AGNOSTIC TO SUPPORTER OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT: CRYSTAL LEWIS (HER DAUGHTER SHA’RAILYN WRIGHT WAS MURDERED TOGETHER WITH NOELLE WASHINGTON AND 9-MONTH-OLD ANTHONY JONES III ON JUNE 1, 2009)

            On this date, June 1, 2009, Noelle Washington with her 9-month-old son, Anthony Jones III and 3-year-old Sha’railyn Wright were all shot dead by Mark Pickens in Pendleton, Cincinnati, Ohio. The mother of Sha’railyn Wright changed from an agnostic to a supporter of capital punishment.

            We, the VFFDP, will not forget those three innocent lives lost and we will post several news sources and the quote from Crystal Lewis.

Crystal Lewis’ daughter Sha’Railyn Wright was murdered June 1, 2009, in Pendleton. Her murderer, Mark Pickens, is on death row. Lewis said she is now a supporter of capital punishment because of the pain she experienced because of the crime and uncertainty during Pickens’ trial. / The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.justice4caylee.org/t6091-anthony-jones-iii-9-months-and-sha-railyn-wright-3yo-2009-cincinnati-oh

Sun Apr 25, 2010 3:40 am:

At first, Crystal Lewis thought her good friend Noelle Washington was sleeping in a chair when she walked into Washington's Pendleton apartment just after midnight June 1."The baby was in her arms and her head was like this," Lewis said, putting her hand down to her chest and then to one side, "and her phone was in her right hand."

Washington held her 9-month-old son, Anthony Jones III, in her arms. Lewis' 3-year-old daughter, Sha'Railyn Wright, was on the floor on the other side of the room.

"I looked down to the baby and seen a bullet hole right here," Lewis said of
Anthony, touching her forehead and beginning to cry.

"That's when I said, 'My baby's dead. He killed my baby. My baby's dead.'"

Lewis, 20, is one of the prosecution's star witnesses in their case against Mark Pickens, who is accused of three counts of murder and weapons charges.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case being tried with a jury before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Steve Martin.

Lewis and Washington met at Newport Middle School in Kentucky and became good friends. Washington was Sha'Railyn's godmother and watched her often for Lewis. Sha'Railyn was at Washington's 13th Street apartment the night of May 31 when Washington and Lewis sent each other a series of text messages.

"She said she was done with him. She wanted to move on," Lewis said of Washington.

"She told me, 'Mark raped me. I got bruises all over because he beat me,' " Lewis testified Thursday.

Another Washington text to Lewis about Pickens read: "He crazy as hell. He might kill me."

Prosecutors believe Pickens was mad at Washington, one of his several girlfriends, because she told police he raped her. He got even, they believe, by killing her and her infant. Sha'Railyn was killed, they believe, because she could identify Pickens. All three were shot in the head at point-blank range.

Lewis said she grew suspicious of Pickens on May 31 because he called her from Washington's phone looking for her. She said she knew Washington was planning to move to Tennessee to get away from Pickens and she was worried for her friend.

Later that night, Lewis received a text from Washington that noted Pickens was at her house inutes before the three people were killed. "She said, 'Mark just walked through my kitchen,' " Lewis said of Washington's text message.

Earlier, three other witnesses gave testimony that was damning to Pickens. A man testified that just before midnight on May 31, he walked past Washington's home and saw her outside the building  arguing with Pickens. He said he was so worried he asked her if she needed help. Another witness, a woman who attended church nearby, said she saw Pickens go into Washington's building, heard music turned way up and then heard what she thought at the time were firecrackers. Moments later, she added, she saw what prosecutors say was Pickens quickly ride his bicycle from the scene.

Another Pickens girlfriend, Jonda Palmer, also testified against him - but not before she initially refused. She only relented after the judge told her if she didn't testify he would cite her for Contempt and throw her in jail. After a brief break, she agreed to testify. She said she saw Pickens with a gun May 31 hours before the three were killed, and heard him say
he was in a murderous rage. "He said, 'I feel like killing someone,' " Palmer testified.

When she saw Pickens that night, she hugged him and felt a gun she then saw when she lifted up her shirt, she said. Palmer also said Pickens asked her to get other girls and beat up Washington because Washington told police Pickens raped her.

On Friday, Lewis will be questioned by Pickens' attorneys. Another prosecution witness, Montez Lee, also will be called to testify that Pickens confessed the killings to him when both were at the Justice Center at the same time. Lee is a convicted killer. The judge told the jurors - seven men, five women and four alternates - they could get the case Tuesday or Wednesday and should prepare to be sequestered.

