In the Light of Day

by BobA. Troutt

  *****

  In the Light of Day

  Hit and Run

  It was a lazy, quiet summer day in 1956 in Hollow Rock, Mississippi in Jefferson County. Twelve-year-old Jerome Noles was fishing at his favorite fishing hole on Frog Pond Creek. Frog Pond Creek was about forty-five miles south of Tunica, Mississippi. It got its name because the creek that ran through Hollow Rock, at the fishing hole, would back up and cause the water to create a pool of water like a pond. When the pond was full, the creek would overflow and the water would flow on down the creek. It was not only a good fishing hole; it was one of the best places along the creek to frog gig. If there was anything Jerome liked better than fresh fish it was frog legs. He and his dad, Paul Moore, would go down there in the late evening and gig for frogs. Paul Moore loved them as much or more than Jerome did. Mary Alice, his mother, could batter them babies up and fry them better than anyone. Oh, boy, they would melt in your mouth. Now, up the creek from the fishing hole was an old iron bridge where Paul Moore and Jerome would snatch hog suckers and take them home to eat. Paul Moore loved them to but Jerome didn’t care much for them because they had too many bones. Every once in a while, if they were lucky, they would catch a turtle. They both liked turtle. Paul Moore would always say there were seven different kinds of meat in them.

  Hollow rock was a laid back country town nestled in the Mississippi Delta. Nothing much ever happened there. Everybody knew each other and everybody also knew what was going on.

  Dewayne Trisdale lived in Hollow Rock. He was a highfalutin farmer and business man that owned Jefferson County, so to speak. He lived on a large farm called Oak Hill Estates which pretty much took up most of the county. He raised fields of cotton, corn and tobacco. His daddy and his daddy’s daddy passed the inheritance on down through the years dating back to the Civil War. A lot of his land he share cropped out to other families. They worked the fields and brought in the harvest; he furnished them with a place to live and paid them for their work. Dewayne Trisdale was known as the kingpin of Jefferson County. He made the rules and set the law, nobody went against him. Dewayne was in to bootlegging whiskey, prostitution, murder, bribery and blackmail. He was the king and lord. Judge Winford Trisdale was his brother. Douglas Rippy, the district attorney, was his first cousin and Sheriff Travis Hauskin was married to Dewayne’s sister. They all ran the county their way. It was their way or no way. Dewayne also had a lot of friends on the state level who could pull a lot of strings for him if he needed something done. He also was a high ranking official in the KKK.

  A few years ago, Hollis Jones, his wife, Evelyn, and their son were sharecropping on Dewayne’s land. Hollis made a mistake and bucked up against him. Not long after that, Hollis and Evelyn were coming home from town one stormy night when they ran off an embankment. The car overturned and killed them. Everyone around Hollow Rock believed Dewayne had someone run them off the road. However, there was never any proof he did. There were a lot of unexplained accidents, beatings and killings that happened around Hollow Rock. A lot of the time when someone bucked against him, they would receive a late night visit form the KKK who would burn crosses in their yards and sometimes beat them. After Hollis and Evelyn was killed, their son was put in an orphanage in Mississippi. The orphanage was called Potters Home for Children. The son lived there until he was adopted by Russell and Kathleen Nichols from Only, Alabama, a town about twenty-three miles south of Tuscaloosa and about thirty-eight miles from Huntsville.

  Well, it so happened, while Jerome was fishing, an old homeless man came up to him with a cane pole in one hand and a can of worms in the other.

  “Are you getting any bites?” the old man asked.

  “A few,” replied Jerome as he lifted up his stringer of fish to show him.

  “Yes, sir,” the old man said as he sat down beside Jerome. “You’ve got some nice looking fish there. What’s your name?” the old man asked as he slipped the worm onto his hook.

  “Jerome,” he replied. “What’s your name?”

  “Oh, I am Raymond Shaw but all my friends call me Shadetree.”

  “Are you from around here?” asked Jerome.

  “Well, I don’t think I could exactly say that but in a way I am,” replied Shadetree. “To be more accurate, I guess I am more from the north of here. Are you from here, Jerome?”

