Nuclear Option

Having Been a Homicide Detective in New Orleans, I was no stranger to the dark and dangerous city at Night...Philadelphia...Some parts of it was darker and more dangerous than anywhere in my Native New Orleans, Still I had a job to do...I had to really investigate this case for my wife and her niece...

First off, Cora Bey hailed from one of the worst parts of Philadelphia...A neighborhood in North Philadelphia nicknamed "The Badlands"....This was the area that 40 percent of the homicides had occurred the previous year.....It was said ,it was very easy for a man to catch a bullet in the badlands...

Beverly usually went with me when I did my investigations...but there was no way...I was going to take her with me on this...I couldn't face her Aunt....My wife if something happened to her...

 nor for that matter her husband..

Nelson ,who I was quite fond of now...If something happened to her...or myself...Beverly was like a little sister to me in a real way....

No ,She ,Nelson,Olivia and Josie were better off at home, working on the case files...Drawing up strategy...

They were lawyers.....They were in their world...

 preparing for court....

and me, Ex-Homicide detective , Now Investigator for my wife's law firm...

I was better off investigating the 10 year old murder of Double G... Grandon Gates..Pimp....First Off, Grandon Gates was the ne'er do well son of an icon in the Philadelphia Black Community...Civil Rights Attorney, Thelma Gates...who had been in the NAACP and worked tirelessly on the behalf of Blacks and Latinos, Workers,Immigrants et al...a generation before Olivia, Beverly,Nelson, Josie or I had been born...

Her husband had died when she was a young woman and she had raised Grandon the best she could by herself...Well maybe not the best... He had three juvenile arrests...Expulsion from two Philadelphia Public schools...He graduated from the Glen Mills school...a school for Juvenile offenders....

From there he did a four year stint in the Army....He received a General discharge ,which is less than Honorable.. He returned to Philly....Before the year was up...he was in trouble for stealing a car...He beat that charge....but was in trouble again for shoplifting several cartons of cigarettes..

He surprisingly did six months in county lock up.... Released from County ,it wasn't long before he was in trouble again...This time for transporting a minor across state lines for prostitution...This was serious and this time he did time...Five years in the federal penitentary...

He was out for two months when he crossed paths with a 14 year old girl who was over developed for her age named Cora Bey...

Grandon Gates aka GG aka Double G..as he was calling himself..Took a liking to the 14 year old who had the developed body of a woman 10 years her senior...

Double G initially served as a surrogate father for Cora Bey.  As stated in court records that upon their introduction, he began grooming her for a life of prostitution. She also testified that by the age of 16, she became a victim of human trafficking. Under the control of Double G., she was forced to work as a teen prostitute and was subjected to sexual abuse from much older men..

Enter another player into the picture...Jimmy "Jay" Hampton.....
In March 2008, when Cora Bey was 17 years old, she moved into a West Philadelphia row home belonging to Jay Hampton. A drug dealer and Loan Shark... Cora Bey arranged to meet Double G., who had lost her to Jay Hampton to settle a debt on March 9 for a date and agreed to spend the night with him. On March 10, Cora Bey shot Double G. in the head at close range in a room at the Straight Up Motel. She then took $1,500 from his wallet, as well as the keys to his Jaguar.

She then went to meet her boyfriend, Johnny Otiel, and Jay Hampton in a local supermarket. Double G's body was discovered by a member of the motel's housekeeping staff. When law enforcement officials at the scene found Cora Bey's identification card and purse left behind in the motel room, a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Cora Bey was arrested in  on March 14, 2008. During questioning, Cora Bey made a confession to the police.

The District Attorney  opted to ignore the pleas for extenuating circumstances surrounding Cora Bey's actions, and he sought to have her tried in an adult court for first-degree murder. An evaluation by the Youth Study Center of Philadelphia Amazingly concluded she was suitable for treatment in the juvenile justice system, however, a local judge, at the urging of the prosecutor, Royce Barnes, future District Attorney and father of the ADA the girls were facing, Margaret Barnes

 transferred her to the adult court.

During her trial, Cora Bey, who was defended by a Public Defender on her first case , who had just passed the bar a month before.. testified that she had killed Double G. because Jay Hampton had ordered it and had threatened to kill both her and her mother if she did not carry out his orders. As a result,  Public defender, Denise Grundy, told the court of information provided to the police by Jay Hampton. Neither Hampton nor Otieil were charged with the crime due to a lack of legally sufficient corroborating evidence to support Cora Bey's statement.

In his closing arguments at her trial, now Philadelphia District Attorney  Royce Barnes cautioned jurors not to be swayed by the appearance of an attractive, petite teenager who might not fit their image of a murderer. On Thursday May 11, 2008, a Philadelphia Superior Court jury of seven women and five men, all white found her guilty of first-degree murder, affirming two special circumstances – that Double G. was murdered during a robbery, and that Cora Bey had been lying in wait to kill him – to justify a sentencing of life, with no possibility of parole. She was 17, a month shy of her 18th birthday....

To make matters worse....Both Otiel and Jay Hampton were now both deceased... Otiel was shot to death by police during a hold up in 2010 and Jay Hampton died of Lung Cancer in 2015....

II-

I returned Home early the next morning...

Olivia ,Beverly and Josie all ran to me and hugged me...They were upstairs in our place, eating breakfast...

"Donnie Ray,I was so scared for you...I was so worried.."said Olivia...squeezing me for dear life...

''So was I...You should have let me go with you.." said Beverly...who also hugged me...

"No, No I shouldn't have...Wayyy too dangerous...I was in some pretty scuzzy hole in the walls...No place for a lady....I wasn't taking you,Livy or Josie..." I  said,putting my arms around Josie and hugging her too!

