Murder of Catherine Fuller

The murder of Catherine Fuller was a violent sexual assault and murder which occurred in Washington, D.C. in 1984.

The case led to a heavily reported trial in which seven co-defendants (Chris Turner, Charles Turner, Kelvin Smith, Levy Rouse, Clifton Yarborough, Timothy Catlett and Russell Overton) were tried and convicted of the crime. After allegations that the prosecution had suppressed evidence of another suspect an appeal was heard by the United States Supreme Court in Turner v. United States. The court upheld the conviction of the men.

Background
Catherine Fuller was born in Georgetown in 1936 and lived her life with her aunt after her mother was brutally struck by lightning. During her childhood, her older cousin Polly Turner took care of Catherine while her aunt worked. She was described as a child as someone who wasn’t “outgoing, but was daring when she wanted to be” (Harris). Catherine Fuller was married to David Fuller after meeting at a party in Southeast in 1955. They later got married in 1969 and began working in the food service department of Sibley Hospital while David worked as a plumber for the General Services Administration. Catherine had three children from a previous marriage, named Calvin Milton Davis, Elton R Davis, and Zenobia Sara Ann Jenkins. Catherine and David later had three of their own children named William, David, and Laura who suffered from epilepsy. After the birth of their youngest son William, she quit her job and became a housewife in their home on K Street.

Attack
On October 1st 1984, Fuller was taking a shortcut to a local liquor store called Family Liquors between 4:30 and 6pm. During her walk, she was sexually assaulted, beaten, and ultimately killed by a group in a vacant garage at the back of 800 block of H Street NE according to the police. She was kicked, beaten, a metal pipe was shoved up her rectum, and suffered a torn liver and punctured ribs. She was also robbed of her rings and $50. Her body was found by a street vendor in an alley full of litter, sexually assaulted, and beaten to death with a blunt instrument. She became what The Guardian considers “the most savage and senseless killing in district history.”

Arrests
There were two lead detectives to the case, Patrick McGinnis and Ruben Sanchez-Serrano. Neither of the detectives worked in the neighborhood of the crime or were skilled at street work. They had quickly created a theory of the crime based on an anonymous phone tip. The theory was that the members of the 8th and H gang pushed her into an alley to rob her, attacked her, before sexually assaulting her with a pole 11 inches up her rectum. However the evidence was elusive and many things did not line up. The killing happened on a Monday during rush hour, on a road that was busy commercially and surrounded by houses where someone would have seen. There was a long time before the detectives found anything to further their case. After intense interrogation, 19 year old Calvin Alston said he saw the attack and implicated 13 other men. The detectives received two more confessions and in the summer of 1985, 17 people were in custody all from the 8th and H Street Crew. In late 1985, 8 of the 17 young men were found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. Through the trial all of the men had claimed they were innocent. The more public the details were the more it captured the public, media, and lawyers. People began to avidly believe the details before evidence was ever presented in court.

Christopher Turner
One of the main men arrested for murder was Christopher Turner. He was awoken at 7am when police had burst into his bedroom with guns drawn. He had just turned 17 and was a graduate of Coolidge High School with plans to go into the Airforce. He had claimed that he was home with his friend Kelvin Smith, however due to the murder being weeks prior, the men could not remember what they were doing that day. He was offered a deal to plead to a minor offense, testify for the government, and get a 2 to 6 year sentence. Turner refused the deal, stating he would never take a deal for something he had not done.

Trial
During the trial, the government had no physical evidence to link the defendants to the crime. The prosecution’s case was made through their story and the confessions of the 2 teenagers, whose stories differed, contradicted, and were woven with evil. The alibi witnesses do not remember much of that day, which was a year prior. After 5 weeks and 9 days of trial the eight men were convicted of first degree murder.

Conflicting evidence
There were 3 key pieces of evidence that pointed to a different scenario of that fateful Monday.


