Death and the Beauty Queen

Kim, juror:  I just could not turn my mind off, what am I missing?  What am I going to do?

To say the jurors in the Kevin Jones murder trial were profoundly troubled by the death of Nona Dirksmeyer would be an understatement.

There were five jurors: the Spanish teacher, the single mom, the horse rancher, the retired waitress, the nurse. All said they became quite passionate about the case.

Kim, juror:  You could just feel everybody wanting to get it right.

In the courtroom, they knew, watching  was a grieving mother...

Carol Dirksmeyer, mother: Seeing this trial, I’m 100 percent convinced that he did it.

And down the road, a town was watching too which was largely convinced of Kevin’s guilt.

But was he guilty?

The jury looked very carefully, they said, at every scrap of evidence they were offered.  Even used their own bodies to recreate the murder scene in Nona’s living room which helped, they said to figure out what happened.

Kim, juror:  And I played the part.

Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent: Whoever killed her almost tortured her first.

Juror: Yes, he did.

Juror: Kind of like he played with her.  He tried to install fear

Who else but Kevin could it have been?

Kim, juror:  Blood all over him in the pictures.

Elaine, juror: The palm print in her blood. 

But in spite of that, the state’s evidence began to trouble them.

Elaine, juror: I was disturbed because they did not gather all the evidence.

What happened, they wondered, in that investigation?

Elaine, juror: The glass door, for example, where the perpetrator went out was not fingerprinted inside or out.  The kitchen floor would have been excellent for footprints.  He obviously walked across there,  no prints were taken.   The water faucets, where they would turn them on to, wash up, none of that was fingerprinted. The kitchen table? Nothing.  Basically all they fingerprinted was the murder weapon.

Instead, said the jurors, the police focused on Kevin almost right away.

Juror: Just a little bit of tunnel vision.  
  
Elaine, juror: How can they expect you to convict someone when someone else’s fingerprints that they do not identify are on the murder weapon?

Why, they wondered, didn’t police look more carefully at other possible suspects?

Morrison: The police claimed that they had checked the alibis of all these potential suspects.

Kevin, juror: As well as they gathered evidence?

What about the grandmother?  Did she lie as the prosecution claimed? Did she create an alibi  to protect Kevin? How credible was she?

Carol, juror: Very.

Kevin, juror: Very believable.

But it was the tape. The  prosecution’s introduction of that interrogation tape in its effort to convict Kevin that truly did backfire.

Carol, juror: That was the most horrific tape I ever saw in my life. 

Kevin, juror: He couldn’t even wipe his eyes because he had—

Carol, juror: And he still had the blood all over him.

Kim, juror:   I felt bad inside that I was watching him in this little cubicle of a room.

Still, the jurors said, it was the evidence... Or rather, the lack of evidence against Kevin Jones, which convinced them.

Elaine, juror: And it simply said he didn’t do it.

And so, after 8 hours of deliberation, they walked back into the courtroom.

Kevin, juror: I stared at Kevin Jones right in the eyes.

Female juror: I did too.

And pronounced him not guilty.

And right there in the courtroom, an emotional dam burst.

Officials separated the two families as they left the courtroom.

Duke Dirksmeyer: And I would like to ask the jury, would you allow your daughter to date Kevin Jones?

Well, actually, said jurors, based on what they saw in the trial...they liked Kevin.  Though they still found themselves explaining their decision to a skeptical public.

Russellville may still be unconvinced. The Courier ran a new series of articles, incuding one with this headline:  “A verdict without justice.”

Duane Dipert: I'd like to tell Kevin, I said, you know 'It would really help Carol’s closure if he really man up and tell us what really happened.'

Carol Dirksmeyer: If you think somebody else did it, why aren’t you out there trying to find ‘em?

Well, in fact, Kevin’s lawyers say they are conducting their own search for the killer.

And Kevin?  Seems to know that some people will never be persuaded.

Kevin Jones: I know exactly what it feels like to have people think you did something that you didn’t do, and I wouldn’t ever wish that on anyone else. I still sometimes have dreams with her in it... and it's like she’s right there.

But for now, the question hangs, here in the green rolling hills of Arkansas: Will there ever be justice for Nona?

A special prosecutor has now been appointed to the case. And, recently, Kevin Jones' defense team gave prosecutors what it says is new evidence. The defense says it is optimistic about the outcome.

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