 Ricky Webb
Blurton was discovered by her husband, Billy, who had received a call at work from their daughter’s teacher saying that Charlotte had failed to pick their daughter up after school. He picked up his daughter and arrived home at 3:45 P.M., where he found his wife’s body. Billy said Charlotte had brought him lunch at his job at Tyson Foods at 11:30 a.m. that day. They ate lunch together and Charlotte left to go home at about 12:10 p.m., he said.
Police found a black belt on the bedroom floor that Blurton said was not his. Police also recovered several .25-caliber shell casings.
The investigation quickly focused on 17-year-old Carl Ray Webb, who lived about a half a mile from the Blurton residence. He was picked up by police as he emerged from some woods nearby. He was barefoot, appeared to have blood on his jeans and was not wearing underwear. He was arrested and after his mother gave permission, police began questioning him.
Carl Webb said that he had helped a neighbor, Adam Spinx, haul bricks from a demolished school building until about 11:30 a.m. that day. Afterward, Carl, who had dropped out of school, said he got a ride to the school in Gibson, where he played basketball and talked to the principal about re-enrolling. He said he got home around 4:30 p.m.
Police canvassed the neighborhood and found a neighbor who said the belt was his and that Carl had borrowed it earlier in the week.
At 7:45 p.m., Spinx called police and reported his .25-caliber pistol was missing from his truck. The following morning, police drove Carl to the woods where he had been arrested. On the way, he began crying. He admitted he had stolen the gun from Spinx’s truck and was walking down the road when he saw Charlotte Blurton arrive home. Carl said he went into the house and ordered her into the bedroom. He said she told him a telephone repairman was coming soon and then slapped him. Carl said he “started shooting her until the gun wouldn’t shoot anymore.”
Carl then led the police to the .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol, where he had left in a field about 600 yards from the Blurton house.
Carl was charged with first-degree murder. The following day, September 24, 1976, he changed his account, claiming that his uncle, 21-year-old Ricky Lee Webb had been with him, and had been the one who fired the gun. Ricky Webb was taken into custody as a material witness, but after three weeks, he was released without being charged because there was no evidence supporting Carl’s new account.
Over the next several months, Carl’s lawyers and the prosecution battled over whether Carl would be prosecuted as an adult and whether he was mentally competent to stand trial.
On October 5, 1976, clinical psychologist John McCoy of the Gibson County Mental Health Center evaluated Carl and concluded he was within the “borderline mental retardation range.” Dr. McCoy described Carl’s personality as “psychotic in nature” and recommended further evaluation.
On October 8, 1976, Dr. Sylvia Hall examined Carl. Dr. Hall said Carl told her “he did have a sexual problem” and had been “telling his mother he needed help for a long time.” He also
reported hearing voices and seeing naked women who would sometimes talk to him when no one was in the room. Dr. Hall recommended that Carl undergo even further evaluation, including mental examinations in an inpatient psychiatric facility.
On November 18, 1976, Dr. Patricia Corry, staff psychiatrist at the Central State Psychiatric Hospital, and clinical psychologist William Lyle, issued a report recommending that Carl “be admitted to an institution for the mentally retarded or mentally ill.”
The two experts also testified at a hearing on December 7, 1976. They testified that Carl “suffered from mild retardation and simple schizophrenia.”
Despite these findings, on December 8, 1976, Juvenile Court Judge Edwin Pigue ruled that Carl was competent to stand trial. Judge Pigue credited the testimony of Carl’s school principal and a teacher, who said that “they had talked to him on numerous occasions” and observed no abnormalities in his behavior. They described Carl as an “average run-of-the-mill student,” although Carl had dropped out and said he was attempting to re-enroll at the time of the murder.
Judge Pigue also cited the testimony of Adam Spinx, from whom Carl stole the murder weapon. Spinx had testified that Carl “was no different from any other child his age.” The judge also cited the testimonies of Investigator Robert Inman, Deputy Wayne Barber, and Deputy Leroy Espey, who all reported that they detected no signs that Carl “was mentally ill or that he was retarded,” especially given his ability to recall where he had hidden the murder weapon.
On December 10, 1976, Judge Pigue transferred Carl’s case to Humboldt Law Court in Humboldt, Tennessee to be tried as an adult. The prosecution said it would seek the death penalty.
