Jessie James Cummings

*** Note that his name is sometimes spelled Jesse in articles and documents, as would generally be the case with a male name. However, most things show the spelling as Jessie. I have chosen this spelling based on the fact that it is the spelling listed in the appeals.

I am really not sure where to begin here. Going into this case I was not expecting to be so conflicted. On my list of cases it simply said “Jesse Cummings- sister and niece.” The first page I came to in my research was titled “Child Killer Executed; bigamist denies niece's murder.” Of course it was not surprising to see that an accused killer had insisted they were innocent, the surprising twist was the word bigamist. I could see then that this was going to be a bit more than the run of the mill case. But, I had no idea what I was in for.

I have often expressed that I am not a fanatic, for, or against, the death penalty and think that it should only be reserved for those in which there is absolutely no question as to their guilt. It must be an especially heinous crime and it must be rock solid against the defendant in my opinion. Of course I have blogged about at least two men who have been executed in which I believe were quite possibly innocent. Both of those men were from Texas... the first was Cameron “Todd” Willingham and the second was a man named Ruben Cantu. The biggest difference in the cases of those two men and this case is that I was able to hear much of the testimony that was presented in the trials as well as find more information to collaborate some things that helped me believe that those men were falsely convicted. I cannot completely say this about Jessie James Cummings. I cannot tell you that he was innocent, in fact, I lean towards the fact that he was guilty. But, I not only could not find the evidence to prove that, I am yet to understand a court decision that allowed him to be executed by the state of Oklahoma.

Jessie James Cummings was convicted in 1996 for the 1991 murders of his half-sister, Judy Moody Mays and her eleven year old daughter, Melissa Moody. While the state contended that Jessie had not physically killed Judy they contended that he had ordered his two wives, Sherry and Juanita to do so and that he had helped dispose of her body. He was then accused of molesting Melissa and being directly involved in her murder. It seemed a bit unclear if he was given the death penalty for both cases or just for Melissa. At any rate in 1998 the state of Oklahoma threw out his conviction in the murder of Judy based on the fact that the only evidence presented that he was involved came from his two wives who also faced charges, and received reduced sentences. Apparently according to state law (and this is not unheard of) a person cannot be convicted when the sole evidence is the word of a co-conspirator. It is unclear if the state appealed this ruling or not. If they did it appears they never got it reinstated, nor did they ever re-try him for his sister's murder.

So that means that there was evidence provided that he had killed Melissa, right? Wrong. The same evidence was presented in the case against him for Melissa also. Keep in mind that several areas stated that no forensic evidence was found, anywhere. By the sounds of things there was not evidence that Sherry and Juanita, the two witnesses against him, were even involved other than their statements. So the question became why did the state throw out the conviction for Judy's murder but not for Melissa? It appears that within her deal Juanita had not been charged in connection with Melissa's murder, hence she was thought or considered to be a witness and not a co-conspirator. This allowed her testimony to be looked at differently as well as give credence to Sherry's testimony. It appears both women made deals to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. Juanita would receive a life sentence for her plea in second degree murder of Judy Mayo and Sherry would plead guilty to two counts of accessory after the fact (for both Judy and Melissa) and one count of child abuse. She would receive a thirty-five year sentence.

So yes, for me the problems with this case began with the idea that one case was thrown out and the other was not, not because there was more evidence but because one of the women had made a plea deal that did not involve Melissa or her murder. But, there was more. First, it appears that even though both Sherry and Juanita told their stories as to what happened, they were not the same, nor did they each continue to tell the same story. They both claimed that Jessie had all but ordered them to kill Judy and they both claimed that at some point (different points) that Jessie was seen leaving with Melissa and returned alone but that is about where their similarities ended. Secondly, in fairness I realize the case was not “solved” for nearly four years so having a fresh crime scene to gather evidence was not possible but it does not sounds as if the investigation even prior to that was done in a proper manner.

Here is what is for certain and known. On September 8, 1991 Jessie James Cummings went to the sheriff department in Atoka County Oklahoma to report his sister, Judy Mayo and her daughter, Melissa Moody missing. He reported that friends had told him that her truck was seen on a highway near Atoka Lake and that the hood was up as if she had experienced car trouble. It is unclear whether he indicated that he himself had been to the area and saw the truck himself. The following day the body of Judy Mayo was found in the lake. She had multiple gunshots to the neck and head and her body was found wrapped in a quilt and a mattress pad. Her daughter would not be found until October 16^th. Reportedly by the time she was found Melissa's body was little more than a skeleton and an exact cause of death was not determined.

