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Waiting for Justice in
Collins County
African-American Family Seeks Help To Overturn Lopsided Justice
For Shelia Stephens, the pathway
to real justice for her husband has been nothing more than a roller coaster
of frustration and disappointment.
Stephens husband, Larry Stephens, was convicted by a Collin County jury in
June and is serving 10 years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon.
“This is a complete nightmare for our family,” she said. “My husband was not
given a fair trial and was railroaded by a Collin County Justice system that
is corrupt and wants to bring all African-Americans down.”
To make matters worse, Stephens is also mentally challenged and has been
diagnosed with depression, emotional and other medical problems that make it
difficult for him to speak or understand basic sentences and phrases making
it difficult for him to fully understand what has happened to him.
Numerous attempts to contact Collin County District Attorney’s office for
comments about the case were unsuccessful.
“He has been crying since June 23,” she said. “His health is deteriorating
and no one (in state system) seems to want to do anything about it and I am
afraid for his life.”
According to Stephens, during the two day trial key evidence about her
husband’s medical condition, the missing 911 call made by the family before
the police arrived, the lack of a police search warrant and other documents
that could have settled the dispute were either ignored or not allowed to be
presented at the trial.
Court documents also reveal some shocking remarks made about the
African-American family that raised questions about how they could afford to
live at their upscale Allen residence.
“We are crying out for justice and really need someone to hear us and help
us,” she said. “They took the word of whites (police and witnesses) over us
and we are the ones who called for assistance in the first place. How can
you call the police for help and end up arrested, put on trial and put away
for 10 years?”
Since the trial, Stephens has been in a battle to clear her husband and in
her desperation, has lost her home and spent over $10,000 thousand dollars
trying to find and attorney to clear her husband’s name. Despite four
attorneys, she fears the money has been wasted.
The incident stemmed from a 911 call the family made February 23, 2003 to
the Allen Police Department concerning the attempted repossession of a
vehicle.
According to Stephens, her husband the two kids were watching television
until one of the children looked out the window and reported to her about
some suspicious activity around her car.
Upon investigation, Stephens discovered that white tow truck driver had
arrived to take the car. While Mrs. Stephens delayed the driver, Larry
Stephens called 911, talked with a dispatcher and requested police come to
help resolve the matter.
When police arrived, a white female and truck drivers at the scene allegedly
told police that Mr. Stephens brandished a weapon and threatened to shoot
them.
However, under oath, Stephens testified the gun was in the house, but he
never left the home and never threatened to kill anyone. He only told them
to get away from the car and then proceeded to call 911 for help.
“They had no reason to repossess anything,” she said. “The (car) note was
not behind and we had documents proving payments were up to date, but none
of that was even considered by the police.”
Officers took the Stephens family inside and questioned them about the
weapon.
According to Mrs. Stephens, initially neither the tow truck drivers,
witnesses nor police could identify or describe the alleged weapon and held
the entire family at bay in one room contending they had a search warrant
(that was never produced by police) and would use it if the gun was not
found.
After pressure from police, Mrs. Stephens retrieved an unloaded gun from the
couple’s bedroom and police took it to the tow truck operators who allegedly
verified it was the weapon her husband used to threaten them. He was taken
away in cuffs and jailed.
In November, Stephens was indicted and convicted seven months later and
sentenced to prison.
During the trial, court documents painted a picture of the .9 mm weapon and
its potential to do harm, but nothing in the records indicate that Stephens
ever fired the weapon.
(Prosecutors painted Stephens as an evil black man with an Uzi and chip on
his shoulder and it was the Allen Police Department that swooped in and
saved the precious Caucasian community from a white holocaust.)
The case also probed beyond the February incident into the family’s past
legal problems and questioned their motives for moving to Allen.
The jury also heard testimony that referred to Stephens in the documents as
a big “stupid” kid, a “bald-faced liar and an “out and out thief” and
branded him as someone who needed to be taught a lesson along with others
like him. She also stated many whites laughed at his testimony and referred
to him as John Coffee, the man from the movie “The Green Mile”.
However, his sister Eunice Davis described Stephen as a mild mannered,
gentle man with the delicate mind of child whose interests very seldom
venture farther than enjoying his wife and children, according to sister
Eunice Davis.
“This whole thing was unnecessary,” Davis said. “He was convicted on “he
said, she said”, ridiculed and treated like he was on trial for killing his
family.”
During arguments, the prosecutor urged Collin County jurors to protect their
homes and children and not allow them to become the “same places as Dallas
County, Harris County or Los Angeles County”- counties with a heavy
concentration of African-American populations.
He was called a “bully” by the prosecution and was accused of defending
himself against people “taking away his toys” and to stop it brought out a
gun.
Prosecutors told the jury to show Stephens that “in Collin County “you can’t
bring out that kind of hardware and get a slap on the wrist… in Collin
County, you bring out a submarine gun – bring out that kind of killing
machine, you get hard time.”
“The harsh things said to my husband and about my husband were wrong and
uncalled for,” she said. “To take a man in his condition, make fun of him,
belittle him and chastise him in front of friends, family and a community is
cruel and proves that an African-American cannot get a fair shake or fair
trial in Collin County.”
Prosecutors further painted a picture of dishonesty in records contending
Stephens cheated taxpayers out of social security income and should not have
had money in the bank, been living in a nice home, have nice furniture or
driving nice cars.
“Justice is not very blind (in Collin County) because these people are
worried more about how blacks are living, what we have and how we got it
than delivering fair, honest justice,” Mrs. Stephens said. “In their minds,
if you are an African-American and have anything, you either must be selling
drugs, running guns or doing something else illegal.”
She said her children have been traumatized by the incident and trial.
“They don’t understand why their father had to go to prison for making a
phone call,” she said. “They are very scared for him and want their daddy
back.”
Stephens said she is in a lifelong fight with her family to vindicate her
husband.
“There was so much misconduct during this trial that needs to be examined,”
she said. “I won’t stop until justice is done.”
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