Tony Carruthers

This case is quite interesting at not just a crime level but also at a legal level. One of the problems I came across researching the case was getting a lot of details of the crime itself as well as what was presented at trial. I think this is because there has been so much about the case since that time through appeals and yet the appeals that I read also gave few details. In general an appeal is the best place to get the details. News articles are often not just skewed but also it is not unusual to find inaccuracies. An appeal often will not only go through the story of what happened in the crime but also presents things that were given to the jury. If give you an idea as to how the jury likely came to their decision but also keep in mind that only really occurs when the jury has found the defendant guilty. It is “rarer than rare” to find a case where a jury has acquitted someone and the prosecution has appealed. More often then not in severe cases you will find new charges leveled at a defendant and in order to avoid the appearance of double jeopardy the charges will be unrelated to the original crime.

On February 24, 1994 twenty-one year old Marcellos Anderson, his forty-three year old mother, Deloris and his seventeen year old friend, Fred Tucker were kidnapped, robbed and later murdered in Memphis Tennessee. Marcellos has been described as an “drug dealer” but little of my research really delved into really where this exactly came from and at what level he was considered. It was said that he was known to carry large wads of cash on him held together with a diamond money clip. It is not clear if they were reported missing or even how exactly the crime was discovered. What I can say is that a man by the name of Jonathon Montgomery was at some point arrested and he would implicate his brother, James and Tony Carruthers, along with himself apparently, in the murders. He would also lead investigators to the bodies which had been buried in a cemetery. On the night of February 24^th a grave had been dug in the cemetery for a funeral the following day. By all accounts the bodies were placed inside this grave with plywood put on top (apparently something done at cemeteries). The following day the funeral took place and a coffin was placed in the ground and covered as is the process. The coffin was exhumed and the bodies of the three victims were found.

Autopsies would be performed and while most accounts talk of how all of the bodies were buried alive, others indicate that it was only Deloris who was still breathing when she went into the grave. Apparently the perpetrators attempted to strangle her but had been unsuccessful. Both Marcellos and Fred had gunshot wounds to their heads but there is also indication that it is possible that the wounds were either not completely fatal or at least not immediately.

In all my research I could not discover just how investigators would find their way to Jonathon or what exactly he said in his interviews other than the fact that he had led them to the bodies. Jonathon would be found hanging in his cell prior to going to trial or pleading guilty. It does appear though that through the information that investigators obtained from Jonathon that James and Tony were arrested. Everywhere you looked there was talk about Marcellos being a drug dealer and while some could probably see where in the drug world this death would be predicted, and some could probably see his friend being involved but it was the death of Deloris that baffled people. Prosecutors would theorize that basically the murders were committed to show some sort of power trip. In essence they would argue that Marcellos death was one thing but to show they were willing to kill his mother showed others in the drug community that no one would be spared by them. Now, whether this is true or not is unknown.

Tony Carruthers and James Montgomery would be tried together in court. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for both. By the time they went to trial in April of 1996 Tony Carruthers had gone through several lawyers. His first had been retained by his family but he left claiming some sort of conflict of interest. After several attempts a new attorney could not be found and then there seemed to be several different public defenders assigned to the case that would leave for one reason or another, sometimes because Carruthers had fired them. When the trial started Carruthers did not have an attorney and was once against asking for another but the judge had decided that this was a ruse by Carruthers in an attempt to continue delaying the trial and he refused to appoint a new attorney and forced him to represent himself. Both Carruthers and James Montgomery faced three counts of first degree murder, three counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of armed robbery. The robbery charge was based on money being stolen from Marcellos.

Prosecutors would say that Carruthers was the mastermind of the crime and that he had come up with the plan while he was serving a four years sentence for aggravated assault. They would show the jury a letter where he talked about a “grand plan” to make a lot of money. The problem I have with this is that it does not seem clear just what this “grand plan” was and how much information was really in the letter. There was information that the letter said “Everything I do from now on will be well organized and very violent.”