 * 1) A few weeks after the crime, Ammie Davis, told police that on the 1st of October she had gone into the alley behind H Street to shoot up heroin with a friend. She claimed she saw a man named James Blue attack Fuller, the report got lost. In August of 1895, Goren interviewed Davis but she was not deemed credible enough for the trial. Three weeks before the trial Blue shot Davis and was convicted for her murder. Blue died in 1993 in prison.
 * 2) William Freeman, the 19 year old street vender that found Fuller’s body to direct officers to the body. He saw 2 young men acting suspicious before they fled with one of them hiding something under his coat. Several months later Freeman and the women he was with looked at photos and identified James McMillan (the man with something under his coat) and Gerald Merkerson. Two other independent witnesses put McMillan in the alley at the same time. He was living off of 8th Street NE which backed up to the alley Fuller’s body was found.
 * 3) Willie Luchie told detectives that he was walking through on the night around 5:30pm. As they passed the garage they heard a low moan, but the doors were closed so they headed to the liquor store and did not investigate.

Vivian Watts
Vivian Watts’ sister was found with rings as a man approached her on October 1st 1984 and sold her sister's boyfriend, Ronald Murphy, the ring for a cheap price. Barbara Wade, Fuller’s sister, recovered the ring after knocking door to door in the Stanton Park neighborhood. Vivian was waiting in the police station that next day. Watts insisted that the police never had her identify the couple who sold Ronald the ring. The police continued to push that the 8th and H Street Crew was responsible for the murder and threatened to charge Watts herself if she did not.

Patrice Gaines
Patrice Gaines came to the Washington Post newspaper in 1985 and only did some supporting work with the case. She had received a letter from Chris Turner and was in the courtroom on the days of the trial and felt as though something was wrong. She had written about her doubts on the trial about the defendant's innocence and convinced Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project (MAIP) to take the case. The MAIP had deep pockets and began assembling relevant materials to help prove the defendant's innocence. An expert in forensic pathology said Fuller’s injuries were consistent with a smaller number of assailants than with 10+. A crime reconstruction expert said the scene pointed to just one or two assailants. Both witnesses recounted their testimony with sworn affidavits and said they had lied to save themselves. The government continued to slowly hand over more and more details. Some of which was evidence that the prosecution had withheld.

Alternative scenario
McMillan would have been a likely suspect as he had quick and easy access from the back of his house to the alley. He was acting suspiciously around the time of the killing, ran when the police appeared, and was holding something under his coat. The object used to assault Fuller was never recovered. McMillan had a record of serious violent acts against women. He was new to the neighborhood and did his crimes solo or with one other person. Within two weeks of the murder, he committed two daytime robberies of women who were walking alone not far from 8th and H. Both of the women were punched multiple times in the face and he pleaded guilty to both robbers in March 1985.

Appeal
In 2012, Judge Fredrick Weisberg from DC Superior Court denied the motion for a new trial. He could not imagine a gang not being at fault for Fuller’s murder. The DC Court of Appeals had the same results. They later took the case to the Supreme Court. The attorneys are trying to prove that holding onto evidence was a violation of due process. They can only do so through proving to the government that the government knowingly withheld evidence that would benefit their clients.

Supreme Court decision
The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 2 that the men convicted for the murder of Catherine Fuller should not receive a new trial in the case named Turner v. United States in 2017. They stated that the evidence is too little, weak, or distant to undermine the theory of a gang attack.

Legacy
The case contributed to the view that crime had become rampant in Washington D.C and shaped the views of Washingtonians.

The case was the subject of an episode of the Netflix true crime documentary series, The Confession Tapes, which suggests that the confessions were falsified, and that the murder may have actually been committed by a convicted serial rapist and thief, James McMillan, who lived and had been spotted in the area of the murder earlier that day.

Links

 * "Her Bills are Paid" Husband Says" The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-04-15
 * "The Murder that Won't Die" Slate. Retrieved 2024-04-15
 * "Her Bills are Paid" Husband Says" The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-04-15
 * "The Murder that Won't Die" Slate. Retrieved 2024-04-15
 * "Her Bills are Paid" Husband Says" The Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-04-15
 * "The Murder that Won't Die" Slate. Retrieved 2024-04-15