When Marlin Gray was up for execution in 2005, some of the documents that shed reasonable doubt on the State’s case against the defendants in the Chain of Rocks Bridge incident were circulated fairly widely in the community.
Perhaps the most embarrassing document for the prosecution is a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Report filed as Complaint #91-65574 on April 5, 1991, the morning after Julie Kerry and Robin Kerry disappeared – by all accounts, plunging to their deaths from the bridge.
This report reflects the initial investigation of their murders by STLPD detectives Richard Trevor and Chris Pappas. It reports on the detectives’ interrogation of Thomas Cummins, the girls’ cousin, who confessed to a role in their deaths. It also reports on the detectives’ interviews with officials from the Missouri Water Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard, which dismisses as impossible Cummins’ initial explanation of what happened on the bridge.
A local African Methodist Episcopal pastor, the Rev. Richard R. Chapman Sr., is one the people in the community who has spent his time poring over this document. On June 14, he sent the following letter to the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, quoting liberally from the police report. The American obtained a copy of the report and confirmed the accuracy of the quotes.
Rev. Chapman writes to the Post:
I am a regular and faithful subscriber to your newspaper (having been for years). Out of your paper came several articles surrounding the so-called Chain of Rocks “murders.” It is interesting to note that none of your articles dealt with the real truth.
The deaths of Julie and Robin Kerry were accidental and Thomas Cummins was never pushed, thrown or forced to jump from the bridge. Please review the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Incident Report #91-65574 prepared by Detective Richard Trevor and Detective Chris Pappas.
Voluntary or involuntary, Thomas Cummins did not jump from the bridge that fateful night. Corporal James McDaniel, Missouri Water Patrol, explained: “That to accomplish the feat Thomas Cummins claimed to have done, i.e. jump into the river from the bridge, swim against the current and through the extremely strong whirlpool to reach the Missouri bank, would be extraordinary. Discounting the factor of the strong whirlpool, the current would carry a person to Chouteau Island or the Illinois river bank. The fact that the water temperature was 54 degrees is suggestive of hypothermia, which in turn would cause a swimmer to drown.”
Chief Ed Moreland of the U.S. Coast Guard Operations Control Center, explained: “At the time of the incident, the lowest ‘metal structure’ of the Chain of Rocks Bridge was 90 feet above water level. He advised that a person would be traveling at 80 miles per hour when he struck the water if he’d jump from that height. If his head, neck and extremities were not perfectly aligned, they would likely be broken; at the very least, bruised.”
Page 8 (third paragraph) states: “Thomas (Cummins) was confronted with the information from the Missouri Water Patrol and the Coast Guard regarding the height of the bridge and the injuries an individual would sustain after falling from same. Thomas stated he was not injured in any manner and added he had no indications of any bruising.”
Detective Sergeant Daniel Nichols pointed out: “That although the condition of the clothing and hands of Thomas Cummins indicated that he was indeed in the Mississippi River, there were some questions whether he actually jumped off the bridge abutment as he stated. The fact that his hair appeared to be completely dry and combed at the time of his discovery at the front gate of the water treatment plant by officers of the Sixth District, when it was felt that the hair should be full of silt and still wet, led the detectives to believe that it was possible Thomas did not jump off of the bridge.”
Page 8 (fourth paragraph) of said report states in part: “Due to the apparent inconsistencies of his (Cummins’) statement and observed fact, he was asked if his statement was truthful. Thomas stated everything was accurate except that he’d jumped off the bridge.”
As do many people who dig into the guts of this case, the Rev. Chapman is amazed and appalled that a version of events dismissed on the scene by police investigators, the Missouri Water Patrol and the U.S. Coast Guard was accepted as fact by the trial juries that convicted Gray, Reginald Clemons and Antonio Richardson.
Worse, it was accepted as fact by the Missouri Supreme Court as recently as 1997, when it rejected Clemons’ appeal.
In the Court’s opinion, Justice Edward D. Robertson Jr. writes, “Cummins was ordered to jump. He did. When Cummins surfaced after his 70-foot fall, he saw Julie nearby in the water, and called for her to swim. Fighting the current and rough water, Julie grabbed Cummins, dragging them both below the surface. Cummins broke free. Julie did not reappear. Cummins eventually reached a steep riverbank and came ashore by a wooded area near the Chain of Rocks waterworks.”
As Rev. Chapman notes, the Missouri Supreme Court – relying on the dubious trial testimony produced by prosecutor Nels C. Moss – has cut 20 feet off the 90-foot fall estimated by the Coast Guard. The high court also has accepted as fact a fanciful version of events that investigators on the scene – and even Cummins’ own father – rejected as ridiculous.
When Homicide supervisor Sgt. Michael Guzy told Gene Cummins his son’s polygraph had come back as deceptive, according to the police report, “Cummins stated he was afraid of that, adding that when Thomas was an adolescent he would concoct elaborate stories to justify his shortcomings in school performance.”
The report then describes Gene Cummins literally coaching his son through the less believable parts of his story.
“Gene Cummins stopped Thomas, and advised him that his statement regarding jumping from the bridge was hard to believe as if he had jumped from that height, he would have been injured,” the detectives reported.
“Thomas then changed the account stating that he ran from the bridge and jumped into the river from the bank. He then began swimming south from the old Chain of Rocks Bridge, past the Water Treatment Plant, and continued swimming until he reached the boat ramp.”
Dad coaches him past that story as well.
“Gene Cummins again stopped Thomas and asked how he swam past the water intake pipes for the Water Treatment plant,” the detectives reported.
As Rev. Chapman notes in his letter to the Post, Reginald Clemons’ mother was not allowed to see her son. He did not have the benefit of witness coaching by a parent during his police interrogation.
Yet amazingly, Thomas Cummins’ doctored and unbelievable testimony – the version even his own father dismissed – was accepted as fact by a trial jury and the Missouri Supreme Court.
It was used to convict and execute Marlin Gray – and is now being relied on as the State of Missouri moves toward executing Reginald Clemons.
The Rev. Chapman concludes his letter: “What is the truth? Why should Reginald Clemons die? Why is the State so anxious to put him to death?”