Summary:

On Oct. 6, 1990, Joe and Elaine Langley were working with their 10-year-old daughter, Falyssa, at a flea market in Beaumont.

Joe Langley saw James Rexford Powell, an acquaintance, at 9 a.m. for about 10 to 15 minutes. Langley also saw Powell talk to Falyssa.

Around 10 a.m., Falyssa left to buy a bag of peanuts; a little while later, Powell came by and indicated he was leaving.

Falyssa never returned and her body was found that afternoon under a bridge with her hands and ankles bound with rope. She had been sexually abused and died of ligature strangulation.

Witnesses identified Powell's motor home on the bridge and DNA from sperm found on Falyssa's body matched Powell's DNA.

Final Meal:

One pot of coffee.

Final Words:

"I'm ready for the final blessing,"

ClarkProsecutor.org

Texas Attorney General

Media Advisory

Friday, Sept. 27, 2002

James Rexford Powell Scheduled to be Executed.

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on James Rexford Powell, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002.

On June 6, 1991, James Rexford Powell was sentenced to die for the capital murder of Falyssa Van Winkle, which occurred on Oct. 6, 1990.

A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows:

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 6, 1990, Joe and Elaine Langley were working with their 10-year-old daughter, Falyssa, at a flea market in Beaumont.

Joe Langley saw James Rexford Powell, an acquaintance, at 9 a.m. for about 10 to 15 minutes. Langley also saw Powell talk to Falyssa.

Around 10 a.m., Falyssa left to buy a bag of peanuts; a little while later, Powell came by and indicated he was leaving. Langley did not see Falyssa or Powell again.

A vendor saw Powell near the peanut stand around 10 a.m., and another recalled seeing a motor home identified as Powell's, leaving the market between 10 and 10:30 a.m.

Between noon and 1 p.m., Powell's motor home was seen traveling on a dirt road toward Bon Weir, a town northeast of Beaumont in Newton County, near the Louisiana border. The vehicle was also spotted near a bridge on a dirt road. About 3:15 p.m., Falyssa's body was found under the bridge.

A rope was tied tightly around Falyssa's neck and wrists, and her ankles were determined to have also been tied together with a rope at some point in time. The cause of death was determined to be "mechanical asphyxiation associated with homicidal ligature strangulation."

Falyssa had also sustained a head injury and sexual assault. Because Powell's motor home matched the description of the one several witnesses saw near the bridge on the day of the murder, law enforcement investigators obtained a warrant to search the vehicle.

The next day, a neighbor of Powell's observed him washing the inside, outside and underside of his motor home. Despite the cleansing, the search of the vehicle produced white dog hairs that matched a similar hair that was found on Falyssa's body.

Law enforcement officers also found six "forcibly removed" hairs that matched Falyssa's head hair. Tire tracks at the crime scene matched the tires on Powell's motor home. DNA test results revealed that sperm found in Falyssa's body matched the DNA of Powell's blood.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On Nov. 8, 1990, the State of Texas indicted Powell for the capital murder of Falyssa Van Winkle while in the course of aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping. Powell pleaded "not guilty" in the First Judicial District Court of Newton County.

Trial on the merits began May 6, 1991, and on June 3, 1991, the jury returned a verdict of "guilty." Following a separate punishment hearing, the same jury answered "yes" to the deliberateness and future dangerousness special issues. Consequently, on June 6, 1991, the trial court assessed punishment at death.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Powell's conviction and death sentence in a published 1994 opinion, and denied rehearing in 1995. The Supreme Court denied certiorari review within the year.

In 1998, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied Powell's application for state habeas relief, and the federal district court denied federal habeas relief three years later. In 2002, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's decision. Currently, Powell has a petition for certiorari to the Fifth Circuit pending.

CRIMINAL BACKGROUND

The State of Louisiana previously tried Powell for attempted murder, but a jury acquitted him.

ProDeathPenalty.com

Execution is scheduled Oct. 1 for a man who kidnapped a 10-year-old Lake Charles girl from a Texas flea market and killed her in October 1990.

A Texas judge scheduled the execution after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal turned down the latest appeal from James Rexford Powell, convicted of killing Falyssa Ann Van Winkle. He has a July 28 deadline to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Falyssa was kidnapped from a flea market in Beaumont, Texas, across the state line from Lake Charles. Her body was found the same day, under a bridge crossing Cow Creek between Newton and Kirbyville. Powell was arrested two days later.

Falyssa's father, Mike Van Winkle, said he is confident Powell will die Oct. 1. "I don't really know how I feel ... can't put my finger on it," he said this week. "I don't want to use the word `closure,' but it goes without saying that I will be there Oct. 1."

Van Winkle said he will be on vacation, but will drive to the prison in Huntsville, Texas, the site of the state's death chamber. "My gut tells me that it will happen that day," he said. "I was concerned about the appeal before the 5th Circuit, but they slammed that down."

Powell said prosecutors should not have been allowed to mention an attempted murder charge on which he was acquitted during the penalty phase of his 1991 trial in Newton, Texas. He said it violated his right to a "fair and reliable" sentencing under the Fifth, Eighth and 14th Amendments to the Constitution. The 5th Circuit also rejected a claim about DNA testing.

Powell, formerly of Merryville, La., has refused requests to be interviewed. He has never talked publicly about his conviction and death sentence.

On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 6, 1990, Joe and Elaine Langley were working with their 10-year-old daughter, Falyssa, at a flea market in Beaumont. Joe Langley saw James Rexford Powell, an acquaintance, at 9 a.m. for about 10 to 15 minutes. Langley also saw Powell talk to his stepdaughter Falyssa.

