Tobias Five
Otsego
County, Michigan
Date of Alleged Crime: December 6, 1986
Five men were convicted of charges related to the murder of
31-year-old oil field worker Jerry Tobias. It was argued by some that
Tobias overdosed on drugs, went to sleep in the bed of a pickup, and froze
to death without waking up. The truck where Tobias's body was found
was parked by a butcher shop owned by Laurie Moore.
In Nov 1987, a jury convicted Moore of involuntary manslaughter after the
medical examiner identified as the probable murder weapon a metal skewer
that Moore used for roasting chicken. Three months later, four jurors
in the case asked to change their votes. They said 10 members of the
12-member jury had wanted to acquit Moore but had voted guilty after they
were falsely told that a hung jury would harm Moore's chances for a new
trial. The jurors' actions were the first sign that something was seriously
wrong about the Tobias case, which would eventually cost the community many
millions of dollars and become a convoluted web of official misconduct,
perjury, and outright craziness.
Following Moore's conviction, case investigators then began listening to a
witness, Debra Parmentier, who told them that she and another woman, Sherry
Payton, had been in Moore's butcher shop and had seen the murder. She
implicated Moore's brother Walter “Terry” Moore and two other men, Mark
Canter and Donald Heistand, as participants in the murder. She also said a
fourth man, Doug Brinkman, helped them load Tobias into the back of the
pickup.
Terry Moore and Canter were convicted of murder charges based on the
testimony of Parmentier and Payton. Both were sentenced to life in
prison. Heistand and Brinkman, offered a chance at reduced sentences,
confessed to lesser charges. Terry's appointed appeal attorney then
began an investigation. When investigators questioned Payton, she said
she had not witnessed any murder, but had been forced to corroborate
Parmentier's story by a Michigan State Police officer who told her she would
go to jail and never see her newborn baby if she refused to go along. Appeals based on the new testimony were unsuccessful.
However, Laurie Moore's original conviction was overturned on appeal because
the trial judge had issued incorrect instructions to the jury. One
member of the three judge appeals panel also issued a scathing denunciation
of police and and of prosecutor Norman Hayes. The judge charged Hayes
with “severe and reprehensible prosecutorial misconduct” and of pursuing
Moore in a spirit of personal vindictiveness. Hayes had known Moore
from high school and Moore had married Hayes' former girlfriend. After
three years, Laurie Moore was a free man. So were Brinkman and
Heistand who had served their sentences.
During an appeal of Terry Moore's conviction, a box of evidence surfaced
that was withheld from his defense. It contained evidence of
Parmentier's unreliability. Psychological evaluations showed she had a
history of lying and of mental illness. She had also told a series of
wild stories about international drug smuggling, gun-running, and the theft
of weapons from a Michigan National Guard armory. By this time
Parmentier had moved to Utah, gotten married, and changed her name to Debra
(sometimes Brieanna) Herrick. Police brought her back to Michigan for
a series of hearings in the summer of 1993.
At the hearings three of Parmentier's former boyfriends testified that
Parmentier had hired them to shoot into two homes where she was staying in
order to boost her credibility and persuade police that her life was in
danger. Parmentier had committed crimes while under protective
custody, faked her own kidnapping, and had an sexual relationship with one
of the officers assigned to guard her.
Evidence showed that she had been thoroughly coached in her testimony by
someone who provided her with court transcripts and newspaper clippings
about the case. Parmentier's former roommate, Cynthia Glesen Steele,
revealed that Parmentier had been home the night she supposedly witnessed
the Tobias murder. Steele said Parmentier later persuaded her to tell police
she was gone that weekend, and even had her change her diary to reflect the
official story.
The hearings were suspended twice, but by May of 1994 the judge consolidated
Moore's and Canter's appeals into a single case. The following month
he ordered Parmentier arrested on perjury charges. In March of 1995,
Parmentier jumped bond and disappeared from view. She left behind a
129 page document in which she recanted most of her previous testimony and
said she had been extensively coached by police. She said the police
had threatened her with prosecution when she tried to retract her earlier
statements. She said police warned her she might herself be prosecuted for
Tobias's death.
In Jan. 1996, Moore's and Canter's convictions were overturned. Charges against the two were dismissed after a judge ruled that Parmentier's
testimony was no longer admissible. In 2002 Moore and Canter were
awarded $4 million for their wrongful convictions and imprisonment.
[9/08]
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References: TCRE,
Appeals
Posted in:
Victims of the State,
Michigan Cases
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