‘I’m not going to be involved,’ said Dolly McBryde, the only supposed eyewitness who testified to Terrell Johnson’s guilt in a 1994 Hazelwood murder. McBryde has more than 47 criminal convictions on her record.
By Justin Platek
inn_inst [at] pointpark [dot] edu
Just five months after her release on parole from a federal bank fraud sentence, a snitch witness in a highly publicized murder case was sentenced to 180 days of house arrest after pleading guilty to stealing from a CVS store in Downtown Pittsburgh.
While the latest conviction against Evelyn “Dolly” McBryde was a petty theft of just over $20 of underwear and cough drops, it became at least charge number 47 against a star government witness already charged with theft, forgery and endangering the welfare of children.
There is no question that even with her drug-ridden criminal history and her poor eyesight, McBryde is the key witness that led to Terrell Johnson’s 1995 conviction in the murder of Verna Robinson, another government witness.
Now, nearly fifteen years later, Johnson is awaiting a new trial based on newly discovered evidence that challenges the basis of McBryde’s testimony, scheduled to begin in October. Prosecutors want McBryde to repeat her trial testimony against Johnson — who has vehemently maintained his innocence — but it appears that McBryde may be having second thoughts, telling court officials and reporters for the Innocence Institute of Point Park University that she will not testify in the retrial of Johnson, a man she already has said may not have had anything to do with the crime.
While she did not respond to letters or a visit to her residence by reporters for the journalism-based innocence project, she called them just after midnight on April 1, 2010: “I’m not going to be involved in (Johnson’s) case,” she said to one of the reporters. “Now please leave me and my family alone.”
That mirrors what she has told officials of the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office, according to James P. Sheets, at one point Johnson’s attorney. Sheets said Russ Broman, an Allegheny County prosecutor, indicated to Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Donald Machen that he was having problems with McBryde, to the extent that she was “refusing to cooperate with the district attorney.”
And recently, a woman named Hazel Hastings, who describes herself as a former live-in lover of McBryde, said in a video-taped interview that McBryde is refusing to testify in future Johnson proceedings because she lied about him in the past and feared imprisonment if she told the truth. In the interview (watch it here), she also describes an elaborate plan McBryde has devised to avoid testimony and suggests the woman who is currently on federal parole remains involved in criminal activities.
“She did say he didn’t do it and she was sorry she said it because he didn’t do it and she was sorry for being a part of that,” said Hastings, who says she engaged in a short-lived romance with McBryde that ended when her live-in lover severely beat her and threw her out of their apartment. McBryde still has possession of a vehicle Hastings bought for them. During an interview in July, Hastings said she has not been allowed to retrieve her possessions from McBryde, who referred to herself as “Evelynia” since her release from federal prison. During the taped interview, Hastings also suggested McBryde is presently involved in extralegal activities.
A copy of her interview was supplied to the Allegheny County District Attorney, who had no immediate comment, and to Johnson’s present lawyer, William Brennan. Neither had any immediate comments.
Creating Testimony
On the morning of July 21, 1994 Robinson was in court to testify about a shooting unrelated to Johnson and over a simple assault charge against Johnson, to whom Robinson owed money for crack cocaine. After the hearing was postponed, police dropped her off at her mother’s home instead of placing her in protective custody. Later that evening, she was murdered as she stood outside near the house.
McBryde said nothing to police immediately following the incident, but when she was busted two weeks later for theft and faced what could have amounted to 50 years jail time over her extensive previous record, she told police she witnessed the Robinson killing.
By the time she swore to tell the truth in Johnson’s case, McBryde had devolved into a haze of drug abuse and was a known thief who once was charged with prostituting her teen-aged children and conspiring with them to steal things from an area mall, charges that were dropped in exchange for her testimony in the case against Johnson and two others.
Trial and Error
McBryde was the only person to step forward as a witness in the murder and her testimony alone convicted Johnson. At the time, Johnson did not know about McBryde’s long rap sheet because his lawyer failed to conduct a proper investigation.
Two alibi witnesses placed Johnson several blocks away from the murder scene, but Johnson’s lawyer decided against putting them on the stand to testify on Johnson’s behalf. Without these witnesses, Johnson was convicted. When two other men involved in the case, Harold Cabbagestalk and Dorian Moorefield, went to trial, not only did McBryde’s lengthy criminal past surface, but a series of material falsehoods in her testimony became obvious.
