The Curious Murder Trial of Angel Bumpass

[Soul On Ice]

Angel Bumpass Now: An Update on Her Life & Jail Sentence

• By Caroline Warnock

• Updated May 13, 2020 at 9:17am

The new A&E series Accused: Guilty or Innocent? is back on May 12 with the fourth episode: “Cold Case Killer or Innocent Teenage Girl?” The show has already explored some complex cases in previous episodes, showing viewers the perspective of the defendants after they are accused of a crime, including a case of either attempted murder or a protective mother and a case of murder or self-defense.
This episode follows Angel Bumpass as she is charged with felony murder for a cold case from 10 years earlier, when she would have been 13 years old. Police say one of the fingerprints on the sticky side of the duct tape used to bind and suffocate the victim was matched to Bumpass, though she said she was never there.
Where is Angel Bumpass today?
Bumpass Was Sentenced to Life in Prison & Isn’t Eligible for Release Until 2079


Department of CorrectionTennessee Prison for Women in Nashville.

On October 3, 2019, the jury found Bumpass guilty of the 2009 murder that happened when she was 13. She was found guilty of first-degree felony murder as well as guilty of the attempt to commit especially aggravated robbery. The jury deliberated for just over 4 1/2 hours. On November 21, she was sentenced to life in prison for the murder count and eight years for the aggravated robbery count.
According to Tennessee court records, Bumpass isn’t eligible for release until July 6, 2079, 60 years after her sentence began. She is currently serving her sentence at the Tennessee Prison for Women, located in Nashville.
According to a website for Bumpass called Justice for Angel Bumpass, a motion of appeal was filed on December 20, 2019, and the hearing was set for March 27, 2020. Because of the coronavirus outbreak, that hearing has been delayed, but no new date has been given. Bumpass’ appeal will be handled by a different legal team than her original trial, Heavy has learned.
A Petition Is Circulating to Attempt to Overturn the Life Sentence & Grant Her a Retrial

A petition is circulating on Change.org to demand a retrial in the case of Angel Bumpass. The petition states that in 2009, Bumpass was a star pupil in eighth grade. It adds that at the time she was served with a warrant for the murder, over nine years later, she was “a 23 year old mother of two, in her second year of school enrolled at Jefferson Community and Technical College.” She was set to enter a nursing program that summer.
The guilty verdict was unexpected for both her legal team and her supporters. Bumpass’ supporters have expressed their frustrations and disappointment with Bumpass’ defense during her trial, saying her lawyers “failed to present any type of mitigating circumstances, character witnesses to construct a picture as to who Angel was at that point in her life. To show that she was not culpable of anything of that [nature].”
The Justice for Angel Bumpass site seeks both support for a retrial motion and financial support for her family, who are said to be overwhelmed by legal fees.



TLDR
A man was murdered in his home. The found the 13 year olds fingerprints on duct tape used. This was enough to convict her for 60 years.

Angel Bumpass Now: An Update on Her Life & Jail Sentence

Angel Bumpass' case is being featured on the fourth episode of A&E's 'Accused: Guilty or Innocent?' Where is she today in 2020?

heavy.com

Woman, who was 13 at the time, found guilty in gruesome 2009 Chattanooga killing; co-defendant acquitted | Chattanooga Times Free Press

A jury on Thursday evening found Angel Bumpass, who was 13 at the time, guilty of first-degree felony murder and attempt to commit especially aggravated robbery in the 2009 killing of 68-year-old Franklin Bonner. Mallory Vaughn, her co-defendant, was found not guilty on both counts.

www.timesfreepress.com

 

[Soul On Ice]

A jury on Thursday evening found Angel Bumpass, who was 13 at the time, guilty of first-degree felony murder and attempt to commit especially aggravated robbery in the 2009 killing of 68-year-old Franklin Bonner. Mallory Vaughn, her co-defendant, was found not guilty on both counts.

