Harold & Thelma Swain - you won't believe this!

[crystaldawn]

I came across a recent article about the UM case of Harold & Thelma Swain. They are the couple who was murdered in a Georgia church during a Bible study class. Turns out UM apparently lost the pair of eyeglasses worn by the killer that was loaned to them and it could have ended up exonerating the man who was convicted!! Here's the article:

Key evidence goes missing in Georgia church murders
By Susan Greene
Denver Post Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 07/24/2007 09:05:58 PM MDT


Sheriff's deputies were so eager to solve the murders of a southern Georgia church deacon and his wife that they sent a key piece of evidence - a pair of eyeglasses - to "Unsolved Mysteries" to film on TV.

As the state's lead investigator on the case tells it, the glasses were never returned.

"They're still laying out there in a studio somewhere in TV-land," said former Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Joe Gregory.

Without the glasses or most physical evidence from the crime scene, Camden County officials still convicted Dennis Perry, who enjoyed 20/20 vision and had no need for a prescription to correct extreme far-sightedness.

Twenty-two years after the murders, it remains itself an unsolved mystery whose face the glasses fell off and whether Perry - now serving two life sentences - really killed Harold and Thelma Swain.
One evening in March 1985, a stranger interrupted bible study at Rising Daughter Baptist Church in Spring Bluff, Georgia, and asked to speak with Harold Swain, a leader in the local African-American community.

The white young man with shoulder-length hair scuffled with Swain, then shot him fatally in the chest and head, witnesses said. Thelma Swain ran to help her husband and also was shot dead.

In the bloody vestibule sheriff's deputies found the pair of metal glasses, its right ear piece wrapped in tape, its frame pocked with what appeared to be welding spatter and its hinges holding two Caucasian hairs. Because it didn't belong to either victim, investigators concluded it must have been the shooter's.

The case remained cold when "Unsolved Mysteries" filmed a segment about it in 1988. As Gregory tells it, producers "contacted Sheriff Bill Smith and wanted those glasses" for the show.

"Without asking anybody, he just up and sent them out there which totally broke the chain of custody in this case," Gregory said.

Smith, who is still sheriff, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Gregory said he never saw the glasses after host Robert Stack appeared on camera holding them in his bare hands.

"These are the glasses found on that night . Were they dropped by the killer?" said Stack, his voice gravelly and grave.

The show triggered hundreds of tips.

One came from Camden County resident Jane Beaver who said a composite sketch of the shooter looked like Dennis Perry, a boy her daughter used to date. Beaver said that Perry had phoned her daughter the weekend before the murder to say he was visiting his grandparents' home in the Swains' neighborhood.

Investigators initially cleared Perry as a suspect after establishing that he was at work hours away near Atlanta the day of the killings. Also, Vanzola Williams - the witness who got the best look at the shooter - did not pick him out of a photo line-up.

Instead, she pointed to another suspect, Donnie Barrentine.

Perry "didn't do it, plain and simple, and that's why we cleared him," Gregory said.

"Unsolved Mysteries" went into re-runs and Beaver continued through the 1990s calling the show's phone center pointing at Perry. She also went further, showing his picture to the church ladies who were the main witnesses to the murders.

Thirteen years after the killings, Sheriff Smith hired a special investigator to work exclusively on solving the cold case.

Following Beaver's lead, investigator Dale Bundy pursued Perry as a suspect. Bundy said Perry admitted to the murders the day of his arrest.

Perry tells it differently.

"Dale Bundy started elaborating the story, with me saying 'I don't know.' He was trying to put words in my mouth," he said.

Bundy declined comment.

Sheriff's deputies have no tapes showing Perry confessed, according courtroom testimony.

And by the time of his trial, they could not account for the missing glasses.

"They remain, as of this moment, not any longer in existence," Chief Assistant District Attorney John Johnson wrote in 2001.

Robert Stack died in 2003. An "Unsolved Mysteries" producer told The Post she doesn't know what happened to the glasses or whether the pair on TV were actual evidence or a prop.

Had the glasses been preserved, they likely would have pointed to the Swains' killer, Gregory and others say.

