Declaration of James Betts:
I have known Dennis Skillicorn since 1978. I am responsible for Dennis' incarceration, and the mistakes that he made in his life. It is easy to ruin a youngmind and I ruined his. I made him make a terrible choice. I want to
apologize for that, and set the record straight. I met Dennis in 1978
in county lock up. I was a heavy drinker, and Dennis was a drug addict.
He smoked a lot of weed and took a lot of pills. He was 18 years old
and I was 29. He was a good kid, and I do not believe that he is
capable of murder.
I'm guilty for the murder of Wendell Howell. Dennis did not commit that murder. He was not even in the house when I shot Howell. I was in a very bad place at that time. My baby daughter had died earlier that year, in February, and I blamed myself for her death. The year before, I had met a woman and we got married. She already had three young kids, and she became pregnant with my child, Jamie. I was so happy. In September 1978, when Jamie was only 8 months old, I got locked up for burglary. I tried to apply for the county jail work program, where they would let you out during the day to work and then you stay in jail for the night. At the time, my wife was home alone with four kids under seven years old, and I wanted to take care of them. But my wife moved another man into the house and I couldn't get into the work program.
Jamie died in February. They said it was crib death. But she was too old to have died from that. It was because the gas company shut off the heat. No one was there to pay the bills. Jamie froze to death.
At first, I tried to hold it together. I hired a lawyer to sue the city and I even helped to get a law passed that bars gas companies from turning off the gas in homes
with little children. The lawyer ran off, though, and I went downhill
quickly. I got to drinking real bad and I just didn't care about
anything. I went crazy. That was at the time that I knew Dennis. I
started drinking real heavy, and Dennis was popping all kinds of pills.
For months we kept up that way, me drinking and him taking pills. We would drive around, drinking, taking pills and smoking weed, and committing burglaries. That is how the murder occurred. I got too silly. There was a home invasion. I got stupid and killed a guy. They (Frank and Dennis) didn't know it was going to happen. We drove to
a house to rob it, and when Dennis saw that there was someone at home,
he convinced me to leave the house. But I drove back, I was drunk and
crazy, and I went back to the house. Dennis was scared of me. I had a
gun, a shotgun. At first it was under my seat, I was driving and Dennis
was in the back seat. Frank Brooks was riding in the passenger seat
next to me. He testified against Dennis and me and he is out of prison
now. Dennis didn't testify against me. He was a follower, he wouldn't
have done it.
Dennis wanted to leave Howell's house, but I wouldn't let him. When I came outside and said that I had killed the owner of the home, Dennis went white as a sheet. I made Dennisgo in and check to make sure that the man was dead. I don't know why I did that to him. He'd never seen a dead person before. Dennis didn't say a word for the entire ride back to Kansas City, about an hour and a half. When we got back to Kansas City, Dennis left. I didn't see him again until after we were arrested. He was really scared.
Dennis is a follower, he was a follower on the streets and a follower in prison. Prison is very much like that - there are the weak and there are the strong. Besides being in Potosi Correctional Center, I have also been in Crossroads for 11 years and at The Walls in Jefferson City for 13 years. Dennis and I celled together twice; one time for a year and another time for four to five months. Even while he was in prison the first time, Dennis smoked weed and took pills. Dennis was lost.
In 1982, I moved out of his cell because I got into the honor dorm. After I moved out, I heard about how much worse Dennis' addiction was getting. He got himself into so much debt and he couldn't pay it off. And of course he couldn't buy any new drugs. He was so hard up that he cut off the tip of his fingers just so that the guards would take him to the infirmary and give him a morphine drip. When I heard about this, I knew that Dennis was in trouble. So, I wrote a letter to the prison, pretending to be Dennis, and asked that they transfer Dennis to another prison because his sentence was almost over. They did and then he was released.
When Dennis came back to prison, he was deeply religious and a changed man. In 1992, when Dennis was let out, I was in lock up. In 1993, Dennis came back. I celled with Dennis from 1997 until I was transferred to Crossroads. Dennis talked a lot about his son, Regi. He was very proud of him.
I knew Allen Nicklasson in prison, too. I only talked to him one time, but it was enough for me to know that he was nuts. He couldn't even say a whole sentence. And when he talked he'd jump subjects two to three times before he even finished what he was saying. That guy is really crazy.
Dennis followed me into this crime, he is not capable of murder. This was my fault. He was good then, but he listened to people he shouldn't have. He let them
make his decisions for him. I believe that I am responsible for sending
him down the wrong path. I got him involved.
I declare, under penalty of perjury, that the foregoing declaration is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
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Lovely! I always like your posts and this one is simply fantastic! You have done a effort and I wish your blog will reach the topmost rankings soon! We are always with you bro!
This is such a boo hoo story. I new this punk growing up. He lived across from my grand parents and I went to school with his brother charlie. My whole family new theirs back when dennis took his first breath,and was there when his mom died. Follower BS, he was the ring leader of the local thug club wanna be gangsters,that terrorized the neighbors. The fondest memory I have is hearing my grandpa tell the story about the night dennis and two of his friends tried to jump me in front of the house. Grandpa stopped one other who came out of the house with a gun,while I gave a thrashing to the others. dennis was bad for a long time, people did try to help him and it didnt work,he was driving himself down his own road.
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