Around 10 a.m., Falyssa left to buy a bag of peanuts; a little while later, Powell came by and indicated he was leaving. Langley did not see Falyssa or Powell again. A vendor saw Powell near the peanut stand around 10 a.m., and another recalled seeing a motor home identified as Powell's, leaving the market between 10 and 10:30 a.m.

Between noon and 1 p.m., Powell's motorhome was seen traveling on a dirt road toward Bon Weir, a town northeast of Beaumont in Newton County, near the Louisiana border.

The vehicle was also spotted near a bridge on a dirt road. About 3:15 p.m., Falyssa's body was found under the bridge. A rope was tied tightly around Falyssa's neck and wrists, and her ankles were determined to have also been tied together with a rope at some point in time.

The cause of death was determined to be "mechanical asphyxiation associated with homicidal ligature strangulation." Falyssa had also sustained a head injury and sexual assault.

Because Powell's motorhome matched the description of the one several witnesses saw near the bridge on the day of the murder, law enforcement investigators obtained a warrant to search the vehicle.

The next day, a neighbor of Powell's observed him washing the inside, outside and underside of his motorhome. Despite the cleansing, the search of the vehicle produced white dog hairs that matched a similar hair that was found on Falyssa's body.

Law enforcement officers also found six "forcibly removed" hairs that matched Falyssa's head hair. Tire tracks at the crime scene matched the tires on Powell's motor home. DNA test results revealed that sperm found in Falyssa's body matched the DNA of Powell's blood.

James Rexford Powell

Txexecutions.org

James Rexford Powell, 56, was executed by lethal injection on 1 October 2002 in Huntsville, Texas for the abduction, rape, and murder of a ten-year-old girl.

On 6 October 1990, Powell, then 44, drove his motor home to the Beaumont flea market where he sometimes sold items.

Also selling their wares that Saturday morning were Joe and Elaine Langley, who also brought Elaine's daughter, Falyssa Van Winkle, 10.

At about 10 a.m., Falyssa told her parents she was going to buy a bag of peanuts. Sometime shortly thereafter, Powell abducted her and put her in his motor home, binding her wrists and ankles with rope and possibly knocking her unconscious.

He walked over to the Langleys and said goodbye to them, then drove away. He then drove out of town, raped Falyssa, and strangled her with the rope. He then dumped her body under a bridge near the Texas-Louisiana state line.

Falyssa's body was discovered at about 3 p.m. Witnesses reported seeing Powell's distinctive motor home near the site where the body was discovered. Joe Langley remembered seeing Powell talking to his stepdaughter that morning.

Another vendor remembered seeing Powell's motor home leaving the flea market between 10 and 10:30 a.m.

The next day, a neighbor of Powell's observed him washing his motor home inside, outside, and underneath. Nevertheless, sheriff's deputies found six "forcibly removed" hairs in the motor home that matched the hair on Falyssa's head. DNA testing showed that the sperm found in Falyssa's body matched Powell.

Powell had no prior criminal record. He had previously been tried in Louisiana for attempted murder, but he was acquitted.

A jury convicted Powell of capital murder in June 1991 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in November 1994. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Powell asserted his innocence in a letter he wrote to the media from death row. "I was not the one who committed this crime," he wrote. "It's not only the 'poor, abused, black man' that gets screwed, sometimes it's us 'poor, old, white folks' who get shafted too."

The only statement Powell made at his execution was, "I am ready for the final blessing." He then smiled and nodded at his friends and family, and the lethal injection was administered. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

Man Set to Die for Murder of 10-year-old Girl

By Mark Passwaters - The Huntsville Item

September 30, 2002

James Rexford Powell, sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of a 10-year-old girl from Lake Charles, La., in 1990, is sentenced to be executed this evening in the death chamber of the Huntsville "Walls" Unit. Powell is the only person scheduled to be executed in Texas during the month of October.

Powell, now 56, kidnapped Falyssa Ann Van Winkle from a flea market in Beaumont on Oct. 6, 1990. Powell, who was an acquaintance of the young girl's parents, had stopped and talked with them at around 9 a.m., about an hour before the abduction is believed to have taken place.

Shortly after 10 a.m., Van Winkle told her father she was going to buy a bag of peanuts; her parents never saw her again.

Witnesses said Powell was seen near the peanut stand around the time Van Winkle would have been there and that he left shortly afterwards. Another witnesses said he saw Powell's mobile home leaving the flea market around 10:30 a.m.

The mobile home was spotted again two hours later traveling on a dirt road in the direction of Bon Weir, a town in Newton County. Shortly after 3p.m., Van Winkle's body was discovered under a bridge on that road, a rope tied around her neck and wrists.

It was later determined that the girl's cause of death was strangulation, but she had also suffered a head injury and had been sexually assaulted. Working on reports that Powell's mobile home had been seen in the area, authorities moved to obtain a warrant to search the vehicle.

Perhaps expecting such a search, neighbors reported Powell spending most of the next day, a Sunday, furiously cleaning both the inside and outside of his mobile home.

The cleanup job did not stop authorities from finding a number of items linking Powell to the young girl's death, including six hairs "forcibly removed" from her head. Powell was arrested on Oct. 11, 1990, and was charged with capital murder.

Powell's trial began on May 6, 1991 and he was found guilty on June 3 of that same year. Three days later, he was sentenced to death. Death penalty opponents have claimed Powell's trial lawyers "did not offer a fair defense to him" and that prosecutors violated the fifth, eighth and 14 amendments to the constitution by mentioning Powell's previous trial on an attempted murder charge - for which he was acquitted - during the penalty phase of the trial.

Authorities, for their part, argue the case against Powell is more than sufficient to justify a death sentence, noting that tire tracks found at the scene matched the tires on his vehicle and that DNA testing matched Powell's semen to that found in Van Winkle's body.

Barring a last minute stay of execution, Powell will be put to death sometime after 6 p.m.

