Posted on Mon, Oct. 02, 2006     

New Evidence Surfaces In Bombing Case

By MAX B. BAKER
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
(Requires Online Newspaper Subscription)

Six years ago, Texas Death Row inmate Michael Toney made headlines when he tried to sell seats to his execution over the Internet.

But now Toney, convicted of blowing up three people in Lake Worth on Thanksgiving Day in 1985, may create another stir as he tries to avoid the death chamber for one of North Texas’ most notorious crimes.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals recently ruled that new evidence — including reports from the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discrediting the prosecution’s key witnesses — is sufficient to support Toney’s innocence claim and warrants another review by state District Judge Everett Young.

The Tarrant County district attorney’s office says that some of the claims have been made in previous appeals. But a defense attorney representing Toney says he is convinced that Toney is innocent.

“It’s one of the most egregious cases I’ve seen,” said Jared Tyler, an attorney with the Texas Innocence Network. “For me, there is not a shred of evidence that he did it.”

Toney, 40, was sentenced to death in 1999 for the briefcase bombing that killed Angela Blount, 15; her father, Joe Blount, 44; and her cousin Michael Columbus, 18.

The case had gone unsolved for a decade until Toney, who was in jail for another offense, told another inmate that he was hired to put the briefcase bomb at the mobile home. Investigators later presented evidence showing that Toney — who they said was to be paid $5,000 for the bombing — put it at the wrong trailer.

Toney always proclaimed his innocence and his efforts in 2000 to sell seats to his future execution to the highest bidder was part of a publicity stunt to attract attention to his case. The state forbade him to sell the seats.

Nicknamed “Cowboy,” Toney is a prolific e-mail correspondent, writing regularly not only to reporters but also to members of the jury that convicted him. He also has a Web site on which he proclaims his innocence.

“Lies got me sentenced to death for a crime I did not commit,” Toney writes on his Web site. “Since the charade of a Texas trial people have came forward and told me who killed the Blounts and why they did it.”

Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Debra Windsor, who will defend her office in court, says the way the case is being presented by the defense attorneys involves more than questions about Toney’s innocence.

“It is actually an attack on this office,” she said.

A troubling case

Tyler and David Dow, attorneys for the Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center, accuse Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry’s office of offenses including withholding reports from the Texas Department of Public Safety and the ATF that attack the credibility of the state’s key witnesses, Chris Meeks and Michael Toney’s ex-wife, Kimberly Toney.

Released to the defense this year for the first time, the reports suggest that Meeks and Toney may have been manipulated and intimidated into giving statements fitting investigators’ preconceived notions of how and why the crime occurred.

Defense attorneys point out that by the time Michael Toney was indicted in 1997, the crime was 12 years old. The Lake Worth incident was the longest-running unsolved bombing investigation in the country, court papers state. Defense attorneys suggest that there was a renewed interest in this case by a federal agency trying to rebuild its image after the Oklahoma City bombing.

Prosecutors were led to Toney when he allegedly confessed to committing the crime to Charles Ferris, a fellow inmate in the Parker County Jail. Already serving time in prison on a burglary charge, Toney had been transferred to the Weatherford jail on an unresolved burglary charge. Toney reportedly told Ferris that he had put the explosive briefcase on the front porch of the mobile home.

After that, investigators began looking into Toney’s possible involvement in the case, which led them to Meeks and Kimberly Toney. Neither one had ever talked to authorities about Toney’s role in the bombing.

Kimberly Toney testified during the trial that she, Meeks and Michael Toney went out together the day of the bombing and that they drove to a business near the mobile home park where the Blounts lived. She said Michael Toney, who was then her boyfriend, got out of their pickup, grabbed a briefcase and disappeared behind the business. He came back later without the briefcase.

Meek told basically the same story during the trial.

Defense attorneys contend that recently released reports from the DPS and the ATF show that investigators used what they call “cognitive interviewing techniques” to plant false memories into Meeks’ and Kimberly Toney’s minds. Those reports should have been released to Michael Toney’s attorneys at the time of the trial, to show that they had not always given the same account of the crime.

Both witnesses’ testimony was crucial to the state’s case against Toney.

Kimberly Toney’s memories in particular were “unscrupulously recovered, reshaped, and reformed, by aggressive investigators desperately trying to close” the case, court papers said.

The defense also contends that Kimberly Toney’s testimony is questionable because of recently uncovered evidence that she may have suffered memory loss from chemicals she was exposed to in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War.

“At the time the investigation into the Blount bombing was reopened, it was the longest-running unsolved bombing investigation in the country. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City had just occurred, and the ATF was determined to solve this crime, one way or another,” court papers state.

Testimony recanted

A memorandum from Tarrant County Assistant District Attorney Mike Parrish and two ATF reports that cast doubts on the testimony of Tucker Finis Blankenship were also not provided to defense attorneys at the time of the trial. Blankenship met Toney while they were in jail together, according to court documents.

Blankenship said Toney said that another man was going to pay him $5,000 for making and delivering the bomb, but that he had put it by the wrong mobile home. Since then, Blankenship has recanted those statements, and court papers indicate that Blankenship believed the cases against him would be dropped in return for his testimony.

Information was also uncovered that pointed to another man who had built a pipe bomb similar to one used in the Blount bombing and that the man’s family told authorities that components used in the briefcase bomb were missing from their home. The man had also told more than one other person that he was responsible for the three deaths, court papers state.

“The fact of the matter is that the Blount bombing remains unsolved to this day, even as Mr. Toney remains on death row,” court papers state.

But during the trial, Toney also admitted that he lied frequently. During the trial he acknowledged telling some people that his father is dead, others that his mother is dead, and others that he had a master’s degree in chemistry.

He has also said since his conviction that he unwisely told Ferris that he could tell authorities he was involved in the Blount bombing if it would help him get out of jail by getting his charges reduced or dismissed. Ferris has since recanted that testimony, too.

Parrish has no doubts that he convicted the right person. The district attorney’s office has until early next year to file its initial response to Toney’s request for a review of the evidence and possibly a new trial.

“All that’s been raised on state appeal,” Parrish said. “There must be some new, slightly different kitchen sink they are throwing in here.”

Max B. Baker, 817-390-7714
maxbaker@star-telegram.com

The following is the Writ Application and copies of new evidence that was recently discovered.

Writ Application

     Part 1 (6.20MB)              Part 6 (4.1MB)
     Part 2 (4.68MB)              Part 7 (4.07MB)
     Part 3 (3.84MB)              Part 8 (4.10MB)
     Part 4  (4.55MB)             Part 9 (4.24MB)
       Part 5 (4.05MB)              Part 10 (4.35MB)
   Part 11 (4.89MB)

 Please Note: Files are in PDF File Format.

Evidence Supporting
Michael's Innocence