YAZOO CITY - After Earnest Lee Hargon killed his cousin and cousin's wife, he tightened a rope around the neck of the couple's 4-year-old son, tied a knot and walked away as the child died, prosecutors said during opening arguments of the triple murder trial on Thursday.
Prosecutors said that on Valentine's Day 2004, Hargon beat and shot his 27-year-old cousin, Michael Hargon, then shot Michael's 29-year-old wife, Rebecca, in the arm before beating and strangling her and the couple's son, James Patrick. Prosecutors said the early morning attacks took place at the family's Vaughan community home, a converted store in rural Yazoo County.
"Michael was beaten all over his body, from head to toe," assistant district attorney Steven Waldrup told jurors.
Earnest Lee Hargon began to sob and buried his face in his hands as Waldrup described the child's murder. He said Hargon told investigators the "baby didn't even cry."
Waldrup said autopsy results show the child also had head injuries.
Defense attorney Wesley Evans argued that Hargon had been coerced to tell investigators he killed the family. Evans said Michael Hargon's father was killed on the same site a decade earlier when the building was a store, and days before Michael Hargon was killed, Michael had testified at hearing in which the convicted killer was denied parole.
Evans said the convict allegedly was a member of a street gang, and gang members could have killed Michael Hargon's family in retaliation for the testimony. Investigators said they found no evidence connecting the convict to the crime.
Evans said law enforcement officers had received tips that two or three men were seen the morning of the attack arguing with Michael Hargon outside his home.
A jury of nine women and three men is hearing the capital murder case that captured national attention and triggered a statewide search for the victims.
Because of the publicity surrounding the slayings, jury selection took place in Marshall County in north Mississippi and jurors were taken to Yazoo County, about 45 miles northwest of Jackson.
Capital murder in Mississippi is defined as a homicide committed during another felony, and is punishable by death. In this case, the underlying elements are kidnapping and felonious child abuse, authorities said.
After the family vanished from their home, authorities found blood and bullet casings, but no bodies.
Earnest Lee Hargon, who as a child had been adopted by Michael Hargon's uncle, was arrested on Feb. 29, 2004, in Smith County on weapons and drug violations. The former cattle truck driver was charged with the three counts of capital murder when the bodies were found the next day in a shallow grave in Smith County, about 75 miles southeast of Vaughan.
Some family members wept Thursday as prosecutors used a projector to show photos of the three bodies in the makeshift grave. The bodies of Rebecca and young James Patrick were nude; the parents were stacked on top of their son.
On Thursday, District Attorney James Powell entered two wills into evidence - one from 1995 in which Charles Hargon named his adopted son as the beneficiary. The revised will, changed in January 2004, made Michael Hargon the beneficiary. Charles Hargon, 78, died on Jan. 16, 2004. Prosecutors say the change in wills is the reason Earn-est Lee Hargon killed the family.
Prosecutors said Rebecca was beaten, her skull was cracked and an autopsy revealed she had been strangled with hands.
Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agent Stan Sisk testified that Earnest Lee Hargon told officers he shot Michael Hargon and that he led investigators to the bodies.
Several officers who testified described a bloody scene.
David Zeliff, who worked with the state crime lab at the time of the killings, said there was a muddy footprint on the couple's bed and it appeared someone was pulled from the room before a violent confrontation in the hallway. Two fired cartridges were found in the hallway.
They said it wasn't clear if Michael Hargon tried to flee, but a bullet hole and at least six spent casings were found in and around his truck. A truck door was left open, and brain tissue was found on the floorboard.
Investigators said a .44 caliber handgun was in the truck console but did not say whether they think he was trying to retrieve the weapon when he was killed.
During opening statements, Evans described Earnest Lee Hargon as having been a gifted child with high IQ. But Evans said the defendant had a "deep, dark secret" that led him to crystal methamphetamine.
Evans said Michael Hargon had an arsenal of weapons in the house.
"No one could have snuck up on Michael Hargon, not in that house," Evans said. "It had to be more than one person."
Prosecutors say after the family was killed, Earnest Lee Hargon went to his 1974 Corvette and stacked the woman and child on top of Michael Hargon in the front seat, then drove them to Smith County near his Taylorsville home and buried them in a shallow grave.
MBI Forensic scientist Arthur Chancellor testified there was so much blood in the seat of Hargon's Corvette that it dripped through to the floorboard.
Investigators also said they found spent .22 caliber cartridges in a veterinary clinic owned by Earnest Lee Hargon and his then-wife, Lisa Ainsworth. Sisk testified that Ainsworth helped preserve evidence against her husband.
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