DNA-based assertions in '85 murder open old wounds

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

A pair of inmates convicted in the rape and murder of a Beatrice woman two decades ago hope DNA tests will clear them in a court of law. But others aren’t convinced they should have that chance.

Joseph White, 45, and Thomas Winslow, 42, are serving prison sentences in connection with the 1985 killing of Helen Wilson. If courts rule in favor of the two men, whose attorneys say DNA testing proves they did not rape the 68-year-old victim, they could be exonerated.

On Friday, their attorneys said DNA tests of bodily fluids preserved from the case have cleared the two. That opened the possibility that the two could be the first inmates in the state cleared under the Nebraska DNA Testing Act of 2000.

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Winslow (left) and White

Winslow (left) and White

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Mother: DNA results reveal injustice

Mary Winslow, mother of Thomas Winslow, talks about the DNA test results that attorneys say prove her son and Joseph White did not rape Beatrice woman...

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The test results were met with skepticism, however, by Jerry DeWitt, who was the Gage County Sheriff at the time of the investigation into Wilson’s death.

He said he had no doubt at the time that White and Winslow were guilty.

DeWitt’s office picked up the investigation after the Beatrice Police Department stalled on the case, he said.

A Gage County deputy sheriff who had previously worked for the Beatrice Police Department stumbled across a few leads in the case, DeWitt said. He began to investigate more seriously.

“And the more we delved into it, the more we learned about it, and there’s no doubt in my mind that all six of them were guilty, and were all there,” DeWitt said.

The Beatrice Police Department had already questioned the six, but hadn’t made any arrests, DeWitt said.

“They told us we had the wrong people,” he said.

But later, after all six had been sentenced, then-police chief Don Luckeroth admitted his office had “screwed up” the initial investigation, according to a story in the Feb. 17, 1990, edition of the Lincoln Star.

Wilson’s family questioned the department’s handling of evidence, including a blood-stained bra found outside Wilson’s apartment that police allegedly threw away.

But Doug Stratton, a Norfolk attorney who represents White, said Friday that the DNA samples Beatrice Police had collected from the crime scene were well-preserved and well-labeled.

“These results are indisputable,” he said.

Winslow’s attorney, Jerry Soucie of Lincoln, and Stratton will file district court motions to vacate convictions in Gage and Jefferson counties.

White, of Cullman, Ala., is at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln where he has spent 18 years in prison. Winslow, is serving his sentence at the Omaha Correctional Center. He’s served 19 years and his projected release date is April 27, 2020.

Wilson’s son, Darrell Wilson of Beatrice, was dismissive of the test results.

“I don’t care about DNA,” said Helen Wilson’s son, Darrell Wilson of Beatrice. “They’re guilty as guilty.”

It took four years for Wilson and his two siblings to see an arrest made in their mother’s case. It took another year before the six who were arrested were convicted and sentenced.

All these years later, Wilson didn’t expect to be haunted again by his mother’s brutal death.

He never saw his mother’s body after her death, because she was so battered, he said. He sat through the trial in which witnesses described his mother’s rape.

The DNA samples came from a single, unidentified male that did not match White or Winslow, Soucie said.

If a judge grants the motions, White and Winslow could be exonerated. If a judge chooses not to erase the convictions, the motions also ask the courts to consider ordering a new sentence or trial for each man.

Darrell Wilson said he hoped the case didn’t go to trial. He doesn’t want to live through it again, and he also believes it would be a waste of money.

But he also realizes he doesn’t get to decide these things.

“There’s nothing I can do about it,” he said. “Whatever will be will be. I hope they don’t get out.

“But if they do, how will I stop it?”

Four other people were convicted in the case.

Ada Joann Taylor, who pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder, remains in custody at Community Corrections in Omaha. Her projected date of release is Aug. 9, 2009.

James Dean, Kathy Gonzalez and Debra Shelden were all released from prison in 1994.