JASPER — From the dozens of pieces of James Byrd Jr.’s flesh that were recovered as evidence in the 1998 hate crime, the autopsy report showed Byrd had no elbows, possibly shattering them because of his attempt to keep his head from bouncing on the pavement as he was dragged for miles.

Jasper Mayor Mike Lout referred to the Byrd murder scene as the most gruesome he had ever seen.

“I could see his teeth,” Lout said. “I’d covered murders and been to a lot of different scenes but I never saw anything that gruesome before. You could just see investigators spraying paint over every piece of evidence. For a while you could still see that paint and those blood stains on the road but it’s finally gone now.”

Lawrence Brewer, John “Bill” King and Shawn Berry behaved as if nothing had happened after killing Byrd. Multiple reports at the time indicate the three murderers attended a barbecue after dropping off what was left of Byrd’s corpse at a black cemetery just before the Newton County line.



Quiet night

Not a lot seemed to be happening in Jasper on June 7, 1998, as former Jasper County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher Steve Stewart remembers.

Stewart said a news station in Beaumont called around 12:30 a.m. to see if there was anything worth reporting. There seemed to be nothing.

“The thing that sticks out in my mind is that it was such a quiet night,” Stewart said. “Little did I know, the crime of the century was happening around the time that news station called.”

Stewart worked shifts from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. He said there wasn’t a serious crime mentioned over dispatch for his entire shift. He thought it was odd for a Saturday night.

“Indeed it was,” Stewart added.



Pursuit for probable cause

The young boy, who saw James Byrd Jr. in a dark colored pickup truck with three men riding in the front seat, finally came forward to police after hearing about the murder on the news.

Police authorities had already gathered evidence, such as the tool with Shawn Berry’s initials on it and a lighter with King’s prison name inscribed on it as well. That, however, was not enough to put everything together until the juvenile came through as a key witness.

During a meeting between police at 6 p.m. on the day of the crime, one of the officers jumped up and said, “Wait, Shawn Berry has a loud, dark-colored truck.”

“And Berry lives with Brewer,” another officer said.

With Jasper being such a small town, a few of the officers knew of King who unlike Brewer, was actually a Jasper native. Brewer was King’s fellow white supremacist after some shared time spent at the predominantly black Beto 1 Unit years earlier.

But the police couldn’t just arrest these three suspects because it was a small town and it didn’t take them long to put “two and two” together, Stewart said. They needed probable cause.

King and Berry were easy to nab. King had a parole violation and was technically wanted at the time of the murder. He was found in his apartment and taken into custody. Berry’s vehicle, the one used to drag Byrd, had an invalid license plate along with an expired registration.

Jasper Deputy Larry Pulliam had just left the station with this information and not even five minutes later he dispatched Stewart.

“I got him,” Pulliam said. “I got him.”

Brewer was the most difficult to catch because he didn’t appear to have any warrants or probable cause to be arrested. That’s until Stewart finished digging and discovered a minor traffic violation in Livingston. Stewart asked the Livingston dispatch to place a hold on Brewer’s ticket so authorities could bring him in, and she did.

While an officer was setting up surveillance at the local Wal-Mart, which was right next to Brewer and Berry’s apartment, the coincidence of a lifetime occurred. Brewer was walking towards the store when authorities arrested him.

But none of the suspects would cooperate, initially. For hours, police went back and forth to each cell to see if any of them would confess. There was no luck.

Finally, Stewart recalls being in his office when Jasper County Sheriff Billy Rowles came to him and said, “I need a cup of coffee, a pack of your cigarettes, and a pen and a notepad. Berry’s gonna talk.”

Stewart rushed to pour a cup of coffee without accidentally burning himself. Then he searched for a lighter and his pack of Magna cigarettes.

“All Berry wanted was some smokes and some coffee,” Stewart recalled. “So he sat there, drank coffee, smoked cigarettes and spilled his guts.”



Living in Jasper now

When asked how the Byrd family is able to still live in Jasper after all of these years, Boatner smiles and says again they’ve done it by the grace of God.

“This is our home,” Boatner said looking at all eight siblings’ graduation photos from Jasper High School. “Our mom and daddy worked hard for all of us. We’re going to continue to honor them. We’re proud to be from Jasper.”

Prior to the Byrd murder, Jasper was not considered more racist than other east Texas towns. Lout points out that unlike other communities, Jasper had prominent black citizens in the community. He said the race problem in Jasper started in the Palestine prison where Brewer and King were corrupted.

“We were a progressive town before all this happened,” he said. “I suspect they joined the prison gangs as a means of survival,” Lout said. “But the problem is I don’t think the prisons are doing anything about this kind of stuff because they kind of just let it happen. They let these white boys and black boys go at it like they like that stuff.

“The problem is they brought that mess back to Jasper.”

And the town is still wounded by racial warfare. Even 13 years after the brutal murder of James Byrd Jr., blacks and whites are fighting over who should represent the town as police chief – black man or a white one?

“It’s just a big mess,” Boatner said. “And after the way we all came together when my brother was killed, my momma would be turning over in her grave if she saw the state Jasper is in right now.”



Forgiveness and healing

On a Friday afternoon, Boatner gives a tour around the Byrd home. Above the kitchen are photos of Boatner at the White House with President Barack Obama in 2009, when he signed the Matthew Shephard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. A similar bill for the state of Texas is also named after Byrd.

Boatner notes that visiting Obama was her first time flying.

She points to other gifts other the years. There are photos with personalities from Dennis Rodman to Bill Clinton. More than anything, there are photos of her slain brother.

Brewer has always claimed to be proud of what happened to Byrd, even though he maintains his innocence. According to Brewer, Berry cut Byrd’s throat even though the physical evidence refutes that.

When asked how she felt about Brewer showing no remorse for his crime, she said she felt sorry for him.

“We didn’t convict him,” Boatner said. “We forgave him.”