Dr. Corry evaluated Carl again on February 17, 1977, and reported that “his affect was inappropriate, as he smiled anxiously and talked about minor matters such as the fact that he was planning to get married.” Dr. Corry said Carl also hallucinated while in jail – he said “he had seen his uncle in the cell adjoining his” and “was still hearing women talking to him.” He also heard the voice of God, who told him that “he would get time.”
On January 12, 1978, Carl agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and rape with a 50-year prison sentence. In return, he agreed to testify against Ricky. That same day, Ricky was arrested and charged with capital murder and rape.
Also on that day, William Jones, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) agent, interviewed Katherine Love, the mother of Ricky’s two children. Jones reported that Love said that on the day of the crime, Ricky and Carl were in her carport at about noon and that they left together.
Prior to trial, Ricky’s lawyers filed a motion to restrict the prosecution from striking prospective jurors who were Black. They asserted that there was a history of “intentional, discriminatory and systematic exclusion of [B]lacks from the jury rolls” in Gibson County. They said that the prosecution had “over a long period of time excluded members of the [B]lack race” from serving on juries, and predicted that the prosecution would continue its “long pattern of discrimination” in exercising its peremptory strikes.
The lead prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney General A.H. Schoonover replied that he “deeply resent[ed] the reckless, abusive, and totally false” defense claims. At the same time, Schoonover told the defense he had no discoverable evidence to turn over to them.
After a full day of jury selection on October 23, 1978, an all-white jury was sworn in. During his opening statement, Schoonover said, “I want to apologize to you…The folks we are dealing with here today will [not] understand all those sophisticated words you people understand, so they will testify in their own language…Some of the witnesses [are] not Sunday School teachers. Sunday School teachers [do] not associate with or have dealings with people that we are dealing with today.”
The following day, testimony began with Billy Blurton describing how he found his wife. Dr. James Spencer Bell, the chief medical examiner for the state of Tennessee, testified that he performed the autopsy. He said Charlotte had been shot five or six times and that he found sperm in her vagina.
Sheriff’s deputy Leroy Espey testified that he questioned Ricky after Carl’s first allegation right after the crime. Espey said Ricky told him that on the day of the crime, he had watched television and later went to a cabbage patch with a small child.
Espey also revealed that a few weeks before the murder, Carl had raped his cousin, E.W., but had not been charged after E.W.’s mother declined to press charges.
Espey said that the statement from Katherine Love that she saw Ricky and Carl walking down the road toward the Burton house was the corroboration authorities needed to arrest Ricky. Espey also noted that at first Love denied seeing them together, but during later questioning said she saw them leave the house together.
Adam Spinks testified that Carl helped him haul bricks on the morning of the crime. At one point, Spinks said Ricky came by on his bicycle and helped unhook a trailer. Spinks said he and Carl kept working and finished about noon. Spinks said he had put his .25-caliber pistol in his truck that morning to shoot dogs that were killing his pigs. He said he noticed later that day that the gun was missing. Spinks identified the gun that police had retrieved as his missing pistol.
Carl testified that the night before the murder, he hung out with Ricky, Katherine Love, and James Williams, Ricky’s 14-year-old nephew. He said they smoked marijuana, and that Ricky began talking about “all the white women he had and telling me what I was missing out on.”
Carl said that he stole the pistol from Spinx’s truck and went home. He said that Ricky came over and asked for the gun. Carl said he handed it to Ricky. While there, Love arrived. Carl said they all smoked marijuana, and then went to Love’s home. Carl said they were there for a few minutes when Ricky said, “Let’s walk to Gibson.”
Carl said they stopped at the Blurton house, knocked, and when Charlotte answered, Ricky pointed the gun at her and demanded money. Carl said that when she said she only had $10, Ricky told him to take her to the bedroom. Carl testified that he and Ricky both sexually assaulted her.
Carl said he heard Charlotte’s 17-month old son crying in another room, so he put the gun on a dresser and went to comfort the child. While holding the baby, Carl said he heard two gunshots. He said he ran toward the bedroom still carrying the baby. He said he was in the doorway when he saw Ricky shoot Charlotte again.