Johnson, the prosecutor, downplays the importance of the glasses, saying, "They might, they might not have had anything to do with the case."

Also missing were a metal phone box with visible fingerprints investigators believe the shooter left when he cut the phone lines outside the church; a mirror from the church vestibule; tapes of witness interviews; photos of the crime scene; photos of police line-ups; and investigators' notes documenting that Perry had been at work six hours away the day of the murders.

"It's physically impossible to be at two places at one time. Even if he had a jet plane at his disposal he couldn't have done it," Gregory said.

At trial, Jane Beaver's daughter, Carol Ann, poked holes in her mother's testimony by saying she didn't know whether Perry was in Camden County the week of the murders, 13 years earlier. She testified that Bundy "was insinuating I knew more than I did and I didn't know anything."

The jury never heard the evidence that may have helped Perry most.

The hairs caught in the mysterious glasses had been preserved and tested for DNA before trial. Results showed no match to Perry. His lawyers didn't enter them into evidence because they also didn't match Barrentine, the alternate suspect on whom they based their defense strategy.

Vanzola Williams identified the North Florida man out of a lineup shortly after the murders. And three witnesses testified that, shortly after the shootings, Barrentine bragged at a party about having killed a black couple in a South Georgia church.

Though Barrentine was the prime suspect the year of the murders, District Attorney Glenn Thomas wouldn't grant a warrant for his arrest because he deemed the witnesses at the party to be "dope-heads and prostitutes."

Before Perry's trial, prosecutors gave Barrentine immunity in exchange for his testimony, in which he said he didn't kill the Swains.

Five years later, Johnson said he "can't remember" why he wrote in the immunity grant that "Donnie Barrentine was a witness to the death of Harold and Thelma Swain" and that Barrentine "was present at the scene."

"At this point, I can't answer that question," he said. "We wrote it that way and we went forward with it. That's all I can tell you at this point."

Before trial, Perry refused a plea deal offering him reduced charges of voluntary manslaughter and 12 years in prison. Then he was convicted, facing execution until he agreed to two life sentences in exchange for waiving his rights to all appeals.

"Everything was snatched out from under me," said Perry, who lost his construction business, his double-wide mobile home and his wife.

Now serving his seventh year behind bars, Perry, 45, is unable to stem the flow of his tears.

"I can't believe I'm sitting here getting choked up about...glasses," he said, sobbing in his prison whites. "But how do they lose evidence in a capital case? How do whole boxes of evidence slip through their fingers?"

[Charli-Ann]

Wow, that is absolutely unbelieveable!!!!

Crystaldawn, who is your avatar?

Charli-Ann

[Corky Kneivel]

That segment was the very first case I posted about when I first joined up here back in like February. I posted because I had only seen the segment once, when it originally aired, and it scared the ba-jeebus bells outta me as a young man watching alone at night. I can still remember sitting rigidly still on the couch, both knees bent double under me so I was sitting on my feet, bear hugging a couple of coach pilows tight against my chest...freaked out of my mind by the shots that were from the killer's POV as he circled the church from the empty darkened woods. I kid you not, right after the camera was stealthily creeped up to the phone line and cut the cord I went and checked my phone to see if I could get a dial tone...juuuust in case there was a killer outside my house, circling and stalking.

I always thought NO WAY would this case be solved. The sheer randomness and lack of any incriminating evidence seemed insurmountable to me. Imagine my surprise when crystaldawn, the Encyclopedia Brown of Unsolved Mysteries information, let me know that the Mystery was, in fact, Unsolved no more.

AND NOW THIS?!?

From this article, and I caution everyone out there to NEVER EVER decide ANYTHING, not even the weather, from just one article or source, especially when unfamiliar with the source, it would appear the man convicted of this horrendous deed was absolutely railroaded. I am DEFINITELY going to look into this a bit more.

Thanks, crystaldawn!

[ididn'tdoit]

OMG! You'd think this was some sort of April Fool's Day article. Outrageous!

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by Charli-Ann

Crystaldawn, who is your avatar?

Charli-Ann

Its "Bonnie Wilder" from the infamous UM segment. It was one of those that never made it to Lifetime and one of the more entertaining imo.

