WHO FRAMED WILLIE EARL SCOTT?

The Birmingham DA's office's begrudged admission last month that the county medical examiner actually began his focus on the notion that Willie Earl Scott's DNA was infact present specifically on 10-year-old deceased victim Latonya Sager's leg only after someone (read: additional suspect) in the home suggested it to responding officers is the latest development in the quarter-century-old case that has left the city with more questions than answers.

By now, everyone has heard the story: In September 1999, less than three weeks after surviving a fatal attempt on his life in New Orleans' infamous rap wars, where shady business locals there allegedly wanted to see the gifted Alabama transplant removed and which left Willie's label partner dead, and just two months before his first album was contractually set for nationwide release by national music distributor Relativity Records, a mysterious night in suburban Birmingham's Huntington Hills Estates found a young girl unresponsive and associates accusing the then-19-year-old wunderkind of an unthinkable crime, if there was infact a crime committed. Yet to paraphrase the oft quoted Willie Redd at the time of his dramatic arrest: "Question everyone and everything!"

From the beginning a number of theories have emerged about the Willie Earl Scott case, but more frequently over the years following latter day wrongdoings and subsequent deaths of those who were actually there in the home that night Latonya died (Willie famously was not actually present) as well as the absurdity of a youthfully talented Willie Redd being characterized by unknowing observers as a common John or scufflaw stranger after having written in such graphic detail about his intimate relationship with each of the other four occupants.

From serious to scurrilous, here are some of the best and most repeated:

Theory: 10-year-old Latonya Sager was killed by her mother for insurance money. A year later mother Latrice Sager also killed her second, 8-year-old daughter, Latisha Sager, in the same bedside fashion and for the same motive.
Who put it forth: Sager friend Tracie Johnson, a coworker of Latrice at the Southside Wendy's Restaurant before the first daughter's death and fellow girls' trip participant with her to Florida after the death of the second, made the claim to Sager sibling Albert Hawkins that his sister had all but said as much to her in 2002, the year of Mr. Scott's much publicized trial.
Outcome: The Birmingham Police, notoriously incompetent under a succession of democratic regimes, never investigated Latrice Sager for the deaths of either daughter, though some questions were raised about a then-boyfriend of Sager's who actually received the insurance payouts

Theory: Probably the most repeated supposition was Latrice Sager intentionally overmedicated her daughter, killing her, then staged an assault by simply removing the girl's underwear and planting fragments of Willie Earl Scott's semenal fluid from an aged used condom as cover. In her testimony, Alabama medical examiner Phyllis Roller declared the DNA "all but invisible to the naked eye" and another called it "questionable contact trace" at Scott's 2002 trial that August.
Who put it forth: Craig Allen, another boyfriend of Latrice Sager at the time of the death, who told anybody that would listen that, one, Latrice was desperate to escape responsibilities of parenting, especially to two sickly tween daughters, both of whom suffered from acute cases of sickle cell anemia, and, two, Willie Earl Scott was secretly involved sexually with all the women at the Huntington Hills Estate. Something that was never admitted or denied, yet could easily be discerned in the now ubiquitous Willie Redd literary erotic collections that's made the man an entertainment brand.
Outcome: Unsurprisingly the B'ham police missed its window to pursue or investigate any other suspect, while prosecutors, on the other hand, thought that the mere mention of contrary evidence or open hypothesis even would compromise their case against Mr. Scott, who freely confessed of blood crimes in his youth but to the end maintained his innocence in the Latonya Sager case. "When that information came to our attention we batted it around amongst ourselves awhile, but ultimately concluded that this guy was probably not reliable," Deputy District Attorney Brad Felton said then. "We were able to prove that Mr. Allen had only been involved with Ms. Sager for a few months before her daughter's death and so couldn't have learned so much in so little time." Yet time enough for Latrice Sager to tattoo Craig Allen's name on her arm, according to photos and those that knew them.

Theory: Latrice Sager caused daughter Latonya's death by accidental overdose, and brother Albert Hawkins, her eternal keeper, ignored or actively assisted in a cover up in an act that also helped to remove Willie as crew leader. The Willie Redd and Albert familial gang had been embroiled in scandals following the former's brief stint in prison, allocation of ill-gotten gains had caused major disagreement between the Scotts and the Sager-Hawkins siblings, and more significantly Albert feared an absolute usurp in his personal relationship with the women by Willie.
Who put it forth: Childhood friend Shunville Miller who had brief affairs with both Willie and Albert, who she claimed admitted all to her after a late night hotel rendezvous.
Outcome: Albert Hawkins refused to testify or even attend the Willie Earl Scott trial for the supposed murder of his niece. And other than Ms. Miller's word, there was nothing to support her claim.