Bonner's wife, Linda, was the one who found him lying on the floor, bound to a kitchen table and chair inside their Washington Hills home on Jan. 16, 2009. He had duct tape around his feet, arms and head, nose and mouth. Suffocation was the cause of death, Hamilton County Medical Examiner Dr. James Metcalfe later determined.

The case had gone cold up until 2018 when Franklin Bonner's relatives called prosecutors asking them to take another look. They did, and got a match for two fingerprints found at the scene. The match was for Bumpass, who is now 24.

They also reexamined 2010 interviews with federal inmate Nicholas Cheaton, who claimed Vaughn, his cousin, confessed to him about robbing and killing Franklin Bonner.

But there have been problems with the case, the defense argued.

Cheaton was hoping to get a lesser sentence in exchange for his statement, and could have learned details of the case through the news and friends. Early reports did state that police had called the case a robbery and that duct tape had been used to bind Franklin Bonner.

Apart from Cheaton's statement, the prosecution had no physical evidence that linked Vaughn to the scene. A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent testified that no fingerprints found at the scene belonged to Vaughn, only Bumpass.
Another problem, defense attorneys noted, was that one of the detectives involved — the lead investigator, Karl Fields — was fired from the Chattanooga Police Department for neglect of duty and unbecoming conduct after he made sexual advances toward a woman while he investigated her rape and kidnapping case.

During his time as an officer, defense attorneys had accused Fields of coaching witnesses to lie during a murder trial, losing audio recordings of witness interviews and failing to collect and test all the evidence at the scene of an attempted murder.

In 2016, Fields faced criminal charges of tampering with or fabricating evidence and official misconduct after he allegedly never included a potentially exonerating video of an alleged rape in a case file sent to District Attorney General Neal Pinkston's office.

Those charges were dismissed in 2017 after Judge Barry Steelman decided the state couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Fields concealed evidence.

In regards to the death of Franklin Bonner, defense attorneys argued Bumpass' fingerprints were not conclusive enough evidence to link her to the scene. Duct tape is a mobile object, attorneys argued. Anyone could have

They called her grandfather, who testified that Bumpass used to be very "crafty" and played in their garage building things. One of the tools she could have used was duct tape, he said.

The grandfather also did handyman work and had been to Franklin Bonner's house to show him how to make repairs. It was possible he could have loaned Franklin Bonner some duct tape, he testified.

And finally, it wasn't reasonable to believe that a 13-year-old girl was friends with a 26-year-old man and that she could have taped a man as tightly as he had been found.

Nevertheless, the state, in closing arguments, asked the jury to not abandon common sense.

The evidence pointed to Vaughn and Bumpass — and possibly a third person — going to Franklin Bonner's house with the intent to rob him of money and marijuana.

They admitted the inmate Cheaton was a "little rough around the edges," but noted there was other evidence that corroborates his claim, such as Cheaton stating that Vaughn told him that Franklin Bonner was "duct taped like a mummy."
"That's exactly what they did," prosecutors said.

They called the idea of her playing with duct tape a smokescreen.

"That is just a supposition that is tossed out there by the defense because they have nothing else, because they know how damning these fingerprints are," prosecutors said. "There is no other way that these fingerprints are at that crime scene, other than the fact that she was there and she was the one who wrapped this 68-year-old man up in tape while Mallory Vaughn ransacked the house."

And after deliberating for close to five hours, the jury decided to convict Bumpass and acquit Vaughn.

Bumpass was immediately taken into custody. She awaits a sentencing hearing to take place on Nov. 21.

 

[Soul On Ice]

Sign the Petition

Demand a retrial for Angel Bumpass wrongfully convicted 13 year old with a life sentence

www.change.org

13 YEAR OLD FEMALE FALSELY CONVICTED OF MURDER

On October 3, 2019, tens years later Angel Bumpass was found guilty of a murder that was committed in 2009, by a jury after only 4 hours and 30 minutes approximately of deliberation.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

On January 16,2009 Angel Bumpass was eighth grade star roll student at Brown Middle School. That morning Angel rode the bus from her grandmother's house to school. It was a normal day for Angel, nothing out of the ordinary or spectator happened for her. She rode the bus to arrive home at 2:30 pm....Nine years later on June 14, 2018, she was a 23 year old mother of two, in her second year of school enrolled at Jefferson Community and Technical College. She accepted to the nursing program to begin the program in August 2018. While also working a full time job. Around 6 that morning two detectives came to her door, shockingly, with a warrant for a felony murder to be served to Angel from May 2018. A murder that she had no knowledge of.

