Episode 23: The Hollingsworth Sighting "We saw Damien and Domini"

 

"We saw Damien and Domini .... " 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those who depended on the “Paradise Lost” movies for information about the West Memphis 3 killers heard little about eyewitnesses who placed Damien Echols near the scene of the murders.

The jury who heard testimony from Narlene Hollingsworth and her son, Anthony Hollingsworth, in the Echols/Baldwin trial labeled their  stories “honest” in jury notes.  

Narlene called the police on May 9, 1993. According to a handwritten note,  she saw "Dominique" and "Damion" “walking from Blue Beacon toward Lakeshore Estates. They looked dirty. L. G. Hollingsworth (age 17) was at the laundromat at 9:30 p.m., it was noted.  

“According to Mrs. Hollingsworth, her nephew L.G. made the statement on Thursday that he knew about what happened before anyone else.

“L.G. has 666 on the side of his boots.

“Damion is mean & evil, according to Mrs. Hollingsworth.”

The next day at 4:05 p.m., Mike Allen took an anonymous tip from “an old white female who stated she had overheard that a Dominick + Damion killed the three little boys + that L.G. last name unknown took and laudered there clothing. Caller stated that Damion had body parts in a box from the children. The called ... didn’t give her name + (stated) that she heard that L.G.’s mother was going to lie about L.G.’s where abouts.”

At 4:20 p.m. that afternoon, Detective Charlie Dabbs and Lt. Diane Hester took a statement  from Narlene Virginia Hollingsworth, a 42-year-old Lakeshore resident. 

Ricky Sr., 37, and Narlene had four children who figured also in the narrative: Anthony Hollingsworth, 21, Ricky Hollingsworth Jr., 14, Tabitha Hollingsworth, 16, and Mary Hollingsworth, 10.

Narlene told police: “What happened was Dixie Hollingsworth had asked me to pick her up at where she works at a laundry mat, she said, will you pick me up, I get off at 10, I said yes I will ... OK, I got ready to go, and my husband went with me and my children were too. And, on our way, coming down like you’re going to Love’s, I saw Dominic and Damian coming down the street ... This was exactly 20 minutes till 10, exactly, cause we had our watches and we knew what time it was. OK they had dark clothing on and they were not cleaned.”

Dabbs: “You said at one time that they were muddy all over.”

Narlene: “They did have dirt on them, yes they did, now. ... They was coming back towards Lakeshore, this way .... They were, it was a yellow uh, sign thing up in, some stick standing up and then they were just before they got to there, where they was. ... OK, as we were driving by, she pointed the stick ... to us, and it’s right there on the off ramp, where ... as you go east down the interstate … the off ramp to the South Service Road … is where the yellow stick or marker was.”

She had turned her brights on “so that I could get a good look at them … to see who they were, yes I did. And I said, that’s Dominic and Damien, no look like, it is and I got a good close look and said, it sure is. ... I really don’t know Damien, cause I don’t go around him from all the bad things I hear about him, but therefore, I don’t let my children go around him and Dominic, I’ve known her all of her life. Cause I use to hold her on my hip when she was six months baby. ...

“...  I was upset about it, for them being out that late and around that area, but you know I was wondering what they were doing out at that time of night. My husband told me to quit worrying about it, cause they are out all the time. He said that he sees them all the time. So, he told me to quit worrying about it. …

“… I don’t know what L.G. is capable of, and I am not saying that he would do it, and I am not saying that he wouldn’t, but I know Damien. Everybody said that Damien, I know that he’s suppose to have 666 on his shoes. …”

Hester: “And your husband and your children saw him and Dominic both.”

Narlene: “Yes, ain’t no way they missed that.”

She repeated the information on May 20: “... I left home about 9:30 I was going down the south service road and I looked to the right and I saw Daymeion Dominique walking they were dirty and muddy go to the laundrymat Dixie said LG just left and I said I just saw Daymeion and she asked was Dominique with him and I said yes.”

Narlene testified in the Baldwin/Echols trial on March 3, 1994: “Well see, we spent most of our day together, Dixie and I did. And we had lunch together. And she asked me that day, would I come back and pick her ... Well, she got off at 10, but we got there a little early.”

She said she left home at exactly 9:30 p.m. and had all her children, along with a young friend, packed into a red 1982 Ford Escort. 

John Fogleman asked: “... As you were approaching Love’s and Blue Beacon, uh - did you see anybody there on the service road?”

Narlene: “Yes, we did. ... We saw Damien and Domini. ... Damien had on a pair of black pants and a dark shirt. Domini had on a pair of tight pants - you know, fit tight. And she had flowers, looked like white flowers to me on her pants. ... Which I know they were her clothes because 2 or 3 days before that, I saw her with those same clothes on.”

Fogleman: “Alright. Uh -- in fact, Domini’s tried to get you to say something different, hasn’t she?”

Val Price, Echols’ attorney, interjected: “Judge, objection! Totally inappropriate, your Honor.”

Narlene was willing to talk: “I’ll answer.”

