CLARKSDALE, Miss. – Nearly three months after the battered body of Clarksdale, Miss. mayoral candidate Marco Watson McMillian was found dumped in a field, his parents have hired Parks and Crump, the Florida-based civil rights law firm representing Trayvon Martin’s parents.
On February 27, McMillan’s naked body was found on a levee near the Mississippi River between the towns of Sherard and Rena Lara, Miss. — some 25 miles from Clarksdale. Autopsy reports released this month revealed that the 33-year-old had been strangled, beaten, set on fire and dragged.
Desperately seeking answers, McMillan’s parents, Amos and Patricia Unger, held a press conference at their home last week, hoping to uncover the events leading up to their son’s death and to determine if McMillian’s death should be classified as a hate crime because he was gay, or if his death was politically motivated because he was running for mayor.
“We are asking for the justice department to get involved in this investigation,” Daryl Parks, a partner in the law firm, said during the press conference. “It becomes clear that Marco McMillian was tortured by someone and we don’t believe this one person did it alone.”
Suspect in custody ‘confessed,’ police claim
The Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department said 22-year-old Shelby, Miss., native Lawrence Reed is in custody and that he allegedly confessed to the murder. Reed reportedly told friends sexual advances from the slain politician caused him — a heterosexual — to “snap.”
“There is no way we can accept the gentleman’s little explanation of, ‘Hey, I strangled him.’ Well, where are the choke marks on the neck? There’s a lot more to it,” Parks said.
Sharon Lettman-Hicks, Executive Director and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), the nation’s leading black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organization, is working with the family to publicize the case.
“There are no marks on the neck or the throat in the autopsy report,” she said. “And the autopsy report makes a particular statement that there are no marks on the neck or the throat. So somebody’s lying…[McMillian] was bruised over his body and he was suffocated. So how does that happen…by one person who is smaller than him…The facts that we know so far are not adding up. ”
According to the autopsy report, which was obtained by theGrio, McMilllan had blunt force trauma to the head, back and legs consistent with a beating. He also had hemorrhaging in his right eye which evidenced his cause of death as “asphyxia of undetermined etiology.”
The report further said it was unclear if the second and third degree burns found all over Marco’s body were inflicted before or after his death.
Scotty Meredith, the Coahoma County coroner, said he was so troubled by the report that he refused to sign the death certificate.
“There are inconsistencies in the autopsy report,” Meredith told theGrio. “His cause of death was asphyxiation — origin unknown, beating and burning. But on the one-page provisional report that was done right after the autopsy, it said the burns were perimortem which means after death, and that no cause of death was identifiable evidenced by non-lethal blunt trauma to the head, meaning it didn’t kill him. But in the second report it said he died from blunt force trauma to the head.”
Meredith, who pronounced McMillian dead at the scene, said McMillian was killed at another location and moved to where his body was found.
“He was dragged under a barbed wire fence which is consistent with what Reed said he did,” Meredith said. “He was dragged between 30 to 40 feet. And not by a vehicle which the community first misinterpreted when they heard dragging. But he was dragged by a person.”
Meredith, who delivered the death certificate to McMillian‘s family this week — signed by the State’s Chief Medical Examiner Mark LeVaughn — said the controversy surrounding McMillian‘s death is a ‘first‘ in his nearly 25 years as coroner.
“I don’t know why it’s this way,” he said. “This is the first time I’ve seen an autopsy report so complicated where I was not comfortable signing the death certificate. And it’s caused a lot of people to have a lot of questions. The family has a lot of questions.”
Next: political aspirations a factor?
According to his bio, McMillian was hailed by EBONY magazine as one of the nation’s 30 leaders who are 30 years old and under in 2004. A graduate of Jackson State University, McMillian was CEO of MWM & Associates, a professional consulting firm for nonprofit organizations. He’d also served as international executive director of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity; executive assistant and chief of staff to the president of Alabama A&M University, and assistant to the vice president for institutional advancement at Jackson State University.
McMillian was living in Memphis before returning to Clarksdale with a strong desire to change his hometown. He announced his candidacy for mayor in January 2013.
“This race to City Hall is about Our Children. Our Citizens. Our Concern. Our CLARKSDALE,” McMillan posted on his Facebook page. “…We are the change we seek…I am going to truly need you[r] help to transform Clarksdale so all people will have a quality of life…Please keep me lifted in prayer.” In another post he said: “More than 40% of the people who live in Clarksdale, Mississippi live in poverty every day. We can eradicate poverty and substandard living for all if we stand to do what is right and just.”
Clarksdale is the county seat of Coahoma County and according to the 2011 Census, has a population of about 18,000.
Lettman-Hicks said she and McMillian’s family believe his political aspirations may have been a factor in his death.
“We’re looking into that…we don’t necessarily believe Reed may have acted alone, if was even the killer,” she said. “There is a lack of willingness in the general community to provide information…So it makes us have the assumption that there may be a political motive behind his death and not this fabricated relationship gone bad that seems to be the general norm of…speculation. Why aren’t they looking into whether the person who said he killed him actually killed him and he’s not being the scapegoat for someone else?”
The Clarksdale election was held on May 7.
“There are mixed feelings in the community. It’s been an ordeal for the community and for the family that‘s for sure,” Meredith said. “We have come so far in race relations in Clarksdale that we don’t need anything to set us back. Everything is good. God made all of us and that’s the way I see the whole community, with that same attitude. And that’s the only way we’re going to make it. We don’t need any trouble at all.”
Will Rooker, the public information officer for the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department, said that investigators confirmed that Reed and McMillian knew each other and that the morning after he and McMillian were last seen together by witnesses, Reed had an accident in McMillian’s car. Reed was alone in the vehicle and injured.
The following morning, McMillan was found dead.
While colleagues said McMillan was “openly gay,” his mother told CNN that her son “did not announce in public that he was gay” when it came to his run for political office. McMillan’s autopsy report showed the presence of semen on his body.
Friends of Reed, however, said he was straight.
“Gay panic” at issue
“If in fact, under the assumption of the friends and family of the suspect, that he panicked because unwanted advances were put on him…why aren’t they looking into this potentially as being a hate crime?” Lettman-Hicks said. “Gay panic is a hate crime. Women get unwanted advances from men all the time, but we don’t turn around and kill them. How did it escalate to a point that it turned into torture? It just doesn’t add up.”
“I think some are trying to relate this to a hate crime and I don’t see it as that,” Meredith said. “And that’s just my opinion. I see it as an argument. But that still don’t make [what happened] right.”
McMillan’s family has asked for a federal investigation because of frustration with the local investigation and also because, unlike federal law, Mississippi’s hate crime statute does not cover sexual orientation.
“Because of the level of hate that was involved in the level of torture that was found on Marco, we are not going to let this be relegated to some sort of self-defense case,” Lettman-Hicks said.
In a letter to Coahoma County’s Sheriff Charles Jones dated May 1, Patricia Unger cited several concerns in regard to how her son’s case was being handled. She noted a lack of professionalism and information, citing that Jones had only been to see her twice since her son was murdered, the improper removal of her son’s belongings and the manner in which she was made to identify her son’s body.
Next: “Where’s the decency?”
“They had to identify their son from a picture on a cell phone in a body bag zipped up to his face,” Lettman-Hicks said. “In a little tiny town like that, they didn’t have the decency to send the sheriff’s car over to pick up the family to bring them to the morgue to identify their only child. Once the body was turned over to the funeral home they were able to prepare it for burial. But in terms of identification to see what his original state was and to deal with the sanctity and respect to the family of finding their loved one who was reported missing, deceased, there was absolutely no compassion.”
Unger said McMillan’s vehicle was moved to a private location following the accident without her consent and notification. She had to retrieve the contents of the vehicle, including a set of keys to her home, from the tow service.
“Again, where is the decency?” Lettman-Hicks asked. “We black folks. We don’t operate like this especially in a little country town. This is a local community and this young man was running for mayor. This is a high-profile case. Where is just the human dignity? Where is the cardboard box? Or the Ziploc bag with his belongings being brought back to a grieving mother’s home, and the conversation, explanation or expression of grief and condolence and respect for a mother for her only child? Where’s the southern hospitality? I can’t even get beyond that. I mean, there isn’t anything illegal about that. But it is quite inhumane.”
Unger said in her letter that she had to ask the tow company for her son’s belongings. When asking about a certain item, one of the employees gave her a “surprised” look “and went in the office to retrieve the items.
“Was the tow company just helping themselves to his belongings?” Lettman-Hicks said. “If you’re going to return all my stuff, then give me my stuff. Don’t go in the back room and say, ‘Oh. Here it is.’ Why isn’t it together? Why isn’t it sealed up? Why isn’t it in an investigation bag? This is a murder scene. This is a crime scene. What if even Reed’s people want to defend him? Where’s the security of the evidence? Reed is the one that drove off in the car.”
The Coahoma County Justice Court confirmed Thursday that no attorney has been appointed for Reed.
Lettman-Hicks further said the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department failed to disclose information to McMillan’s family for fear they would leak the information to the news media.
“Are you kidding me? They’re the victims just as much as their deceased son,” she said. “We just want a proper investigation and we feel there is not enough objectivity in how law enforcement is pursuing this as more than what some are calling a domestic violence case.”
Rooker claimed they were trying to preserve the integrity of the investigation.
“We are preparing everything we need to get this ready for trial,” Rooker said. “This has been a multi-agency task to put this [case] together and we have a man in custody and we have charged him with the murder of Mr. McMillian.”
Rooker said he would not comment as to the allegations of the Unger family.
Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigations (MBI), confirmed they were assisting the Coahoma County Sheriff’s Department, but would not comment on the case.
Why they want the Feds involved
Lettman-Hicks said McMillan’s parents have questioned the thoroughness of the investigation because they have yet to be interviewed by any law enforcement agency in regard to this case.
“Marco lived with his family,” she said. “They have never come to the house to investigate anything, his computer, nothing. What was he doing leading up to his death? What was the condition of his household? Where is the investigation? These are the questions that [Parks] and the family have in terms of the level of investigation that’s representative of a murder. To me, they’re trying to blame the victim and trying to find anything to cast aspersion on his character. Marco McMillian had a tox[icology] screen after his death. Is there a tox screen report on the person who is in jail? I don’t understand that the person who is living claims to be the killer and we can’t get any information from him. I don’t want to see another story on black on black crime and all of sudden one’s in jail and one’s dead. Who cares? This is just unacceptable.”
Although Parks and Crumps recently settled a million-dollar wrongful death lawsuit for Trayvon Martin’s parents, Lettman-Hicks said this is not why she approached them to assist in this case.
“I have a 20-year history with them and we wanted some attorneys that were aggressive enough…civil rights minded and social justice minded that they were going to move law enforcement and legal processes for the family to get some answers. Lawyers are for justice. Not only for a paycheck and that’s where we are right now — trying to get justice for Marco.”
Monica Land is a theGrio contributor and a reporter for Mississippilink.com.