No one payed attention to the fact that when Angel was 13, that was only 5”0, and weighted a mere 80 pounds. The evidence against Angel was two partial fingerprints that supposedly came from tape that was used to tie the victim up. The tape in question also had nine other fingerprints that are unknown and were not investigated. A hair was later found on the duct tape 10 years. The hair was never tested. Angel lawyers never got the original duct tape to lift their on prints. The lawyers stated that the duct tape after ten years was no longer available as it had been cut and balled up, yet a picture of the tape and fingerprints were allowed as evidence.

The original detective Carl Fields was fire for planting evidence in another case. This was never mention at trial.

Angel's lawyers, Andrea Hayduk and Garth Best, failed to present any type of mitigating circumstances, character witnesses to construct a picture as to who Angel was at that point in her life. To show that she was not culpable of anything of that natural.

Angel's lawyers, Andrea Hayduk and Garth Best, were highly disillusioned in the picture they painted leading Angel to believe she had no worries. It was all a mistake that would be sorted out, they told her.

That sort never happened and on October 3, 2019 Angel was found guilty due to her lawyers not taking her case seriously. The damage they inflicted is at the expense of her life.

JUSTICE NEEDS TO BE HEARD AND SERVED!

Angels attorney's Andrea Hayduk and Garth Best, violated her constitutional rights when they failed to put any investigation effort into her defense.
Any defense counsel has a duty to independently investigate the facts, circumstances, and law in every case they handle in order to be effective.
Duty to investigate includes obligation to investigation all witnesses who may have information concerning his or her client's guilt or innocence.
Due to Angel's defense attorney decision not to investigate or present a defense resulted in a inadequate performance that was unreasonable.
Angel's lawyer lack of investigation and misrepresentation deprived defendant of a fair trial.

Angel's lawyer misrepresentation of the facts and laws clearly shows ineffective assistance.

Now A Wrong Need To Be Corrected.

Angel had a male co-defendant that was 13 years older than her that was found not guilty. Even though he had witnesses that testified to him confessing to solely committing the murder of the victim.

Angel and her male co-defendant were both adamant that they didn't know each other and when the witnesses testified against the male co-defendant they also testified that they didn't know Angel nor had the male co-defendant said anything about Angel involvement with him.

People have doubt when it comes to Angel's innocent. After all the police do have evidence against Angel. The evidence they have is two finger prints. Well for one moment lets say the police DID NOT have any evidence. Would you still have doubt?

Fingerprints: No two people have the same finger prints according to ''experts''.
Well lets dive deeper in to finger prints.
FIRST, you have more than 150 ridges( lines and loops on the fingerprint)
Second, Tennessee just has to match 12 of those ridges to say there are your fingerprints. TWELVE out of HUNDRED AND FIFTY.
Third, a computer send 100 of potential matches. Then
these "experts" who is state motivated do the final match.

Here is my thing when it comes to matching fingerprints if nobody have similar fingerprints. How can the computer send HUNDREDS of POTENTIAL matches to the "expert". Then you have the fact that only TWELVE ridges has to match. So what if the "expert only match ELEVEN ridges would she had been a person of interest? What if two people match would they have had to match more ridges than?

So now you ask me why didn't Angel have a fingerprint expert. Well she did. The state experts only send Angel's experts pictures of the TWELVE ridges that was found on the duct tape and a picture of Angel TWELVE ridges. This Fact was was only brought to Angel's attention on the SECOND DAY OF TRIAL.