No proof man killed girlfriend, defense tells jurors

Lawyers for a 49-year-old Jacksonville man accused of beating his girlfriend to death defied prosecutors to prove he deliberately killed the woman, telling a Pulaski County jury Tuesday that she likely succumbed to injuries from a “horrific accident.”

“The problem with the state’s case is that there’s absolutely no evidence [James Anthony Dokes] did this,” Public Defender Colleen Barnhill said in her opening statement.

She called Vinolya Ann “Vino” Myers’ July 2020 death a “terrible tragedy.” With fellow defender Lou Marczuk, Barnhill told the nine-woman, three-man jury hearing evidence before Circuit Judge Leon Johnson that authorities have no murder weapon and no witnesses to how the 45-year-old mother of two was fatally injured. She said prosecutors can’t produce a witness who even saw the couple arguing.

Proceedings resume at 9:30 a.m. today.

The defense has not said what kind of accident could have caused the deadly wounds, which police say are the result of repeated blunt force trauma to the head, although in their questioning of witnesses, the lawyers have repeatedly returned to an incident the night before in which a heavily intoxicated Myers tried to climb a chain link fence around the couple’s Pike Avenue home during a birthday party for Dokes. Jurors have also heard testimony about how Myers tried to throw a chair at someone and had been combative at the party.

Myers was hit so hard in the head that her brain came loose, and she was barely breathing when the ambulance arrived, senior deputy prosecutor Jeanna Sherrill said in her opening.

Dokes didn’t call an ambulance for Myers or notify police, but instead spent time cleaning up the home, the prosecutor said, describing how investigators found small blood spots in the living room, kitchen and bedroom of the residence, some of it on clothing, some on other items, Sherrill told jurors.

“He was … covering his tracks,” she said.

Police only learned what had happened to Myers because Dokes’ sister and brother called for an ambulance after seeing her condition when Dokes asked them to take her to get help, about an hour before sunrise the morning after the birthday party, Sherrill, with senior deputy prosecutor John Johnson, told jurors.

Rescuers were called to the home of Dokes’ brother, not Dokes’ residence, she noted, stating further that police had to track Dokes down to arrest him at the home of a friend using Myers’ cell phone about eight hours after the wounded woman was discovered.

Calvin Dokes, the defendant’s older brother, testified that he started getting calls from Myers’ phone about 4 a.m. but ignored the first couple of calls. He picked up on the third call to hear his brother calling him to come over, a request Calvin Dokes, 52, said he declined, telling his brother to call their sister. Both siblings live nearby.

“He said, ‘Come over here for my baby … something’s happened to my baby’ but wouldn’t explain,” Calvin Dokes testified.

When their sister called him to come with her, he went along, Calvin Dokes told jurors. He said he went alone into the house, finding it dark and hard to see. But he could quickly tell Myers was badly injured, Calvin Dokes testified.

“When I go in, Vino is on the couch, bleeding from the mouth. I told him to call police, but he didn’t want to,” Calvin Dokes said, describing how the woman, wearing only shorts, was barely conscious and making a “gurgling” sound. “When I saw blood, I said, ‘She got to go’” to the hospital.

He said he got his brother to dress the woman and carry her to the car, but he and his sister quickly realized she needed emergency medical attention. So his sister called 911, directing rescuers to Calvin Dokes’ home.

Questioned about statements he made to police about his brother’s “too erratic” behavior and that the younger man had acted aggressively toward him when he pushed to take Myers to the hospital, Calvin Dokes said he either didn’t remember saying that or that he’d misspoken.

Disputing assertions that his brother didn’t seem concerned about Myers, Calvin Dokes said his brother was genuinely worried about her and wanted to come along on the ride to take her to get medical attention. Calvin Dokes said he wouldn’t let his brother join them because the younger man was too drunk.