Inmate Executed for Killing of Girl in Beaumont

Houston Chronicle

October 1, 2002

HUNTSVILLE -- A former flea market vendor was executed Tuesday evening for abducting, raping and strangling a 10-year-old Louisiana girl from a Beaumont flea market where her parents also sold items.

James Rexford Powell, 56, had a brief final statement, saying only "I am ready for the final blessing." Powell smiled, nodded and grinned to friends and relatives who watched through a window a few feet away. He did not acknowledge his victim's father, stepmother and other witnesses for the slain girl.

When Powell asked for the blessing, a priest among his witnesses made the sign of the cross and led Powell's friends and relatives, including his wife, in a prayer. Powell took several short gasps as the drugs took effect. Eight minutes later, at 6:17 p.m. CDT, he was pronounced dead.

Powell was the 29th condemned Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year and fifth in the past three weeks. At least six more are on the execution schedule through the end of the year.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a ruling about four hours before Powell's scheduled execution, refused to block the punishment. Falyssa Van Winkle was with her parents when she disappeared 12 years ago this week after telling them she was going to buy some peanuts.

Five hours later, the Lake Charles, La., girl's body was found 55 miles to the north, face down under a bridge over a muddy creek in Newton County, along the Texas-Louisiana state line. A rope was tight around her neck. Her wrists were bound with rope. Her ankles bore marks they too had been tied together. She also had been raped.

"Anybody who saw photographs of that little child will never get over that," recalls Charles Mitchell, the former Newton County district attorney and now a state district court judge. "A crime like that tends to really enrage people," Mitchell said. "It was truly a horrible case."

Powell was arrested Oct. 8, 1990, two days after the killing, at his home in Mauriceville, northeast of Beaumont. He knew the girl's parents because he also occasionally was a vendor, talked with them at the flea market in the hour before the girl disappeared and said goodbye to them as he was about to leave.

"They watched him walk to his motor home and then watched him drive away not knowing their little girl was unconscious and tied up in the motor home," said Bill Davis, a Beaumont police sergeant who investigated the case. A vendor saw Powell near the peanut stand about the time the girl told her mother and stepfather she was headed there. Davis said authorities believed she was lured to the van and was knocked unconscious.

Powell's distinctive vehicle, seen by a witness near the site where the body was found by a couple riding motorcycles, provided police a lead in the case. "It was a cross between a van and motor home, sort of an enlarged van with a sleeping compartment in the back," Mitchell said. "He had this custom-painted red bird on the side of it."

Detectives tracked down the truck, which a neighbor said Powell had been washing inside, outside and underside the day after the killing. Despite the cleaning, crime scene technicians found dog hair that matched a dog hair discovered on the girl's body and six hairs from her. Tire tracks at the scene matched Powell's truck. DNA tests showed sperm in the girl matched Powell.

A jury took about 45 minutes to find him guilty, then deliberated another 45 minutes to decide on the death sentence. "It is frustrating to me that it's taken 12 long years for us to ultimately reach this state," Davis said. "The evidence hasn't changed. The facts of case haven't changed."

Powell did not testify. He declined to speak with reporters in the weeks before his scheduled execution. "I was not the one who committed this crime," Powell said in a letter last year to The Associated Press. Disputing the accuracy of the trial evidence against him, he added, "It's not only the 'poor, abused, black man' that gets screwed, sometimes it's us 'poor, old, white folks' who get shafted too."

Powell had no previous convictions. He was arrested in 1984, tried and acquitted by a jury in Beauregard Parish, La., on charges of attempted murder, attempted aggravated rape and aggravated burglary for beating and shooting a woman at her home in Merryville, just east of the Sabine River in Louisiana.

Despite objections from Powell's lawyers, the victim in that case was allowed to testify against him at the punishment phase of his murder trial, identifying him as her attacker. "He'd gotten away with that deal in Louisiana and I'm fully convinced he thought he would get away this," Mitchell said. "He was really a bad actor, a truly evil person."

Child Killer Executed in Texas

By Robert Anthony Phillips.

TheDeathHouse.com

October 1, 2002

HUNTSVILLE, Tex. - James Rexford Powell, convicted of the rape and murder of a 10-year-old girl who was attending an antiques flea market with her parents in Beaumont, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday night. "I am ready for the final blessing," Powell said in his final statement before being given a lethal dose of chemicals. He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

Paul McWilliams, the prosecutor who sent Powell on his trip to the death house, called the 56-year-old killer an "an incredibly dangerous man" who lawmen believe probably murdered other women and at least one other child, crimes that Powell - if he committed them - took to the grave with him.

Powell was convicted and sentenced to death for the Oct. 6, 1990 abduction, rape and murder of Falyssa Van Winkle, who had traveled with her parents from Louisiana to sell items at an antiques fair in Beaumont. Her body was found hours later under the Cow Creek Bridge in Newton County, about 80 miles from Beaumont.

A jury took less than an hour to find him guilty and later sentence him to death. The key evidence against Powell included his sperm in the child's body; eyewitnesses that identified his motor home in the area where the child's body was found; and a hair from the child found inside the motor home. "It was just one of those cases where everything came together," said McWilliams. "That is why it took the jury so little time (convicting Powell and sentencing him to death). We got the distinctive stenciling on his motor home, you've got the DNA, the hair and we got eyewitnesses that saw him come out from under a bridge."

Witnesses testified that they had seen Powell's motor home, with the unique painted eagles stenciled on its sides, coming out from under the bridge where the child's body was found.

Sgt. Bill Davis, the Beaumont police officer who investigated the murder and arrested Powell, said that it didn't take lawmen long to focus on Powell, who was handcuffed and charged with murdered 41 hours after Falyssa had been reported missing.