  “Yep, I was born and raised here,” he said. “Do you know my daddy, Paul Moore Noles?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I don’t believe I ever had the pleasure of meeting him,” replied Shadetree as he spit on his bait and tossed his line out into the water. “I’ve been living up under the old iron bridge,” he said, “for the past month or two.”

  “You have,” replied Jerome. “Don’t you have a home?”

  “I used to,” he replied, “years ago. I was married and had a son about your age. But, they left me and I’ve been moving from place to place ever since. Hey, look, you’ve got another bite.”

  Quickly, Jerome jerked his pole out of the water and there hanging on the end was a big, nice sunperch.

  “Just right for eating,” chuckled Shadetree.

  Jerome took the fish off his hook and put it onto his stringer with the others.

  “Look!” shouted Jerome. “You’ve got a bite.”

  Shadetree quickly turned, jerked his pole out of the water and slung the line up onto the bank.

  “Darn,” he said. “I missed it.”

  He laughed a bit, baited his hook once again, spit on it and eased it back down into the water.

  “I’ll get him the next time,” he boasted.

  Then Jerome spit on his bait and tossed it back out into the water.

  “Your dad and mom must be very proud of you,” he said. “You are a good fisherman.”

  As the twosome sat there on the bank of the pond, they talked about this and that. They would talk awhile and then laugh. Soon, with what each of them caught, Jerome had a stringer full of fish to take home.

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Jerome, you have got a nice dinner there,” boasted Shadetree. “Some of the best fish I believe I have ever seen.”

  “Thank you, Shadetree,” he replied. “How about coming home with me for supper? Daddy and mama would be glad to have you.”

  “Well, I don’t know,” he replied. “I guess I’ll stay around here and turn in early. It’s already beginning to get dark.”

  “Yeah, I know,” said Jerome. “I’ve got to get home and get these fish cleaned so mama can fry them. I hope daddy will help me because I really don’t like to clean fish.”

  “He probably will,” replied Shadetree. “I’ll see you later on. Goodbye, Mr. Jerome.”

  “Goodbye, Shadetree,” Jerome said. “I’ll see you later.”

  Jerome gathered up his fishing pole and stringer of fish and headed for home. Shadetree picked up his pole and headed back through the woods toward the old iron bridge. A little ways from the fishing hole, he couldn’t help but think about that fresh fried fish Jerome had told him about. He turned around and tried to catch up with Jerome so he could eat supper with him. As he made his way back through the woods, by the fishing hole, he looked to see if he could spot Jerome; he saw him walking down the road. He was about to holler his name when, all of a sudden, a car appeared out of nowhere. It was weaving back and forth across the road. Within seconds, without warning, the car lost control and hit Jerome but the car didn’t stop; it kept on going.

  “Oh, my God!” yelled out Shadetree. “Oh, my, Lord,” he cried as the car went on down the road and disappeared.

  Quickly, he ran over to Jerome’s broken and bleeding body. Jerome was dead. Shadetree heard another car coming. He knew he had to get Jerome’s body out of the middle of the road before it got hit by the oncoming car. Hurriedly, he dragged Jerome’s body to the side of the road. He saw the car as it approached. It was weaving from side to side like the other car. Before he knew it, the car wa
s upon them. The driver saw them and steered his car away from them. When he did, he lost control and went over the embankment and crashed in to a tree. Shadetree took off back toward the woods and hid behind a tree. He saw the driver climb up the embankment and fall to the ground. Then, he saw a police car pull up. He wondered how they got there so fast. The policeman got out of the car and saw the man lying in the road and Jerome to the side of the road. Immediately, the officer ran back to his car and called for an ambulance. When the ambulance arrived on the scene, Jerome was dead but the man, Rex Johnson, was still alive. The officer had spotted Rex about a mile up the road, driving erratically. He tried to pull him over for drunk driving but Rex sped up and tried to get away. When the officer caught up to Rex, he was passed out on the ground and Jerome was dead. The officer arrested Rex and charged him with aggravated vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, DUI, reckless driving and speeding.