Carl said that he was carrying the gun when they both left the house and that he threw it away.
His testimony differed in several ways from his testimony at a preliminary hearing. At the hearing, he had said he handed the gun to Ricky; at trial he said he left it on the dresser. At the preliminary hearing, he testified to five gunshots; at trial he said there were six. At the preliminary hearing, Carl said Ricky gave him the gun and told him to get rid of it; at the trial, Carl said he already had the gun when Ricky told him to get rid of it.
During cross-examination, Carl was asked how many times he had spoken with the prosecution about his account. “I haven’t went [sic] over it,” Carl said. He said the last time he had gone over his account was 10 months earlier, at the preliminary hearing in February 1978.
Katherine Love testified and recanted her statement that she saw Carl and Ricky leave her home together at about noon on the day of the crime. The prosecution was allowed to impeach her with the statement that she did see them leave her home that day at that time.
During cross-examination by the defense, Love said she changed her statement because she was “frightened” while talking to the police. She said three or four officers “were just hollering” and wanted her to incriminate Ricky. Love also denied being with Ricky and Carl the night before and denied smoking marijuana with them.
Robert Inman, an investigator for the District Attorney, said he was present while Love was interviewed. He said she “was treated as any other person we would talk to during the process of an investigation.”
Ronnie Humphreys, a sheriff’s deputy, testified he also was present at Love’s interview and confirmed that Love had made the statement that she saw Carl and Ricky leave together.
Prentis Rogers, an undercover TBI agent, testified that he was put in a cell with Carl and Ricky on January 12, 1978 – the day Carl pled guilty and Ricky was arrested. He said that Carl and Ricky exchanged angry words during which Ricky allegedly said, “Yeah, man, I know I got you in a lot of trouble. I'm sorry I instigated the whole thing.”
Samuel Anders, who was also in the jail, but was not working in cooperation with the authorities, testified that Ricky had told him that he had gone to the Blurton home with Carl and that he was in a different room when Carl had fired the gunshots.
Howard Gillespie, also a fellow jail inmate, testified that Ricky said that he knew the victim and knew who committed the crime. Gillespie also said he overheard Ricky deny involvement in the crime.
The defense called James Williams, Ricky’s nephew, who said that he and Ricky spent the night before the murder at Carl’s home. Williams said Love was not there and that they did not smoke marijuana.
L. B., Ricky’s sister, testified that Carl had a history of making sexually inappropriate comments to women. She confirmed that Carl had raped her daughter, E.W., two weeks before the murder. L.B said that Carl had been angry because his mother left him at home while she went to Detroit. L.B. said Carl said that when his mother got back, “she would be in for a surprise and that he was gonna do something to show her how he felt and that she would regret it the rest of her life.”
L.B. said that on the day of the murder, Ricky had been at her house. At about 12:30 p.m., Ricky and L.B.’s son, Anthony, left for the cabbage patch on Ricky’s bicycle. She said they returned at about 1:30 p.m. She said Ricky took some cabbage sprouts to Love’s house, then returned, and spent the rest of the evening in her house.
E.W. testified that Carl had raped her when he found her at home alone. She said she stuck him in the neck with a pencil and called the police. She acknowledged that she did not pursue charges at the urging of her mother. E.W. corroborated her mother’s account of Ricky’s whereabouts on the day of the murder.
Florence Love, Katherine’s mother, testified that she was at the cabbage patch when Ricky and Anthony arrived at about noon. She said they left around 1 p.m.
Sally Sanders testified that she was driving along Cemetery Road in the direction of the Blurton house when she saw Carl walking alone on the side of the road. She said that she turned around and went home. She said she passed by Florence Love’s residence and saw Ricky and Florence in the front yard at about 12:30 p.m.
Ricky testified and denied any involvement in the crime. He said he had spent the night before with Williams and Carl, but said they did not smoke marijuana. He said Katherine Love was not present. He gave his account of his whereabouts which mirrored the testimony of L.B. and E.W.
Ricky denied making incriminating statements to TBI undercover agent Rogers or any jail inmate.
On October 25, after four hours and seven minutes of deliberation, the jury convicted Ricky of capital murder and rape. The jury declined to impose the death penalty, resulting in a sentence of life without parole.
