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May Wong, "Police release additional details on 'John Doe' murder victim," Santa Cruz Sentinel, 3 February 1999, A2.
Though the homicide victim still has not been identified, sheriff's investigators said Tuesday they believe he could be the same man who went by the street name "Styxe." The drifter was believed to have been from an area 20 miles outside Little Rock, Ark.
[...]
The man was last seen in Santa Cruz in mid-November -- around the time authorities say the John Doe victim was fatally beaten and stabbed in a Boulder Creek house where defendants -- James Dotson and Kimberly Labore -- have been indicted in the John Doe murder as well.
When the man named "Styxe" was last seen, he was dressed in skater-style clothing similar to the John Doe victim and had a similar single dreadlock-style ponytail.
May Wong, "Drifter's slaying detailed: Grand jury testimony alleges pair killed man to obtain gun," Santa Cruz Sentinel, 6 May 1999, A1, A12.
[part 1] [part 2]
In November, one of them wanted a gun, too.
Coincidentally, a young drifter happened to be trying to get rid of his .380-caliber handgun. The young man who had the gun wanted to sell it for $25 or a packet of heroin. It ultimately cost him his life.
His body was dumped down a steep embankment off of Bear Creek Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains about eight miles north of Boulder Creek.
Motorists who stopped at a turnout Dec. 27 discovered the decomposed body wrapped in a blue tarp. Detectives still have not been able to identify the body, but those who met the young man on Pacific Avenue knew him as "Huck."
[...]
Authorities allege the pair killed the unidentified drifter for his gun only a few days before they used the weapon in the Chicote slaying.
[...]
At least two people testified that [James Erwin] Dotson had asked them to help him dispose of a body.
"We have a problem" is what Brenton McQueen testified Dotson said to him during a chance meeting at a downtown coffeehouse. "We have a body."
Dotson reportedly told McQueen, "I kept hitting him, and I could not stop."
[...]
Authorities believe the young drifter was killed in the master bedroom of that house. Crime-scene detectives found an inch-thick pool of congealed blood and splatters all over the bed, walls and ceiling there. They also found a baseball bat, blood-stained X-acto knife, and the scorched remnants of knives and a telescope they believe were used in the killing.
[...]
Investigators said [Jeremy Michael] Kraft described for them after his arrest how he slit the drifter's throat while he was still alive and pleading for his life.
Kraft also told investigators how Russell and the girl in the next room were unaware of what was going on it the master bedroom. When Russell and the girl -- whose identity and whereabouts remain unclear -- later asked what happened to the drifter, they were told he had left for Santa Cruz to get drugs.
The drifter was bludgeoned to death, investigators testified.
And afterward, his killers took his gun and his heroin.
Though the homicide victim still has not been identified, sheriff's investigators said Tuesday they believe he could be the same man who went by the street name "Styxe." The drifter was believed to have been from an area 20 miles outside Little Rock, Ark.
[...]
The man was last seen in Santa Cruz in mid-November -- around the time authorities say the John Doe victim was fatally beaten and stabbed in a Boulder Creek house where defendants -- James Dotson and Kimberly Labore -- have been indicted in the John Doe murder as well.
When the man named "Styxe" was last seen, he was dressed in skater-style clothing similar to the John Doe victim and had a similar single dreadlock-style ponytail.
May Wong, "Drifter's slaying detailed: Grand jury testimony alleges pair killed man to obtain gun," Santa Cruz Sentinel, 6 May 1999, A1, A12.
[part 1] [part 2]
In November, one of them wanted a gun, too.
Coincidentally, a young drifter happened to be trying to get rid of his .380-caliber handgun. The young man who had the gun wanted to sell it for $25 or a packet of heroin. It ultimately cost him his life.
His body was dumped down a steep embankment off of Bear Creek Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains about eight miles north of Boulder Creek.
Motorists who stopped at a turnout Dec. 27 discovered the decomposed body wrapped in a blue tarp. Detectives still have not been able to identify the body, but those who met the young man on Pacific Avenue knew him as "Huck."
[...]
Authorities allege the pair killed the unidentified drifter for his gun only a few days before they used the weapon in the Chicote slaying.
[...]
At least two people testified that [James Erwin] Dotson had asked them to help him dispose of a body.
"We have a problem" is what Brenton McQueen testified Dotson said to him during a chance meeting at a downtown coffeehouse. "We have a body."
Dotson reportedly told McQueen, "I kept hitting him, and I could not stop."
[...]
Authorities believe the young drifter was killed in the master bedroom of that house. Crime-scene detectives found an inch-thick pool of congealed blood and splatters all over the bed, walls and ceiling there. They also found a baseball bat, blood-stained X-acto knife, and the scorched remnants of knives and a telescope they believe were used in the killing.
[...]
Investigators said [Jeremy Michael] Kraft described for them after his arrest how he slit the drifter's throat while he was still alive and pleading for his life.
Kraft also told investigators how Russell and the girl in the next room were unaware of what was going on it the master bedroom. When Russell and the girl -- whose identity and whereabouts remain unclear -- later asked what happened to the drifter, they were told he had left for Santa Cruz to get drugs.
The drifter was bludgeoned to death, investigators testified.
And afterward, his killers took his gun and his heroin.
