Post by Scumhunter on May 1, 2022 4:38:20 GMT -5
(Above photo credit: mlive.com)
From mlive.com:
SAGINAW, MI — Joseph C. “Jojo” Espinosa was a 30-year-old father of two sons and three daughters when he met a violent end the night of Oct. 28, 1978. Unlike the case of Laura L. Gomez, shot and killed in her home on Oct. 12, 1977, Espinosa’s had not one suspect, but four, three of whom were arrested and tried. The fourth, however, was never apprehended.
Police reports state that about 8 p.m., officers responded to a shooting in front of 2236 Hammel St. They arrived to find Espinosa, wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans, and a sport shirt, lying face down in the center of the street, a blood pooled around him. Tire tracks were in the blood, near which were spent .45-caliber casings.
Officers checked Espinosa for vital signs, finding none. Neighbors began pouring out of their houses to see what was going on, one of whom told police she had heard multiple gunshots then seen a couple of men get in a Chevrolet van, run it over Espinosa, then drive off.
Prior to the shooting, the Saginaw Police Vice Division was planning a raid on 2236 Hammel St., a home occupied by Cole D. Stevenson Jr. and Allen W. Rodgers.
That same night, firefighters responded to a van on fire on 16th Street, north of Perkins. Investigators determined the van was the one that had run over Espinosa and was then set ablaze.
By the next afternoon, police had developed numerous men as potential suspects, all of whom had connections to drug dealing. Interviewed by police, the father of suspect Cole Stevenson said his son had not been staying at 2236 Hammel St. when the killing occurred because the house had recently been bombed, reports state.
Reports also say that word on the street was Espinosa was a police informant who had recently led officers to arrest an area drug dealer.
Espinosa’s girlfriend told police that on Oct. 27 and the next day, a man she knew as “JuJu” had repeatedly called Espinosa in search of drugs. Around 7 p.m., she overheard Espinosa tell someone on the phone that he had what they were looking for and would meet up with them.
“She stated that the name JuJu came up an awful lot in the last three days of Joseph Espinosa’s life,” reports state. When Espinosa left to meet up with whomever he was speaking with, he went armed with his father’s .32-caliber revolver, the girlfriend told police.
One of Espinosa’s brothers told police that when his brother went armed, he always carried the gun in a spot he could easily access it.
“For this reason, he believed that his brother was set up and they got the drop on him before he knew what was going on,” reports state.
Police interviewed Cole Stevenson the morning of Nov. 1. Stevenson said he had not seen Espinosa for a while and denied being at his Hammel Street house the night of the killing. He claimed he had been staying at his father’s house as someone had tried throwing explosives into his house the week prior.
Police arrested Stevenson and confiscated the car he had driven to their headquarters, a brown 1978 Cadillac, which had human blood on its wheel.
Also on Nov. 1, police spoke with a woman who claimed to have witnessed Espinosa’s killing, though she did not want to talk about it. Officers obtained a warrant for the woman and arrested her as a material witness.
Though the woman initially refused to talk about the killing even after being lodged in jail, on Nov. 5 she gave detectives a full statement on what she saw and knew. As a result, police came to believe Cole Stevenson, Julian Stevenson, Derek J. Smith, and Allen Rodgers perpetrated the killing. The Stevensons are siblings and cousins of Rodgers.
Cole Stevenson, Smith, and Rodgers were arraigned on murder charges in the following days. Julian Stevenson, though charged with open murder, remained at large.
“We have on numerous occasions attempted to locate Julian Stevenson by contacting various addresses in town and by contacting various police agencies and by contacting his own mother,” police wrote in 1979. “As of this time we still have not been able to locate Julian Stevenson.”
A trial for Cole Stevenson, Rodgers, and Smith was held in Saginaw County Circuit Court in the late spring of 1979.
A Saginaw News article published May 31, 1979, states Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Patrick M. Meter described Espinosa’s killing as resulting from a dispute over drugs. Espinosa had been shot seven times in his head and neck and was run over three times by two different vehicles.
During the trial, the prosecution argued Julian Stevenson called Espinosa and lured him to the scene of his death in front of 2236 Hammel St., where Rodgers and Cole Stevenson shot him seven times. Espinosa’s girlfriend testified he was going to the Hammel Street house the night he was shot.
Rodgers and Cole Stevenson were identified at the scene getting into Espinosa’s van and backing over his bullet-riddled body. Julian Stevenson was allegedly driving a getaway vehicle that contained Smith as a passenger and was seen driving over Espinosa’s body.
Jurors found Cole Stevenson and Rodgers guilty of first-degree murder, though they acquitted Smith.
A June 15, 1979, article on the jury’s findings mentions the mystery of Julian Stevenson’s disappearance.
“Julian Stevenson … was reported as a missing person by his family shortly before the murder,” the article states. “Family members testified he hadn’t been seen since September (1978). Around (Stevenson), never arrested, there circulate rumors both of his death and his hiding from the law.”
The article quotes Prosecutor Robert L. Kaczmarek, saying his office has “heard stories he’s dead and stories he’s hiding out here and there — sometimes it’ll be Ohio, sometimes somewhere else. We believe he’s alive, but haven’t been able to track him down yet.”
A judge on July 31, 1979, sentenced Cole Stevenson and Rodgers to mandatory life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Cole Stevenson, now 70, is incarcerated at the Chippewa Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula community of Kincheloe, while Rodgers, 69, is locked up at the Lakeland Correctional Facility in Coldwater.
For the first few years after the killing and trial, Julian Stevenson’s court file was periodically updated. In September 1983, Assistant Prosecutor Howard B. Gave wrote to District Judge Daniel R. Webber that despite the case’s age, its serious nature precluded his office from dismissing it.
In May 1986, Prosecutor Christopher S. Boyd wrote to the FBI, asking for assistance in locating Stevenson.
“Due to the nature of the above listed case, that being a capital offense, I feel that it is in the best interest of justice if the above named defendant could be located through your agency, and this office will extradite said defendant,” Boyd wrote.
As recently as 1986, CrimeStoppers was publicizing a cash reward of $1,000 for information leading to Julian Stevenson’s arrest.
A sister of Espinosa and two of his children declined to speak about the case when contacted by MLive, apart from one of his daughters saying she had no memory of her dad.
If Julian Stevenson is still alive, he’s 66. Espinosa, like Laura Gomez, is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, his modest headstone inscribed with his name, years of his birth and death, and the phrase, “Jesus My Lord My God My All.”
www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2022/04/saginaws-vanished-killers-suspect-disappeared-after-father-of-5-shot-run-over.html
Thoughts? HeadMarshal just posted a thread about Carmen Sanchez, who has been wanted since 1977, so I figured I might as well post the other of Saginaw's two coldest case fugitives .
Admin Note #1: Based on crime location, it is advised to contact the Saginaw Police Department at 989-759-1289 if you have any information on Carmen Sanchez's whereabouts.
Admin Note #2: If you have any news-related updates on this case, please contact us here: amwfans.com/thread/1662/website-contact-form