  The news spread quickly around town. Sheriff Hauskin went to Jerome’s parents and told them what happened. They both broke down with grief. Oh, my, god, why was all they could say. Hurt, angry, at a loss for words and confused, they cried out in pain. The sheriff gave them his condolences as neighbors and friends tried to comfort Paul Moore and Mary Alice. The Noles had lost their only son. All they had left was Jerome’s four-year-old sister.

  “Things will never be the same,” Paul Moore said to Mary Alice. “Our life as we know it has changed forever with the loss of our child.”

  Paul Moore gritted his teeth as he tried to accept it but Mary Alice could never let it go. A few days later, they laid Jerome to rest. But, no matter what, Jerome would always have a place in their hearts until the day they died. It was a tremendous loss for the Noles, their friends and neighbors. It was a senseless waste and loss of a promising life. Why, my, Lord was the unanswered question that laid on their hearts for the days to come. Even Dewayne Trisdale stopped by and gave his condolences. He told Paul Moore and Mary Alice if there was anything he could do to just let him know. He swore to them that Rex Johnson would pay for what he had done.

  Everyone all over town hated what happened to Jerome and his family but they couldn’t believe Rex was responsible for such a thing. Everyone liked Rex. He was a drunk and had a drinking problem but he never caused any trouble except for a few fights. Everyone thought it was a just freak accident. However, they agreed he shouldn’t have been drinking and driving. He had been caught several times for it and spent many hours in jail for it. But, they did agree he had gone too far this time. Rex was a good man when he was not drinking or drunk. He would help others and give them the shirt off his back if he had to. This time, however, he couldn’t mend or right his wrong regarding the loss of Jerome.

  After Rex sobered up, day and night he sat in his jail cell, cried and prayed about what he had done. On the day of his arraignment, he cried and prayed. He asked Paul Moore and Mary Alice to forgive him. He couldn’t believe what he had done nor could he ever forgive himself. Considering his past record and what he was charged with, he faced fifteen to twenty years in prison. Paul Moore and Mary Alice saw how sick and tormented he was for what he had done. They forgave him because they saw how hard a time he was having and they knew it was going to be hard for him to live with it.

  In the meantime, Dewayne Trisdale was stirring up trouble and doing whatever he could to make things hard on Rex. The D.A. was putting together a hard case against him. Unknowingly to the other, Dewayne had gone as far as to hire a young lawyer right out of law school to defend Rex’s hopeless case. The young lawyer hadn’t been in town but a couple of months; he had just opened his office there. The young lawyer, Jeremy Nichols, still wet behind the ears, took the case. Dewayne believed the young, green lawyer would blow the case and Rex would be found guilty and have to spend the rest of his life in jail for what he had done. Dewayne felt it would be a life for a life even though he felt an old drunk’s life was nothing compared to a young boy who had his whole life ahead of him.

  Jeremy was excited about his first big case and he was going to do everything he could to defend Rex. When he went to the jail to talk to Rex, Rex couldn’t remember a thing. There were a lot of blank spaces about what had happened.

  “Can you remember anything at all?” asked Jeremy.

  “I remember leaving the bar and I tried to go to sleep in the car,” replied Rex.

  “Did you go to sleep?”

  “I don’t know. The next thing I remember is being all over the road and I couldn’t tell where I was. I guess I was just trying to get home.”

  “Do you remember being chased by the police?”

  “I thought I heard a siren but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.”

  “Do you remember hitting anything before you wrecked?”

  “No, not even the wreck. All I remember is laying on the ground and waking up in jail.”

  “Do you remember seeing the boy?” asked Jeremy.

  “No…I don’t,” he said. “Things were happening so fast I just don’t remember it all.”

  After his first talk with Rex, Jeremy went back to look at the evidence and look over the police report. The police report stated it appeared Jerome was crossing to the right side of the road when he was hit. It also appeared Jerome had been hit in the middle of the road and knocked over to the right side of the road because blood was in the middle of the road and also on the right side of the road. There was glass from a broken headlight found at the scene of the accident. It was believed to be from the right headlight of the car. When Jerome looked at Rex’s car, his right headlight was not broken but his left one was from where he hit the tree. This created suspicion in Jeremy’s mind that possibly another car was involved. The tread marks of Rex’s car they found in a pool of blood didn’t appear to match Rex’s car but there were some similarities. From the photo of the scene, it appeared the body was knocked over to the side of the road or dragged by the car. The main piece of evidence was the broken headlight. He needed to find the owner of the car with a broken right headlight. There were several things in the report that bothered him and he had to try his best to find out the truth for Rex.

