Editor’s note: Frank has covered the Duckett case from the beginning as a writer and newspaper editor.
Content warning: The following article contains descriptions of violent crime involving a child that may be disturbing to some readers.

 

Shocking, baffling, and with a double-tragedy twist that defies the imagination, former police officer James Duckett now faces a date with executioner for the 1987 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

The court has scheduled a series of hearings in the coming days. The final chapter could come on March 31 following Gov. Ron DeSantis signing the death warrant on Feb. 27, but not without endless controversy about the way evidence was presented.

And it also comes after his 2-year-old grandson, Trenton, disappeared in 2006 while in the care of his mother, sparking national headlines. She committed suicide after possibly killing him, though some investigators said they believe she may have turned him over to someone else. The case remains unsolved.

LITTLE GIRL GONE

Teresa McAbee walked from her home to a nearby convenience store to buy a pencil to do her homework around 10 p.m. on May 11, 1987. When she didn’t return, her mother rode around looking for her, finally reporting her missing around midnight. The police chief ordered Duckett, a rookie officer in the town of 1,600, to make the disappearance his top priority.

She was found floating face down in a lake by a fisherman the next morning. She had been raped and strangled.

Suspicion turned to Duckett right away. He checked with the family only one time, and by 3 a.m., was using radar to look for speeders.

“… for a rookie police officer, his lack of concern about a missing child was overwhelming,” Sheriff’s investigator Rocky Harris testified.

Sheriff’s investigators also found tire tracks on the lakefront matching those on the police department’s two patrol cars.

DNA COULD UNLOCK SECRETS

An FBI expert, Michael Malone, testified that a stranger’s hair was found in her panties.

There was no hair root so it could not be tested for DNA, a new forensic tool.

QUESTIONABLE WITNESSES

A Department of Justice investigation into the FBI lab in the 1990s resulted in sharp criticism of lab procedures and the testimony of some experts.

Duckett’s attorney hired the man who had investigated the FBI to examine Malone’s work.

“In reaching the conclusion that Malone’s trial testimony was inconsistent with his reports, notes, and area of expertise, the independent analyst explained that at trial, Malone sometimes overstated or exaggerated the accuracy of hair analysis,” the Florida Supreme Court noted in 2017.

However, he correctly stated that the test was not as definitive as fingerprints examined with a microscope,  and he declared the hair was “consistent” with Duckett’s.

At one point, Duckett was asking for new tests, however such a small sample could be destroyed in the process.

MAINTAINING HIS INNOCENCE

Duckett wrote to me on Nov. 10, 2017, insisting that he is innocent and he criticized the way evidence has been handled.

He said three white hairs were found inside Teresa’s clothing.

“Years later Ms. Wells motioned the court to locate and send to our expert these three white hairs! After much delay by LCSO (Lake County Sheriff’s Office) a package arrived at my expert in New York. When he opened the package… there was a small petri dish sealed WITH NO HAIRS INSIDE!”

 “A sealed petri dish and hairs not mine disappear,” he continued. “Why?”

 One of the most controversial witnesses was a 16-year-old girl who testified that she saw a child in Duckett’s patrol car at the store. Gwen Gurley had been arrested for allegedly violating probation on a theft charge. She said sheriff’s deputies held that over her head to pressure her to lie about what she saw.

She later recanted and then refused to testify for fear she would be charged with perjury.

“So frustrating!” said Duckett’s attorney, Elizabeth Wells in an evidentiary hearing.

FINGERPRINTS

Gurley’s testimony was not that important, prosecutors say. Investigators found Teresa’s fingerprints mixed with Duckett’s on the hood of the patrol car. The prints are pointed outward, showing she was sitting on the hood, and his prints are facing inward.

Duckett said she never sat on the hood, prosecutors say.

SUSPICION IN POLK COUNTY

There were so many controversies a veteran retired Miami homicide investigator decided to open his own query. He concluded that Duckett was innocent. He later changed his mind after learning that Duckett was a suspect in the murder of two girls in Polk County.

JURY OR JUDGE?

Duckett’s defense team latched on to a U.S. Supreme Court rulings that juries — not judges– should decide if a defendant gets the death penalty, and that votes must be unanimous.

Duckett’s jury voted 8-4 for death, but the 1988 trial date falls outside of the scope of the ruling.

WHAT’S NEXT

The Florida Supreme Court of Florida has set up a series of deadlines for motions and orders.

A hearing is set for Tuesday.

“By then we’ll know what we’re dealing with,” says Assistant State Attorney Ken Nunnelley. More hearings could be scheduled after that.