News Research:
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
Style
Where Talent and Technology Triumph


The Fearless Reporter:
Susan Clary

The Peerless Researcher:
John Martin

[Note: all photos and text are reprinted here with the permission of the St. Petersburg Times.]

Editor and Publisher's February 27, 1998 article, "NEWS STAFFERS LOCATE MURDER SUSPECT: Editorial Teamwork Leads to Arrest" by David Noack documents the role electronic research plays in newspaper reporting today.

Copyright 1998 Times Publishing Company
St. Petersburg Times

February 19, 1998, Thursday, 2 Late Tampa Edition

SECTION: TAMPA & STATE; Pg. 1B

DISTRIBUTION: TAMPA & STATE; CITY & STATE; METRO & STATE

LENGTH: 488 words

HEADLINE: Crime reporter points police to suspect in woman's death

BYLINE: SUSAN CLARY

Police had accused a man of gunning down his girlfriend in Seminole Heights early Wednesday, and I went to the couple's neighborhood to look for people who knew them.

Instead, I found the murder suspect himself.

Crime reporters generally encounter murder suspects after they've been arrested and handcuffed, as police lead them to a patrol car. Rarely is a reporter able to tell police where they can find a wanted man.

The strange series of events began with a mistaken photograph.

I arrived at the crime scene Wednesday morning shortly after Bridgette Mokdad was shot to death in the middle of Giddens Avenue. Reporters and photographers waited behind yellow tape for an update from Tampa police.

Homicide Sgt. Dan Grossi handed us jail photos of Jessie Bailey, the man witnesses said committed the murder, and gave us a description of his bright red pickup truck. On my cellular phone, I called Times researcher John Martin at our office and asked him to check records on Bailey using the birthdate on the photo.

Neighbors who knew Bailey said the photograph wasn't him, raising confusion. It was almost noon when all the television stations planned to run an alert for an armed and dangerous man - Jessie Bailey - with the photograph in hand.

A few minutes later, John called back. Using a computer data base, he had discovered something startling: The Jessie Bailey in the photograph was dead.

A few minutes later, John called back. Using a computer data base, he had discovered something startling: The Jessie Bailey in the photograph was dead.

The two men had the same name and similar birthdays. By mistake, police had pulled the wrong photo. I told Grossi, who immediately alerted other reporters to keep it off the air.

After police and reporters had left the neighborhood, John tried a second time to ascertain where the right Jessie Bailey lived. He gave me an address a few blocks away at 1504 Shadowlawn Ave.

I drove my car slowly down the street and pulled over when I saw the house.

Before I could get out, Bailey's bright red pickup truck pulled into the driveway. He calmly walked inside his house. Police later said he had his shotgun.

Hardly expecting to find him there, I fumbled with my cell phone and called a police office looking for Grossi. He wasn't there. Bailey walked outside to his truck a second time and grabbed some lumber on the lawn.

On my phone, I paged Grossi with a police signal 10-18, which means to respond quickly. He returned my call, and I told him Bailey was home. A neighbor also called police about the same time.

Moments later, Detective Jerry Clark, who had been looking for Bailey, pulled into a driveway in front of me and motioned for me to pull my car forward. Several marked patrol cars burst on the scene, and I rolled down my window to tell them Bailey was inside. Police arrested him moments later and charged him with first-degree murder.

The next time I saw Bailey, he was handcuffed, and police were leading him to a patrol car.

GRAPHIC: COLOR PHOTO; BLACK AND WHITE PHOTO; Susan Clary

February 19, 1998

    Email message from John Martin to
NewsLib list:

"Fellow Newslibbers and lurkers,
Thanks to all of you who have posted kind words, questions, and congratulations for what transpired here yesterday. My friend/colleague/publicist Kitty Bennett posted a message yesterday detailing our role in the apprehension of a murder suspect in Tampa. Suffice it to say that it was a singular, gratifying day for us in the news library.

