LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / September 27, 2000

EDGARD – A tangled web of investigators, missing evidence, evidence believed invalid and allegedly forced confessions confronts the judge who will decide if John Francis Wille and Judith Walters deserve to have their murder convictions overturned after 15 years in prison.

Hearings began Monday and are expected to adjourn Thursday to allow ad hoc Judge Remy Chiasson to consider the matter. He is expected to re-convenethe hearings in November.

“The more light that shines on the evidence, the more likely we will prevail,” stated Wille’s lead attorney, Denise LeBoeuf, in court. “It’s a very simplecase. If these confessions are false, these convictions cannot stand.”Wille and Walters stand convicted, he on death row and she serving two life sentences, for the murders of Nichole Lopatta, then age 8, and Tickfaw hitchhiker Billy Phillips, who they allegedly picked up, both on June 2, 1985.

Now, Wille and Walters declare not only that they are innocent, but that they were nowhere near Louisiana at the time of the murders. They plan toproduce evidence to back them up.

Another voice came into the picture as well, that of Walters’ daughter, Sheila Dunagin, 29. It was her sworn statement which helped convict the pair,and she expects to testify this week that her statement was force-fed to her by investigators who, she said, told her, “If you lie, your mama won’t fry.””I can remember that like it was yesterday,” Dunagin said.

As for Wille, who is said to have raped and murdered an 8-year-old child, Dunagin said: “He’s a sweetheart. I love him.”LeBoeuf told the court Monday the bulk of the evidence against her clients were the sworn statements they, along with Sheila, gave investigators. Nophysical evidence can conclusively place them at the scene, she declared.

“No one can look at this evidence and believe they got a fair trial,” LeBoeuf said. “And there is no other evidence.”Assistant Attorney General Julie Cullen, director of that office’s Criminal Division, is working to keep Wille and Walters in prison. Her position, as sheput it, is to rebut the claims being put forth by Leboeuf and her associate, Nick Trenticosta.

The hearing ran into a short roadblock as Walters’ attorney, Robert Pastor, could not attend due to another case in New Orleans. Walters waived herright to have Pastor present and the hearing continued.

Most of the testimony Monday centered around the safekeeping of physical evidence and documents by various agencies.

Eliana DeFrancesch, Clerk of Court for the 40th Judicial District in St. Johnthe Baptist Parish, testified that she found records and evidence storage to be “very disorganized.” Her predecessor, Harold Montegut Jr., who held the office for 16 years,testified that he was limited by space but did keep adequate records, following in the footsteps of his father, Harold Sr., who held the position forthe preceding 32 years.

Nevertheless, Montegut was quizzed over the scanty contents of a box labeled “No. 3” in the Wille/Walters case, with no sign of boxes one and two.That afternoon Maj. Robert Hay of the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Officeproduced four large banker’s boxes of physical evidence, which the attorneys examined themselves after the hearing recessed for the day.

A parade of police officials from Jefferson Parish, Tangipahoa Parish and the City of Hammond also testified as to their holdings of documents or physical evidence in connection with the Lopatta case.

Among the items produced in court was a 6-inch stack of crime scene photos, brought in by Capt. Tommy Waguespack of the Jefferson ParishSheriff’s Office. Lopatta had been kidnapped in Terrytown, near Gretna, inJefferson Parish.

Watching this activity in the courtroom was John D. Wille, the father of JohnFrancis Wille, who said of his son, “He looked good today,” and added he’s never lost hope that his son would be returned to him.

“We knew as long as an appeal was pending they could not set a date for a death sentence,” Wille’s father said. “It’s hard when you know he’sinnocent.”Wille’s father added that his son is a “likeable, loveable” fellow who would do anything to protect members of his family.

“But they fed John enough information for him to give them what they wanted,” he said.

The elder Wille added, as Wille’s petition before the court says, that Wille has a penchant for making up wild tales to make himself look important.

This was backed by testimony from Victor Bradley Jr., now chief of theIndigent Defender Board in St. Charles Parish, who represented Wille in threemisdemeanor cases in the early 1980s.

Wille telephoned Bradley several times, wanting him to “move $1 million from Mississippi to Louisiana,” claiming his girlfriend’s family was connected with General Motors and the money could pay for his defense.

Bradley also testified that Wille’s attorney in the murder trial, George Oubre, was advised by Bradley “not to get emotionally attached” to his client.

Oubre, who was Bradley’s first cousin, didn’t take the advice to heart.

“I felt he was insecure about handling the case,” Bradley said of Oubre. “Hewas scared.”One of Wille’s contentions is he had incompetent, inexperienced lawyers in charge of his defense.

It is contentions such as these which give hope to Barbara Hurst, mother of Judith Walters.

“We’ve waited a long time for this,” she said. “It is so important that ourside be presented.”She said of Judith, with whom she exchanged kisses blown across the courtroom, “She wasn’t a good daughter, or mother, or neighbor. But thatdoesn’t make her a murderer.”

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