'Killer Instinct'

Melinda Elkins was grappling with the incomprehensible:  Just hours before, she’d learned her mother had been brutally killed... her niece raped and left for dead. 

Now detectives at the Barberton, Ohio police department had just charged her husband Clarence with the crimes.

Melinda Elkins:  The whole feel of it was just kind of surreal. I remember thinking, “This can’t be happening.”

What made the situation even more surreal was her husband’s accuser was their beloved niece, Brooke Sutton.

And yet Melinda believed wholeheartedly in her husband’s innocence.

Sara James, Dateline correspondent: You were convinced he hadn’t done it?

Melinda Elkins: “Convinced” is not the word. I absolutely knew 100 percent that he did not do that.

And it wasn’t just that she’d been married to Clarence for 18 years and knew his character.  Ironically, Melinda’s confidence in her husband’s innocence stemmed from an incident which infuriated her.  On the night of her mother’s murder, Melinda knew Clarence had been out late—drinking—at a local bar. 

James: Did you have an alibi?

Clarence Elkins: Yeah. I went out and had a couple beers with my friends and came home about 2:40 a.m. Sunday morning.

Police said Melinda’s mother, Judy Johnson, had been murdered between 2:30 and 5:30 in the morning—and she lived an hour away. 

James: Were you in any shape to make that drive?

Clarence Elkins: No, no. 

What’s more, Melinda says she’d seen Clarence when he returned home since she’d been up half the night, caring for a sick child.

James: So if your husband had left your house, committed this brutal crime, and come back, you would’ve known?

Melinda Elkins: Absolutely. Absolutely.

But police were equally absolute in their conviction that Clarence was guilty. The rudimentary DNA tests available back in 1998 didn’t provide any evidence to link Clarence to the crime, but authorities relied on other evidence to build their case.  There was Brooke’s eyewitness identification, and friends of Melinda’s mother testified that her relationship with Clarence was rocky—more than enough proof for Melinda’s side of the family.

Melinda Elkins: They were mad at me. They were upset that I would lie and stick up for him.

The family split— and Melinda and her sister, both grieving the loss of their mother, stopped speaking to each other.   

April Sutton: I felt like how could someone be protecting their husband when he killed my mother and did that to my daughter. I just didn’t understand.

Brooke Sutton: I was angry. I thought she was sticking up for Uncle Clarence too.

At the funeral, Melinda was shunned by her relatives.  Standing in the cemetery that day, all alone, without her mother and without her husband, Melinda made a promise to her mom. 

Melinda Elkins: I made a vow to her on the day that we buried her, that I would find out who did this to her and Brooke. 

But as Clarence languished in jail, mounting legal bills forced her to the brink of bankruptcy.  She’d lost her job, then her home— and one year after the murder, her husband went on trial for his life… and their niece was the star witness for the prosecution. 

Brooke Sutton: I remember when they asked me to point him out, and I just remember all these people staring at me.

James: How important do you think her testimony was in that trial?

April Sutton: I believe that that was the evidence that they had.

James: She was in essence, the case.

April Sutton: Yes.

After 13 hours of deliberations, the jury reached a verdict.

On one side of the courtroom, Melinda sat with Clarence’s family.  On the other, her own family.

Melinda Elkins: I had a knot through my entire body.

James: And the verdict was?

Melinda Elkins: Guilty. Guilty on murder. Guilty on aggravated assault, guilty on three counts of rape.

Clarence Elkins: I couldn’t believe the words. I didn’t believe the words. I heard ‘em but it was like — "Say what you want to say. I know I’m not guilty. I’m innocent."

Melinda Elkins: Not only were they convicting an innocent man, but they were letting a murderer, my mother’s murderer, get away with what he had done.

Melinda watched in shock as her husband was led away. 

Melinda Elkins: I said “I love you.” And he turned and said “I love you.”

James: Did you tell him anything else?

Melinda Elkins: “This isn’t over.”

But it was, as far as everyone else was concerned, when a judge sentenced Clarence Elkins to life in prison.  He wouldn’t be eligible for parole until the year 2054.  It was case closed for everyone except for one person.

Melinda Elkins: I really don’t think that anybody felt that one person, initially, would be able to pull something off, taking on the whole state. And it was....

James: David and Goliath.

Melinda Elkins: That’s exactly how I felt.

James: And you didn’t even have a slingshot. What did you have? What were you armed with?

Melinda Elkins: Truth.

James: But you didn’t know the truth either. All you knew was your husband didn’t do it.  That didn’t mean you knew who did.

Melinda Elkins: That’s right.

James: And you were going to have to figure that out.

Melinda Elkins:  Exactly.

And she would have to figure it out with no money, no clues, and no idea who’d committed this crime.

Soon, she’d find herself doing her own detective work, going undercover, putting herself in dangerous situations, driven by her unwavering belief in her husband’s innocence.

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'Killer Instinct' Section Front

Housewife-turned-CSI investigator Sara James: This should be a movie Producer Bob Gilmartin on covering the story Motion from the defense to free Elkins (.pdf) Innocence Project letter of support (.pdf) Post-conviction DNA findings (.pdf) 'Killer Instinct' Section Front   Add 'Killer Instinct' headlines to your news reader: