Pressure rises over executions

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

Pressure rises over executions

STAR-TELEGRAM

STAFF WRITER ANNA M. TINSLEY REPORTS | 8A

Texas retains its position as the leader in executions nationwide, putting 24 inmates to death last year, including two from Tarrant County.

There are 390 inmates on Texas' Death Row as the debate over capital punishment gears up again in coming weeks.

The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing three death-penalty cases from Texas. State lawmakers will consider changing aspects of the death penalty in the upcoming legislative session.

Leaders of Fort Worth's sister city in Italy consistently raise the subject, and groups of schoolchildren there write letters to Texas officials asking for specific reprieves and a moratorium on executions.

"Texas executes about one-third of all the people executed in the country each year," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. "Texas has been such a frequent user of the death penalty, but some of the pressure of public opinion and the courts is beginning to come."

DEATH-PENALTY LEADER

Texas continues to lead the nation in use of the death penalty. The number of executions in the state since 2000:

The Dallas Morning News  01/17/98

Access: 1725699
Date: 01/17/98
Paper: The Dallas Morning news
Section: NEWS
Edition: Home Final
Page: 30A
Head: Man says he made up story linking suspect to bombing.  Authorities plan to proceed with charges in 1985 case.
Byline: Dave Michaels
Credit: Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
Dateline: Fort Worth

FORT WORTH - A purported key witness against a man charged last month in the 1985 bombing at a Tarrant County mobile home that killed three people said Friday that he and the suspect made the whole story up.

Charles Ferris said he told federal authorities that career criminal Michael Toney was responsible for the Thanksgiving Day bombing as part of a scheme to get Mr. Ferris out of jail.

Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Tarrant County District Attorney's office said Mr. Ferris' retraction would not stop them from pursuing criminal charges against Mr. Toney.

"He can recant anything he wants. That doesn't change the facts that we know about," said ATF Special Agent Bart Mc Entire, who led the investigation into the bombing.  "There is evidence that can't be explained away that says that Michael Toney is still the bomber."

Said another official, who asked not to be identified: "This is the second time it's happened. Ferris recanted, then he didn't, then he re-recanted. Until it gets closer to the trial, I don't care.  We can play with or without him."

Mr. Toney, who was arrested Dec. 4 and jailed on capital murder charges, was not available for comment Friday. His attorney, Roger Blair of Fort Worth, did not return calls seeking comment.

Mr. Ferris said he told federal authorities that Mr. Toney was responsible for the 1985 bombing.  In return for his cooperation, Mr. Ferris said, he expected to be released from the Parker County Jail.

Mr. Toney agreed to the scheme, Mr. Ferris said, because he was certain no charges would be brought against him.

"Michael told me they were going to take me into a room, and I might have to tell them what he said.  But not to worry, because they can't prove it because he didn't do it," said Mr. Ferris, who indeed was released Aug. 23 from the Parker County Jail after sharing the information, authorities said.

Mr. Ferris, 44, has been in and out of that jail seven times, and was most recently held on a November 1997 burglary charge.  He said he met the 32-year-old Mr. Toney while being held last summer.

He also said Mr. Toney insisted that Mr. Ferris tell authorities the bomb was delivered to the wrong residence at the Hilltop Mobile Home Park. The bomb, left in a briefcase outside one trailer, killed Joseph Blount, 44; Angela Jo Blount, 15; and Michael Columbus, 18.

Authorities were stymied from the beginning by the lack of motive or leads in the bombing, which occurred about 9:30 p.m. after a long day of holiday celebration. 

Returning home from a brief trip to fetch potato chips and beverages, Angela and her cousin, Mr. Columbus, found a briefcase, which they took into the mobile home, authorities said. When they opened it, the case detonated, killing Angela, Mr. Columbus and Angela's father, Mr. Blount.

Susan Blount, now 54, survived, along with her then-14-year-old son, Robert Blount.  Robert sustained serious burns to his face, hands, feet and abdomen, authorities said.

Mr. Toney's criminal record shows numerous arrests in Tarrant, Dallas and Parker counties.  A burglary conviction in August 1989 netted him an eight-year sentence, and he received another five-year sentence for burglary in April 1996.

Mr. Ferris said Mr. Toney was shocked when authorities believed the bombing story.