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7

The witness

AFTER fading from the headlines for several months, the case erupted again after a March 13, 2014, preliminary hearing when Assistant DA Sarah McAmis purported to have evidence that Miashah had left to do more than just empty the trash—she had gone to another apartment building to buy drugs. The fire that killed the children, she contended, resulted when Miashah willfully left a pan of hot grease heating on the stove to pursue a drug deal with a neighbor.

While the Fire Department’s original determination that the fire was “accidental” might have been grounds for child neglect, the fact that the girls’ death occurred in conjunction with a crime allowed McAmis to press for a conviction of felony child neglect—defined in Oklahoma criminal code as grounds for second-degree murder.

To do this, McAmis had to prove that not only did Miashah cause the girls’ deaths by deliberately locking them in the apartment with a pan of hot grease cooking on the stove, but that she left for the purpose of transacting a drug deal. Emptying the trash, McAmis claimed, was merely something she did on the way to buy drugs.

“Child neglect” in Oklahoma means “the willful or malicious neglect of a child under 18” and is altogether unforgiving, offering prosecutors broad latitude in its application.

McAmis’ star witness was Torrance Williams, the tenant in building 400 who supposedly waved Miashah down. Williams, a husky, 20-year-old black man, was physically disabled and had moved to London Square with his family two months before the fire. His wife’s sister had attended high school with Miashah.

McAmis alleged that Williams made a statement to Tulsa police detectives on the scene that Miashah had come to the apartment around the time of the fire and confronted him about a dispute with his cousin over drug money that she owed for marijuana. McAmis contended that Williams specifically told detectives that Miashah was acting, in his words, as if she were high, that she was aggressive, that she was paranoid, and that her eyes were wide.

Tulsa County District Court Judge David Youll was presiding over the preliminary hearing in Miashah’s criminal case.

When Williams took the stand, McAmis quickly led him to her point. His answers were not what she expected.

“You formed an opinion that she was under the influence of something, this female. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“All right. And what led you to form that opinion.”

“I mean, ’cause you could tell. Just like it wasn’t hard to see that she was drunk off dope. She was drunk off (unintelligible) or (unintelligible)—I mean, like she was just slurring her words. I mean, I know that. But I don’t know nothing about buying—about anything like drugs or pills or nothing like that.”

Williams spoke with a distinctive stutter and struggled with the answer.

“All right. And on that day, did you, in fact, sell her any marijuana?”

“No.”

“Did she ever act aggressively towards you that day?”

“No.”

“Did she act paranoid towards you that day?”

“No.”

“Did you ever tell the detectives that she acted paranoid towards you that day?”

“No.”

“And specifically, the photograph that I showed you earlier, State’s…”

“No.”

“Exhibit 3, did you ever tell the detectives that this was, in fact, the woman in State’s Exhibit Number 3 who had come to your apartment that day?”

“See… that’s what I’m trying to tell you. They never showed me a picture of nobody. They showed me a picture of me walking to my house. And they said that she came to my house and I told them, yes, a female came to my house that—that had short hair with a tattoo right here. But that’s not her,” he said, pointing to Miashah.

The judge asked, “A tattoo right where?”

“Right here,” Williams said, indicating to his lower right eye… And like I told him, how can I come to court about somebody that—that they never showed me?”

From the visitors’ gallery, Miashah’s older brother, Keontae, let out an audible “Alright!” from the back of the courtroom. Keontae, a lanky 25-year-old, had been especially close to his little sister Miashah since the day she was born and was relieved by Williams’s refusal to identify her. The outburst interrupted court proceedings and caused Judge Youll to direct his attention to Keontae at the back of the courtroom.

“Okay, folks, let me explain something to you. If I hear anything from the gallery that’s sufficient to disrupt the proceedings, you may be held in direct contempt of court. Direct contempt of court carries up to six months in the Tulsa County Jail and up to a $500 fine. So now that everybody is aware of that. I want to make sure we understand the rules. And likewise, if you leave the courtroom, you’re going to stay out.”

Judge Youll continued, “I was going to say, Counsel, my understanding is that at some point he alluded to the fact that the female was not this female.”

McAmis replied, “Yes, Your Honor. Again, the State should have the opportunity to impeach him with prior inconsistent statements,” essentially implying that Williams was lying on the stand.

Judge Youll pressed her, “Has he provided any substantive testimony that would assist the Court today? I mean, you’re impeaching your own witness…”

McAmis, still visibly upset at Torrance Williams’ failure, or refusal, to respond as she planned, continued to pursue her interrogation of Williams over repeated objections by Holmes, who believed McAmis intended to defame Miashah.

“…Was your conversation that day between you and the female about drugs?

“No.”

“Did you ever tell anyone that it was?”

“No.”

“Did you ever tell the detectives that it was about money that the female owed your cousin for drugs?”

“No.”

McAmis’ questions were redundant to the point of hounding, and Sharon Holmes had reached her limit. She interjected, “Your Honor, I’m going to object to this whole line of questioning. When Mr. Williams first took the stand, he did indicate that this was not the female, so we don’t know who that is.”

McAmis acknowledged the judge’s concern, but continued questioning Torrance Williams, painting a vivid picture of Miashah as the drug-crazed woman in question, even though Williams had clearly stated the black woman who came to his building to settle a drug buy with his “big cousin” was not Miashah. A common tactic of prosecutors is to throw enough spaghetti at the wall so that something would stick.

But the spaghetti wasn’t sticking with Torrance Williams. His testimony contradicted the DA’s basis for charging Miashah with two felony counts of child neglect—specifically, that Miashah locked her nieces in the apartment to buy drugs.

Williams was excused from the stand. McAmis then proceeded to call witnesses from the Tulsa Police and Fire Departments—witnesses she likely hoped would better support the DA’s theory.