Davis said that Powell had been investigated before on sexual assault charges in his native Louisiana, but had never been convicted. An elderly woman who said that Powell had attempted to assault her and then shot her -crimes that Powell was not convicted of-was brought back to testify at Powell's trial when the jury was deciding between life and death.

Davis also believes that Powell had killed before. He said that in the area where Powell once lived in Louisiana, the remains of a 15-year-old girl had been found.

In addition, Davis said that two women in their 20s are missing. "I know that while we were putting this case together just the nature of the crime there was a general feeling among most of the investigators that this wasn't he first time he had done something like this," said McWilliams. Powell had declined interviews in the weeks before his execution, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Justice said.

However, the Associated Press reported that Powell, in a letter written to the news organization about a year ago, had denied the murder. "It's not only the ' poor, abused, black man' that gets screwed, sometimes its us 'poor, old, white folks who set shafted too," The AP quoted the letter as saying.

Falyssa Van Winkle and her parents had traveled from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to set up as venders at an antique fair in Beaumont. On Oct. 6, 1990, Falyssa disappeared after borrowing a $1 from her mother to buy some peanuts. Powell, also a vender at the flea market, knew Falyssa and her parents. He had stopped at their motor home that morning and talked with Falyssa and her parents and later was seen talking to the girl at a peanut stand.

Davis said that it probably never will be known how he got the child in his motor home. But Davis guessed that Powell told her he had something to show her inside the motor home.

Once inside, he probably knocked the child unconscious and then bound and gagged her, Davis said. He then drove 80 miles to a hunting lease area in Newton County, where police believe he raped and strangled Falyssa, quickly disposing of her body under the Cow Creek Bridge.

McWilliams said during Powell's trial, it was one of the first times that DNA evidence was used in Texas to link a suspect to a crime.

In addition, McWilliams said it was also the first time in Texas where a prosecutor had presented evidence to a jury of an alleged crime the defendant had not been convicted of. During the penalty phase of Powell's trial, the woman who said that Powell had attempted to rape her and then shot her was brought back to testify. The issue was appealed, but upheld by the courts.

So Innocent, Yet So Dead

By Bill Davis

Intrigueweb.com

On October 6, 1990 a ten-year-old Lake Charles, Louisiana girl disappeared from a Beaumont, Texas antique mall and flea market after she stepped away from her parents' vending booth to buy peanuts. Hours later, her body was found in a shallow creek bed eighty miles away. She had been raped and strangled.

Sergeant Bill Davis of the Beaumont, Texas Police Department was one of the investigators in Texas and Louisiana who worked tirelessly to find Falyssa Van Winkle's killer. The story of Falyssa, the crime, the investigation, and the trial that condemned to death an Orange County, Texas resident and family acquaintance, James Rexford "Rex" Powell, inspired Davis to write So Innocent, Yet So Dead.

A decorated 28-year police veteran, Davis was an investigator of the departments Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Unit for over 19 years. His investigations of more than 7,000 crimes, he says, "has provided me with more than enough material for what I hope can become a series of books" exploring the nature of sex crimes, focusing on education and prevention.

Davis, 49, has turned his dedication to protecting children into a second career, appearing at numerous speaking engagements across the country and producing a line of videotapes, t-shirts, and other specialty items in support of children's rights. He has promotional appearances scheduled well into 2000. In writing So Innocent, Yet So Dead, Davis worked from photos and investigative reports, court transcripts, his own observations and interviews, and those of Falyssa's family. The result is a story that sees through the eyes of an innocent child into the mind of her killer, and, finally, into a search for justice that is nearly blinded by politics and circumstance--but delivered through a series of what Davis describes as spritual interventions in the midst of tragedy.

Falyssa's killer, "Rex" Powell, remains on death row in Texas. It is anticipated he will be put to death by lethal injection some time in 2001.

Davis donates a portion of book profits to non-profit organizations benefitting children, based on the requests of individuals and organizations who invite him to speak.

To arrange a seminar or book-signing appearance, call Sgt. Bill Davis at (409) 860-9900 or E-Mail him at: bildavis@ih2000.net.

Order the book So Innocent, Yet So Dead: Please send check or money order for $19.00 to: Caring Hearts Publishing, PMB 644, 148 S. Dowlen Road Beaumont, Texas 77707

The Better Angels That Cannot Be Found

By Robert Anthony Phillips.

TheDeathHouse.com

"Mom, if anyone killed me, I'd definitely show you who did it." Falyssa Van Winkle, 10, after watching the movie, "Ghost," with her mother. From the book, "So Innocent, Yet So Dead," by Bill Davis.

BEAUMONT, Tex. - Sgt. Bill Davis and a friend were hunting in Newton County, in eastern Texas, when they decided to drop by the county jail to tell James Rexford Powell about the semen.

Powell, awaiting trial for murder, was brought out to meet them in a room in the jail. "Rex, guess what?" Davis recalled telling Powell. "Your semen was found in the girl." Powell, who smoked, reached into his pocket to pull out a cigarette. He tried to light it, but was shaking so badly that Davis had to light it for him. "What do you think about that?" Davis asked Powell.

There was only one thing to think. Powell was a dead man in Texas. But he said nothing. He has always said nothing. Davis, who had arrested Powell for the rape and murder of 10-year-old Falyssa Van Winkle, had hoped to get a full confession from Powell when he told him about the semen. It was over. The DNA test proved it was his. But Powell said nothing. "He never cracked a bit..." said Davis, "except, for the shaking."

Years have now gone by since that meeting. Powell is now on death row, just days away from execution. Maybe he will say something when he is strapped to a gurney in Huntsville and executed on Tuesday.