Jury recommends death for Mark Pickens

8:42 PM, May. 4, 2010

Mark Pickens will become the 34th Hamilton County murderer on Ohio’s Death Row after a jury recommended Tuesday he receive the death penalty for each of the three murders he was convicted of last week.

• Death for the murder and rape of Noelle Washington, 19, his sometime girlfriend.

• Death for the murder of her 9-month-old son, Anthony Jones III.

• Death for the murder of her 3-year-old godchild, Sha’Railyn Wright.

Pickens showed no emotion when the jury’s recommendation was announced except to bite his lip as he has done throughout the four-week trial. Last week, the jury took most of two days before agreeing that Pickens was guilty of weapons charges, rape and three counts of aggravated murder but deliberated just 2½ hours before making Tuesday’s unanimous recommendation for death.

“I’m glad justice has been served because my daughter will never see another day in life and now neither will he,” Crystal Lewis said immediately after the jury’s recommendation.
Lewis is the mother of Sha’Railyn, the 3-year-old Pickens shot and killed June 1. She also was the best friend of Washington, the woman Pickens shot in the back of the head after she told police he raped her May 31. Pickens also shot both of the children in the head – Anthony in the forehead and Sha’Railyn as she was covering her head with her hands.

Pickens would be the second Hamilton County murderer to be sentenced to death this year; serial killer Anthony Kirkland was sentenced March 31. But before that, Hamilton County juries had gone seven years without recommending a death sentence.

Lewis was exchanging text messages with Washington the night of June 1 when Washington told her Pickens somehow was in her house. Lewis raced to Washington’s apartment in the 400 block of 13th Street in Pendleton where she found the trio dead.

Lewis was particularly upset at Pickens’ Tuesday statement to jurors. Pickens begged them to spare his life and insisted he never would hurt anyone “especially children,” adding he knew Sha’Railyn.

“He didn’t know my daughter. He knew of her. He knew of her because of what he did to her,” Lewis said.

She also mocked the manhood of Pickens, who bragged to police he had sex with two to three women daily.

“That’s not a man. That’s a monster. That’s an animal,” Lewis said. “That’s an ignorant person, not a man.”

Pickens killed her daughter, Lewis is sure, because Sha’Railyn could identify him to police. “She was a smart 3-year-old,” she said.

Pickens’ attorneys, Perry Ancona and Norm Aubin, wouldn’t comment after the recommendation. They asked jurors to sentence Pickens to life in prison after the triple murderer pleaded with the jury for his life and denied the crimes.

“I beg you, please don’t take my life,” Pickens asked jurors.

“I did not do it. I wouldn’t hurt anyone like that, especially children …“I’m so scared.”

Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Seth Tieger said his office will continue to take such heinous crimes seriously.

“Shooting babies in the head is unheard of,” Tieger said.

Pickens’ official sentencing is June 4 before Common Pleas Court Judge Steve Martin. He will set an execution date at that time, but that will be an artificial date. Pickens won’t be executed for years, perhaps more than a decade, as his case is appealed.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100504/NEWS010702/305040038/Jury-recommends-death-Mark-Pickens

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

Crystal Lewis, mother of Sha'Railyn Sakari Wright, holds the hand of Michael Henderson from Walker Funeral home. Her T-shirt had printed photos of her slain daughter and written sentiments.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://off2dr.com/smf/index.php?topic=8696.5;wap2

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100504/NEWS010702/305040038
(with video)

OH Courts
Cincinnati.Com » OH Courts
Last Updated: 12:10 pm | Tuesday, May 4, 2010
By Kimball Perry • kperry@enquirer.com • May 4, 2010

A convicted triple murderer told jurors they erred in finding him guilty and asked them today that he not be executed.

"I did not do it," Mark Pickens said in an unsworn statement today to jurors. "I wouldn’t hurt anyone like that, especially children."

One of the victims’ family members in the audience was so upset at Pickens’ denial that she stormed out and slammed the courtroom door.

But the same jurors already found he did.

They convicted Pickens, 20, last week of three counts of murder, weapons charges and rape, setting the stage for today’s mitigation phase where jurors were asked to decide if Pickens should be sent to Death Row or spend life in prison.

"I feel worse for my mother than me. She cried all the time. She cannot believe this happened. Neither can I ... I'm so scared," Pickens told jurors. "I know you believe I did this but I didn’t. I beg you please don’t take my life."

If they don’t send Pickens to Death Row, jurors have three other sentencing options:
-25 years to life in prison.
-30 year to life.
-Life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Pickens gave an unsworn statement – he did not swear to tell the truth before he took the stand – so prosecutors couldn’t question him about the crimes.