  In the meantime, Paul Moore and Mary Alice tried to go on with their life. It was hard for them to accept but they didn’t have much of a choice. The days were long and depressing for them.

  As Jeremy tried to build a defense for his client, the D.A. appeared to have a solid case against him. It appeared to be an open and shut case to him. They even offered him a plea bargain for a lesser charge if he would admit guilt. But, Rex wouldn’t take it. It was a couple of weeks later when Jeremy was talking to Rex about what happened the evening of the accident when Rex began to remember some more bits and pieces from that day. He thought he remembered seeing an old black man knelt down by the side of the road. He didn’t know him or where he came from. When he saw him, he remembered steering his car to the left to keep from hitting him.

  “You didn’t recognize the man?” asked Jeremy. “Was he from around here/”

  “I don’t know,” replied Rex. “I just don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him around here. I don’t know. I was so drunk; I may have dreamed him up in my head.”

  Jeremy knew if Rex remembered correctly and there was a witness to the crime, it could turn the whole case around. But, who was the man and where was he. Going on a wild hunch, Jeremy got a police artist to come in to do a police sketch of the man Rex thought he had seen. It was a longshot but Jeremy was willing to take it since he didn’t have much else to go on. Who was this mystery man or did he really exist? The partial remembrance of the man and the police sketch of him was all they had to go on. Nevertheless, it was enough to get Rex out on bond. The search for the mystery man was sent out across the state as a person of interest in the case.

  As the search continued for the mystery man, Rex got out of jail and started back drinking. Jeremy warned him a
bout it and told him it would only complicate things. So, Rex tried his best to stay sober. Jeremy called one of his dad’s friends who worked crime scenes in Jackson to look at the evidence and the police report. The tread marks his friend tested didn’t match Rex’s car tires. And, according to his expertise, the police photos indicated the body had been dragged to the side of the road. He wasn’t too sure if the car dragged the body or not but he knew it wasn’t hit and knocked to the side of the road. Jerome was definitely hit in the middle of the road. After looking at Rex’s car, the unbroken right headlight was strong evidence that Rex did not hit the boy. There was a small dent in the right fender but the rust marks in the dent was already there before the wreck happened. It was the driver’s side of Rex’s car that hit the tree. The broken left headlight of Rex’s car also didn’t match up with the broken glass found in the middle of the road. The friend of Jeremy’s dad determined another car had been involved. None of the boy’s blood was found on Rex’s car. With the evidence report from his dad’s friend, Jeremy was able to start building a strong case in Rex’s favor. But, who was the mystery man and where and who was driving the other car was the million dollar question. As the young lawyer worked to unravel the case, he created a suspicion of doubt. There was more to the case than he first suspected which renewed hope for some but made others nervous. As the days went by, the D.A. argued the point of the mystery man and another car being involved. He didn’t think there was any solid evidence to support the fact. He insisted the young lawyer was stalling and he didn’t know what he was talking about. The D.A. pushed to get Rex in court as soon as he could since there was already doubt in some people’s minds about the case. He was in a rush to get Rex convicted before some believed Jeremy was on to something.

  As the young lawyer dug deeper in to the case, he began to unravel it. However, there was a downside to that. He started receiving threatening phone calls to either back off or else. One night, after he left Rex’s house, he was run off the road into a ditch and had to walk back toward town until someone picked him up. The next day when he went to get his car, it had been set on fire; it was completely destroyed. He reported it to the sheriff to try to find out who did it but all the sheriff told him was he would check in to it which he never did. He had a pretty good idea who was behind it. However, he couldn’t prove it. A few days after his car was burned, he got word Rex had been found dead. It appeared he hung himself in a tobacco barn. The sheriff’s report stated it was a suicide. But, Jeremy suspected different. The talk around town was Rex couldn’t live with himself for what he had done.

