Friend tells of 'upset' call from Marker

Jill Marker, whose brutal attack in 1995 led to the conviction of Kalvin Michael Smith, called a friend "upset and anxious" after Kenneth Lamoureux, an early suspect in the beating, came in, asked her out, and stormed away angrily when she refused, according to an affidavit of a friend that was filed in U.S. District Court last week.

Marker, a manager of the Silk Plant Forest store, made the call to Jeana Schopfer about 8:45 p.m. Dec. 9, 1995, mere minutes before she was attacked.

Smith's attorneys filed Schopfer's affidavit Thursday.

Schopfer, who had supervised Marker at Today's Child and was a friend, was part of the attorneys' response to a motion to dismiss Smith's federal appeal of his conviction.

In 1997, Smith was convicted of beating Marker, and is serving 23 to 29 years in prison. He has maintained his innocence. In recent years, the case has come under increasing scrutiny, from the Innocence Project at Duke University, a five-part series in the Winston-Salem Journal in 2004, and the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee, which re-examined the police investigation.

A key issue in the case has been why former police Detective Don Williams, the lead investigator in the case, dropped Lamoureux as a suspect. Several witnesses had identified Lamoureux as having been in the store on Dec. 9, 1995.

Lamoureux knew Marker because she used to work at Today's Child, a day-care center where he took his children. He was dropped as a suspect in April 1996 when he moved to Charlotte.

Williams has said that he dropped Lamoureux as a suspect when Marker indicated to him that her attacker was a black man: Smith is black and Lamoureux is white.

But Marker didn't tell Williams that her attacker was black until nearly seven months after the last mention of Lamoureux in Williams' reports.

Lamoureux's estranged wife had taken out a restraining order against him in October 1995, and he'd been committed to a psychiatric ward because of fears that he would harm himself or others. He got out the day before the attack.

According to the affidavit, Marker called Schopfer on Dec. 9, 1995, and told her that Lamoureux had come to the store that evening and asked Marker to dinner.

"Jill rejected his invitation, and Mr. Lamoureux became angry and stormed out of the store," Schopfer said in her affidavit, which was signed on Feb. 24.

Schopfer told Marker to be safe and urged Marker to call her if she had any more problems. Schopfer didn't hear from Marker that night. When Schopfer learned of the attack the next day, she called the police.

"Because of my conversation with Jill that night, I called the police in a panic and urged them to investigate whether Lamoureux had attacked Jill," she said in the affidavit. She said she gave police information about where to find Lamoureux.

A police officer wrote up a report about Schopfer's call, and Williams included Lamoureux in a photo lineup based partly on information from Schopfer, according to police reports filed in federal court.

Smith's attorneys also filed an affidavit from Paula Glover, believed to be the last shopper in the store before the assault. Glover had come into the store that night and asked Marker if her son could use the restroom.

According to the affidavit, Marker said no, saying that the back of the store was "dangerous." Marker never explained what that meant, but the exchange could indicate that Marker was wary of someone who was in the store with her that night before she was attacked.

Glover had left the store at 8:45 p.m.; the attack had occurred just before the 9 p.m. closing time.

In an interview with the Journal in 2007, Glover said she has always been bothered that neither police nor prosecutors seemed interested in her conversation with Marker. According to her affidavit, prosecutors told her that she was testifying only to help establish the timeline.

"They told me not to say anything other than what they asked about -- such as when we arrived at the Silk Plant Forest, when we left, etc."

Police Chief Scott Cunningham said that the department is continuing its internal review of the investigation into the 1995 beating.

Cunningham said in an e-mail Friday that previously untested evidence is still being analyzed.

mhewlett@wsjournal.com
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