I agree Corky about not deciding things after hearing from just one source. You just see these updates about someone arrested years later and just figure they're guilty without hearing both sides. I had never heard there was any question that Perry could be innocent until this article.

[Thinman]

This article is slanted in Perry's favor. However, the evidence against him is pretty strong.

[DarkDante]

Originally Posted by crystaldawn

Its "Bonnie Wilder" from the infamous UM segment.

Knock it off CD - it is not - its a picture of you and you know it - Stop lying to these good people.

[kadrmas15]

Hmm, I wouldnt say the evidence against him was strong, if it was there is no way they would offer him a plea bargain, of 12 years in exchange for him pleading guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter.

Honestly, they had nothing more than very circumstancial evidence, they couldnt put the gun in his hands, honestly, it sort of surprises me they got a conviction. I think if he were truly guilty he probably would have taken the plea to voluntary manslaughter, rather than nearly get the death penalty and get two life sentences when he could have got 12 years.

Then again, Paul Hamwi was offered a plea bargain too of conspiracy to commit 1st degree murder in exchange for a seven year sentence and he turned it down and got convicted of first degree murder and got life in prison too. Now I am not sure of Hamwi's guilt or innocence, but many think he is guilty.

Now in this case of the Swain's, Dennis Perry, he was simply convicted off very circumstancial evidence, I mean his ex-girlfriend's mother who probably didnt like him and had an ax to grind says he looked like the composite, but I just dont know. I mean, I am not saying for sure Perry isnt guilty, but what I am saying is the evidence against him was not strong, not in the least, the state knew it, hence why they offered him that pretty easy plea bargain, they were nervous and were afraid they wouldnt get a conviction at trial, but they did manage to get a conviction, then suddenly they are pushing for the death penalty for the same man they had just months earlier offered a plea bargain of 12 years? Doesnt add up.

[Thinman]

These articles tell a little more of the story.

http://www.injusticebusters.com/04/Perry_Dennis.shtml

[James T]

The whole thing is pathetic, how on earth can you convict somebody when you have testimony they were working that day and could not have been there? when somebody else is picked out of a line-up and when all evidence is lost? how did the jury convict and why did the judge not throw the case out due to lack of evidence?

[LooksLikeCRicci]

..and from the peanut gallery, the wannabe lawyer can only say, "Yow."

[kadrmas15]

Wow, after reading those articles and stuff, I am convinced this guy didnt do it. This guy should have never been convicted, tried, charged or indicted. But as the saying goes, you could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. It is a stunner that the jury could get convict, so that tells me they walked into the court room already thinking he did it and since they had come to that conclusion in their minds they werent going to change their minds as to what they thought was his guilt. This also reeks of prosecutor misconduct, they offered him a plea b argain, because they actually probably figured he was innocent but wanted to satisfy everyone and get headlines by bringing this killer to justice, so they offer him an easy plea bargain? That doesnt seem right, it is because they were not confident in their chances of getting a conviction, and they probably figured this guy would take the plea whether he was innocent or not just because he would be afraid of getting convicted at trial and getting the death penalty. However to their surprise I am sure, the guy didnt take the plea and they went to trial and somehow got a conviction. Hence, why I would never be a prosecutor, I would rather be a defense attorney and get 10 guilty men acquitted than put 1 innocent man in jail.

[Corky Kneivel]

Has UM re-aired this segment with a new UPDATED ending? Has the UM site been updated to include this?

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by Corky Kneivel

Has UM re-aired this segment with a new UPDATED ending? Has the UM site been updated to include this?

Well I don't know about the official UM site but its not up to date at all about a lot of things. Lifetime did do an update they ran at the end of this segment along with a picture of Perry. I do have it recorded but am not sure I put it or the NBC version on my volumes.

[crystaldawn]

Originally Posted by DarkDante

Knock it off CD - it is not - its a picture of you and you know it - Stop lying to these good people.

Thanks once again for ruining my true identity. I guess you would know all about aliases though since you are in reality Kevin Poulson. C'mon when are you going to enlighten the rest of the posters...the truth has been hidden long enough.