Powell was convicted of the 1990 kidnapping, rape and murder of Falyssa Van Winkle. Davis is also convinced that Powell had raped and killed before in neighboring Louisiana. Falyssa was not his only victim, Davis believes. There are two missing women. The bones of a child were found. Powell killed them. Davis knows he did.

Falyssa Van Winkle, only 10, was a wonderful, bright girl. Davis, who wrote a book on the case, said the rope used to strangle her had cut so deeply into her neck that investigators didn't see it when her body was first found under the Cow Creek Bridge in Newton County. Her face was bloated and hidden under a puddle of muddy water.

She loved French. She was on the honor roll. She was extroverted, performed in class plays. That was in life. There would be no open casket when her parents got Falyssa back. Her body had been disfigured from strangulation. Children would be coming to the funeral to say goodbye to their friend. They could not see her like this. It had to be a closed casket.

Davis writes that Falyssa was buried in a Gunne Sax dress with lace and iridescent sequin trim, lacy socks and a purple headband. Purple was her favorite color. In her coffin, she has her necklace and the pewter pin given to her by her first boyfriend. A hand painted portrait of Falyssa is on her gravestone, along with a depiction of the Infant of Prauge. The gravestone is there because Falyssa went out to buy a bag of peanuts at an antiques fair and flea market in Beaumont on October. 6, 1990. Powell was also at the fair.

Powell, somehow, had lured her into his motor home, where he probably struck her in the head and knocked her unconscious, tied-her and stuffed a cloth in her mouth, Davis said. He then drove off in his motor home, which had large read eagles painted on its back upper sides. On his way to rape and kill Falyssa, he stopped to wave goodbye to her parents, Davis said. Falyssa's parents did not know that their daughter was in the motor home with Powell.

Powell drove about 80 miles to a quiet hunting lease in Newton County. After he was done, he dragged Falyssa's body, pulling it by the rope that he had used to strangle her. It was hunting season and there were lots of people around. He had to find a spot to dump the body quickly. He choose to leave her under a bridge.

Davis has sketched out a likely scenario of the horror the child endured. Falyssa probably regained consciousness in the van. Terrified, she felt the movement of the van as it went along miles and miles of highway.

Did Powell say anything to her as he was driving? Did he tell her what he was going to do to her? It is sickening to read. You can't even force yourself to retype it. "He's a pervert, one of those predators of opportunity," said Davis, a sergeant in the Beaumont Police Department. "He probably was one of those who fantasized about having sex with a child. "This guy has breathed twelve years longer than she did. He is guilty of the hideous murder of a child. Say whatever you want about the death penalty. But he will not commit another crime."

Davis' book on the case is titled "So Innocent Yet So Dead." He also gives lectures and workshops on awareness prevention and intervention of child abuse. He is on the road a lot, traveling to give these workshops.

Davis will not be on the road Tuesday. He said he will be in the witness area of the Wall Unit in Huntsville when Powell is brought out to be strapped to an execution gurney. Falyssa's mother, Elaine Langley, asked Davis to be there in place of her. Falyssa was one of Elaine's children from a previous marriage.

Falyssa and her family had traveled from their home in Lake Charles, La., to set up a booth at an antiques fair in Beaumont. The fiar is called Old Time Trading Days, an annual event. Powell, who the family had met on the flea market circuit before, had stopped by their motor home on the morning of Oct. 6, 1990 to say hello. Powell, an electrician who had been injured in an oil rig accident, sold antique tools and jars at flea markets.

Falyssa knew Powell. When he had stopped by that morning, Falyssa had shown him a picture of her first boyfriend. Later, Falyssa asked her mother for a $1 so she could go a buy a bag of peanuts. She would not be seen again.

Elaine and Joe Langley, her stepfather, were frantic. Joe Langley, knowing that Powell had stopped by to see them earlier in the day, would later telephone him to ask if he seen Falyssa. No, not since he visited in the morning, Powell told him. Powell never says anything.

Powell had a custom motor home which he used to sleep in while traveling. It had custom painted birds on the sides - eagles in flight. Very unique, said Davis. The painted birds were the sort of thing that people remember seeing. "We found the sign painter who did the birds and interviewed him," Davis said. "He made the stencil (for Powell) and then threw the stencil away. Very unique painting on a motor home. Not another one like it in the entire state." People remembered seeing the motor home with the painted birds along the way from Beaumont to Newton County, where Falyssa's body was found. "We were able to track his movements from Beaumont all the way," Davis said.

When Falyssa disappeared, it didn't take police long to focus on Powell. He had balked when police called him at his home and asked him to come in and make a statement. Officers were suspicious. Then, they learned about his background. Powell had previously been investigated for the rape and attemped murder of an elderly woman and the sexual assault on his niece in Louisiana. Powell was arrested 41 hours after the Falyssa's body was discovered. Davis said he put the handcuffs on him outsidse his mobile home.

Powell didn't seem concerned. He fell asleep in the back of a police car - while being taken to jail on a capital murder charge. Before sleeping, he told Davis and other officers that he was "impotent" as a result of the oil rig accident. Funny thing to say out of the blue, Davis thought. Powell was probably trying to plant a seed in the minds of lawmen that he couldn't rape anyone, Davis said. Clever man.

Evidence mounts

Police had gathered both biological evidence and eyewitnees accounts that they would later use at Powell's trial. When word got around Newton County that a child had been found murdered, people started calling police to tell them about the motor home with the painted birds.

A witness testified that Powell was near the peanut stand. Powell admitted he had talked to Falyssa there. A witness testified that he saw Powell's motor home - with those big birds on it - in the area where the child's body was found. Witnesses said his pickup nearly collided with a motor home on the south side of the Cow Creek Bridge.