I have several problems with this at this point already. First, although there are reports that there is evidence that could be tested for DNA in this case, just what that evidence consists of is unclear. Were they talking about the items that Judy was wrapped in? I cannot say. Secondly, by everything I read it appears that when Melissa's skeleton was examined and it was said an exact cause of death could not be found, it almost appears as if the examination was insufficient. Four later when Juanita Cummings went to the police and told her alleged story Melissa's body was exhumed and it was said it was discovered that there were marks in her rib and torso area indicating she was stabbed repeatedly with a knife or some other sort of sharp object. Juanita had claimed that Jessie James Cummings had allegedly stabbed her with a knife. This “discovery” was said to give credence to her story. But wait.... my question is why did the body need to be exhumed to find this? Why had this not been found in the initial examination. By some accounts the body was not released by the coroner for over a month. How did they not find this evidence before they had to exhume the body? Was it simply an inept examination?

It was said that Jessie James Cummings was a suspect from the beginning and he had been interviewed several times over the years. Prosecutors and investigators would later describe him as a very violent man who had a very open disdain for women. It was said that he would refuse to even speak to women investigators so while he talked to the men in multiple sittings, a woman officer would go to the home he shared with his two young wives and began befriending them. While this was often mentioned, nothing indicated that it was these talks with the wives that helped break the case open. I have to wonder just why he was a suspect other than the fact that he was a relative and was he pushed higher on the list because of his attitude? Much has been made about the fact that he married Sherry in 1987 and without divorcing her married Juanita in 1989 and that the women allegedly appeared to be controlled by Jessie. Most reports say that Jessie had children with both women, and he may have by the time the trio was arrested in 1994, but in 1991 he only had a daughter with Sherry although Juanita had a son of her own. Whether any more children were born after 1991 is not completely clear. Nor to be fair was there any mention of either woman being pregnant at the time Judy and Melissa were murdered.

There seems to be a few stories as to what led Juanita to talk to the police in July of 1994. Juanita's story was basically that her conscious had finally gotten to her and she needed to let authorities know what happened. Jessie's story is that he had learned on July 27^th that Juanita and Sherry had committed the murders and that he had supposedly said they needed to speak to the police and yet Juanita went on her own the next day and told a story that put Jessie front and center, something he denied right up until the moment that he was on a gurney awaiting execution. At this point it seems more plausible that Juanita's story rings more true as to what led her to the police then to believe that Jessie knew about it, decided to sit on it for a day, or more and Juanita suddenly decided to go to the police on her own and implicate him. Sherry too would later talk to the police and while her story did not mesh with Juanita's she too implicated Jessie. Jessie would later claim that the two women had plotted against him and lied. Some reports even claim that he alleged that the women had become lovers themselves and set him up. To be fair none of that has been proven.

So what exactly did the women say? Both women appeared to state that Jessie had all but forced them to murder Judy. Juanita would claim that Jessie had threatened to murder her son if she did not follow through. I heard of no such threats made to Sherry. Sherry would claim that she had taken Judy house hunting and was supposed to murder her while out but had backed out. For her part Juanita never seems to mention that Sherry was supposed to carry out the murder, just that she came home from somewhere and Judy and Melissa were at the home. Both women agree that the children were outside playing and Judy was inside with them watching television. Sherry's story was that she got up and went to the bathroom and heard six gunshots. When she came out of the room Judy was dead on the couch. Juanita's story is that she stepped outside on the porch and Sherry met her there, handing her the gun. Juanita stated she then went inside and shot Judy.

The children were then allegedly brought inside. The women claim they made sure the children did not see Judy as they sent them to the bedroom to play. While the children were in the other room the two women allegedly took Judy's body and placed it in the cellar of the home and began cleaning up. At some point after this Melissa was handcuffed to a bed in one of the bedrooms and Juanita went to work at the local Dairy Queen. She returned home a little after eleven that night.

Now during all of this it is a proven fact that during this time Jessie was in Oklahoma City with his father who was suffering from cancer. By all accounts he did not return home until after midnight. But, continuing with the story or stories the women told.... they claimed after Jessie returned home the three of them first worked on putting Judy's body in her truck. According to the women Jessie then drove Judy's truck while Sherry followed him in her car. According to Sherry, Jessie disposed of Judy's body in the area she was found then parked her truck on the highway and lifted the hood. He then allegedly got back in the car with Sherry and they went back to the house. Once back home there was the issue of Melissa who was supposedly still handcuffed to the bed. The women tell different stories here. Juanita says that both women were forced to watch Jessie molest Melissa while Sherry says she was outside the room. Jessie then told one or both of them (depending on who you believe, if you believe either of them) to unlock her and bring her out to the car. Once again Sherry went with Jessie and claims that he left with Melissa into a wooded, remote area and came back alone but covered in blood. Juanita says Jessie had coveralls on when he left and shorts when he returned. Then the trio removed the couch from the home and Jessie and Juanita left to dispose of it.

Presumably Juanita was arrested on July 27, 1994 upon her confession. Jessie was arrested the following day and charged with both murders. It is unclear exactly when Sherry was arrested but I can only assume just around the same time. All three were looking at the death penalty. Between the time of their arrests and the time the women testified in court against Jessie Cummings it appears that their stories would sometimes change but in the same respect never seemed to match each others story.