I showed them the information I got from the crime reports and interviews with living people familliar with the players....

Olivia frowned...

"She's nowhere near an angel or the most sympathetic we have...and purely...Some of these people we have here belong behind bars.."said Olivia..

"But the thing is..There were extenuating circumstances....This was a serious crime...Her Attorney had just graduated from law school and had just passed the bar a month before this case crossed her lap...She had no business trying this alone...She had no investigator and no second chair...no experience...The transcripts show several inconsistancies and several legal mistakes made ...and that's just by the defense... The ADA withheld information from her school counselor and a therapist on her state of maturity at the time...She was 17, but had the maturity of a 13 year old...She was being manipulated by grown men in their 40's...She'd of done anything she was asked to do....Plus the fact that her mother was buying Heroin from Jay Hampton..at the time and owed him money.." said Nelson...

"Not to mention The ADA was the future District Attorney and the Father of the present ADA.."I added with a smile..

 "Oh I plan to use all of that.."laughed Olivia...

III-

 The next few days in court was epic...

Margaret Barnes came loaded for bear...She more than anything wanted to best Olivia and Beverly in court...she had just missed losing to them the last time they met...In that case, The State was forced to dismiss charges against her client...This time...She wasn't defending a client...She was arguing against allowing people already sentenced under the original law to have their cases re-evaluated...She argued that it would cause a "crisis" in the D.A.'s office and threaten the integrity of the office...

Olivia, Beverly and Nelson, argued passionately and vehemently to the contrary....

Josie sat with them and passed them case folder after case load....It was quite obvious that they came prepared.....VERY PREPARED!!

Turner S. Freeman, The Cross Dressing Judge was presiding over the case...They more than thought they had a shot..

So Did Margaret....but she was out of her depth here and it was obvious....

Olivia and Beverly were eating her for lunch, taking turns at it...

Nelson was coming in ,cleaning up.....

 "I think they got this one locked up..."I said.,

"I mean Bee Bee is my girl and Bee Bee was good....But it's nothing like watching Olivia and Beverly work together...They compliment each other so well.."said Josie..I agreed..

The Judge called a recess....

I noticed a man with glasses sitting in the back of the courtroom silently everyday....He never said a word...

 "That's Former District Attorney Royce Barnes..."said Olivia...

''I guess Daddy came to see his daughter work.."said Beverly...

It was my cop's instinct...but I smelled a rat...Something just didn't jibe....As they would say on the street...The Fix was in...This was all too easy.....

IV-

We returned from recess...

Margaret Barnes had a bewildered look on her face...Like she'd lost her last friend...

"I've just been informed...That a panel of Judges from the State Supreme Court Would prefer to hear this case...The case is being pulled from trial court in favor of written briefs to the State Supreme Court." she said.

 "WHAT? You can't do that...We were nearly done here!!"said Olivia incredulously.....

"It's not me...It's over my head too.They used the Nuclear Option."said Margaret Barnes ,no longer smiling..

''Your Father!!!.....This was him...HE DID THIS!  saving his baby from getting her butt kicked.." snarled Beverly . There was the Beverly we hadn't seen in awhile...She was back and in attack dog mode...

"It's alright Bev...Relax baby.....We'll talk to the Judge.." said Olivia..putting her arms around her  niece...

Nelson was already talking to the Judge...

He threw both of his hands up...

"It's over girls...You'll have to write a very convincing brief....and get it to those judges ASAP....But this hearing is closed....Nothing we can do..." he said punching his fists....

"Can they do that?" asked Josie...

 "It's extremely rare....but I'm afraid they can Josie..."sighed Olivia, who looked defeated....

"Auntay!!" said Beverly, nearly in tears....

''It's over baby girl...It's over!" said Olivia...

"I didn't want to win like this...You may find this hard to believe...but I had nothing to do with this...My father informed me that this was happening during the recess....I'm sorry too...We all got blindsided..."said Margaret Barnes...who grabbed her briefcase and turned and walked away...

I turned and watched as her father , Former DA Royce Barnes smiled snidely...

and walked out of court....

"Let's Go Home guys....Can't win em all..."I said..

Turner S. Freeman walked over to us...

"Sorry girls...That one took even me by surprise....I was just seconds from ruling in your favor...Sorry.." he said..

''So am I.."said Olivia..

He whispered...

''Are you wearing control top panty hose Olivia..?

Olivia's mood lightened...

"I am Judge...Good Observation..." she said and laughed..

"You have beautiful, shapely legs and they just accentuate them....I have to look into that..." he said ...Have a good night ladies...gents"he said and left...

 "It's Unfair..."said Beverly...

"We were into something too big..."said Josie..

"Yeah, we must have stepped on some big toes..."said Nelson ,who gathered his notes and his briefcase..

"Let's go get some drinks....We aren't beat yet...." said Olivia..

"You said it was over.."said Beverly...

Olivia took her hankerchief and wiped Beverly's tears...just as she had when she was a little girl...

"That's what I wanted them to think....You, Me, your Husband and Josie...We are going to write a brief...A spectacular brief and hold their feet to the fire, make sure they read it...If they don't they can explain to all of America why they didn't..." said Olivia with a smile...If We are going down...We are going all the way down.."said Olivia..

"That's my girl.."I said and put my arms around her waist and hugged her...

Nelson put his arms around Beverly and hugged her and kissed her..

"Let's go get some cold ones.." he said.

Beverly smiled and held him tightly...

"They used a Nuclear Option...Let's use ours..."said Josie..

(CONCLUSION NEXT)