—behind Schuler’s. Sapp, he was telling everybody that everybody was going to have to have something to do with it, see. I myself, I tried to pick up a rock, which was kind of heavy for me because I had a bad ankle like that, and dropped the rock to the side on one of the girls. I didn’t actually drop it on her.
Schumaker: Now, has anybody else arrived there at that point?
David: Oh, we went to get . . . We went to get one of them.
Schumaker: And when did that happen?
David: That was after everything had gone down.
Schumaker: Was that when you first got to the pond or was that later?
David: Later.
Schumaker: So by the time you had gotten them, you had already dropped a rock, or had you dropped a rock yet before Wanda and Robby are there?
David: No, we dropped it afterward.
Schumaker: Okay, so you get to the pond and there’s a lapse of time; then you go and get Wanda and Robby. What happened during that time period before you get Wanda and Robby? Anything?
David: I don’t remember. I’m trying to remember all this, so . . .
Schumaker: I know, just take your time. All we want is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Why did you guys decide to go get Wanda?
David: I don’t know who decided to do that. Anyway, in my point, that was stupid for going to get Wanda. We all went except for one person—Sapp. We went to get Wanda and then we took Wanda and Robby over to Schuler’s Bakery—behind Schuler’s, I should say. And before the rock was dropped on one of the girls, Wanda took their pulse. And she said that “you’re going to have to kill them now.”
Schumaker: Okay. That’s important. Wanda said that?
David (nodding yes): Everybody was standing around at that time. Trying to figure out how to do stuff. So that’s when I grabbed the rock and tried to . . . dropped the rock on the girl’s head, and I couldn’t do it because my ankle was sore that day. It really didn’t hit the side of her face; it just landed on the side. I don’t know. I’m saying I don’t know if it hit her face or not. Everybody had something to do with the murder of the two girls. Jamie Turner, John Balser, Alex Boone, and all, you know, all the rest. Each one of them picked up a rock and a rock was laid—left on their heads.
Schumaker: Okay. Did everybody hit the girls or what are you telling me, David? I’m not clear on what you’re saying here. You say everybody picked up the rock?
David: Yeah. Because Sapp, he turned around and said everybody had to have something to do with it. So that’s what happened.
Schumaker: Okay, and you guys were following his orders?
David: Well, I wasn’t really—didn’t want to even have nothing to do with it. But I was at the scene, so . . . pretty much.
Schumaker: Now, was anybody doing anything with the girls sexually at that point, at the pond? Anybody do anything as far as touching them or having intercourse with them or anything like that?
David: I don’t remember. Huh-uh. I’m trying to help.
Schumaker: I don’t want you to try to help. All I want you to do is try to remember—whatever’s the truth.
David: That’s what I’m saying. I’m trying to remember.
Schumaker: Okay. So do you actually see everybody drop a rock?
(David nodded yes.)
Schumaker: You’re watching the whole time?
(David nodded yes again.)
Schumaker: What’s Wanda doing at this point?
David: Like I said, she took the pulse and Wanda dropped a rock, tried to drop a rock on one of the girls.
Schumaker: Okay. Now are you and Wanda still married?
David: As far as I know, we are. I don’t know for sure.
Schumaker: What happens after everybody drops a rock? What happens next?
David: That’s when we started covering the girls up, ’cause the girls . . . It wouldn’t have been right for us not to cover the girls up so the animals and the, you know, birds and stuff like that would have got ahold of them, the girls. You never know what will happen. Leaves, branches, and a couple skids. I covered up the one. I had help with the one skid putting it on top—John.
Schumaker: Do you know what Mr. Turner did?
David: He grabbed a skid too, because he fell in the water the same time John and I both fell in the water.
Schumaker: Three of you guys fell in the water?
David: I should say Jamie Turner jumped in the water. That’s one thing I do not know—why he jumped in the water, but I know I got soaking wet and John got soaking wet.
Schumaker: What about Mr. Boone?
David: He was trying to help Jamie with the other skid.
Schumaker: What about Mr. Sapp?
