On February 8, 1983 on a cold and freezing morning a black male entered the Delta Service Station on Roosevelt and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in Little Rock Arkansas with the purpose of robbery.
I live two blocks from the Delta and was at home with my then girlfriend Cynthia. The man was described as 6 feet tall, 155 pounds with a light skinned complexion wearing a tan coat and a floppy hat. The man went into the cashier booth where the clerk was and pointed a 12 gauge shotgun at him and demanded money.
After receiving the cash he ran out of the booth and attempted to flee but the clerk had electronically locked him in. He began to shoot the place up and in the process hit the clerk. The robber shot a big window out and escaped through it but injured himself and left blood on the broken window. He also left his fingerprint throughout the store. None of the fingerprints matched me and the blood came up missing. The first officer on the scene, a female, wrote a statement and testified about finding the blood. I was arrested two hours after the crime.
My best friend told investigators I had a shotgun and was talking about robbing someone. I passed every test placed on me including a lineup. I was released that same morning and rearrested six days later after a $6,000 reward was offered. I have been fighting to get those fingerprints and the blood since 2005.