A few of you have posted questions about what transpired in the research process. Here's what happened.

Shortly after 11:30 in the morning our day cops reporter in Tampa, Susan Clary, called me from the scene of a murder. A homicide detective had given her a name (Jessie Bailey), a DOB (7/5/36), and a photo of their suspect, along with a description of the suspect's red Dodge truck. I in turn requested a comprehensive report in Autotrack, and got a match on the name and DOB Susan gave me.

While the report was being compiled by Autotrack, I went to a web-based map site (it was either Mapquest or Maps on Us) to take the address on the suspect's drivers license and figure out how where this address was in relation to the murder scene. Witnesses at the scene said that the suspect lived in the neighborhood.

The address was about 2 or 3 miles from the scene of the murder, which I noticed, but at that point I wasn't certain whether the license address was current. But what was really odd was what I saw when the Autotrack report was complete. After the basic preliminary info (name, DOB, SSN, etc.) was the alert that a death claim had been filed on the social security number. No other addresses showed up in Autotrack to suggest if the death claim alert were erroneous, the suspect might live nearby.

I called Susan to tell her that the info Tampa P.D. provided her was quite possibly connected to a dead man. She in turn told me that people at the scene said the man in the photo wasn't the man who committed the murder. Weirdness reigned. Susan had to hang up.

I was still connected to Autotrack, so I scanned names in the Florida Driver's License module to see if there was another Jessie Bailey, Jesse Bailey, etc. with an address near where the murder took place. I found another Jessie Bailey. The DOB was 7/5/37. The license address was not more than 5 blocks from the murder scene. (I did my initial search in the DOB/Last name module, not the Last Name/First Name module, otherwise I might have foun sooner).

I immediately called Susan back and told her that another Jessie Bailey might live at this nearby address. She hung up, drove to a spot near the address, and before she could get out of her car, a red Dodge truck pulled into the driveway. No police were in sight. She paged the homicide detective. Moments later, patrol cars arrived and he was arrested.

As you can see, and I readily acknowledge, this was hardly rocket science, but it's resonated with our newsroom, and for that, I'm glad. Anything that helps people in the newsroom articulate a facet of what we do is a good thing, particularly for those who don't know a spreadsheet from a bedsheet. It's also a testament to the value of good reporter/researcher communication.

Anyway, that's the story.

John Martin
News Researcher
St. Petersburg Times
jmartin@sptimes.com

February 18, 1998

    Email message from Kitty Bennett to
NewsLib list:

"Here's what happened in Tampa this morning:
A guy in a pickup killed his girlfriend with a 12-gauge shotgun. The cops gave our reporter a name, age and photo of the guy who they thought did it. She called John Martin (the fabulous news researcher in question) and asked that he check the guy out, try to figure out where he lived, etc.

John did, determined the guy was probably dead and suggested to the reporter that the cops might have the wrong guy. He found a second guy with the same name but a different date of birth who lived in the same general area as Guy No. 1. He told the reporter he had a strong sense this guy (Guy No. 2) was probably the person she and the cops were after.

The reporter went to Guy No. 1's house, was assured Guy was indeed dead, and then followed John's advice and went to Guy No. 2's house. As she's pulling out of the trailer park where Guy No. 2 lives, she spots him coming home, fresh from the murder, 12-gauge ostensibly still on the seat of the truck. She calls the cops, tells them how to arrest Guy No. 2 and we all live happily ever after.

At our weekly editors meeting this afternoon, our assistant managing editor for Tampa lauded John for a lot of things, but one particularly nice comment made reference to the "intelligent use of the technology" available to us.

Not bad, huh? Are we proud of John or what?"

Cheers,
Kitty Bennett, news researcher

********************

[Kitty reported later that John Martin actually did receive a byline. Here is what happened:]

"The version of the story about the actual murder (not the story that tells how they did it) carried John's byline in most editions. Unfortunately, the version of this story that appears in Lex/Nex, by some fluke, John's byline didn't appear."

 


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