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Pamela Carole MOSS

 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Parricide
Number of victims: 2
Date of murder: February 16, 1996 / March 13, 2012
Date of arrest: March 20, 2012
Date of birth: 1957
Victim profile: Barbara Sherman Frye, 64 (her mother) / William Douglas Coker, 67
Method of murder: Poisoning / Bludgeoning with a hammer
Location: Bibb County/Jones County, Georgia, USA
Status: Sentenced to 10 years in prison on December 27, 1997. Released on July 27, 2005. Sentenced to life in prison without parole on August 28, 2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Woman gets life without parole in River North killing

By Amy Leigh Womack - Macon.com

August 29, 2013

GRAY -- Surrounded by seated family and friends, Judy Coker stood and faced the woman who bludgeoned her husband to death with a hammer.

Inside a Jones County courtroom, Coker told Pamela Moss that her husband, Doug, had been a “good, honest, caring family man” who “did not deserve to be murdered.”

She spoke of how she would never hear her husband call her “sweet pea” or “baby cakes.” He’d never cheer on the Atlanta Falcons.

“I think you are evil and that is the only way God would let this happen,” Coker said.

After deliberating for about 30 minutes, jurors found Moss, 55, guilty in Doug Coker’s March 13, 2012, murder. They set aside other options of not guilty by reason of insanity and guilty but mentally ill.

Authorities found Coker’s body underneath the porch of Moss’ home in the River North subdivision, located just across the Jones County from north Macon on March 18, 2012. Coker, a 67-year-old Henry County businessman, had driven to a north Macon McDonald’s on March 13 to meet with Moss and get $85,000 she owed him. Moss didn’t show up for the meeting and Coker was never seen again.

Ocmulgee Circuit Judge Trent Brown took a short recess after hearing Judy Coker’s statement and an argument by District Attorney Fred Bright advocating a life without parole sentence.

When he returned, Brown addressed Moss saying, “This court finds you to be intelligent, manipulating and calculating. ... It’s due to your greed and utter disregard for human life that brings us here today.”

He sentenced Moss to life without the possibility of parole.

Although they’d been dismissed after delivering their verdict, most jurors returned to the courtroom to hear the sentence.

In his closing argument Thursday morning, Moss’ lawyer, Franklin J. Hogue, said the fact that Moss struck Coker’s head five times with a hammer wasn’t in dispute during the four-day trial.

The question is if she was insane or mentally ill at the time of the killing, he said.

Hogue recounted the story of a circus elephant put on trial for murder a century ago because it had fatally flung a boy to the ground after becoming startled. The townspeople convicted the elephant and killed it by hanging it by the neck from a crane.

“The elephant is being held accountable in the wrong way. ... It didn’t choose to kill a human being. It just did what elephants do,” Hogue said. “Some people are like that too. They just act ... they don’t weigh options or choose right from wrong. They don’t know the difference sometimes.”

He said it would be wrong for jurors to find Moss guilty if she was insane or mentally ill when she killed Coker.

Anthony Levitas, a psychologist hired by the defense, testified Wednesday that he has diagnosed Moss as having dissociative identity disorder earlier this summer. Two psychologists had made the same diagnosis earlier and had made records of her having as many as five alternate personalities.

Levitas said he met Caroline, one of Moss’ alternate personalities, on Wednesday and that Caroline said she remembered being on the floor with Coker standing over her holding what looked like a curtain rod. Then she saw blood.

Hogue said Caroline’s version of the events don’t match what happened.

“But that’s what a delusion is,” he said.

Hogue told jurors he didn’t instruct Moss to tell Levitas a certain story and he didn’t instruct Levitas what to ask Moss.

“Did she say those things to him? He didn’t come in here and make that up,” Hogue said.

In order for a person to be found mentally ill in court, jurors must determine that the person acted either under a “delusional compulsion” that justified the killing or that a person didn’t know the difference between right and wrong at the time of the killing.

In his argument, Bright reminded jurors that Hogue said on Monday in his opening statement that Moss acted under a “delusional compulsion” and that an alternate personality had acted to protect Moss.

But the story about Caroline didn’t come to light until Wednesday, the third day of trial, he said.

“I do say, how convenient,” Bright said.