The white motor home had big red birds on the side. A neighborhood youth testified he saw Powell washing his motor home the next day. Scrapes were found on the underside of the Cow Creek Bridge. This indicated that a vehicle had hit it while going underneath. Evidence revealed that the height of the damage on the bridge matched the height of damage found on Powell's motor home.

A forensic expert said Falyssa's hair was found inside the motor home. The forensic expert said the hair had been torn from her scalp. A pathologist testified that sperm was found in the child's body. An expert in DNA analysis testified that the DNA banding pattern matched with Powell's.

This marked one of the first time's DNA had been used to identify a criminal suspect, Davis said. In 1989, DNA was first used to prove the innocence of a man convicted of rape. Two years previously, a man in England was convicted of rape based on DNA evidence.

The defense called only one witness. He was a man who said he saw a red van near the bridge and the man driving it wasn't Powell. Defense lawyers also later tried to say that Falyssa was not raped. "Are you saying that 10-year-old Falyssa Van Winkle consensually had sex with that man right there?" asked Paul McWilliams, the prosecutor in the case. "That's kind of what it sounds like."

It took the jury less than an hour to find Powell guilty of capital murder. Later, it took them less than an hour to sentence him to death.

In researching his background before his arrest, lawman learned that Powell had been arrested in 1984, but later acquitted, on charges that he attempted to rape and murder a 66-year-old woman in Louisiana. The woman, Lucille Jackson, would later come back to haunt Powell and help put him on death row.

Jackson had identified Powell as the man who attacked and shot her. She said that he drove up to her house in a yellow, Jeep-type vehicle, grabbed her, and dragged her into a bedroom where he tried to rip her cloths off. During the struggle, Powell shot her in the head, Jackson said. Powell did own a Jeep-type vehicle. Jackson identified him in lineups and in court as her attacker. But Powell was acquitted of charges that could have sent him to prison for years, preventing him from murdering Falyssa.

How? "He's kind of an arrogant sort of person, pretty self assured of himself," said Marvin Hilton, the chief investigator of the Vernon Parish Sheriff's Department. "He had some people lie for him about his whereabouts."

During the trial for the attempted rape and murder of Jackson, Powell's uncle, Justice Neeley, testified that he was on his porch watching the road leading to Lucille Jackson's house and saw only one vehicle going toward it. The man driving was a dirty-looking white man, Neeley testified. It was not Powell, Neeley testified. He swore to it.

But during the penalty phase of the trial for the murder of Falyssa Van Winkle - when the jury was determining whether to give Powell life or a death - both Neeley and Lucille Jackson were brought back by the prosecutor to testify.

Jackson told of how Powell had attempted to rape her and shot her. Neeley took the stand again. This time, he testified that he has seen his nephew driving away from Lucille Jackson's house. Why the change in testimony? Neeley said the prosecutor in the Jackson case had asked him the wrong questions.

Police in Beauregard Parish and Vernon Parishes, over the eastern Texas line in Louisiana, also reported that prior to Falyssa's murder, they investigated complaints that Powell had sexually assaulted his niece.

Hilton said the complaint was later withdrawn after relatives of the child urged her not to go any further with it. Davis also said that Powell's daughter, now dead, told him that her father had molested her. However, the family has denied it.

Louis Dugas was one of the lawyers who defended Powell at trial. He said the case was so long ago, he remembered few details. He remembers challenging the DNA evidence and arguing some jurisdictional issues.

He didn't remember going up to the jury during the penalty phase with a bag of hypodermic needles, pulling them out and asking the jurors if they would be willing to personally inject Powell with poison. Very colorful. Sort of tactic one would remember.

Of course, the jury later voted unanimously for a death sentence. Maybe Dugas pulled back the needles before jurors had the chance to grab them. Dugas said that on appeal, "we got wiped out."

He said Powell's new lawyers have claimed that the convicted child killer got incompetent representation from Dugas. "I suppose I'd do the same thing," Dugas said. Dugas said he was appointed by the court to represent Powell at trial because "nobody wanted it." He said a judge told him one day that he would like to appoint him to the case, so Dugas said, "Okay."

Nicholas Trenticosta, a New Orleans lawyer, is now Powell's appeals lawyer. He did not return a telephone call for comment.

Police in Beauregard and Vernon Parishes said that the remains of a child, Tammy Call, missing since February 1990, had been found. What remained of her was just a skull and bones. They were found in a hunting lease area. She was last seen walking to school. She was 15. She had skipped school that day.

Powell was in that area that day, too, Davis said, having a doctor's appointment that he never arrived kept. Funny coincidence. Powell was convicted of killing Falyssa in a hunting lease, too.

Davis also said that within six months after Tammy Call disappeared, Powell and his wife moved from the area to Mauriceville, Texas. Also, Louisiana law enforcement officials say two women in their 20s had been reported missing while Powell lived in the area.

Davis can't prove anything. Besides, you can only kill Powell once. But, Davis said it is ludicrous to think that the rape and murder of Falyssa was Powell's first. Experience has taught him that when criminals are caught, it is not usually after their first crime.

About a week ago, Davis said he telephoned Powell's lawyer asking if he could talk to Powell about the disappearances, especially about Tammy Call. Maybe Powell would like to clear his conscious - if he did kill other children and was responsible for the murders in Louisiana, Davis reasoned.

Davis reported that the lawyer said nothing could be gained by that. He says he hasn't heard anything from the lawyer since he asked. Davis thinks back as the execution moves closer. He said it would have liked to see Powell executed on October 6 - the day Falyssa was kidnapped and murdered.

He is on the telephone remembering how he and Newton County Sheriff Wayne Powell (no relation to James Powell) went down a road in the dead of night many years ago to try to find three people who, a woman had been told, had seen a vehicle with big birds painted on it coming out from under the Cow Creek Bridge. Davis and the sheriff got lost and saw a car coming toward them. Davis and Powell flagged the vehicle down, hoping to get directions. Inside the car were the three persons who had seen the motor home with the big red birds painted on it - a vehicle driven by a white man. Maybe it was God's work, Davis said.

