NJ Man Acquitted Of Murdering, Burning 5 Boys

A New Jersey jury acquitted Lee Anthony Evans on Wednesday of murdering five boys who disappeared in 1978 and were thought to be burned alive. The verdict allowed the 58-year-old Evans to walk free while leaving a 33-year-old case unresolved, the New York Times reports.

Upon hearing Wednesday morning’s verdict, the boys’ families reportedly gasped in alarm. Evans, a lifelong Newark resident who represented himself for most of the cross-examinations, showed little joy in the decision. "If you smash something up, tear something up, you can’t put it back together," he said.

Philander Hampton, Evans's cousin, pleaded guilty before the trial began, but his testimony also implicated Evans. Jurors decided to throw out Hampton’s story.

The NYT has more on Evans's prosecution:

Mr. Evans was charged with the murders of five boys — Alvin Turner, 16; Melvin Pittman, 17; Randy Johnson, 16; Ernest Taylor, 17; and Michael McDowell, 16 — on the night of Aug. 20, 1978. After discovering that the boys, who helped Mr. Evans with odd jobs, had broken into his apartment — the skinniest among them wriggled through a bathroom window — and had stolen marijuana, Mr. Evans decided to exact revenge, the prosecution said.

He gathered the boys in two trips in his green pickup marked “Evans and Son” and brought them to an empty, three-story building on Camden Street, the prosecution said. His cousin, Mr. Hampton, used to live there, and Mr. Hampton helped that night — believing the whole thing was a prank to scare the boys — by guarding two of them while Mr. Evans found the other three, Mr. Hampton testified last week. Then, with the five assembled, Mr. Evans “packed” them into a closet, secured it with a single nail and poured gasoline on the floor, Mr. Hampton said. He demanded a match from Mr. Hampton, who, surprised to see his cousin go through with the murders, fled the building before the fire began, he said.

No bodies were found, despite searches with cadaver-sniffing dogs and sonar that would detect unusual voids in the earth where the building, completely destroyed, once stood.

Hampton was sentenced to 10 years in prison in exchange for his testimony. Evans was freed on bail due to his lack of criminal record and service in the community. Evans said during his defense that the family members who had last saw the victims changed their stories since 1978.