POLICE ARREST NEIGHBOR IN STABBING DEATH OF GIRL, 13 – SUSPECT, 19, WAS FUGITIVE IN KANSAS CITY ROBBERY – 24 Mar 1997 P-D

Authorities believe that Martiez Davis, 19, fatally stabbed his 13-year-old neighbor, Crystal Brooks, in the throat when she fought off his sexual advances, police said Sunday.

The murder weapon may have been a kitchen fork, police sources said

Davis, who made a partial admission to the killing, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted rape and armed criminal action. He was being held in City Jail without bail.

Crystal was killed late Wednesday or early Thursday in the alley behind her house in the 4000 block of Russell Boulevard, in the Shaw neighborhood. The suspect and victim lived just two buildings apart, and they were among a group of many young people on the street earlier Wednesday evening.

After most of the group had gone into their homes, police believe Davis approached Crystal on her front porch about midnight. He talked her into going behind the house, where he tried to have sex with her, police said.

Crystal’s body was found shortly before 6 a.m. the next morning, after her mother discovered her missing when she went to awaken her for school.

Davis quickly became a suspect after a neighbor gave information to detectives.

Police Chief Ron Henderson, speaking at a news conference Sunday, praised neighborhood residents’ cooperation with the detectives. “I can’t emphasize this valuable assistance enough,” he said.

“When the police and the people in the neighborhoods work closely together, the bad guys can’t beat us.”

On Friday, detectives learned Davis was wanted by Kansas City authorities for a robbery committed during a party last year. Davis was arrested Friday on the fugitive charge while detectives built their murder case, working around the clock.

Davis has a criminal history that includes an arrest for a weapons violation in 1995, but he has never before been arrested on suspicion of a violent crime.

Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that someone else may have been involved in the attempted rape and killing.

Henderson and Capt. Dave Heath, the homicide division commander, delivered the news personally Sunday morning to Crystal’s mother, Annie Hickman, that a suspect had been charged.

“She was very thankful,” Henderson said

RELATIVE CHARGED IN WOMAN’S ASSAULT – 29 Aug 1994

A relative of an 85-year-old woman was charged Sunday with first-degree assault after the woman was beaten and possibly sexually assaulted in her home in the city’s Shaw neighborhood.

The woman remained in critical condition Sunday.

Police identified the suspect as Reginald Cunningham, 19, of the 2200 block of Thurman Avenue.

Police said Cunningham admitted punching and kicking the victim late Friday or early Saturday. “The suspect said he had been drinking heavily and became angry when she called him a name,” said Detective Louis Clayton.

Another relative of the victim found her on the floor about 7 a.m. Saturday and, thinking she had fallen, helped her into bed. Relatives called an ambulance when they discovered her unresponsive about 1 p.m.

Cunningham was arrested later Saturday.

Cunningham did not admit that he sexually assaulted the victim, police said, but hospital personnel reported that she had injuries consistent with a rape attempt.

SUSPECT ARRESTED IN SHAW RAPES – DISHWASHER CONFESSES, POLICE SAY – 26 Aug 1994 P-D

A restaurant dishwasher who lives with his mother and two sisters has confessed to a series of rapes and sexual assaults that had terrorized the Shaw Neighborhood, police said Thursday.

Demon Phelps, 22, of the 4000 block of Flad Avenue, broke down in front of officers late Wednesday and said through tears that he had sexually assaulted eight women over 13 months, police said. They believe he committed a ninth assault, an attempted rape, as well. Phelps is being held without bail.

Officers arrested Phelps after DNA test results came in Wednesday, linking him to some of the crimes.

“I’m so happy I could almost cry,” said Alderman Stephen Conway, D-8th Ward. Conway helped an intensive police effort by donating an apartment in the 4000 block of Botanical Avenue that was used by a female officer working as a decoy for the past month.

“We withstood the storm,” Conway said of the fear and worry caused by the attacks. “People are now better informed about crime and preventing it now more than ever.”

Phelps confessed to sexually assaulting six women and trying to assault two others, between May 29, 1993, and June 20, 1994. One victim was assaulted on the street; all the others were victimized in their homes, in an area bounded by Shenandoah, Magnolia and Tower Grove avenues and South Grand Boulevard. The victims ranged in age from 18 to 52.

Phelps was charged Thursday with 18 felonies: six counts of burglary, five counts of sodomy, four counts of rape and three counts of robbery. He also is suspected in a string of burglaries in the area.

“This was a real team effort among our officers and citizens in disrupting this reign of terror,” said Chief of Detectives Joseph Mokwa.

“I thank the women for having the courage to come forward.”

Police had been criticized by some Shaw residents for not publicizing the pattern of rapes sooner, but Mokwa said that once the pattern was realized, “this case became the most important thing going in the Bureau of Investigation.”

The break in the case happened when 3rd District officers who were canvassing the area of the assaults stopped Phelps on the street near his home about 3 a.m. June 21. Officers questioned Phelps, and he agreed to submit a blood sample.

About 25 men had voluntarily submitted blood, for DNA comparisons with semen evidence.

Mokwa noted that the sexual assaults stopped after Phelps submitted the blood sample.

Mokwa said that in addition to DNA results and a videotaped confession, police had linked one of Phelps’ shoes to a print taken from a chair used to climb into one of the victim’s windows.

“I feel I can say with 100 percent certainty that we’ve got the right guy,” Mokwa said.

In his confession, Phelps said he didn’t stalk his victims but selected them randomly, Mokwa said. Phelps didn’t explain what made him start his crime spree.

Police describe Phelps as mild-mannered, but noted he had been shot and wounded twice in his life, had been charged with cocaine possession in 1992 and arrested for driving a stolen car in May. Phelps, who was on probation for the cocaine charge, had never been arrested for a sex crime.

After Phelps was wounded a second time, the staff at St. Louis University Hospital introduced him to a minister who helped counsel suspected gang members and troubled youths who came through the hospital’s emergency room. The minister tried to help Phelps change his lifestyle and find a job.

Phelps is the youngest of five children. He went to grade school at St. Margaret of Scotland, 3964 Castleman Avenue; then to MacKenzie Middle School in Affton and graduated from Affton High School in 1991.

For the last two months, Phelps washed dishes at Garavelli’s Restaurant at 6600 Chippewa Street. “He was nice and quiet, and did a good job,” said the owner, Sam Hawatmah.

YOUTH, 15, ARRESTED IN SHAW NEIGHBORHOOD RAPES – 1 Jul 1994 P-D

A 15-year-old youth has been arrested as a suspect in a series of sexual assaults in the Shaw neighborhood, police say.

One of the victims has identified the youth as the person who tried to rape her in August, but investigators have no other evidence against him and they have been reluctant to publicize his arrest, police sources said.

The youth was 14 at the time.

A DNA test of blood taken from the youth is expected either to help investigators strengthen their case or eliminate him as a suspect, sources added.

Nine women have been sexually assaulted in their homes over the last 13 months.

The assaults have occurred in a 12-block area bounded by Grand Boulevard, Shennandoah, Magnolia and Tower Grove avenues.

The suspect was arrested this week and is in the custody of juvenile court authorities.

A task force of detectives has been investigating the rapes. Police believe the same person is responsible for several of the assaults.

Police earlier had described the suspect as a black man, about 20 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 130 to 160 pounds, with slender, athletic build and medium complexion.

He is cleanshaven, has a long chin and high cheek bones. Police say he is physically fit and usually clean and well-kept.