Each of the women would plead guilty and obtain plea deals with the prosecution to avoid the death penalty and part of those deals would include testifying against Jessie. They both were initially charged with first degree murder, but neither would plead to that charge. Juanita would plead to second degree in the murder of Judy while Sherry would agree to two counts of accessory after the fact and one count of child abuse. According to something that Jessie wrote for an organization fighting his death sentence Sherry was first eligible for parole in 2000 and at the time of his writing was in a prison in Texas. According to Oklahoma DOC records she was released from prison in February of 2010. As far as Juanita things are not very clear. In his writings (of which I cannot determine a date, but it was obviously before 2008), Jessie claimed Juanita was in a prison in Arkansas and was eligible for parole in 2003. I searched several different states and federal links, as well as other ways and was unable to find Juanita in the system which is odd but I also found that am not the only person who has failed in searching for her information. Despite being released Sherry was still shown on the department of corrections website. I attempted to look for Juanita both under the name of Cummings, as well as her maiden name of Lewis considering her marriage to Jessie was not legal but I came up empty both times. The only other explanation that I can come up with is that she married while in prison and changed her last name.

In the meantime Jessie was in the process of fighting his convictions. He was obviously successful when it came to the murder of his sister but the courts continued to uphold his conviction in Melissa's case. In his writings, as well as his hearing in front of the clemency board, Jessie made several claims. These were claims that I was unable to prove if they were true or not, but I think they are significant claims that if true would prove that Juanita and Sherry were lying in their story of how things happened. Jessie claimed that on the night of September 5^th, the day of the murders, Judy's friend, Ella Porter had gone to Jessie's home around 8 pm. Allegedly she did not see Judy's truck that was supposedly sitting right outside the home until after Jessie returned home, at least that is what Juanita and Sherry said. According to Ella no one was at the home. Another person named Loretta supposedly went to the home around 10 that night and claimed she had the same results, no one home and Judy's truck not there. Allegedly one of Juanita's co-workers reported that Sherry had come to the Dairy Queen and got food for her and the two children (I could not determine if the woman stated if the kids were with Sherry or not) and had left between 8 and 8:30 that evening. Now, whether any of these women testified at Jessie's trial or came out with their story later is unknown. If the stories are true then it puts the stories told by Juanita and Sherry in a different light. There did not seem to be any indication, although I cannot say for sure, that these women were in any way associated with or had a loyalty to Jessie and had a reason to lie. If Judy's truck was not at the home as Ella and Loretta have supposedly stated, then that means one of two things happened. Either the truck was moved before Juanita went to work or Sherry did it on her own after Juanita went to work. There is no indication that Juanita did not go to work that night. According to investigators Jessie's alibi of being over 100 miles a way most of the day held up.

Since I was never able to find Juanita in the prison system records I cannot really say what her body type was, even at the time of the crime. However according to the record I found on Sherry she was only about five foot tall and weighed about 125 pounds. In fairness I have no idea how big Judy was but even still it seems odd that Sherry would have been able to move Judy's body by herself. This would lead back to everything being done prior to Juanita going to work. I found no record as to what time she went to work but we know that it was obviously before 8 pm and she was reportedly home just after 11 pm. Did she work a 3-11 shift? Did she work a 5-11 shift? Just how much time was there to do things? Juanita and Sherry indicated in their stories that after moving Judy's body to the cellar and doing some major cleaning up Juanita had directly left for work. If Jessie is telling the truth and had nothing to do with any of this then it would mean that Juanita and Sherry would have also had to have killed Melissa and disposed of her body also, along with Judy and her truck and clean the house to the point in which Jessie would not come back and ask questions. That just seems very odd and unreasonable to me but in fairness it may have not been impossible and I am unsure it would be enough for me to send a person to death row.

I think my biggest issue with this case remains with the fact that the courts found fit to throw out Jessie's conviction for Judy's murder but not for Melissa's and yet the only difference in the two was that Juanita had not faced charges in Melissa's murder only because of her plea deal. Then it takes us back to the medical examination made on Melissa. Remember? She had to be exhumed for it to be determined that she was likely stabbed with a knife or some other sort of sharp object? Why did they not see this before? Had they been able to check if she had been sexually assaulted since they claim her body was little more than a skeleton? The claim was that by exhuming Melissa's body and determining the knife wounds it gave credence to Juanita and Sherry's story? I am unsure that I agree with that. Juanita and Sherry could have known how Melissa died if they were present and were the actual murderers. Neither acknowledged seeing Jessie kill Melissa so it is presumed they alleged he had told them he had stabbed her with a knife.

I am not saying for a fact that Jessie Cummings was an innocent person but I do disagree with the courts, as well as the investigation, in how it was handled and presented. Nor do I believe he should have been executed when there were obviously open questions.