Another big player in this case was a man by the name of Alfredo Shaw. Shaw has an extensive criminal past that included theft, and domestic violence, among other things. Shaw has been described as a career informant and an article written in 2019 indicated that his testimony had sent more than a dozen people to prison over the years. When it came to this case, prior to the trial Shaw testified to the grand jury, which apparently helped the prosecutors gain their indictments. Shaw told the grand jury that Carruthers had confessed to him in a jail law library. Later he would recant his story and say he had not seen Carruthers since 1988. He would claim much later that he had been pressured to give the statement against Carruthers by others in order to help him in a case he was facing. He had recanted this story prior to the trial so the prosecution had decided not to use him. Carruthers however, representing himself, decided to call Shaw to the stand. It was then that the story that Shaw had told to the grand jury was told to the jury at the trial.

Something I found quite interesting is that defense attorney's for James Montgomery apparently put on no witnesses at all, while Carruthers called several. But, it was said in the end that Carruthers representation for himself did more harm than good. On April 26, 1996 both Carruthers and Montgomery were found guilty on all counts. They would both be sentenced to death for the murders.

The first appeal that I found was from 1999 in which attorney's for both men filed a joint appeal. They both argued that the issue of “aggravating” factors were not met in order to make it a death penalty case. The courts disagreed saying that there were in fact four factors that made the case “aggravating” which is what is needed to seek the death penalty. The courts stated that the crimes were “especially heinous” and involved torture, was paramount to a mass murder, both men had previously been convicted of one or more violent felonies and the murders were committed during a kidnapping and a robbery. Carruthers also argued that he was forced to represent himself and denied effective counsel along with arguing some irrelevant evidence was improperly admitted. Although I had not discovered the reason why, apparently Carruthers had not been allowed at his own sentencing and this too was mentioned in the appeal. Both men argued against the death penalty being constitutional. For Montgomery's part, while some of his arguments were the same as Carruthers, such as allowing pictures and videos of the victims, his main argument was that his trial should have been separate from Carruthers'. In this appeal the courts appeared to uphold the convictions.

That being said, at some point, seemingly the following year, in 2000, Montgomery had his conviction and sentenced reversed mainly on the point that his case should have been severed from Carruthers' especially after Carruther had been forced to represent himself. The argument was the mistakes that Carruther's made in court had reflected on him. Instead of facing a new trial Montgomery pleaded guilty to three counts of second degree murder and in December of 2015 he was released with time served. It was said that the families of the victims were not notified of his release and this played big in the media. There did seem to be some indication that the families were even unaware of Montgomery's new sentencing but I cannot say that was the case with certainty. For their part the prosecutors argued that it was the job of the Department of Corrections to notify families and the DOC argued that the families had to basically sign up to be notified. It also appears that at some point Montgomery had filed a motion saying that new DNA evidence pointed the finger at two new suspects but I found nothing that elaborated on this.

In 2016 Carruthers gave an interview to a newspaper in which he talked about his trial and the crime. He argued that he was “framed” but he never explained how he came to this conclusion. He denied being involved in the murders and said he was “prosecuted for political gain” but again seemed to give no explanation. He came off as very arrogant in the interview. I find it interesting that his attorney was quoted as saying that Carruther's was the smartest client she had ever had and in court has argued that he has mental health issues and brain damage. They also argue that his self-representation did more to get him convicted than the case against him. They argue that there was no forensic evidence in the case linking him. And after Montgomery was released it was speculated by the media and others, that Carruther's would be next.

In February of 2019 the Supreme Court refused to hear his argument that his rights were violated when he was forced to represent himself. In September of that year the attorney general of Tennessee had made a push for nine death row inmates, including Carruther's received execution dates. It appears that as of now only two of those nine have received dates and it is unclear whether Carruther's will see a date anytime in the future. On the DOC website next to the line “parole hearing result” is the word “revoked” which is something I had never seen before. Then again every state appears to have different words and meanings and this could simply be because he has a death sentence. Much has been made about the fact that he represented himself and it has been stated that he could be “the first person in almost a century to be executed after being forced to represent himself at trial.” Now of course the important word here is “forced.” As many of us will recall serial killer, Ted Bundy represented himself at trial, however he chose to do so. In this case Carruther's had asked for representation and had been denied.

Unlike many states that have backed off in doing executions, most often due to the lack of availability of drugs for lethal injection, Tennessee has actually started them again and continue to do so. As of today (5-28-2020) six people have been executed in the United States this year, which in my opinion is rather interesting with everything going on with the COVID-19 pandemic. One of those was from Tennessee in February and as far as I can tell three more are scheduled between now and the end of the year from that state. Texas, Tennessee and Ohio are the only states with further executions scheduled for this year.