And years later, Davis wonders what made Powell what he is. Even Davis admits that something tragic in Powell's upbringing and life probably made him a child killer.When Davis was investigating the murder, old-timers in the community came up to him, whispering stories of Powell's father molesting girls. There was talk of incest. They told Davis what Powell had been accused of doing didn't surprise them.

Flip through Davis' book and you see pictures Falyssa. You never knew her, did you? She smiles in kindergarten photos. There is one of her with baby teeth. Another with her sister, now grown up and married.

Another at 10-years- old, the last months of her life. Another shows her just nine days old. There is also a photo of a gravestone with her name on it. You avoid the section of the book that tells of how horribly she suffered.

Then, you think of James Rexford Powell, now 56 and on death row since 1991. You see a picture of him in Davis' book, razor thin with a mustach and bushy hair. You think of what he did and the horror that Falyssa experienced when he came at her in that motor home. It makes you want to search for, as Abraham Lincoln said in his inaugural speech, "The better angels of our nature." But, you just can't find them. Even if they are there, you just can't seem to dig down far enough to reach them.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

James Rexford Powell (TX) - October 1, 2002

The state of Texas is scheduled to execute James Rexford Powell Oct. 1 for the 1990 abduction and murder of 10-year-old Falyssa Van Winkle. Powell, a white man, allegedly abducted Van Winkle from an antique mall in Jefferson County, then strangled her in the course of sexually assaulting her. The victim’s body was discovered later that day in Newton County, and after witnesses claimed they saw Powell’s motor home in the vicinity of the area, police arrested him in Orange County.

Several issues complicate Powell’s death sentence, ranging from the court’s denial to change venues to its admission of testimony from an unqualified expert witness. Before the trial, Powell’s defense counsel filed for a change of venue, claiming that Newton County could not produce an impartial jury to hear the case.

The Van Winkle murder had generated significant media publicity in eastern Texas, and most of it linked Powell to the crime. In support of its motion for a change of venue, the defense offered detailed information about Powell’s case in the media, including videotaped news broadcasts, numerous printed articles, statistics showing the size of the television stations’ viewing audiences in Newton County, and statistics showing the number of Newton County subscribers to publications covering the case.

In rebuttal, the prosecution had four residents claim their county could give Powell a fair trial. The court not only ruled in favor of the state, but also refused the defendant’s later request to poll the jurors about whether or not they had seen an article in the Beaumont Enterprise from May 25, 1991. That article inaccurately recounted the testimony from a hearing concerning DNA evidence, mistakenly implying Powell’s guilt in the murder.

A significant part of the state’s case relied on expert testimony concerning DNA evidence from Julie Cooper, a molecular biologist. Powell argued that the court should not have allowed Cooper to testify about the probability of matching DNA banding patterns for two reasons: a) she was unqualified as an expert in population genetics, and b) she used an unauthenticated computer program for her tests and calculations.

On the appeal, the court ruled that an objection concerning Cooper’s qualifications had to be made at trial, and that the defense failed to object at the proper time during the trial concerning the computer program. Both of these defense errors deal with intricate courtroom issues, and Powell should not face execution because of legal mistakes made during his trial.

Finally, Powell argued that the court wrongfully allowed the introduction of a prior acquittal during the sentencing phase of his trial. The state prevailed in that debate as well, claiming that the extraneous offense would help the jury determine the defendant’s future dangerousness to society. Thus, despite no prior offenses, the jury perceived Powell as a career criminal, and sentenced him to death.

Too many issues cast doubt on the fairness of Powell’s trial for the state of Texas to take his life. Please write the Court of Criminal Appeals and encourage a reconsideration of Powell’s sentence.

James Rexford Powell

By Falyssa Ann Van Winkle

The Littlest Angels.net

Beaumont, TX -- Dec. 1, 1994 -- James Rexford Powell was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murder of a 10-year-old girl.

Jurors found Powell guilty of capital murder in connection with the Oct. 6, 1990, rape and strangulation of Falyssa Ann VanWinkle of Lake Charles, LA. The sixth grader was abducted from a Beaumont flea market. The girl's body was found the same day under a bridge crossing Cow Creek between Newton and Kirbyville in neighboring Newton County. Powell was arrested two days later as a prime suspect.

Jurors delivered the death sentence after hearing more testimony in the punishment phase of the trial and closing arguments from the prosecution and defense. It took only 45 minutes for jurors to vote for death, the same amount of time they deliberated in finding Powell guilty.

The only other choice the jury could impose was life imprisonment. Powell appeared shaken as First Judicial District Judge Joe Bob Golden read out the jury's decision and said, "I assess your punishment as death.'' A poll of the jurors requested by the defense showed the decision was unanimous.

An execution date will be set after Powell exhausts his automatic appeal on the conviction and sentence. He will be sent immediately to the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

Jury foreman Joe Walker of Newton later said he and the other 11 jurors never thought twice about finding Powell guilty and sentencing him to death. "I had no remorse about it. If you had chance to look at any of the evidence, it was self-explanatory,'' Walker said. "I had no feeling about convicting him. He was guilty and he deserved what he got.''

Asked if he thought the rest of the jury felt the same way, he said, "Yes, I do. It was an unanimous decision.'' As for giving Powell the death penalty, Walker said, "I wouldn't want him walking around here. I don't have any kids, but I wouldn't want him to pick up any of my kids. I do believe he would do it again.''

On the two legal questions needed to render a death sentence whether Powell deliberately murdered the Van Winkle girl and if there was a chance he would be a threat in the future the jury voted "affirmative.''

Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Paul McWilliams, one of the prosecutors in the case, told reporters, "The evidence in this case left them with no other decision to make. We were confident.'' Mrs. Elaine Langley, Falyssa's mother, said, "I think now she can rest in peace knowing he can't do this to any more children.'' She sat on the front row of the courtroom during most of the trial.

Mike Van Winkle, Falyssa's father, said: "I want the system to work right. I believe every man should have his day in court. This man certainly had it.'' Asked what he would remember most about his daughter, he said, "Her spirit ... she really had spirit. She trusted people. She was a kid and this creature took advantage of that for enough time he put her spirit out.''

Louis Dugas, defense attorney for Powell, said he will represent Powell during the appeal process in which they will look ``at a number of grounds.'' He cited two areas among several grounds for their appeal. They center on McWilliam's participation in the trial since he is from Beaumont and a search warrant issued during the murder investigation. Dugas was asked if his client had said anything about the verdict and sentence against him. "He said he would continue to place his faith in God and rely on God to carry him,'' he said.

Powell, who was sitting in the visitor's booth talking to his wife, replied "Nope'' when asked if he wanted to comment on the death sentence.

Testimony heard included damaging information about Powell's background. The defense strongly objected to the testimony, but was overruled after prosecution arguments that it was relevant to determine what penalty Powell should receive. The most gripping testimony was that of Lucille Jackson, 74, of Merryville. Powell was tried in 1984 for trying to kill her. He was found not guilty after a trial which Mrs. Jackson described as "a farce.''

She recalled that on Aug. 2, 1984 she was at home washing her hair when she was interrupted by a man calling himself Dave Smith. She said it was Powell. "That fellow right there,'' she said pointing to Powell in the courtroom, "came up to my gate and walked on in.'' She explained that he said he represented a company interested in buying her timber. "I told him no. He then grabbed me and dragged me to the bedroom. He pulled out a small gun,'' Mrs. Jackson said. "He said, `Lady, do you want me to shoot you.' I told him, `You are going to anyway.' ''

Jackson said Powell started to choke her with a dress to keep her from yelling, and later shot her in the temple and bludgeoned her with a shotgun, leaving her for dead. The witness lost her left eye in the attack. "When I came to, I went to a neighbor's house. I was bleeding profusely. My ear was just hanging. They called an ambulance,'' she said. Mrs. Jackson said Powell looked differently than he did in 1984 because he had a long beard back then, but she said she could still identify him. "His eyes are unmistakable,'' she testified. "When someone is choking you to death, you will always remember them.''

Mrs. Carless Powell, the defendant's wife, was asked about "problems'' her husband had with their daughter and a niece. "There were no problems,'' she said three times as McWilliams questioned her again and again. She was earlier asked on the stand if she had an opinion about whether her husband of 22 years could commit future violence. "I definitely have an opinion,'' she said, crying. "He wouldn't hurt anyone. He wouldn't commit any criminal acts of violence.''

James Rexford Powell

By Shawn Martin - The American Press

September 29, 2002

James Rexford Powell is scheduled to die Oct. 1 by lethal injection in the Texas death chamber for the rape and slaying of a 10-year-old Lake Charles girl in October 1990.

Powell has two matters pending before the U.S. Supreme Court — an application for a stay of execution and a request for a review of an appeals court decision. As of 4 p.m. Saturday, the nation's high court had not considered either.

Powell, 56, was convicted of the first-degree murder for the rape and strangulation of Falyssa Ann Van Winkle in October 1990. The Lake Charles sixth-grader was abducted from a Beaumont, Texas, flea market. Van Winkle's body was found the same day of the abduction under a bridge crossing Cow Creek between Newton and Kirbyville in neighboring Newton County, Texas.

Powell, formerly of Beauregard Parish, was arrested at his home in Mauriceville, Texas, two days later and charged with capital murder for the kidnap and strangulation of Van Winkle.

The request for review is in regards to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Powell's claims that his Sixth, Eighth and 14th Amendment rights were violated during the sentencing phase of his 1991 capital murder trial in Newton County. The 5th Circuit rejected Powell's claims in April.

Powell objects to the prosecution's introduction of testimonial evidence involving a 1985 attempted murder trial in Beauregard Parish in which he was acquitted.

The Sixth Amendment holds that the accused "shall enjoy the right ... to have the assistance of counsel for his defense;" the Eighth Amendment provides "... no cruel and unusual punishment;" and the 14th Amendment part holds "... nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law ..."

In the review request, Nicholas Trenticosta, Powell's attorney, states that his client is the "only person sentenced in the United States whose sentence relies upon prior acquittal." "There are no reported decisions holding that a sentencing jury may consider evidence of alleged prior criminal conduct in which the defendant has been acquitted in order to find the defendant death-eligible." Trenticosta, who is from the Loyola Death Penalty Resource Center in New Orleans, said the 5th Circuit's decision rejecting Powell's claims as a "matter of logic alone ... cannot stand."

He said the 5th Circuit decided "that a crime of which as person has been acquitted by a jury, which was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, may be used against him to prove the 'special issue' for future dangerousness beyond reasonable doubt and, therefore, provide justification for the compelled imposition of the death penalty."

Powell maintains that because his death sentence is based on evidence of a crime that a jury had determined he did not commit, it should be reversed. Trenticosta says the 5th Circuit erred in its use of case law in rejecting Powell's claims.

Powell's request for a stay of execution stems from a petition filed earlier this month with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights claiming violations of his human rights under the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man under international law. The same issues raised in the review request are in the stay request. It also states that Powell's seeking international relief because he has exhausted his domestic remedies.

Powell will be moved Tuesday from Terrell Unit in Livingston to a holding cell near the death chamber in Huntsville.

James Rexford Powell