MURDER IN THE THUMB

At the Thumb Correctional Facility in Lapeer, Michigan, resides convicted murderer Melvin Garza. If you were to ask him what happened in 1976, the fatal night he killed his ex-girlfriend, Robin Adams, he’d stand by his proclamation: “I am innocent.” If you were to refer to Richard W. Carson’s lengthy tome “Murder in the Thumb,” he’d dismiss the book as filled with lies and half-truths.

But there are some things Melvin would have to agree with. He did in fact assault his seventeen-year-old girlfriend after their break-up; but, as he had explained to her mother in a phone call initiated by him (a conversation she had taped), he thought his actions were justified because Robin, in his words, was drinking too much. Of course the mother knew better. Ironically, when you’re that bold, that controlling, as Melvin was, advising the mother to have her daughter drop the assault charges would seem like an easy sell, especially when your main concern, as Melvin would reiterate, was to emphasize that something bad might happen.

Melvin’s lawyer, Father Michael Callahan—a Roman Catholic priest back then, and someone who would later join forces defending former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick—tried to get the eight-year-old taped conversation declared inadmissible, Also, he attempted to discredit a handwriting expert’s testimony regarding the “fake” Robin letters which Melvin hand-delivered to the police, Melvin’s way of casting doubt about her death.

Richard W. Carson does an excellent job providing the reader with mounds of circumstantial evidence against Melvin Garza (too much to list here), and one wonders how the years could roll by before an arrest, trial, and conviction (1984). Where the author misses the mark is with his speculations regarding “Black Magic”—perhaps his own ploy to spice up his narrative and sell more books. With 106 chapters and well over 600 pages, his writing reads like lengthy, courtroom transcripts where scenes meld into a television-like marathon of “Matlock” episodes.

Still, the most fascinating chapters cover an overlooked judicial error and its interpretation which could have altered the course of Melvin’s trial. His sister Nora, an accomplice in disposing of Robin’s body (if not more), was granted full immunity during a One-Man Grand Jury. If she had been informed of “transactional immunity” and her constitutional rights, she might not have caved-in; she might not have agreed to become a secret informant; she might not have shown the police the approximate location of Robin’s body. Without a body, the prosecutor had nothing more than circumstantial evidence; with a body, Melvin’s chances at freedom were slim.

I’d highly recommend “Murder in the Thumb” to anyone interested in true crime and/or courtroom drama. I just wish Richard W. Carson would have concentrated more on the peculiar brother/sister relationship of Melvin and Nora Garza, instead of trying to make “far reaching” connections ranging from teenage girls consulting an Ouija board to a Mexican black magic woman placing curses on unsuspecting witnesses.