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A Lee County jury found defendant Murray Lee Doss guilty of first-degree murder.
The crucial events occurred September 2, 1981, during a prison riot at the Iowa State Penitentiary at Fort Madison.
When authorities regained control of the prison in the late evening hours of September 2, they found the body of inmate Gary Tyson in a storage room attached to the prison kitchen.
Tyson had been stabbed nine times in the neck, nine times in the left side of the chest, three times in the left side of the back, and once in the left hand. A makeshift knife was still protruding from Tyson’s neck.
Evidence produced at trial would permit the jury to find the following facts.
Tyson was a member of a prison gang known as the Almighty Vice Lords.
Prison authorities believed this gang played a part in the May 1981 murder of prison inmate Allen Lewis.
During the murder investigation, a number of Vice Lords were placed in “segregation” (locked status) in Cellblock 20.
Among them were the defendant, Gary Tyson, and the undisputed leader of the gang, Allen Langley.
Defendant Doss was a Vice Lord general, the highest rank achievable in that organization within the penitentiary.
Tyson’s relations with the Vice Lords began to deteriorate when other gang members concluded he was “going State’s witness” in the Lewis murder investigation. Tyson feared for his life. Other inmates believed Tyson’s life was in danger.
On the evening of September 2, rioting inmates released the prisoners confined in Cellblock 20. Wesley Betts, a Vice Lord who had been confined in Cellblock 20, took inmate Tony Baker to an office on C range of Cellblock 20.
They were there about thirty seconds when Allen Langley entered and ordered Baker to leave because the Vice Lords needed the office for a meeting. As Baker left the office, he saw a group of Vice Lords, the defendant among them, walking toward the office. When Baker was below C range, he looked up through the grating toward the office. The Vice Lords had disappeared.
At the meeting Langley told the assembled Vice Lords that the time had come to “take Tyson out” and “deal with Tyson.” As the brief meeting ended, Langley ordered the Vice Lords to find Tyson and bring him to the prison kitchen.
Vice Lord Wesley Betts testified that Doss attended this meeting. Betts expressed some uncertainty whether Doss heard all of Langley’s statements.
The Vice Lords then moved to the prison kitchen, congregating in the receiving room and storage room. At trial Vice Lords Larry Currington, Wesley Betts and Robert Taylor, under a grant of immunity, admitted they were in the kitchen area.
They testified Allen Langley and Doss were also present. Inmate Mark Balance saw Doss standing in a group of Vice Lords outside the kitchen shortly before the time of the murder. Vice Lord Terry Wilson testified he was stopped when he attempted to enter the kitchen. He looked in, saw the defendant and others and left the area, aware that a murder was being plotted.
The Vice Lords withdrew from the receiving room into the storage room, taking Tyson with them. Langley ordered the others to “move on him.”
Tyson was grabbed. A wrestling match ensued.
When Langley ordered the Vice Lords to hold Tyson down, Taylor and others complied. Langley then stabbed Tyson in the chest numerous times.
When he finished, Langley ordered Betts to “finish him off” and Betts stabbed Tyson in the back and neck, leaving the knife buried to its hilt in Tyson’s neck.
State of Iowa v. Murray Lee Doss. 355 N.W.2d 874 (1984). Supreme Court of Iowa. No. 83-477. September 19, 1984
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