  No sooner than Rex was in the ground, Judge Trisdale decided to close the case. Jeremy was not going to let it go that easy. He believed Rex had been murdered and he was going to get to the bottom of it to clear Rex’s name. One night, about a week later, Jeremy received a call from a mysterious man. He told Jeremy to meet him the next morning at the old iron bridge. So, bright and early the next morning, Jeremy arrived at the old iron bridge. When he got there, no one was there. He waited to see if the man would show up. About fifteen minutes later, Jeremy was about to leave when he saw a man standing on the other side of the creek. Jeremy walked over to him but they were separated by the creek. The man stood on one side of the creek and Jeremy the other while the two of them talked. The man, Shadetree, told him what happened the day Jerome was killed. He told him he left that day and went to Alabama. When he saw the police sketch and heard what happened, he decided to come back and explain the truth.

  “Rex didn’t kill Jerome,” he stated. “It was Dewayne Trisdale driving the car that hit and killed him,” he said. “Dewayne hit Jerome and didn’t even stop or slow down. He was swerving all over the road like a drunk driver. He was flying recklessly down the road. Jerome didn’t have a chance; it all happened so fast. After Dewayne left, I ran up the road and pulled Jerome over to the side of the road. Then, another car came down the road. It was Rex and he was all over the road. When he saw us, swerved to miss us, went down the embankment and hit a tree. I took off and hid in the woods because I didn’t want anyone to see me. Last thing I saw was Rex walking up the embankment and then falling to the ground. That’s when I heard sirens and saw the police pull up. I took off and didn’t look back. I hated to hear about Rex,” he said. “But, I don’t believe he killed himself. He was killed to take the fall for Dewayne Trisdale.”

  “Are you willing to testify?” Jeremy asked.

  “Yes, I will,” Shadetree answered.

  “There is a lot of corruption going on in this town and I’m determined to put a stop to it.”

  “Is there any way you can keep me safe until after the trial?”

  “My father is the U.S. District Attorney in Only, Alabama. He’ll put you in protective custody until it’s time for you to testify. After the trial, you’ll enter the witness protection program,” Jeremy explained. “Are you willing to do that?”

  “Sure,” Shadetree agreed.

  Jeremy took Shadetree to Only, Alabama for his dad, Russell Nichols, to put him in protective custody. Only, Alabama was about eighteen miles south of Tuscaloosa and twenty-three miles from Huntsville. When they arrived, Jeremy explained the case to his dad and his dad told him he would take care of it. On his way back to Mississippi, Jeremy stopped by to see his mother, Kathleen, to spend a little time with her since it had been a few months since he had been home. She was tickled to death to see him.

  When he arrived back in Hollow Rock, Jeremy went to Judge Trisdale’s office to see if he would reopen the case of Jerome Noles due to new evidence. As he expected, Judge Trisdale didn’t want to hear it because the D.A., Douglas Rippy, had enough evidence to support that Rex Johnson had killed Jerome Noles. Judge Trisdale told him the case was closed and he wasn’t going to reopen it. Frustrated but not willing to give up, Jeremy drove to the U.S. district attorney’s office in Jackson, Mississippi to talk to him about the case; he was a friend of his father. He explained to him that he had uncovered new evidence and an eyewitness to the crime had also come forth. He told him the eyewitness had been placed in protective custody. Jeremey told him he wanted to try Dewayne Trisdale in a different county because of the corruption of the officials in Hollow Rock. He was positive Dewayne killed Jerome Noles in a hit and run accident and was a possible suspect in the murder of Rex Johnson. The U.S. attorney in Jackson agreed with Jeremy and told him he would get the FBI involved. Agent Daniel Roberts and Agent Paul Rowe was assigned to the case; they immediately issued a warrant for the arrest of Dewayne Trisdale.

