It's Hard Out Here for a Player

A week later, on October 22, police picked up Edwards in Verona, Mississippi, a woodsy suburb of Tupelo. They found him holed up in the Bailey Motel, a dingy 11-room outfit with a sign full of burned-out bulbs.

Meanwhile, on October 20, a 46-year-old inmate at the Douglas County Jail named James Neal Williams had called the police tip line. He claimed that he knew who killed Vital.

Williams had been in the county jail since police stopped him in September 2006 and charged him with having 4.4 grams of crack on the floor of his backseat. He said fellow inmates Carlos Green and David J. Brown had confessed to him that they had been there when Vital was killed.

Brown was being held on unrelated aggravated battery and robbery charges. Green faced a charge of criminal possession of a firearm. They shared a pod at the jail with Williams, and after Williams made the call to the tip line, he agreed to wear a wire to record their conversations.

Much of what Williams said to police has not been released publicly. But on December 6, 2006, Williams sent a 44-page, handwritten statement to reporters, law-enforcement officials and Douglas County District Judge Paula Martin. The statement claims to detail what Williams told police, including the fact that, in exchange for his cooperation, Williams demanded his drug charges go away. "I'm not a drug dealer," Williams wrote. "I'm a user."

Williams claims in his statement that he had operated as an informant for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office three weeks before the murder. In an unrelated drug-trafficking investigation, he had given police the names, dates, places and codes used by Lawrence cocaine dealers. Detectives then drove him around while, from behind tinted windows, he pointed out residences that were doubling as drug-smuggling stations.

After Williams agreed to help with the murder case, detectives arranged for him to become a cellmate first with Brown and then with Green. Williams' statement claims that his conversations with his new cellmates were recorded for the detectives. Both Green and Brown, Williams says, gave detailed accounts of what happened the night of the murder.

According to Williams, Green and Brown were the other two men in the car when Edwards picked up Vital from his house. The foursome then drove around southwest Lawrence smoking wet — cigarettes dipped in embalming fluid. Edwards suddenly assumed a leadership role, telling Green, who was driving, where to go. Edwards, who was sitting in the front seat, turned around abruptly and slammed Vital in the temple with a .38-caliber revolver, nearly knocking him unconscious. They stopped the car, and Edwards dragged Vital out and began beating him, pistol-whipping and kicking him to the ground. Edwards then ordered Green and Brown at gunpoint to get out and join in the beating. While they were beating Vital, Brown and Green feared that Edwards might turn on them next.

When the beating was finished, Edwards told the other two to hoist the bloody body back into the vehicle, according to Williams' statement. Vital wasn't moving, and they couldn't tell if he was breathing. Edwards drove the Thunderbird west on Sixth Street to the edge of Lawrence. The three men hauled Vital's body into the ditch by Tilley's farm. Then Edwards fired four shots into Vital's torso with the .38-caliber.

High and dazed, they stumbled back to the car. Edwards tossed the .38-caliber off the North Lawrence bridge, claims Williams in his statement. Then they spent the remaining early Sunday-morning hours at a nearby strip club called Allstars.

Brown and Green were unclear about Edwards' motivation for attacking Vital, Williams writes. Williams says Brown told him that Edwards was simply mad at Vital. But Green claimed it was because of "a concert gone bad," according to the statement.

Within a week, however, Williams felt bad about his betrayal. He told Brown that their conversations had been recorded. "Honor among thieves," Williams called his actions.

After authorities learned that Williams had told Brown about the recording, they rescinded their offer of a plea deal for Williams' drug charges. On November 16, police charged Williams with obstructing an officer.

Williams entered a guilty plea on January 11 to that obstruction charge. Then Williams convinced Judge Martin to grant him a furlough to visit his sick girlfriend in the hospital. On January 12, he didn't report back from his temporary leave. Williams had skipped town.

Important as Williams may seem to the investigation, the accuracy of his testimony remains in question. Lawrence Police Department Detective Chris Thomas wrote in court papers: "The story Williams told did not exactly match the facts already known through the investigation." In different interviews, Williams changed how many times Vital had been shot. And Williams claimed in one interview that there was a fourth person involved in the shooting. Williams said he had been holding on to that detail in case he needed to cut another plea deal.