Jury chooses life without parole for convicted killer from Tiptonville

By: AP

CLINTON, Ky. (AP) — A jury recommended a sentence of life without parole for a Tennessee man convicted of killing a western Kentucky teenager.
The jury found Quincy Omar Cross, 31, guilty on Tuesday of kidnapping, raping and murdering Jessica Currin. Her burned body was found in 2000.
Prosecutors had urged jurors to recommend the death penalty for Cross.
Jurors went into deliberations just before 2 p.m. Wednesday and returned just before 10 p.m.
Court officials escorted Cross from the courtroom after the sentence was read by Graves County Circuit Judge Tim Stark.
Stark thanked the jury for their work in the trial and quickly sent them home after the verdict was read Wednesday night.
“I know it’s been hard and it’s been difficult and it’s been time consuming,” Stark said.
Cross, 31, was one of five people charged last year with killing Currin, 18. The charges were announced nearly seven years after her body was found behind Mayfield Middle School.
Currin’s mother, Jean Currin, testified during the trial’s sentencing phase on Wednesday that she and her husband, Joe, were raising Currin’s 8-year-old son, Zion. The boy doesn’t know Jessica Currin was his mother.
“I want him to know about his mommy because she loved him and she was a good mommy,” Jean Currin said. “She had him and that’s when she decided she wanted an education, because she wanted him to have a good education.”
Prosecutor Scott Crawford-Sutherland shouted the boy’s name to the jury as he finished his closing arguments on Wednesday. Witnesses testified during the trial that Currin called out her son’s name before she died.
Cross’ attorneys called three of his relatives and friends to testify on his behalf, The Paducah Sun reported on its Web site.
His sister, Raschelle Brown, of Jackson, said Cross’ family life took a downturn when Cross’ mother remarried. Brown said their mother’s husband abused her and verbally abused the children. She said it led to Cross quitting school and leaving home at age 15.
“Sometimes we’d get out of school and find our mom crying,” Brown said. “We didn’t quite understand it, but we knew it made us nervous.”
Cross was one of five people charged last year in connection with Currin’s death.
A witness for the prosecution, Victoria Caldwell, said during the trial that she and four others — Cross; her cousin, Tamara Caldwell; Jeffrey Burton; and Vinisha Stubblefield — were present the night Currin was killed.
Tamara Caldwell, of Mayfield, and Burton, of West Paducah, are facing rape, kidnapping and murder charges and are to be tried later. Victoria Caldwell and Stubblefield pleaded guilty to evidence tampering and abuse of a corpse and agreed to testify in the trials.
The high-profile trial was moved from Graves County to nearby Hickman County, at the western edge of Kentucky, due to pretrial publicity. Throughout the trial, WPSD streamed a live video feed from the courtroom on its Web site.
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Information from: The Paducah Sun, http://www.paducahsun.com
Published in The Messenger 4.10.08