By Betsy Finklea
“He had the grin of a murderer”—that’s how a man, who was incarcerated at the Dillon County Detention Center at the same time as two of the defendants in the Mary Alice Stutts’ case, described Damien Inman, who was on trial the week of December 13th for murder of the 75-year-old woman.
The man described in detail a conversation he had with Inman at the Detention Center about Stutts. The man said he had talked to Inman’s brother, Lorenzo, prior to his conversation with him.
The man said he asked Inman if he had killed that lady, and he said he had. He said he told Inman that he was lying, and Inman said he wasn’t.
The man said Inman said he shot Stutts in the face first and when her head turned Inman said he shot her again. The man said Inman said Lil’ Henry (a co-defendant named John Henry Bridges who pled guilty last month in the case) was looking off saying that he murdered that lady. He said Inman told him that he told Bridges to help move the body.
The man said Inman told him that after that they rode around looking for someone for his brother, Lorenzo, to kill.
The man said Inman told him that Lil’ Henry was acting big, but that he didn’t do anything. The man said Inman told him that he should have shot Lil’ Henry when he was on the back seat and then there would have been two missing people, and he would have been home smoking. Inman told him that they were going to put it on Lil’ Henry. When he asked him how he was going to do that, Inman told him that someone came to see him and he told that person stuff and that same person told his brother so they could get their stories straight. The man said he told him that “killing that woman was like killing a d— dog.”
The man sent word to law enforcement that he needed to talk to someone about what he had been told. He said he was not promised anything for his statement or for his testimony in court. The man said his own mother would have been that same age if she was still living, and it could have been anyone’s family. He said Inman was laughing and grinning about it as he told him what happened. “He had the grin of a murderer,” he said. “…unremorseful.” He said Inman was sitting there like he was innocent, but he wasn’t. The man said this didn’t have to be and that he didn’t know anything about it until Inman told him because he didn’t have access to television or other media in the part of the jail he was incarcerated in.
Co-Defendant Testifies
Prior to this man’s testimony, John Henry Bridges, Jr., also known as Lil’ Henry, testified. Bridges, now 16 years old, pled guilty last month to charges and was sentenced to 45 years. He has to serve every day of the 45 years and said he had been offered nothing for his testimony.
Bridges said he had gone to see about a job at a local grocery store and saw Damien Inman. He said Inman asked him if he wanted to get a “lick,” which he said means to rob someone. Bridges said Inman showed him a .25 automatic, and they went to where Inman’s brother, Lorenzo, was. Eventually, they ended up in Jacksonville at a convenience store, where they saw the Inmans’ uncle across the street. He said Lorenzo asked him to give them a ride to the football stadium.
Bridges said they got out and started walking and that is when they saw Mary Stutts in her yard. He said it looked like she was getting some groceries out of her trunk or something. He said they were about to walk in her yard when they saw a lady on the phone. They did another walk-by, and this time a car came by. They walked up by Stewart Heights Elementary School. They jumped some ditches and came up in Stutts’ back yard. They rang the doorbell. She came to the door, and they asked for some water. She said yes and directed them to the outside faucet. She was looking out the window and came out because Bridges didn’t know how to work the water. Bridges said it was then that Lorenzo hit her in the back of the head with a gun. She fell, and Bridges said she said, “Oh Lord, Oh Lord.” He said Lorenzo asked her where the money was at and then sent Damien and Bridges into the house to look around. Bridges said they looked around and didn’t see
anything. Bridges drank some tea out of the refrigerator. He said Damien found the key to the car, and they went outside. Bridges said Damien pulled the car around back. Bridges said he, Lorenzo and Damien put the woman in the trunk. Bridges said while they were riding she kept saying “Oh Lord” in the trunk, and Lorenzo turned up the radio so they couldn’t hear her.
‘We’re Going To Kill Her’
He said they went on Bunker Hill Road in the Little Rock area and then onto a dirt road.
Bridges said Damien said “we’re going to kill her.” They stopped the car, and Lorenzo and Bridges pulled her out of the trunk. Bridges said when she hit the ground that is when Damien shot her in the head twice. Bridges said then they started dragging Stutts into the woods and he was told to help, but he said he couldn’t take it and stayed by the car. Bridges said before Damien shot her the woman said Oh Lord, you don’t have to do this. Bridges said on the way back they threw stuff out the window like the keys. He said they went to an apartment complex, stayed about 30 minutes and smoked a blunt (marijuana).
Bridges said they left and went riding around. He said when they got back to his side of town they dropped him off at his great aunt’s house. Bridges said his aunt fixed him something to eat, but he couldn’t eat.
Bridges said he caught back up to them. At some point, they saw some girls and tried to get them to go for a ride. He said one of the girls said that the car looked like her grandmother’s car. Bridges said Damien said they may have to kill that girl because of her comment on the car.
Bridges said they saw a van and stopped and got the tags off of that van to help conceal Stutts’ car. He said they dropped off Damien because he had to go to school the next day. He said after they dropped Damien off, they broke into a car behind Dillon Yarn.
Bridges said he and Lorenzo stayed together the whole night.
Bridges said the next day they went to Lockamy’s to get the car crushed, but to do that Lorenzo needed a license, but that Lorenzo only had a permit. He said eventually they got into a high speed chase on Highway 301. They turned off onto a road and jumped out at the railroad track. Bridges said he had the gun and threw it. Bridges was captured at this scene.
