Charles Rice

This is such a tragic and yet odd case. It is one of those cases in which I am sure that the right person is behind bars for murder, but I found the behavior of some of the other characters in the story a little “off.”

Emily Branch was thirteen years old in 2000. It was said that she lived with an aunt on her father's side but she apparently visited with both of her parents, who all lived in Memphis Tennessee. It is not completely clear how close she lived with her aunt but both of her parents, living separately, lived within walking distance.

Emily's mother, Tracie, was married to a man named Charles Rice but the relationship seemed to rather volatile. It appears that the couple lived with Charles' stepfather. On June 6^th the couple had separated and Tracie had moved in with her brother. They had separated many times during their short relationship. Tracie would claim that Charles used drugs, specifically crack cocaine and after this separation she had told Emily's father, Steven, not to allow Emily to go to Charles' home. It is unclear whether Steven mentioned this to Emily or if he, like many others expected her to do as she had always done in the past and return to live with Charles.

June 18^th was Father's Day and Emily was spending time at her dad's home. Steven lived with his girlfriend and her children. At around eleven that morning Emily and at least three other girls (some reports say five), including the daughter of Stevens girlfriend decided to go out walking around, something that apparently was normal behavior. At some point the girls saw Emily talking to Charles but could not hear what they were saying. A little later the girls all went to the store and then they walked to Charles' home where Emily went inside. They would report that after a while she came back out and told the girls to leave. They all stated she was on the porch of the home when they left her. One of the girls estimated this was around four or five that evening but others stated other times and it does appear that this likely happened at least a few hours earlier in the day. Charles' stepfather, Willie, would say it was closer to about 3:30.

Willie would stated that Emily had come over and asked to walk the dog but they had told her no. He also stated that after the girls left the home, leaving Emily, he saw Charles and Emily walking down the street. He said Charles returned alone much later and sat down to watch television with him. When asked Willie stated Charles had not changed his clothes.

When she had not returned to her father's home by about five Steven became worried. He would report her missing but it appears that it was thought that she was possibly a runaway. Steven and some of his neighbors began looking for her.

A neighbor to Charles, named Tony Evans, was a friend to both Tracie and Steven. He had seen Emily and the girls go to the home that afternoon. He stated he knew Tracie and Charles had split up but assumed maybe that Tracie had returned and he just did not know yet. He stated he saw Charles and Emily go down the street and he decided to follow them for a bit. He saw them turn down a path near a gas station and decided they must have been going to visit some family members of Charles' as they lived in that direction. At that point Evans decided to head back to his house.

On June 19^th Tracie talked to Tony Evans and apparently told him that Emily was missing. It is unclear exactly what Evans told Tracie about what he had seen. He claims that he then went to the area where he had last seen her with Charles but he saw nothing unusual. He goes on to claim that on the night of the 20^th he saw Charles and his nephew, Mario Rice, go on that same path together and he decided to call the police. It was dark outside and it does not seem that the police found, or did anything.

But, here begins the even more strange part when it comes to Tony Evans. He would claim that “later” he saw Charles and Mario sitting on a porch at a home and they looked as if they were watching the path he had last seen Charles and Emily on. He stated that for two or three nights he hid in the crawlspace and heard the two men discussing plans to kill Tracie, but he admits he heard nothing about Emily.

On June 25^th Evans finished repairing a 4-wheeler and decided to take the path by the gas station and into the nearby woods. He claims he smelled an odor and he chopped through brush to follow the smell. He claims he found Emily's shoes and ran to Steven's home. Tony Evans and Steven Branch went back to the area where they discovered Emily's body and they called the police. Her body itself was unrecognizable but Steven recognized the clothes as those Emily had been wearing when she left his home.

Charles Rice was questioned once again. He was informed that the young girls shorts and underwear were found around her ankles and that it appeared that she had been raped. They asked for a DNA sample. It was then that Charles told investigators that he and Emily had engaged in consensual sex the morning of her disappearance. He would deny being involved in her murder. In one story he claimed they had parted way at the gas station that day, but in another story stated they went back to his home, had sex and she left. In yet a third story he admitted going into the woods where her body was found, with her but claimed he did nothing to her. He was arrested in the early morning of June 26, 2000. It also appears that Mario Rice was also arrested on the same day.

A medical examination of Emily's body showed that she had been repeatedly stabbed in the neck and head. Her spinal cord had been penetrated. The wounds were so deep that her windpipe and esophagus were severed. It was thought that all of the wounds were made by a knife that resembled a simple kitchen knife. It was not clear as to whether decomposition of the body had prevent the medical examiner from determining for certain if Emily had been raped but it was said that the rate of decomposition in that area indicated there was trauma there before death.

While I was unable to determine a specific date or time in which Charles went to trial it does appear that it was in late 2001. At his trial he was now claiming that he and his nephew Mario had planned for Charles to lead Emily to the wooded area. It was here that Charles stated that Mario was the one to kill Emily and that he had done so as revenge against Tracie for “everything she put him through.” The jury convicted him on charges of first degree premeditated murder and first degree felony murder. On January 14, 2002 Charles Rice was sentenced to death. In both 2006 and 2013 the conviction and sentenced were affirmed. Tennessee just recently began executing prisons again after nine years. There are just over sixty inmates on death row in Tennessee so there is no telling if or when Charles Rice will be executed.

When it comes to exactly what, if anything, Mario Rice faced I was unable to find a lot of information. I cannot say if he was convicted on anything related to Emily's death and what evidence there was to prove this if he was. It does appear that he did do some time for something related to this case because the Tennessee Department of Corrections website shows a “sentence begin” date as June 26, 2000, the day of his arrest. He is currently on parole, but I cannot say when that began. He is scheduled to be released from supervision in September of 2019.