In 1980, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the convictions and ordered a new trial. The court ruled that the placement of the TBI undercover agent in the cell at the time when Ricky was represented by counsel was a violation of his constitutional rights.
Prior to a retrial, Ricky rejected an offer from the prosecution to plead guilty to second-degree murder and rape for a 50-year sentence – the same deal Carl had accepted.
Ricky’s retrial was largely a repeat of the first trial, except for Carl’s testimony. This time, he omitted the claimed statement from Ricky about having sex with white women. Carl inserted a new conversation with Ricky at Spinx’s house, saying that Ricky told him “I got [the gun] for you,” and that he would give it to Carl later that day.
Carl said for the first time that Ricky was going to pay him $15 or an ounce of marijuana for the pistol. He said that Ricky gave him an ounce of marijuana at Katherine Love’s house, where they rolled joints and smoked it.
Carl’s account of the crime was different and more graphic. He said for the first time that he saw Ricky shoot Charlotte “in the chest and in the hand.”
On October 21, 1982, another all-white jury convicted Ricky again of capital murder and rape. His life sentence was reimposed.
Carl was released on parole on November 15, 1996. He died of cancer on August 28, 2021.
In November 2022, while being represented by attorneys Connor Webber, Quinn Carlson, and Jessica Van Dyke from the Tennessee Innocence Project, Ricky asked for and the prosecution agreed to obtain the TBI file in the case. The file was not a public record and not subject to the Tennessee Public Records Act.
In the TBI file, the lawyers found five separate confessions from Carl, all of which contradicted his testimony in both trial and the preliminary hearing.
Most importantly, Carl’s first confession never implicated Ricky at all. Carl took full responsibility for the entire crime.
The lawyers also obtained the prosecution’s files and found two more confessions from Carl. In addition, the file contained a urine drug screen from Carl that was conducted less than 12 hours after the crime. The screen was negative, contradicting Carl’s claim that he had smoked marijuana the night before the crime.
In October 2023, the lawyers interviewed Katherine Love. She again recanted her statement that she saw Carl and Ricky leaving together shortly before the crime. She said that the police had threatened to take her children away from her unless she gave an incriminating statement.
In November 2023, the lawyers filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis, seeking to vacate Ricky’s convictions. The petition noted that the police reports and interviews were laced with racist references. Regarding Katherine Love, the petition said, “Ms. Love changed her story only once – after spending thirty-five minutes in a room with law enforcement who thought of her as ‘the nigger girl who lives around Gibson’ and threatened to take her children from her if she did not change her story.”
The undisclosed evidence also showed that Carl was reluctant to testify against Ricky, but the TBI told him that Ricky would kill him if he went free.
The petition noted that during closing argument, the prosecution told the jury, “You can see now, it hasn’t been the State of Tennessee in all of its might and majesty against Ricky Lee Webb. It’s been the proof in all of its might and majesty against Ricky Lee Webb. It’s been the evidence….You saw and heard every bit of it.”
The petition noted that had the jury actually heard all of the evidence, “there is a likelihood that they would have reached a different result.”
On August 29, 2024, Judge Roy B. Morgan Jr. granted the petition and vacated Ricky’s convictions. The judge noted that the “revelation of the 132 pages of evidence in the TBI file, as well as the evidence found in the District Attorney’s file, is shocking when considered in the context of a case of this magnitude.”
“After confessing to acting alone and leading investigators to the murder weapon, Carl…was charged with first-degree murder and then gave multiple inconsistent statements to law enforcement about the crime,” Judge Morgan said. “These statements were withheld from the Petitioner and had they been disclosed to the jury, it may have resulted in a different outcome at trial.”
The judge said the evidence showed that Carl was mentally ill and lied at the trials, that the state “threatened and intimidated witnesses,” that a TBI agent used “the N-word” to describe Carl and Katherine. “The court finds the use of this word coercive by its very nature.”
The judge ruled that the TBI had “coerced and threatened” Carl into testifying at Ricky’s second trial.
On October 4, 2024, Ricky was released on bond. He had spent 45 years, 11 months and 10 days in custody from the date of his first conviction. On October 30, 2024, the prosecution dismissed the charges.
– Maurice Possley
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