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Review investigators drop Smith meeting
It's unclear if interview will be set up again
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Published: February 13, 2009
Kalvin Smith, the man imprisoned for the brutal beating of Jill Marker in 1995, may not be interviewed by investigators with the citizens committee reviewing his case.
The committee's investigators had scheduled an interview with Smith for last Friday but canceled it the day before. The interview has not been rescheduled.
Guy Blynn, the chairman of the review committee, would not say at a meeting last night at City Hall why the interview was canceled.
Smith has maintained his innocence in the 1995 beating of Marker at the Silk Plant Forest, a store off Silas Creek Parkway where she worked. Marker, who was pregnant at the time of the attack, was beaten about 20 times in the head, leaving her with permanent brain injuries. She gave birth while in a coma.
Smith was convicted in 1997. He lost a bid last month for a new trial after a weeklong hearing in which he tried to show that witnesses against him recanted and were pressured by police.
Smith had said he would allow himself to be interviewed by the review committee, and would agree to a polygraph if key police officers who questioned him would also agree to take a polygraph test. Those three former officers are Don Williams, Randy Weavil and Lonnie Maines.
Blynn said that none of the former police officers will agree to polygraphs, which means Smith won't.
Some committee members said last night that they doubted that an interview with Smith without a polygraph would add significantly to his testimony at his hearing. They decided to review Smith's testimony from last month's hearing, then make a final decision about whether to pursue an interview.
Jet Hollander, one of Smith's supporters, urged the committee to interview Smith.
"Don't confine him to just the few minutes that he was on the stand," Hollander said. "The man's been in prison since January 1997 -- give him the chance to explain this case to you in depth."
Williams, the case's lead detective, ignored a subpoena from the Winston-Salem City Council to testify in December. Yesterday, Assistant City Attorney Al Andrews filed paperwork asking a Superior Court judge to order Williams to obey the subpoena and answer questions about his work on the case.
The request is scheduled for a hearing the week of March 23.
The committee is working against a March 17 deadline. It has asked city council to be allowed to submit a report on recommendations for the Winston-Salem Police Department's policies and procedures by that deadline and then to finish a final report after Williams is interviewed. The earliest the committee could find out whether it will get an extension is at Monday's council meeting. The council's public-safety committee has voted 2-1 to recommend an extension to June 30. Chairwoman Vivian Burke abstained.
Wanda Merschel, the council member who opposed the extension, said that the review committee should meet the March deadline for a full report.
"I think we've got to have, at some point, a point at which we have closure on this," Merschel said. "This is no longer just a public-safety issue. It is now one of finances."
Merschel compared asking to extend the deadline to Williams' refusal to obey a subpoena.
"Are you not just separated by inches by doing the same thing?" she asked Blynn.
Blynn said that the difference was that Williams didn't reply to the city's subpoena or phone calls from committee investigators before the subpoena, while the review committee is talking to city-council members.
Molly Leight, one of the council members who supported extending the deadline, said she was not willing to pay for eight months of investigation "and then cut it off short."
About $110,000 of the $145,500 that the city estimates the review has cost so far is for the salaries of the two police investigators assigned to the review.
Those detectives' salaries are not an additional cost on the city; if they were not assigned to the committee they would be on regular duties at the police department.
Other costs include $23,000 in legal expenses, $11,000 in administrative costs, and $1,000 in supplies and miscellaneous expenses.
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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