Theory: Willie Redd was crossed out by his familial clique in some manner or another that simply came full circle with the unclear death of Latonya Sager, his own crew or select members of his circle accepted the bounty that had been placed on him by New Orleans' Big Boy Records huncho and known Willie Redd nemesis Charles Tremble, after Willie had seemingly crossed Tremble and so carelessly disgraced his own crew with little regard subsequently.
Who put it forth: Joseph "Cutboi Jay" Mason, of Ivyville New Orleans.
Outcome: After a lengthy investigation by Orleans Parish Deputies, it was determined that Chuck Tremble, a black mob figure in his own right, was likely responsible for the initial hit that killed former Big Boy Records engineer Quent Daniels, who in 1998 had left Mr. Tremble's employment to partner with the generational talent Mr. Scott, but had stayed his vengeance after Mr. Scott left the city.

Theory: Latrice Sager, a drug abuser, stole a kilogram parcel of cocaine from brother Albert Hawkins, or more accurately allowed a former male friend access to steal it. Because Albert and Willie were partners since childhood outside the latter's music endeavors and shared everything, this caused another layer of great strain between the friends, between the couple Albert Hawkins and Shaneka Scott, and to a lesser extent between Willie Earl Scott and Latrice Sager, who it is documented began secretly informing for the FBI on activities involving the family, the Scott siblings specifically and Shaneka in particular. Hence a venomous combination of thievery, addiction and snitching inevitably pushed Latrice Sager to hatch a scheme to get rid of both Shaneka and Willie, the former who would be convicted on five federal cases of bank fraud (inwhich Ms. Sager provided evidence) almost simultaneously as the latter would be sentenced to death for rape and murder where today even prosecutors admit no rape occurred. With Scotts gone, Albert was left to pretend throne, with close to $70k collectively and a quarter-million dollar Scott home in the outer woods to call his alone.
Who put it forth: Calvin Powell, an Albert associate who used to detail the Scott family vehicles and who was serving life with possibility of parole in Georgia, as recent as 2016, for a 2009 homicide in Macon. In prison Powell met former lifer-turned-urban novelist and motivational speaker Cole Hart, who would go on to publish a poorly written book by the opportunistic Powell, called "Red Hen in the Snake Den," a Scott centered biography inwhich he tries to capitalize off Willie's budding fame and claims that Shaneka, too, was in on the plot that destroyed her brother, an idea that Willie never publicly entertained.
Outcome: Willie's law firm successfully sued to abort publication of the terribly packaged book for liable. No one outside the Scott siblings knew Cal Powell, Albert Hawkins refused to comment, and by 2010 Latrice Sager had long died from overdose to confirm one way or the other. An Atlanta Constitution-Journal review of the book put it this way: "Essence bestselling author Teri Woods, who Willie Earl Scott once ghostwritten for in his early years as an imprisoned author and today has a complicated relationship with, to say the least, candidly writes in the introduction that the story has the 'ring of truth, having met Redd's sister.' Perhaps, but Mr. Powell also reek of something else."

Theory: 10-year-old Latonya Sager was actually not killed at all but died from a long time sickliness. According to medical examiners, her death was ruled a homicide by asphyxia, determined by tiny reddish pink dots on the insides of the he eyelids during autopsy, a condition that they claimed in the exact same breath could have also been caused simply by being a carrier of the sickle cell blood disease. To that end, whatever natural affliction took 10-year-old Latonya Sager's life on that fateful night of September 11th, 1999, also took her 8-year-old sister some months later.
Who put it forth: Every medical examiner put on by both the defense and the state at the 2002 trial testified that Latonya Sager's death could have been medical or natural as opposed to murder.
Outcome: Willie Earl Scott was nevertheless convicted of capital murder in the death of Latonya Sager, in August 2002, and a month later sentenced to die, by a jury where the lone black juror confessed in the chambers of presiding judge Gloria Bahakel to being a childhood friend of both the father and uncle of the deceased.

Theory: Conspiracy to destroy Willie Earl Scott.
Who put it forth: Willie Earl Scott and attorneys in interviews.
Outcome: To be determined.

Every now and again I get this funny feeling that he's not wrong, we are.

By Martin Schneider