Bridges said he took police out to the scene of Stutts’ murder and to her body. He said in his initial written statement, he didn’t tell the whole truth because he was trying to make himself “look good.” He said he had been thinking it was wrong, and it could have happened to his grandmother or someone in his family.
“Who was it that shot and killed Mrs. Mary Alice Stutts,” Deputy Solicitor Kernard Redmond asked Bridges. “Damien Inman,” Bridges said.
After the testimony of these two witnesses, the State rested its case.
Defense’s Witnesses
The defense informed the court that Damien Inman did not wish to testify on his own behalf.
The first witness that the defense called was Bridges’ aunt on his mother’s side. He said Bridges came to her house and stayed about ten minutes before she put him out. During cross-examination of Bridges by Inman’s attorney, Rosalind Sellers of the Sellers Law Firm, he had said when asked that she did not put him out. She said that two boys were in the car and waited on him and they left. She said Damien Inman was in the driver’s seat and though it was night, she could see him because the light was on in the car.
Another witness also came on the stand, but was barely questioned due to an objection that went in favor of the State.
The defense rested its case.
Verdict: Guilty
After the testimony had concluded, the closing arguments were made. Judge Thomas Russo charged the jury, and they started deliberations. After approximately one and a half hours, the jury came back with their verdict. They found Inman guilty of murder, first degree burglary, kidnapping, grand larceny, possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime, armed robbery and conspiracy.
‘Earned A Sentence
Of Life’
At the sentencing, Assistant Solicitor Shipp Daniel made comments first commending the work of law enforcement and speaking highly of the family. He said today the family can have some closure.
Deputy Solicitor Kernard Redmond then spoke. He said it was clear to him that “we are looking at the shooter.” He said when he thinks about what this community and this family had to endure, he did not think that Inman deserved any leniency at all. Redmond said they would have sought the death penalty in this case, but a Supreme Court ruling does not allow this at the age Inman committed the crime. Redmond said that Inman does not deserve any benefit at all because the Supreme Court had given him the benefit. He has “earned a sentence of life,” Redmond said.
Stutts’ daughter, Bobbie Lee, asked for the maximum sentence. He said when her mother looked him in the face and asked him not to kill her, he had a choice and gave her nothing. He said Inman had an ample opportunity to plead to a lesser sentence and not put the family through another trial and chose not to take it.
Stutts’ brother said his sister was a “God-fearing woman” and a “fine Christian woman.” He said the inhumanity and cruelty of this act showed no mercy to his sister. He also supported a maximum sentence as did Stutts’ son, who also spoke.
No Justification
Inman’s attorney Rosalind Sellers said that Inman was 18 years old and a life-long resident of Dillon County. She shared his deepest sympathy and condolences to the family and remorse for what he had put his own family through. Sellers said there was nothing that could be said to justify his acts. She said he was very immature and guilty of this crime. She asked that he not be punished for exercising his right to a jury trial.
Sellers said it was a sad case all around. He said that Inman’s mother had done everything she could do and that she loved her children and had not reared them that way. She said the mother had reared them at the church. She said somewhere down the line there was a detour. She asked the judge to consider his age and placed him on the mercy of the court. Inman’s mother, Gladys, said she knows he is innocent. “I know he didn’t kill nobody, no matter what the witnesses say,” she said.
Judge Speaks
Judge Russo said he didn’t understand why this case had to happen. He said he was the trial judge on the Lorenzo Inman case and took the plea from John Henry Bridges, Jr. He said there was nothing in the evidence which showed why it was necessary to kill this woman. He said these three young men could have taken what they wanted and left and that he seriously doubted that she could have identified them.
Russo said that Inman was just as much a terrorist as those who flew the planes in New York on September 11th.
He said Mrs. Stutts didn’t hesitate to help them and this was how she was rewarded. He said it was hard to wrap his mind around.
Russo said these young men were not raised to take responsibility for their actions. He said they were not raised to be young men who are responsible. He said the one young man not associated with this family was the only one who made a statement, pled guilty, and took law enforcement to body enabling the family to have a proper burial. “The other two have never taken responsibility to this day,” Russo said.
Russo said then Mrs. Inman stood in the face of the jury with overwhelming evidence and denies it. She says he’s innocent. “Well, he’s not innocent,” Russo said. Russo said he has children and loves them dearly, but he tries to put their interest ahead of his own. “Unfortunately for Mr. Inman that didn’t happen here,” Russo said.
Russo said the State offered a plea to keep the family from going through a trial, and the only thing during the entire guilty plea that Inman cared anything about was making sure he had the right to appeal. Russo said it became clear to him that Inman had no interest in pleading guilty.
Sentence Imposed
Then Russo imposed his sentence as reported in the Thursday, December 23rd issue of The Dillon Herald and on www.thedillonherald.com, Inman was sentenced to the following: murder-natural life, possession of a weapon during the commission of ea violent crime-five years, burglary first-natural life, kidnapping-30 years, armed robbery-30 years, grand larceny over $5,000-10 years, and conspiracy-five years for a total of two natural life sentences plus 80 years. These sentences will run consecutive meaning one sentence must be served before the next sentence starts.