David: Well, he was standing there at the time watching all this go down. Make sure everything was going down right.
Schumaker: Okay, he was standing in charge?
David: Yeah.
Schumaker: Now after they were covered up, where did you guys go?
David: Went back over to Lagonda. Oh, no, I take that back. We went to the Lion’s Cage.
Schumaker: Wanda and Robby were with yo
u?
David: Yeah, at that time they was with us. ’Cause they was down at the scene, so they had to be with us. We took the shorts—the two pairs of shorts and a bike and threw it down in the lion’s pit.
Schumaker: Did everybody walk back there? Did some people stay in the van, or how did it work?
David: I think some stayed in the van.
Schumaker: Where do you go after that?
David: Over there on Lagonda. That’s where we was sittin’ in the backyard—me, Robby, Wanda, and John—everybody was. [Talkin’] about the murders and stuff—they said that nobody should be talkin’—shouldn’t be talkin’ about it.
Schumaker: And who was leading the discussion, or who was in charge at that point?
David: William.
Schumaker: Sapp?
David: Yeah.
Schumaker: Okay, did you ever see Sapp after that?
David: No.
Schumaker: Okay. Now, David, I got a real tough question for you, okay. I don’t know if the officers talked to you about this or not. You know we have talked before and you never told us about Mr. Sapp. Now, why didn’t you tell us about Mr. Sapp before?
David: Well, see, I was afraid of Sapp. ’Cause he threatened me—he threatened to kill me if I told. In fact, he threatened all of us.
Schumaker (to the jurors): Okay. Do any of you have any questions?
Grand juror: Did you go to Schuler’s with the intent of meeting the two girls there? Had arrangements been made to meet them there?
David: Yeah, one of the guys made the arrangements to meet the girls there. That was Alex.
Grand juror: Okay. And then you went in and bought cookies?
David: Yeah, see, we wanted doughnuts anyway. At least I wanted doughnuts. I went in and bought the doughnuts and cookies. I bought the two cookies for the girls because I am a kind person. A lot of people could tell you that, that knew me. We was over on Light Street. And one of the guys, Alex, turned around and says, “Well, I got to go meet some girls.” I thought he was talking about older . . . you know, that’s what I thought he was talking about. But it didn’t work that way. It was just little girls.
By this time I had been corresponding—mostly by telephone—with David Marciszewski for several months. He would not talk to me about the crimes at first. He was paranoid that someone at the prison might be listening in on our conversations. I tried to explain to him that he had already pleaded guilty, so it didn’t really matter if they were listening. Finally, a couple of weeks after he testified in front of the grand jury, he admitted his role in the murders to me. He stressed to me that he did not rape the girls. That seemed to be his main concern. He did not want me to think that he had raped them.
When I started writing this book, on some level I also thought, perhaps, I could prove that the mentally retarded men were innocent, especially David. Instead, I became totally convinced of their guilt.
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The one thing we found out . . . we found that these individuals, mentally handicapped people . . . they’re very manipulative. . . . They’re fiercely loyal to one another.
—Captain Steve Moody
Later that day, after David Marciszewski testified in front of the grand jury, indictments were returned against Wanda Marciszewski and Alexander Boone in connection with the deaths of Phree Morrow and Martha Leach.
Fifty-two-year-old Wanda, wife of David Marciszewski and mother of John Balser, was indicted on seven charges, including four counts of complicity to aggravated murder, one count of tampering with evidence, and two counts of abuse of a corpse.
Alex Boone was indicted on fifteen charges, including four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of complicity to rape, two counts of complicity to kidnapping, one count of tampering with evidence, two counts of felonious assault, two counts of abuse of a corpse, and two counts of gross sexual imposition.
When Sergeant Barry Eggers went to arrest Wanda Marciszewski that afternoon at her home, he couldn’t help but think of Al Graeber: “Al should have been here. Because he wanted her bad—out of all of them, he wanted her bad.”
Wanda, wearing a white T-shirt with an imprint of a horse’s head surrounded by pink flowers on it, was handcuffed and escorted to the Clark County Jail.