Bright said Darcy Shores, a Central State Hospital psychologist, testified she found no evidence that Moss acted under a “delusional compulsion” or that she didn’t know the difference between right and wrong when Coker was killed.

Evidence in the case “screams” that Moss knew what she was doing, Bright said, citing the steps she took to lure Coker to her home, clean up the crime scene and hide from police.

He reminded jurors of testimony from Moss’ friends, a neighbor and her boyfriend who had talked with her on the day of the killing. None noticed a change in voice or mannerisms when talking with Moss -- signals Levitas said he noticed when Caroline emerged.

Bright argued against a sentence of not guilty by reason of insanity, saying, “It’s garbage. It’s not justice. It’s wrong.”

Although jurors were not told during the trial that Moss served eight years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in her mother’s 1996 poisoning death, Bright introduced evidence of the conviction during the sentencing phase of the trial.

He said he initially wanted to seek the death penalty against Moss, but the case wasn’t eligible for capital punishment.

In Georgia, a crime must include one of several aggravating circumstances -- one being a prior murder conviction.

 
 

Psychologist in River North murder trial testifies he met Moss’ alter egos

By Amy Leigh Womack - Macon.com

August 28, 2013

GRAY -- Sitting in a room at the Jones County courthouse, an Atlanta psychologist came face to face with a woman who called herself Caroline and said she had feared for her life but fell short of saying she killed a Henry County businessman.

Anthony Levitas testified Wednesday he sat down across the table from a woman resembling Pamela Moss earlier in the day and the woman facing him said “Pam was gone” and identified herself first as Carol and then as Caroline.

She said she “heard screaming” on the day of the killing and at one point she “was on the floor and there was a man standing over her with his hand on her arm.” He was holding something that looked like a curtain rod and “she felt threatened,” Levitas testified.

“She hit him. She didn’t know with what. ... She said she saw blood,” he said.

Moss, 55, is charged in the March 13, 2012, death of 67-year-old Doug Coker. Authorities found Coker’s body underneath the porch of her house in the River North subdivision, just across the Jones County line from north Macon on March 18, 2012.

Closing arguments in the trial are scheduled to begin Thursday morning. Jurors will then begin deliberating Moss’ fate.

Her lawyer has argued she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Levitas, the only witness for the defense, testified he diagnosed Moss with dissociative identity disorder this summer after a battery of tests.

Two other doctors previously had made the same diagnosis, he said.

One of the previous doctors examined Moss in 1996, the same year her mother was fatally poisoned. Moss pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in her mother’s death and served eight years in prison.

Levitas said dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder, typically manifests in people who experience a childhood trauma that causes their mind to split as a coping mechanism. He said Moss told him she was sexually abused at age 12 and she remembered being molested as an even younger child, but was unsure when.

Speaking with Caroline on Wednesday morning, Levitas said that she told him “her role was to help Pam” and that she had given Pam a list of things to buy at the store, including bleach and gloves.

Investigators found receipts at Moss’ house showing she bought the items at a Macon Kroger on the day after the killing. They viewed surveillance footage of her at the store and found the items at her house.

Asked whether it’s possible Moss could be faking a mental illness, Levitas said she appeared to be telling the truth.

“She’d have to be a very good actress,” he said.

Levitas said Moss’ voice changes and she has different mannerisms when another personality is in control. While he’s trained to notice those changes, he said Moss’ friends might be able to talk with her and not know they were talking with one of her alter egos.

He said he had talked with Moss on two prior occasions since July 2013 and had met the alternate personality named Carol, who is an adult woman. Judging from Caroline’s mannerisms, he estimates she is a late adolescent girl or young woman.

When questioned by the prosecution, Levitas admitted he was being paid $5,000 for his evaluation of Moss and time testifying.

‘Nobody was there but her’

Darcy Shores, a Central State Hospital psychologist, also testified Wednesday that she had evaluated Moss.

Shores said she didn’t have enough information to diagnose Moss as having multiple personalities, but said she saw evidence that Moss knows the difference between right and wrong.

She also said there is no evidence Moss was acting under a delusion when she killed Coker.

“According to her, she didn’t kill anybody,” Shores said.

Shores said a person who takes action to cover up a crime -- such as cleaning a house or hiding a body -- knows the difference between right and wrong.