Pickens’ mother, Truvena Griffin, also testified asking, jurors to resist recommending her son be killed.

“I love my son and I ask you to spare his life,” Griffin said.

Assistant Prosecutor Katie Burroughs asked jurors to recommend death because Pickens killed three people – his sometime girlfriend Noelle Washington, 19; her 9-month-old son, Anthony Jones III, and; Sha’Railyn Wright, a 3-year-old Washington was watching the night of May 31-June 1 in her Pendleton apartment.

Pickens shot Washington in the back of her head as she held her infant, shot the infant in the forehead and then shot the 3-year-old, who was covering her head with her hand, in the hand, the bullet passing through into her brain.

Pickens killed the trio because he was mad that Washington reported to police the day before that he raped her.

The jury returns at 12:30 p.m. to begin penalty deliberations.

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - A Hamilton County judge handed down the death penalty to a man who killed his ex-girlfriend and two children.

Mark Pickens, 20, was convicted of killing 19-year old Noelle Washington, her son, nine-month old Anthony Jones III, and 3-year old Sha'Railyn Wright, a little girl she was babysitting. All three victims were shot in the head at point-blank range last summer in the Pendleton neighborhood of Over the Rhine.

The jury recommended Pickens receive the death penalty. Judge Steve Martin agreed, and sentenced Pickens to death. As he announced his sentence, Pickens hung his head.

During the sentencing hearing Thursday morning, Pickens told Judge Martin he was innocent. His attorneys argued that there were no credible witnesses and the fact that the jury deliberated for 17 hours shows they had questions about the case. They also said Pickens cooperated with police, so his life should be spared.

Family members of the victims said they were relieved.

"He got exactly what he deserves and I hope he suffers every day," said Noelle Washington's mother. "He needs to see what he did to not just my family, but everybody's family."

Investigators believe the motive for the murders was that Washington had told police that Pickens raped her, and he didn't want to go to prison for that crime.

http://www.wxix.com/Global/story.asp?S=12739335

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

The mother of Sha'Railyn Sakari Wright, Crystal Lewis, center, is hugged by family members. The funeral for 3-year-old Sha'Railyn Wright was held Tuesday at the Corinthian Baptist Church in Newport, Ky. Sha'Railyn Wright was gunned down in a triple homicide in Pendleton last week. Noelle Washington, who was babysitting Wright, and her 9-month-old son Anthony Jones III, were killed as well. [9 June 2009]

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

A mourner cries on the steps of the small church with an overflow crowd. Sha'Railyn Wright was gunned down in a triple homicide in Pendleton last week.

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

Visiting the casket prior to the funeral was Anthony Jones Jr., allegedly shot by Mark Pickens, who is a person of interest in the investigation of the triple homicide.

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

The small church was filled with mourners as some waited on the steps of the church to listen to the service.

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

The overflow crowd listens to the service on the steps of the church.

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

Walker Funeral Home attendants carry the casket from the church following the ceremony.

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

The funeral procession and the balloon-topped hearse head north on Monmouth Street. Sha'Railyn Wright was gunned down in a triple homicide in Pendleton last week.

QUOTE: At age 19, Crystal Lewis discovered she believed in monsters.

That revelation came moments after she discovered her best friend, with a gaping hole in the back of her head, shot as she sat in her Pendleton apartment on June 1, 2009. In her friend’s left arm was her 9-month-old son who had a bullet hole in his forehead.

Lewis then saw the body of her own 3-year-old daughter Sha’Railyn Wright, whom her friend had been babysitting.

Mark Pickens had shot them all.

The murders resulted in Pickens’ 2010 murder convictions, sent him to Ohio’s death row and cemented Lewis’ opinion of the death penalty.

“Before this case, I didn’t really care about it,” Lewis, 22, of Southgate, said of capital punishment. “Now, I’m all for it.” [In the News on Saturday 2 June 2012]

AUTHOR: Crystal Lewis whose daughter, Sha'Railyn Wright was murdered on June 1, 2009, in Pendleton, Ohio. Her murderer, Mark Pickens, is on death row. Lewis said she is now a supporter of capital punishment because of the pain she experienced because of the crime and uncertainty during Pickens' trial.  

The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

Crystal Lewis, right, wrote a tribute to her daughter in the funeral program saying, "I just want you to know that I love you and will miss you ... I miss you so much ... I love you butt-butt." As pallbearers carried Sha'Railyn's tiny casket out of the church, four white doves were released. The first represented her spirit; the others: the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The funeral for Sha'Railyn Sakari Wright, 3, was held at the Corinthian Baptist Church in Newport, Ky., on June 9, 2009.