Remembering Tabitha Dockery

 

A Short Life of Suffering

Tabitha Lynn Dockery was 8 months old when her mother, Jewel Dockery, and her mother’s boyfriend, Russell Johnson, decided to spend time smoking marijuana with their friends on the night of Wednesday, January 20th, 1993. Jewel Dockery and Russell Johnson had reversed their sleep schedule to accommodate the baby. At 5 p.m. the next day, after a hard night of partying, Johnson called Dockery and told her Tabitha was not breathing.

Johnson began trying to resuscitate Tabitha, until a neighbor came to their aid and took over in the resuscitation effort. When paramedics arrived, they rushed Tabitha to Kettering Memorial Hospital, where she would be pronounced dead by doctors shortly after arrival.

The Lies Begin

When giving their initial statements to police, Jewel Dockery and Russell Johnson claimed that Tabitha had been up late, and was fussy at around 4:30 a.m. “She was teething and she wouldn’t sleep,” said Dockery. They claimed that they tried playing with the baby and fed her a bit of blueberry cake to try to calm her. They then placed her back in the makeshift hammock they had strung up between the corner of their waterbed mattress and a drawer of their dresser near the foot of the bed. Around 6 a.m., they gave Tabitha a bottle.

According to Jewel, “about noon, she woke up and wanted another bottle. Russ went and got her one. He came and got right back in bed again.” Then, around 5:30 p.m. Dockery claimed that Johnson awoke her and stated that Tabitha was not breathing. “We started freaking and right away he started her CPR. He had his hands in the front of her neck to pry her jaw open, and he had his hand on her cheekbones to help bring her head back to open her passageway. He was breathing in her mouth and massaging her heart with two fingers.”

According to Dockery, the Moraine city police officers began asking “offensive questions.” Dockery claimed she did not believe them when they said her child had been strangled. “They had a dead baby,” Dockery said. “They had a baby with hand marks around her neck. But my baby was not strangled. I believe what happened is she had gotten sick and she choked on it. I believe she choked on her vomit.”

Russell Johnson also said he was disturbed when police began asking him questions. “They might have been doing their job, but that disturbed me and Jewel,” he said. “I did not hurt that baby,” he added. Regardless of their statements, police Sgt. Joe Wynn claimed, “there are too many inconsistencies in their story.”

A Disturbing Autopsy Report

Upon examining the body of Tabitha Dockery, Montgomery County Coroner James Davis discovered that she had been beaten on the head and that her killer attempted to strangle her by hand, and then finished the job with a cord or rope of some kind. The bruises on her head were recent, according to Davis, and were not consistent with any attempt for resuscitation or with the incident described by Jewel Dockery.

“There were multiple bruises – deep bruises – about the skull,” said Davis. “It is not possible for it to be anything but a homicide.” Coroner Davis estimated that Tabitha’s death could have occurred over a period of three to five minutes, but may have also lasted “10 to 30 minutes or longer.”

Jewel Dockery cried when she was given the coroner’s findings. “I still hear her cry. I can still hear her crawl. I still hear her. Sometimes I still think I see her.” She claimed that the findings had to be wrong, saying that the red marks around Tabitha’s neck were irritated skin due to dried-up drool. She also said her cranial bruising happened a week before her death when Tabitha fell to the floor off of her grandmother’s bed.

An Arrest and an Indictment

Before any announcement was made, Tabitha’s grandmother, Alice Dockery, was hoping the responsible party would be duly punished, whether it be Russell Johnson or her own daughter Jewel. “Whoever could have done that,” she said, “I hope they get what’s coming to them. Whether it be Russ, whether it be my daughter. They deserve what’s coming to them.” Even Jewel was unsure how she felt about Johnson during the investigation, saying, “I love him and all. It’s just – I don’t know, there’s still a little part of me that says, ‘Jewel, he did this to the baby.’”

After a three-month investigation, police arrested Russell Johnson based on the evidence. He was then indicted for Tabitha’s murder. Upon learning of Johnson’s arrest, Alice Dockery said, “I am so happy that my ‘baby’ can rest in peace. And I’m glad my daughter wasn’t involved.”

The Truth Revealed at Trial

Jewel Dockery testified against Johnson at trial, and explained to prosecutors why she lied to police during the investigation. She had at first claimed that she had awoken several times during the day of the murder and helped care for her daughter. It was revealed at trial that she had slept all day after a night of smoking marijuana with Johnson and some friends, and had convinced Johnson to care for Tabitha while she continued sleeping.

When asked why she fabricated the stories to the police about caring for her throughout the day, she claimed it was out of guilt for how she had been raising her daughter. Then, during the investigation, Jewel claimed that Johnson told her there were things he could not tell her about the crime, and indicated that there was no longer any link between Jewel and Tabitha’s father now that Tabitha was dead. Jewel went straight to the police and agreed to wear a wire during the conversation that Johnson wished to have with her.

County Prosecutor David Franceschelli spent much of the trial grilling Johnson about statements he made to other witnesses that incriminated him in Tabitha’s murder. He told one friend, “I did it. I did it. It’s my fault,” but tried to explain the confession away, saying, “I didn’t fully explain myself to [his friend].” The prosecution also brought up the claims Dockery made that Johnson had planned to remove some cords from the trailer after hearing the autopsy report stated that a cord was used to strangle Tabitha. When asked to admit to his guilt by the prosecutor, Johnson stammered, “I tried to save that child’s life!”

Justice for Tabitha

After 11 hours in deliberations, the Common Pleas Court jury found Russell Johnson guilty of the murder of Tabitha Dockery. “I’m feeling extreme happiness because the man who murdered my daughter is behind bars now,” said Jewel Dockery. “I’m sorry for his family because they had to do without him. But I want them to realize what I have to do without for the rest of my life and what their son took away from me. My baby can finally rest.” Johnson was given a life sentence for his crimes.