Typically, someone suffering from delusions doesn’t flee from a crime scene or police after committing a crime, she said.

“They think they were right,” Shores said.

After examining records pertaining to Moss’ criminal case and hospital records from when she was admitted for a drug overdose days after the killing, Shores said she found no evidence Moss has had a problem associated with dissociative identity disorder since she stopped receiving treatment in 2003.

No problems have been reported since Moss has been held at the Jones County jail, she said.

Shores said she also took into account that Moss has a college degree in psychology and started a master’s degree in psychology. She also worked for a time at a psychology practice and administered IQ tests.

When asked if her alternate personalities were at her house on the day Coker was killed, Moss replied “nobody was there but her,” Shores said.

Moss waived her right to testify Wednesday morning. She also waived her right to be present during the trial for a second day in a row.

Cellphone records

Jones County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Earl Humphries testified Wednesday morning, explaining a log of calls to and from Moss’ cellphone on the day Coker was killed.

Moss made and received dozens of calls. She spoke with three business associates. She spoke with her boyfriend and arranged with a landscaper to have her grass mowed, Humphries said.

The calls started at 11:05 a.m. on March 13, 2012, when Coker called Moss. Authorities, after viewing surveillance footage of Coker at the McDonald’s on Bass Road in Macon, believe Coker was calling Moss to find out why she wasn’t at their pre-arranged meeting location.

Coker and Moss had planned to meet at the fast food restaurant at 11 a.m., presumably so Coker could collect $85,000 Moss owed him.

At 11:09 a.m., Moss called the front gate at River North, Humphries said.

About 15 minutes later, Coker called Moss again.

Between 11:37 a.m. and noon, Moss called her sister, Carol Holland, three times. Holland testified Tuesday that she spoke with Coker on Moss’ phone during two of the calls.

Moss had told her she was concerned Coker wasn’t “legit” and she wanted her sister’s opinion.

The line went dead during the second call, Holland said Tuesday.

“We believe during the second phone call is when Mr. Coker was attacked and struck with the hammer,” Humphries said Wednesday. A medical examiner testified Tuesday that Coker was struck in the head at least five times, causing his death.

Moss called Coker’s cellphone twice that afternoon, after he was already dead. The first call was at 12:54 p.m. and the second was at 4:28 p.m., Humphries said.

The phone log also documents Moss’ efforts to get a friend from church to pick her up at the Spalding County Hospital where she had driven Coker’s car and parked it, Humphries testified.

Coker’s cellphone records from the hours after his death show someone, presumably Moss, placed a call to one of Coker’s employees, Brian Bowles at 1:47 p.m., Humphries said.

Bowles testified Wednesday that he’d tried to call Coker multiple times that day, but never reached him.

When his phone rang and he saw Coker’s name on the caller ID, he answered.

“I just heard a little shuffling ... and then it hung up,” Bowles said.

Humphries said the phone records show Coker’s cellphone called his wife at 1:49 p.m. and 2:10 p.m. The first call lasted nine seconds and the second lasted a second.

At 2:16 p.m., the phone was used to call Coker’s voicemail.

Cellphone company records show Coker’s phone last “pinged” on a tower in Smarr, in Monroe County. The phone was never recovered.

 
 

Pamela Moss Trial: Gory Details of Murder Scene

By Bernard O'Donnell - 13wmaz.com

August 27, 2013

The second day of Pamela Moss's murder trial turned to gory details of how investigators found a Henry County businessman's body under her porch.

Investigators also described a bloody hammer found in her home and 228 separate blood stains in her living room.

Moss's attorney has argued that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The Jones County woman is accused of killing Doug Coker in March 2012. Prosecutors say Moss struck Coker in the head multiple times with a hammer.

Her trial got underway Monday in Jones County Superior Court.

On Tuesday, Bibb County investigator Jamey Jones and Jones County investigator Kenneth Gleaton described the crime scene and how the body was found.

Jones said he went to Moss's house in March 2012 to look for Coker, the missing businessman. He said he smelled a strong odor of gas and found lit matches in the kitchen sink.

He smelled a strong odor of a decomposing body around the back porch.

Under the porch, "there was a black tarp with roofing shingles on it, with lime spread on it. The shape of it looked like a body." He found a man's body under the tarp.

He said the man's head appeared to be decomposing faster than the body, indicating a severe head injury.