In the cases against Cabbagestalk and Moorefield, who were tried separately, lawyers disputed literally every step McBryde said she took the night of the Robinson murder. McBryde was unable to justify much of her testimony, and it was presented as so weak that both men were acquitted, leaving Johnson the only person to remain imprisoned for the crime.
In August 2009, Johnson won a new trial after a new witness in the case, Kenneth “Skinny” Robinson, emerged. At the exact time of the murder, he claims McBryde was with him smoking crack cocaine several blocks away from the murder scene in a Hazelwood basement.
As for McBryde, she has been arrested several times since her testimony in the Robinson murder case. In 2007, she received a two year sentence for bank fraud after she overstated the amount of deposits into area bank ATMs that allowed her to fraudulently withdrawal $69,000. She was released in April 2009 and placed on five years federal parole.
Living the Criminal Life
Just months after her release and still on parole from the federal crimes, McBryde set off an alarm while trying to exit a CVS store on Wood St. She ran across the street to the Port Authority T station, and when an employee caught up with her, McBryde yelled that she didn’t steal anything. A Port Authority officer intervened and convinced McBryde to follow him back to the store.
When they reached the storefront, McBryde took off running onto Liberty Ave., but the officer apprehended her several blocks away. An examination of her purse revealed that McBryde had stolen three packages of cough drops and two packages of ladies underwear, merchandise valued at $20.95.
She is serving 180 days on house arrest sentence at a facility in a Pittsburgh suburb.
McBryde has since managed to find trouble at her new residence. A few weeks after moving in, she received a citation for disorderly conduct after playing her music at “unacceptable levels,” according to police paperwork. Charges were dropped after the citing officer failed to appear in court.
Reluctant Witness
McBryde told Innocence Institute reporters in 2003 that she never wanted to testify against Johnson.
“He’s not the one I wanted,” she said in the Post- Gazette-published story. “If he’d had the money or the power like the other two, he’d have gotten off, too. He didn’t know what he was getting into. He just got caught up.”
The exact extent of McBryde’s involvement in the upcoming trial is not entirely known.
“If she doesn’t testify, or if she says she can’t remember, it’s to the benefit of Mr. Johnson,” Sheets said.
It’s to McBryde’s benefit as well. Since she previously testified in the case, prosecutors could declare her a hostile witness which would send her to jail until she answers a subpoena and testifies in the new trial.
“I think that says to a jury that when a DA has to declare their witness hostile, they don’t have a good case,” Sheets said.
But Joseph Horowitz, Evelyn McBryde’s attorney, says that the notion that McBryde isn’t cooperating may not entirely be accurate.
“She’s been in contact with the DA and things seem to be ok,” Horowitz said. He added that discussions haven’t gotten to the point of whether or not she will testify in the trial.
The option of leaving McBryde’s testimony out of the case would be damaging to the prosecution since she was the only person to testify to actually seeing the killing.
In any event, Bruce Antkowiak, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney and current law professor at Duquesne University, says that it isn’t a good idea for prosecutors to rely on people like McBryde as their sole witness. But he adds that the fault doesn’t end there.
“Twelve people believed her beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. “[Our] system relies on attorneys who can cross examine and effectively challenge credibility, judges to properly instruct the jury on the elements and burden of proof, and a jury that is unbiased to take the law and the evidence and give us justice.”
According to John M. Burkoff, a University of Pittsburgh law professor and expert in criminal justice and legal ethics, who is unfamiliar with this case, the fact that McBryde habitually lies does not necessarily mean much.
“The question of whether or not she’s telling the truth lies on the fact finder,” he says. “You can’t generalize.”
But as McBryde continues to rack up the crimes, Johnson and his attorneys gain more material to debunk her credibility. In a letter to the Innocence Institute last week, Johnson, who was denied bond before the retrial and remains confined at the State Correctional Institution at Greene, expressed his faith that justice will prevail.
“She watched her kids have sex with each other,” he wrote in regard to a 1993 charge against McBryde. “Her kids testified against her, accused her. How does the commonwealth justify her being on the street? How do they justify the deals?”
————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Innocence Institute reporter Matt Stroud contributed to this report. Justin Platek and Matt Stroud can be reached via inn_inst [at] pointpark [dot] edu.