Prosecutors want a joint trial for Ralph Stokes and Betty Ann Tomlinson, court filings show. Defense lawyers argue it would prejudice his case for a jury.
Stokes, 24, of Gary, is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.
He is charged with murder in 25-year-old Jimmijion Bailey’s shooting death on Oct. 5, 2024. The man’s decapitated body was found Oct. 11 on the 2300 block of Clay Street with his arms and knees bound with black tape.
After the slaying, authorities said Stokes had help to dispose of the body.
Tomlinson, the ex-girlfriend’s mother, so far, is the only other person charged. She bought cleaning supplies for Stokes from a Walgreens on Oct. 6, 2024. Then, she bought two bottles of lighter fluid around 3 a.m. Oct. 11 from a Citgo gas station in Gary, charges allege.
A Wednesday court hearing was reset for Nov. 25.
In court filings dated Oct. 1, Deputy Prosecutors Eric Randall and Lindsey Lanham argued a joint trial was justified, because both defendants were in “part of a common scheme or plan.”
The “involvement” of Stokes “friends and/or family” — citing Tomlinson, specifically — proved the killing wasn’t in self-defense as Stokes later claimed to police, they wrote.
In a motion filed Tuesday, Stokes’ defense lawyers Lakeisha Murdaugh and Amishi Sanghvi argued that the defendants’ “inconsistent defenses” — i.e. because they were allegedly involved in different parts of the crime — meant that Tomlinson could “prejudice” Stokes’ case.
The evidence didn’t “overlap” and it wasn’t technically the same crime, they wrote.
“Ralph is not charged with concealing the body, cleaning the apartment, burning the apartment, or participating in the decapitation,” they wrote.
A joint trial would “inevitably force the jury to conflate different events, different mental states, and different alleged actors,” they argued.
Bailey’s relatives said previously he had just started dating the woman a few weeks earlier and Stokes, her child’s father, was jealous.
License plate readers showed Bailey showed up at the apartment on Oct. 5. Later, his Chrysler 200 was driven off, followed by a black Audi toward 9th and Roosevelt, to ditch Bailey’s car, before the black car headed back to the apartment.
Then, the black Audi and Ford Flex headed to the 2300 block of Clay Street, where Bailey’s body was later found. An Infiniti also showed up at the apartment for 20 minutes that night.
Those vehicles were all registered to Stokes’ relatives, records show.
When police executed a search warrant on Oct. 11 in the girlfriend’s apartment on the 500 block of Vermillion Place, they were hit with “an overpowering chemical odor” and saw “several lighter fluid bottles” on the floor.
Some flooring in the hallway was “melted.”
The apartment appeared to be mostly cleared out — aside from a bed, an air mattress and kids clothes in another room. In the main bedroom, cops saw what appeared to be several spots of dried blood, and a large “reddish colored stain” under a blanket on the mattress.
When detectives cut through the mattress, it looked blood-soaked, like someone had tried to torch the apartment by lighting it on fire.
Investigators were tipped off on Oct. 10 that Bailey was shot inside the girlfriend’s apartment. His body was moved to the bathroom for several hours. His car was taken to 9th and Roosevelt to “throw off the investigation.” The girlfriend changed her number after Bailey was killed, the affidavit states.
Post-Tribune archives contributed.
