by Ron Gregory
Is it just me or is the handling of Mingo County’s current murder case quite different than recent similar episodes?
Perhaps Sheriff James Smith has finally learned how to speak to the media about such incidents and this is the beginning of a new direction for the Sheriff’s Department. That would be a welcome change indeed.
And, it seems, the directors of the Williamson Daily News have finally learned that murders interest readers. Perhaps Kyle the Lovern has instilled a new philosophy there as well.
It was about a year ago now that thugs essentially killed a teenager in open public view on Second Avenue in Williamson. Since May 31, 2015, Dawson Isom has been in what doctors say is a permanent coma. He has not spoken, moved on his own or otherwise interacted with a loving family that tends to his daily needs.
Although the beating that led to Isom’s coma occurred only a few blocks from the Sheriff’s Office in the courthouse, Smith has generally appeared oblivious to the situation. He did manage to once tell me that the “State Police are investigating it and we don’t interfere with the State Police.” Otherwise, Smith attends holiday parties for his department in a building owned by the family allegedly involved with the beating and seems to have no trouble partying with others at the site. Concern and compassion have not exactly been the hallmark of Smith’s handling of the Isom case and voters reacted in the past Democrat primary by giving him less than a majority of their vote. He’s still the Democrat nominee because two opponents split the majority vote.
By every account I’ve heard, Ben Hatfield was a genuinely good and decent person. He was absolutely distraught when members of the family of Sago miners were led to believe their loved ones had survived a mining disaster. Although some will always have dim views of coal company executives, it is generally accepted that Hatfield was a good man.
Like Dawson Isom, whether Hatfield was a good man or not, he did not deserve to die at the hands of an assassin in a Mingo cemetery. The perpetrator should face fair and impartial judgment. I think we can all agree on that. Where the problem comes in is that, in the case of Isom, there has been nothing like fair and impartial judgment.
Voters also did all they could earlier this month to correct the Isom problem. Challenger Duke Jewell defeated incumbent Prosecutor Teresa Maynard by a virtual landslide. Come January 2017, there will at least be a fresh face in that office. Hopefully, Jewell will have the good sense to pursue proper charges against those who beat Isom. Maynard never would and, as noted, the Sheriff slept through the entire year.
If justice is accomplished in the Hatfield case, we should all feel better and breathe easier. While that does nothing for justice in the Isom case, it MIGHT indicate something is getting better in Mingo even while slumbering Smith and do-nothing Maynard remain in charge of justice. Only time will tell.
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Another curiosity of the Hatfield case is its various similarities to the murder of Sheriff Eugene Crum, another miscarriage of Mingo justice.
Crum was gunned down on the same Williamson street where Isom was beaten. Both events have in the broad daylight. Law enforcement was, and has been, about as silent on that murder as they have about Isom.
Although Smith and Maynard appear to have learned to speak in the Hatfield matter, one could already be a bit concerned that a 20-year-old Ohioan has been charged with the murder. Smith might have some theory as to why a youngster from Ohio would want to travel to Mingo County to kill a coal executive but if he does, on that he is not talking. Keep in mind that Hatfield lived in Charleston and was allegedly visiting the Mingo cemetery where his late wife is buried.
Could it be just coincidence that some Ohio man would just happen to be in the vicinity of that cemetery while Hatfield was there? How fortunate was the timing? Or was it planned by someone(s) other than the 20-year-old?
There isn’t a shadow of a doubt in the mind of anyone with common sense that Crum’s murder was the result of some sort of conspiracy. But law enforcement quit when they managed to charge a young man and get the judicial system to send him to a mental institution for life. Will something similar happen here? Will Smith ever learn to discuss the rationale behind the shooting with the public he allegedly serves?
Details of the Crum shooting would convince the average person that his killer did not act alone. Police have largely ignored any of that evidence. The Kanawha County Prosecutor’s office, named as special prosecutors in the case, have been nearly as silent as their Mingo County investigators. If one did not know a sheriff was gunned down on a public street across from the courthouse, you’d never know it.
If we waited on the Daily News to report ANYTHING but the company line on the Isom case, we’d never know he was still in a coma either. Lovern, the editor, can cry that this newspaper has accused the WDN of being the “mouthpiece” of Team Mingo all he wants. He can point out to readers that his rag has never endorsed the Team Mingo candidates (or any candidates for that matter) but the fact is their propensity to provide positive publicity for those they think are all-powerful while ignoring anyone else tells the tale. Now, the Daily News provides readers with updates on Hatfield’s death but has never once offered anything on Isom. If one relied solely on the WDN, he or she would never know that the conclusions in the Crum case make no earthly sense.
Let us hope, however, that Mingo officials have seen the light (or felt the heat) and will actually DO something right in the Hatfield case.
Decent people everywhere demand justice for Ben Hatfield, Dawson Isom and Sheriff Crum.
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Your comments, story ideas, gossip and reports of justice in Mingo are always welcome. Use my email listed or call my cell, 304-533-5185.