Judge David Burnett said “Wait just a minute.” This was followed by laughter in the courtroom and a bench conference. 

Price said the testimony would be a hearsay response. The Court agreed.  Fogleman said he might call Domini on the matter but “she might lie.” They moved on.

Fogleman: “Narlene, when you saw these uh -- Damien and Domini on the service road, did you do anything with your lights? ...”

Narlene: “... I put the bright lights on to be sure ... That it was them. ... Because I didn’t realize there for a second how many I really had in the car with me and it was getting late and Domini was only 14. ... So I wanted to give them a ride back home. See, I knew I had a few minutes to get to the laundrymat. ... I looked back and my ex-husband said, ‘Where are you gonna put ‘em?’ I said, ‘Well, I’d put Mary in Domini’s lap.’ And I looked over, he said, ‘Where you gonna put the other one, in Damien’s lap?” and I looked at Damien and said, ‘No, I don’t think so.’”

Under questioning by Echols defense attorney Scott Davidson, she said, “ ... I wanted to stop and pick ‘em up ... Give ‘em a ride so - so Domini wouldn’t be on the street. I’m a real funny person about that and I don’t think young children ought to be on the street after dark.”

She also wanted to stop because “I just started feeling like all of a sudden I wanted to throw up. ... I stopped for a second and then went on ‘cause they kept hollering -- the kids kept hollering ‘Let’s go on, let’s go, you can get sick when we get there.’” 

Laughter broke out in the courtroom again. 

Baldwin attorney Paul Ford correctly predicted that the prosecution ultimately would argue that she had mistaken  Baldwin for Domini that evening. 

On May 25, 1993, Anthony Hollingsworth gave a handwritten statement to police: “Wensday night I was at my mom dads house when the phone rig at 9:15 pm and it was my grandmother she told us to come and get her from wroke. We walk out and get mom car Anthony Ricky Tabitha Matt Narlene Sombra Little Ricky and left to go pick up Dixie we get service road were going est just west of Seventh Street. We saw Damaion and Dominque and they were on south side of the south service road. They were wearing black clothes that were muddy It was about 9:30 pm We went to Flash Market and pick up Dixie and took her home and then we went back to our house and didn’t see Damion and Domique on the road.”

Anthony also testified on March 3, immediately preceding his mother. 

He testified he, his brother, his two sisters, his mom and dad and his little brother’s girlfriend Sombra had gone to pick up his grandmother at a laundromat near Southland Park dog track, next to a Flash Market. He recalled the time as 10:30 but wasn’t sure -- “that was a year ago.” 

He said they saw Damien and “Dominique, his girlfriend” by the side of the road wearing black, dirty clothes. 

Anthony: “She had black pants on with sort of a black shirt -- the shirt was black but the pants had white flowers on ‘em.”

With the May 25 statement as reference under questioning by John Fogleman, he agreed that he had given the time as 9:30 and had stated that the clothes were not merely dirty but muddy. 

Other members of the Hollingsworth family did not testify in the trial but gave statements to police.

Tabitha, 16, told Dabbs on May 20: “Well, first that night, we were going to get my aunt from work, and L.G. seen Damian nem walking, walking back from over there by that place where them kids got killed at. ... They were coming down by Love’s, they right beside the place, cause they were walking back this way, walking back toward Love’s. ... Well, Damien, had, uh, Dominic had black pants on with holes in the knees, and she had on a long black shirt and he was wearing all black, he had black boots on black shirt, black pants on, and they were muddy. ... No doubt n my mind, I seen them, they were all muddy.”

She said they were going to pick up her grandmother at the laundromat at about 9 or 9:30, going down the south service road toward Ingram Boulevard to Flash Market. 

She said she and Domini “use to hang around a lot when we were in school” and that she had been introduced to Damien at Domini’s house (“he just live right around behind us”). 

“I think he’s a devil worshiper, I don’t like him ... He makes signs on the street and all of that, and he go back under the bridge and makes of the devil.”

She said Domini knew Echols was a devil worshipper. “She doesn’t say nothing about, I guess she don’t care.”

She also knew Jason. “I don’t know his last name, I know where he lives though ... Yep, very good friends, they walk around with each other all the time. ... They act strange all the time.”

On Dec. 7, Ricky Sr. gave this statement: “On 5-5-93, I Rick Hollingsworth was in a 1982 Ford Escort Stationwagon with my ex-wife Narlene, Anthony, Tabita, Mary and Little Rick at between 9:00 and 10:00 PM. We were going to get Dixie from where she works on Ingram. We were on the South Service Road between Blue Beacon and Love’s truck stop when Narlene saw two people that she said were Damien and Domini. I did see the two people but I didn’t look close enough to say who they were but I did see that they had long hair. Narlene thought it was strange and asked if she ought to turn around to give them a ride. I told her no that I had seen them walking all over the place and that they are always walking.”

On May 20, Dixie Hufford, 50, said Narlene and Ricky Hollingsworth had picked her up from work at a few minutes before 10 p.m. that night and taken her home. 