She was held on $500,000 bond.
Alex Boone, clad in a pale yellow sport shirt and jeans, turned himself in voluntarily and was released on his own recognizance, which stipulated that he was to return for trial and that he was not to leave Clark County. At the arraignment one of his attorneys entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. (Boone was the only defendant in this case who did not have a court-appointed attorney.)
The following month, his lawyers, Richard Mayhall and William West, filed a motion to dismiss all charges, claiming that Boone had been denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial.
According to the document filed in common pleas court: “Rather than have the right to clear his name through a trial by jury, Boone has lived under a cloud of unresolved criminal charges for nearly as long as Bill Clinton has been President.”
The attorneys also claimed that the death of Sergeant Al Graeber eliminated any possibility of a fair trial: “The most important evidence against Boone is a statement extracted from him by Graeber on March 2, 1993. No jury can evaluate the reliability of that statement or properly weigh its evidential value absent a thorough cross-examination of Graeber.”
On Wednesday morning, November 4, 1998, in Judge Gerald Lorig’s courtroom, Wanda Marciszewski—her long hair now almost completely gray—appeared in a dark blue jail uniform and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter as the result of a plea bargain. All the other charges were dismissed.
When the judge asked if she wanted to enter a guilty plea, she replied, “I want to enter it so I can leave.” She informed Judge Lorig that she could not read or write. She signed the plea agreement with an “X” in place of her name. She was then sentenced to twelve to twenty-five years in the Ohio State Reformatory for Women.
The fact was that Wanda could sign her name—and had done so many times when she had given statements to the detectives. However, she needed to be looking at her ID, which she didn’t have with her in the courtroom, to see how to spell it.
That afternoon, in Judge Richard O’Neill’s courtroom, Jamie Turner pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter (instead of aggravated murder) and three counts of rape. The remaining nine counts against him were dismissed.
Jamie had also been accused of raping three other children, a girl and two boys under the age of thirteen. He was granted immunity for those rapes, which occurred between 1991 and 1996, as part of the plea bargain.
The agreement saved Turner from possibly facing the death penalty.
Jamie Turner, twenty-seven, was sentenced to two life terms in prison; he would have to serve twenty years before being considered for parole.
The plea bargains required that Wanda and Jamie cooperate with the authorities and to testify in any future trials, if necessary.
Immediately after the plea agreement was “signed” in Judge Lorig’s courtroom, Sergeant Eggers interviewed Wanda again. With very few exceptions, she repeated the same story she had told the investigators in the past:
John called her at Eleanor’s and he said he had to talk with her. Wanda left Eleanor’s and “ran to the scene.” John said he was at a phone booth and she must “come quick.” He told her to come to Main Street and he would meet her. Wanda went to the corner of Lagonda Avenue and Main Street and John was there. He told Wanda to quit running because she was out of breath. He said to come with him and they walked to the scene. She saw the girls “laying facedown.” David and John said, “The white trash has to die.”
John, David, Turner, and Boone were all there. Dave took a brick and hit Martha in the side of the head. Martha had not said anything, or even moved, to cause Dave to do this. Wanda believed David was making sure she was dead.
Phree grabb
ed Wanda by the pants leg and asked her to “get her daddy.” John then picked up a big rock and hit Phree. He told Wanda that if she said anything, she and Willie would die.
A few minutes after John hit her, Wanda took Phree’s pulse and “pronounced her dead.” Wanda didn’t take Martha’s because she was sure she was already dead.
The scene was already a “mess” when she arrived. Their clothes were torn off and there was blood everywhere.
Wanda left because Eleanor was home alone. John told her to come straight home after work. About an hour later, Joe Jackson came to Eleanor’s and picked her up and took her back to Light Street. It was beginning to get dark. Wanda got home on Light Street and sat down.
Boone drove John and David over in a truck to get Wanda. By then, it was completely dark outside. John and David came in the house and Boone stayed in the truck.
Hometown Killer Page 28