Case #7: The Murder of Jimmy McClain
Introduction:
Until about a week ago, I had honestly never heard of this case, and yet, I found the story around to be sort of crazy, and I knew it was something I had to cover.
Jimmy McClain's Passion for Basketball:
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| The Murder Victim, Jimmy McClain |
Jimmy McClain was a former University of Central Arkansas Basketball star and a Benton preacher. Another source also cited McClain as a school teacher. One of McClain's friends, Ronnie Martin said that McClain was a genuinely good person. The other person I was able to find quotes from was one of McClain's former teammates and friends, Dennis Moore. Moore had mentioned that McClain had actually tried out for the NBA, but found more luck playing Basketball overseas. Moore had also said that McClain would often return to support University of Central Arkansas's players. I mention his passion for Basketball because when he was murdered, he was a high school basketball coach in Memphis.
The Ivestigation:
49-year-old Jimmy McClain was found dead in his home on February 22nd, 2013 after McClain reportedly had not been at work for days prior to his death. When police began investigating, they noted that there appeared to be no signs of break-in suggesting the killer may have had a key. In the late '90s, Jimmy had met Carla, who would be his first wife. Carla had two children from a previous marriage, sixteen-year-old Tiffany and eleven-year-old Dwayne. Jimmy and Carla were married for eight years before problems began arising in their marriage. It appeared as though Carla wanted the divorce. The two remained separated for four years before Jimmy agreed to make the divorce official.
First Wife, First Suspect:
Carla was really looked at as the first suspect. Apparently, Jimmy was only killed a couple of weeks after he agreed to the divorce. Police really found this suspicious. When they questioned Carla, she said the two of them had just fallen out of love. It also appeared as though the two had very different styles of parenting, and it looked as though that may have played a factor in the divorce. Carla had also apparently told the police that she had a life insurance policy. This made the police suspicious as well, seeing this as a potential motive. After the police had looked through Jimmy's phone, they found a series of texts between McClain and a woman named Pam Smith. The last texts between the two occurred minutes before Jimmy McClain was murdered, leading to Pam Smith becoming suspect number two.
Pam Smith:
Police learned from Pam Smith that she was Jimmy's new girlfriend. The two had been apparently dating for six months. When police questioned her, Pam was quick to give over her phone. The police asked Pam if she had a key to Jimmy's house, which she did not. But, the police apparently learned that Carla did have a key. The tricky thing here was that Carla seemed to check out based on talking to the police. However, this was also information that raised some concern about Carla's innocence. Carla had also told the police she didn't have a key. Police did eventually find a new lead, a muddy footprint. Enter McKenzie Sewell.
McKenzie Sewell:
McKenzie Sewell seemed like an average high school student with a talent for Basketball. Here's the catch: Sewell was 22. He was in high school on forged transcripts. The discovery of this information meant that Ridgeway high school also had to forfeit all of the games. To take things a little bit further, Sewell's 35-year-old wife posed as his mother to feed into the facade. I should say that Sewell's jersey number, ironically, was 22. The reason the police wanted to look into Sewell as a suspect was because they thought it was possible that Jimmy McClain found out. However, when the police questioned McKenzie's wife, they found out that the two incidents were unrelated. Sewell's wife turned on him because Sewell had allegedly started dating a student while he was playing high school student, which brought the police back to square one. But, the police seemed to finally catch a break when they got Carla's full phone records.
Heather and Robert:
They had found a series of texts that occurred shortly before the murders. One of the numbers was traced back to a person named Robert, who was a convicted felon. The other number they found belonged to a girl named Heather. When the police called Carla back in, she reveals that these texts belonged to her son, Dwayne. Dwayne does not have his own phone. Heather was actually Dwayne's girlfriend, and Robert was a friend of Dwayne's. The police question Dwayne. After Dwayne gives the police his story, they bring in Heather to learn the legitimacy of Dwayne's story. Heather's story actually ends up helping the police. She tells them that Dwayne owns a pair of Air Force Ones, which actually were seen as a match for the muddy shoe prints found at the scene of Jimmy's murder. She also shows them a picture of Dwayne holding a gun and wearing the Air Force Ones. At first, the police couldn't find anything that linked Dwayne to the murder, so they decided to put pressure on Robert. The police arrested Robert because they found him with illegal drugs on his person. The police looked through Robert's phone. He had erased text messages, but he didn't erase any pictures. One of the pictures showed a gun laying on a bed. This picture actually ended up linking the gun to Dwayne.
Jamarius:
The police traced a phone call Robert placed while he was in jail to a kid named Jamarius. Jamarius had bought the gun from someone (Dwayne). The police managed to get to Jamarius before he could actually dispose of the gun.
Dwayne:
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| Jimmy's stepson and killer, Dwayne Moore |
At this point, the police had finally gotten a call that broke the case wide open. A woman said her husband's nephew had told him he killed a basketball coach. Her husband was Carla's brother, and Dwayne's uncle. Dwayne killed Jimmy because he believed he was standing up for his mother. He wanted the divorce done with so they could get the money because they were having financial issues. Dwayne Moore was officially charged with Jimmy's murder on March 6th, 2013. On June 27th, 2014, Dwayne was sentenced to 22 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
Final Notes:
Someone I didn't really mention during the bulk of the case was Jimmy's sister Easter. I wanted to mention her here because I am glad she was able to get closure for her brother's murder. I kind of think Dwayne's sentence was a little bit light. I am not sure what the factors that went into his sentencing were though either.
Sources:
https://www.oxygen.com/an-unexpected-killer/season-1/deadly-betrayal?autoPlay=1&
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