Gleaton said investigators found a large blood stain in the living-room area. Paint was poured over it to cover up, he said.

He called it "a very bloody crime scene."

The blood matched Coker's DNA, he said. He also showed the jury a jar with a piece of Coker's skull.

He also displayed blood-stained candles, tub, matches and the 16-inch claw hammer from Moss's house.

To cover up the death, he said, Moss bought bleach and lime at a store -- along with chicken and grapes.

Coker's family was in tears as Gleaton showed the jury crime-scene photos.

Tuesday's testimony started with a recording of a detective questioning her about her shifting stories.

The session began with Moss back in jail, not in the courtroom. She told Judge Trent Brown Monday that she wanted to waive her right to be present during the trial. The judge initially asked her to "hold it together," but agreed Tuesday to let her stay out of court.

When testimony resumed, Henry County investigator Dean Watson was still explaining his interview with Moss last year. Prosecutors played a tape of the interview.

Watson said Monday that Moss told him several different versions about her contact with Coker.

Coker reportedly had contacted Moss for help in setting up a nonprofit agency.

The interview happened after Coker went missing and before his body was found.

She told Watson that she was forgetful and often couldn't recall "detailed stuff."

When Watson asked Moss about $85,000 that he had given her, she said, "It's his money, I don't want it."

And when asked if she knew where Coker was, she replied, "I have no idea."

Defense lawyer Frank Hogue says Moss has dissociative identity disorder -- multiple personalities -- and acting under a delusional compulsion.

He said Moss should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

 
 

Investigators in Moss case testify about finding body

By Amy Leigh Womack - Macon.com

August 27, 2013

GRAY -- Pamela Moss called her sister at 11:37 a.m. on the day Doug Coker disappeared.

Carol Holland was expecting the call. She and Moss had talked the day before about Moss’ concerns that Coker, a Henry County businessman, might not be “legit” and Moss wanted her sister to listen in when the two met on March 13, 2012, at the McDonald’s on Bass Road in Macon.

When Moss called, she put Coker on the phone with her sister. They had a short conversation about his business, Holland testified Tuesday.

About 10 minutes later, Coker called her back asking questions about the grant Moss was trying to obtain for him.

“We were talking and then we got disconnected” after about a minute, Holland said. He was in the middle of a sentence when the line went dead.

Moss called again at about noon and asked what had happened during the conversation.

“She said, ‘If anybody says anything, I didn’t call you back,’ ” Holland testified.

Moss, 55, was charged with Coker’s murder days later, after investigators found his body underneath the porch of her home in the River North subdivision just across the Jones County line from north Macon.

Her trial started Monday in Jones County Superior Court.

A security guard who manned the front gate at River North testified Tuesday that Coker, 67, signed in saying he was going to met Moss at 11:16 a.m. March 13.

After not hearing from Coker later that day, Coker’s wife and other family members reported him missing to both Henry and Bibb county authorities.

Moss talked with Henry County police detectives March 15 and admitted she had met with Coker at McDonald’s, but gave multiple stories about what happened afterward. In one version, she said she and Coker met at the fast food restaurant and then both went their separate ways. But later, she said Coker followed her to the intersection of Bass Road and Riverside Drive to look at property ripe for investment, said investigator Dean Watson.

An audio recording of the interview was played for jurors Tuesday.

“I have no idea where Mr. Coker is,” Moss said during the interview.

At the end of the interview, Moss agreed to talk with Watson again the following day, but he testified she never showed up.

Bibb County Sheriff’s Office investigator Jamey Jones testified he tried to call Moss using contact information Watson had used, but wasn’t able to reach her.

Jones and another investigator went to her home about 11 p.m. March 18, thinking that most people are at home at that time of night. They spotted lights on in Moss’ house, but no one appeared to be home, Jones said.

Walking around the house, they smelled a strong odor of natural gas. As they continued to walk around the house, they smelled another odor -- a decomposing body, Jones said.

After opening an area fenced in by lattice underneath the porch, Jones said he saw an object covered by a plastic tarp near a wheelbarrow and other yard tools. Roofing shingles and what appeared to be lime were on top of the plastic.

Looking under the plastic, Jones said he found a man’s body. He was wearing the same clothing Coker was reported as wearing on the day he went missing.