  It wasn’t long before Dewayne Trisdale was picked up and taken to jail. Within a couple of hours, Trisdale had bonded out. The U.S. district attorney and the FBI opened up a full-blown investigation of the case and Jeremy worked with them. Agent Roberts and Agent Rowe asked a lot of questions around Hollow Rock about the death of Jerome Noles and Rex Johnson. The two agents got a big break in the case when they went to a garage in Hollow Rock to ask if any repair work had been done on Dewayne Trisdale’s car. The owner of the garage told them he hadn’t done any work on Dewayne’s car in some time. He suggested they check at a garage in nearby Summer Shade. He told them they did more body work there than he did. The two agents took off for Summer Shade which was about twelve miles from there. When they arrived at the garage in Summer Shade, the agents asked if any repair work had been done on Trisdale’s car. The owner did remember doing some work on his car. He had replaced a broken right headlight and pulled out some dents in the right fender.

  “Did he tell you what kind of accident he was involved in?” questioned Agent Roberts.

  “Yeah,” he said he hit a deer.”

  “Did the damage appear to be caused from hitting a deer?” asked Agent Rowe.

  “Deer cause all different kinds of damage so I really can’t say,” he replied.

  The agents left and went back to Hollow Rock to talk with Trisdale. When
they got there, he wasn’t at home. His wife told them he was on the back side of the farm.

  “Can we take a look at his car?” asked Agent Rowe.

  “Why, what is the matter?” she asked.

  “We believe the car may have been involved in a hit and run accident,” Agent Roberts stated. “We just need to take a look at it.”

  “Oh, yes,” she said. “Dewayne hit a deer on the way home one night. But, he’s already had it fixed.”

  “Yes, ma’am, we understand,” replied Agent Roberts, “but we still need to look at it.”

  “Well, okay,” she said. “The car is behind the house.”

  The two agents went behind the house to see the car. The car looked as good as new. They were about to leave when Agent Roberts noticed what appeared to be blood on the inside front grill. Agent Rowe took a sample and they left. The sample was sent to the Jackson office along with a bloody shirt Jerome Noles was wearing the day of the accident. As they waited for the results, they continued to ask questions around town. When they questioned one of Rex Johnson’s neighbors, he told them he had seen two men who worked for Dewayne Trisdale in the car with Rex the morning before he was found dead.

  “Did you now the two men?” asked Agent Roberts.

  “Yes,” he said. “One of them was Billy Joe Lackens and the other one was Johnny Barns; they both work for Mr. Trisdale.”

  The agents took out a warrant on them and had them picked up. When they got to the jail, the agents interrogated them about the death of Rex Johnson. It was hours later when the two men broke down and told them what happened. They had only picked up Rex because Dewayne told them to. They took Rex to the tobacco barn to meet Dewayne. They told them Dewayne was the one who hung him from the tiers in the barn and they didn’t have anything to do with his death. All they did was pick him up and take him to the barn.

  Agent Roberts had Dewayne Trisdale brought back in for questioning. Later on that evening, Agent Rowe got the results from the blood sample found on the inside grill of Trisdale’s car. It was confirmed to be Jerome Noles’ blood. Dewayne Trisdale was charged with vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, murder in the first degree and hit and run along with some other related charges. Dewayne denied all charges and pleaded innocent. Three months later, he was tried in a different county and found guilty. He was sentenced to death by electrocution. On May 23, 1957, Dewayne Trisdale was electrocuted. Jeremy with the help of the U.S. district attorney and the FBI was able to close the case of Jerome Noles’ murder along with the murder of Rex Johnson. They succeeded in beating the good old boy system.

  Jeremy stated in Hollow Rock and practiced law. Judge Trisdale, Douglas Rippy, the D.A. and Sheriff Travis Hauskin was charged with being accomplices for covering up the facts of the case; they all received prison sentences. It was about two years later when Jeremy uncovered a hidden secret from his past. His real name was Jeremy Jones and his parents were Hollis and Evelyn Jones. They had sharecropped on Dewayne Trisdale’s farm when he was two years old. Rumor had it Hollis had some things on Dewayne and was going to turn state’s evidence against him regarding the KKK and murder. Before Hollis could, however, they were run off the road and killed. Jeremy, two years old at the time, was put in the Potter’s House for children and was adopted by a family from Alabama, Russell and Kathleen Nichols. Several years later, Jeremy was elected to be a judge. He served as a criminal judge until his death.