As predicted, prosecutors did try to use the sighting to place Baldwin at the scene. 

Fogleman worked it into his closing argument: “Let’s talk about Damien Echols or an accomplice, Jason Baldwin or an accomplice, causing the deaths of these boys. As the court instructs you, some of this evidence is only as to one, some of it as to both. In this case, you’ve got evidence that at about nine thirty -- sometime between nine thirty and ten on May the fifth, this is the area of the crime scene, and somewhere in this area Damien Echols -- who by his own admission dresses very distinctively and stands out in a crowd -- he is seen by somebody who’s seen him hundreds of time, Narlene and Anthony Hollingsworth. And he’s seen with somebody they identify as Damien’s girlfriend. They’re muddy, dirty, and they’re here about nine thirty or ten, which Damien denies. Now, all of y’all -- I don’t think any one of you could forget Anthony and Narlene’s testimony. I got to thinking about it later, and you know -- we laughed, we all laughed. You laughed, we laughed, the defense attorneys laughed, everybody laughed -- they were dead serious.  And, you don’t pick your witnesses -- and because they’re simple, and they’re not highly educated, that should be no reason to discount anything they said. Think about what they said and really how they said it. I submit to you, you’ll find that they were highly credible. And that they did see Damien Echols on this service road between nine thirty and 10 on May the fifth, 1993. Now, who he was with -- draw your own conclusions. Says his girlfriend and they describe her as having red hair and long. You got a picture of Jason Baldwin at the time of his arrest. Nothing wrong with having long hair and the picture in there is not shown to show that he’s a bad person because he got long hair. But think about that. Think about who Damien was with on May the fifth.”

Brent Davis didn’t mention Baldwin in his portion of the closing statement, focusing instead on the credibility of the Hollingsworths’ testimony: “And it’s kindly funny, you know at one point they wanna believe Narlene but they don’t wanna believe Narlene. … I don’t think Narlene lied to you when she said she saw Damien out there. And once you accept that, and why in the world is Damien and the rest of his group lying to cover him -- where he was on the fifth. What difference does it make? Why don’t he get up here and level with us? ‘Why, heck, I was going down to Love’s truck stop on the fifth.’ Put Domini up here, let her tell you what they were doing. But if Anthony and Narlene are telling you the truth, and you know -- you heard her say about getting them in the car but she wasn’t gonna have them in the car, she wouldn’t let her kids sit on his lap. She know who was out there, I mean --- Damien himself admits what a distinctive looking character he is, and you wouldn’t drive by and miss with your bright lights on at night if you knew who he was. And she knew who was out there. And if he’s out there then he’s lying to you. And if he’s lying to you --- his whole family is lying to you, and the question I got for you is, if they’re lying to you about all that, why? Why? Do they got something to hide? I put to you, they do.”
     It’s unlikely that the Hollingsworths would be mistaken in identifying Echols, but how likely is it that they were mistaken about Domini?  Baldwin and Domini were close enough in size, hair color and dress to be mistaken for each other at a glance in poor lighting. But according to Dennis ‘Dink’ Dent, Baldwin showed up at home around 9 or 9:30, which means he couldn’t have been walking along the service road between 9:30 and 10.  

Domini’s alibi wasn’t particularly strong because it was  not corroborated by anyone other than her mother. But the story from the Teers was consistent.  No one other than the Hollingsworths placed Domini anywhere but at home that evening, though Damien at one point claimed she had been over at his parents’ trailer that evening.  

The only evidence of Domini’s possible involvement on any level is in the statements  from the Hollingsworths, who clearly bore her no ill will.  Narlene in particular seemed oblivious to possible implications of the sighting.

Police also talked to Dixie Hufford, 50, on May 20, after a tipster called into the West Memphis Police Department.

The note on the tip said: “-Boone- called stated the woman that works at the Laundromat on Ingram. Her name is Dixie, Dixie told someone? that 2 boys and a girl came into the laundromat about 10:00P.M.-10:30P.M. on Wednesday to clean up. They had mud and blood on their clothes. Dixie is supposed to be related to one of them, only name Boone new was Hollingsworth.”

Ridge and Gitchell conducted the interview that evening at Hufford’s apartment.  The official record gives no indication that the tip was discussed, though perhaps it was cleared up informally. 

Hufford did have much to say about Domini and Damien:

“Dixie stated that she feels that Damien does control Domini and that she is fearful for her.

“Dixie stated that she believed Domini was at home sick that day and that Domini’s mom was home.

“Dixie stated that she does not like Damien ...

 “Dixie knows Jason Baldwin and knows that Damien and Jason are very close friends.

“Dixie feels that Domini’s mom knows some things but won’t tell because of her fear  for Domini. …

“Damien controls Domini.”

In a phone interview in March 2013, Narlene Hollingsworth revisited her story as told in 1993-1994, sticking adamantly to the fact that she had seen Domini walking with Damien.  New details or twists had not been added over time.