“At that time we knew it was Mr. Coker,” Jones said.

Evidence of a cleanup

Receipts found at Moss’ home show she bought several items at the Tom Hill Sr. Boulevard Kroger on the day after Coker went missing.

In one transaction, she bought two pairs of yellow kitchen gloves, plastic storage containers and a tub of chicken salad. In a second transaction, two minutes later, she bought two gallons of bleach.

When investigators found Coker’s body, they found a large plastic tub beside him. Inside were bloodied gloves, plastic sheeting, trash bags and “easy move pads” -- devices sold on TV to make it easier to move large furniture, said Kenneth Gleaton, a Jones County Sheriff’s Office investigator.

Investigators also found bottles of bleach inside Moss’ house, along with bags of lime typically used for lawn care. Gleaton explained a different type of lime is often used in farming applications to reduce odors.

In the kitchen, investigators found a hammer. A GBI DNA expert testified Tuesday that she found Coker’s DNA on the hammer.

GBI Medical Examiner Melissa Sims said Coker was struck at least five times in the head, causing his death.

Gleaton said authorities identified 228 separate blood stains inside Moss’ house.

“This was a very bloody crime scene,” he said.

Many of Coker’s family members faced forward and wept as crime scene photos were projected on the back wall of the courtroom. Several left during Sims’ testimony.

Gleaton testified the natural gas powered living room fireplace was turned on when investigators arrived and they had to air out the house before searching it. They found burned matches in the kitchen sink.

A natural gas meter reader salesman testified that records show a “significant spike” in gas usage began on March 15 at about 7 p.m. and continued until the early morning hours of March 19, the same time investigators were at the house.

Authorities also found multiple blood stains in the living room of the house, including a large stain on the floor. White paint appeared to have been spilled on the blood in an effort to cover it, Gleaton testified.

The stain also had been covered by a plastic sheet, similar to a painting drop cloth, he said.

She seemed ‘very distraught’

On the afternoon Coker disappeared, Moss called a woman she knew from church and asked for a ride home from the Spalding County Hospital, the woman testified.

Gleaton said authorities later found Coker’s car in the hospital parking lot. Inside, investigators found an envelope with three checks written out to Coker by Moss -- two were for $85,000, the amount Moss owed Coker. A third check was made out for $80,000. A Henry County detective testified Tuesday that Moss had already paid Coker $5,000 of the money she owed.

When investigators later searched Moss’ car, they found a Best Western Hotel parking permit dated for March 15 to March 17 and a substance on the floor thought to be lime, Gleaton said.

Walter Duncan, a Tennessee man who has known Moss for 26 years, testified she met him in Atlanta on March 14 for a business meeting the following day. The two had been romantically involved in the past and were dating again in 2012.

He said nothing appeared to be awry, even when they spent the night together at an Atlanta hotel March 14, until a Henry County detective called Moss on the morning of March 15 wanting to talk about Coker’s disappearance.

Holland said Moss called her on March 15 and asked if she could stay with her at her home in Jesup for a few days.

The next day, Moss called again and asked Holland to pick her up at a Wal-Mart in Hinesville, about 25 miles from Holland’s home. She left her car there and rode to Jesup with Holland and stayed at her home for the weekend.

Holland testified that her sister, who she’d only known for about four years, seemed “very distraught” when she picked her up.

By Monday, March 19, Moss said she wanted to be alone after spending a weekend with several teenagers in her sister’s house. She went to Holland’s ex-husband’s home nearby after he’d gone to work, Holland testified.

A deputy showed up at Holland’s door looking for Moss that afternoon and Holland admits she lied and said she hadn’t seen her sister.

Later that night, a family member found Moss on the floor of Holland’s ex-husband’s house suffering from a drug overdose. She was taken to a hospital by ambulance, Holland testified.

Franklin J. Hogue, Moss’ lawyer, told jurors Monday that Moss has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and that she acted under a “delusional compulsion” brought on by an alternate personality when she struck Coker.

Prosecutor Keagan Waystack told jurors Monday that steps Moss took to cover up the crime show she was a woman who knew the difference between right and wrong.

Testimony in the case is scheduled to continue Wednesday.

Although Moss was in the courtroom early Tuesday morning, she waived her right to be present and was taken back to the county jail.

