Guilty of 6 murders as a teen
Llewelyn James was convicted of the 2002 killings but will not face the death penalty because he was 16 at the time. He did not testify at his trial.
More than five years after one of the most notorious shooting sprees in Camden County history, a jury delivered guilty verdicts yesterday against a teenager who was accused of killing six people.
Llewelyn James, who sat calmly through three weeks of testimony, at times whistling to himself as he was brought in and out of the courtroom, faces life in prison at his sentencing on Dec. 14.
"The verdict was certainly overwhelmingly supported by the evidence," said Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Bob Luther, who tried the case.
James, now 22, had confessed to no fewer than eight people, including a cousin, classmates and friends, and police detectives, Luther said.
James was convicted on six counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, four weapons charges and four counts of felony murder, which is murder in the commission of another crime, such as robbery.
He was acquitted on two counts of felony murder - the jury found that he did not rob two of his victims - but those findings didn't seem to trouble the prosecutor.
"It's really academic," Luther said.
James was just 16 years old in 2002 when he was arrested and charged with killing six people, including his aunt.
Authorities said his spree started when he killed four people in a house in West Atco, a rural section of Winslow Township. The next day, police said, he wounded a man in a frustrated attempt to buy marijuana at an apartment complex in Lindenwold, then killed two others because he thought they had seen him leaving the complex.
All six people - Absalom Giddings, Una Bethune, Donald Mays Jr., Corlis Williams, Kasim Dale and Christopher Ferguson III - were killed with the same gun. James then gave the gun to a friend to stash in Philadelphia, according to testimony.
James was not arrested until 18 days after the first shootings, when his cousin Antwon Bethune came forward. He offered to talk to James while wearing a wire.
Detectives put them together in a room at the prosecutor's office, and Bethune elicited a confession from his cousin.
James' attorney, Jaime Kaigh, said his client should have been considered in custody at that point, and James should have been read his rights before talking to his cousin.
"I believe the Miranda issue in this case would shock the conscience of any reviewing court," he said.
Kaigh added that James plans to appeal. He described his client as accepting the verdict "very stoically."
"He agrees with me that the state won round one," he said. "We'll see you at round two at the Appellate Division."
James grew up in North Philadelphia, but his mother sent him to live with a large extended family in West Atco in the hopes that he would avoid the pitfalls of the inner city, relatives said several years ago.
But West Atco had its own drug culture, and James and several of his relatives picked up drug arrests. Bethune also said James had started smoking "wet" - marijuana dipped in formaldehyde or embalming fluid.
James, who did not testify at his trial, said in his confessions that he intended to kill Giddings, and he shot Una Bethune, Mays and Williams because he didn't want to leave any witnesses.
The jurors began deliberations around noon on Wednesday and returned their verdicts yesterday around 3:30 p.m.
James cannot face the death penalty because of his age at the time the crimes were committed.