A judge has refused to suppress a statement made to the sheriff's department in April 2006 by a man accused of sexually assaulting four boys.
Raphael Flowers, 20, has been indicted on two counts of statutory rape of two 7-year-olds and two counts of sexual battery n one on a 7-year-old and one on an 8-year-old.
Flowers stood trial last June on the same counts, but Circuit Judge Betty Sanders declared a mistrial, citing cumulative error.
Flowers, who appeared in court Thursday in a yellow jumpsuit with his feet shackled, has been in custody since his arrest on April 24. At the time of the arrest and the alleged crimes, Flowers was a student at Amanda Elzy High School.
In the statement, which Leflore County Assistant District Attorney Brad McCullouch calls a “confession,” Flowers claims the 7-year-old boy propositioned him.
In the statement, Flowers denied the three other charges against him, which, according to court documents, all occurred on April 23.
Kevin Horan, a Grenada attorney representing Flowers, attempted to have the purported confession to one of the statutory rape charges suppressed Thursday.
Horan asked Flowers whether Leflore County Sheriff Department Chief Investigator Ken Spencer enticed him to make the statement.
“He said he'd get me some bond,” Flowers responded. “He started telling me what them folks in jail were going to do to me. I didn't do anything, so I felt threatened.”
Horan said his client made the statement only after sheriff deputies assured him of “help” and a bond.
Spencer testified he made no such promises.
Flowers waived his right to an attorney at 11:08 a.m. on April 25, the morning after he was arrested. The statement was signed by Flowers more than an hour later, at 12:31 p.m.
Leflore County Sheriff's Department Investigator Robert Quinn also testified.
“What conversations, if any, did you have with my client during that (hour and 20 minutes)?” Horan asked Quinn.
Quinn, who has worked for the sheriff's department for six years, said that time was spent explaining the accusations to Flowers.
Spencer said there was nothing unusual about a statement lasting more than an hour.
Later, Horan made issue of the fact that Flowers was arrested April 24 but an arrest warrant wasn't signed by a judge until May 5.
“You had a man in custody on a felony without the benefit of an arrest warrant?” Horan asked Spencer. “What authority did you have to do that? You had no paperwork to do that.”
Spencer said Flowers had confessed to a sexual crime against a child.
“We had more than enough evidence to hold him,” said Spencer, citing probable cause.
Flowers, who has a learning disability, claimed he never read the statement bearing his signature. Spencer and Quinn both testified that he did.
Jury selection for the Flowers' trial is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Leflore County Courthouse.
McCullouch, who called to the witness stand all four of the victims during the original trial, said he plans to put them on the stand again.