Moss served eight years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in her mother’s 1996 fatal poisoning.

 
 

Prosecutor: Moss struck man in head with hammer multiple times

By Amy Leigh Womack - Macon.com

August 26, 2013

GRAY -- Judy Coker feared her husband might get hurt when he drove to Macon in March 2012 to meet Pamela Moss at the Bass Road McDonald’s to get $85,000 that Moss owed him.

Doug Coker, a Henry County businessman, had given her the money because Moss, a grant writer, was helping him set up a nonprofit organization to help people who couldn’t afford to buy homes.

But by March 13, 2012, Coker had figured out Moss was a “con person,” his wife testified Monday.

Moss, 55, is charged with murder in Coker’s death. His body was found March 18, 2012, covered in plastic and shingles, doused with lime, underneath the porch of Moss’ home in River North, a subdivision just across the Jones County line from north Macon.

Moss’ trial began Monday in Gray.

Prosecutor Keagan Waystack said Moss struck Coker in the head with a hammer multiple times in her living room before stashing his body.

Franklin J. Hogue, Moss’ lawyer, told jurors in his opening statement that the defense doesn’t dispute Moss killed Coker, but he said she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

She was diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder in the 1990s and received treatment up until the early 2000s, he said.

Hogue said a doctor will testify during the trial that Moss still suffers from the disorder and that she acted out of a “delusional compulsion” when Coker was killed.

“I have an unhealthy client,” Hogue told the jury. “She is not well.”

Waystack argued that steps Moss took to cover up the killing, including trying to clean her house and leaving on the natural gas in hopes the house would burn, show she was a “woman who knew the difference between right and wrong.”

A meeting at McDonald’s

Doug Coker was scheduled to meet Moss at the Bass Road McDonald’s about 11 a.m. March 13, 2012.

Surveillance video shows Coker buying a cup of coffee and talking with someone on his cellphone, said Dean Watson, a Henry County police investigator who was assigned to look into Coker’s disappearance. Coker’s wife reported him missing later on March 13.

The video also shows Coker writing something before he left the restaurant, Watson testified.

Knowing Moss was the last person Coker spoke with, Watson said he went to her house on Old Ridge Road to talk with her on March 14, the day he checked the McDonald’s video. No one answered the door, but a car registered to Moss was parked in the driveway.

Watson later arranged to meet with Moss the following day. She wanted to meet at an Atlanta Starbucks.

While there, Moss said she had planned to use Coker’s $85,000 as seed money for a matching grant. Once another investor matched the money, Coker would get his money back. She would get 5 percent of the matched funds as payment for her services, Watson said.

Moss admitted she had used Coker’s money for her personal use -- she’d had a death in the family and some financial problems -- and said Coker was OK with how the money was used, Watson said.

But Watson had read emails sent from Coker to Moss in which Coker repeatedly had asked for his money back. The evidence didn’t match.

Watson testified that Moss told him multiple versions of how her meeting with Coker occurred. At first, she said they talked in the McDonald’s parking lot and then went their separate ways. She later said they met at the McDonald’s and then he followed her to another location, a piece of land ready for investment.

Watson had already requested copies of Moss’ cellphone records and knew that her cellphone, which she said she had with her that day, had been in the same location from about 6:35 a.m. to 1:35 p.m. The meeting was set for 11 a.m.

Coker’s cellphone records showed his phone was within a two-mile radius of a Monroe County cellphone tower about 2:15 p.m., Watson testified.

But by that time, he was already dead.

A worried wife

Doug Coker talked to his wife one last time, about 10:15 a.m. the day he died.

He had called on his way to meet Moss and said that he had taken some mail to the post office as she had requested.

Judy Coker testified she had asked her husband to call her as soon as he finished meeting with Moss, just so she would know he was OK.

She became concerned about 1 p.m. when she hadn’t heard anything from her husband. She called his cellphone.

“It would ring and ring until it went to voicemail,” Coker testified.

She called about every 15 minutes.

Coker also called one of her husband’s business associates and he tried to contact Doug Coker to no avail.

About 2:15 p.m., Coker said she saw her husband’s name flash across the caller ID readout on her cellphone.

She answered and the person hung up.

“I kept saying, ‘Hello, hello,’ ” Coker said.

She called back. “It was dead,” she said.

Waystack told jurors in her opening statement that Moss used Doug Coker’s cellphone to call his wife and business associate. During both calls she hung up as soon as the calls were answered. She then tossed the phone out the window of his car as she drove it to the Spalding County Hospital.

Waystack said Moss asked a friend to pick her up from the hospital parking lot, saying that her car needed repairs. The friend picked her up without seeing that Moss had been driving Coker’s Dodge Avenger.

A few days later, Moss set off in her own car, headed to her sister’s house in south Georgia. She called on the way, saying she couldn’t drive the whole way and asked that her sister pick her up at a Wal-Mart in Hinesville, Waystack said.

Her sister picked her up in the store parking lot and drove her to her house. When deputies went to her sister’s house several days after the killing, Moss was gone. She was at a neighbor’s house taking pills in an attempt to commit suicide, Waystack said.

After a hospital stay, Moss was taken into custody.

Just before testimony began Monday, Moss, who served eight years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter in her mother’s fatal 1996 poisoning, asked the judge if she could waive her right to be present during the trial. The judge ruled that she had to attend the trial Monday, but could decide Tuesday whether to attend the second day of trial.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday morning.

 
 

River North killing trial to begin in Jones County

By Amy Leigh Womack - Macon.com

August 25, 2013

Nearly a year and a half after authorities found a McDonough businessman’s body underneath her back porch, Pamela Moss is set to have her day in court in front of a jury beginning Monday.

Moss, 55, is charged with murder in the March 2012 death of 67-year-old Doug Coker.

Her lawyer plans to present an insanity defense, arguing that Moss suffered from dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder.

She has no memory of the killing. One of her alter egos was in control, said Franklin J. Hogue, Moss’ lawyer.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in Jones County Superior Court.

Bibb County deputies went to Moss’ house in the River North subdivision, just across the Jones County line from north Macon on March 18, 2012.

They wanted to talk with Moss about Coker’s disappearance because she was one of the last people to see him alive. He was last seen March 13 at the McDonald’s on Bass Road in north Bibb County -- the same day authorities think Coker was killed while he was in the Macon area to meet with Moss about a charity housing endeavor. Moss worked as a grant writer and nonprofit manager.

Instead of finding Moss at her home on Old Ridge Road, they found Coker’s body. She was booked into the Jones County jail days later after she attempted suicide and was treated at a south Georgia hospital.

Although Moss served eight years in prison after being convicted of fatally poisoning her mother in Macon in 1996, prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

She isn’t eligible.

In Georgia, a crime must include one of several aggravating circumstances -- one being a prior murder conviction. Moss pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in her mother’s death.

If convicted, she could face life in prison without parole.

Coker built a real estate rental business in Henry County. He bought houses, fixed them up and then rented them, said Buddy Welch, spokesman for the Coker family.

At times, Coker rented houses at a rate below market value just to help people get through tough times, Welch said.

Welch said family members plan to attend the trial.

“None of the family members can forget the ordeal that she put them through,” he said.

Not knowing that Coker was dead, family and friends searched for him, distributing pamphlets and posters until they heard he’d been found dead.

Welch said it’s been hard for Coker’s family to cope with the way that Coker was killed and the fact that his body was left under Moss’ porch for several days.

“There will never be closure on this for the family,” he said. “It has been an emotional roller coaster for them.”

 
 

Moss indicted by grand jury for Coker murder

His body was found under her back porch

By Elaine Rackley

Friday, June 8, 2012

Pamela Carole Moss was officially indicted by a Jones County Grand Jury on Thursday, for the killing of Henry County businessman William Douglas Coker Sr., according to Fred Bright, District Attorney for the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit.

“Moss was indicted for the murder. ... She is charged with two counts of murder,” said Bright. “Counts one and two merge into each other.”

Moss, 54, faces murder and felony murder charges.

Bright said his office expects to prove, “with malice aforethought, Pamela Moss [did] cause the death of William Coker, Sr., by causing blunt force head trauma.”

Coker, 67, was reported missing from Stockbridge on March 13. A family member expressed concerns about Coker’s whereabouts after he failed to return home following a reported business meeting at a fast food restaurant in Macon. Bibb County Sheriff’s Office and Henry County police reviewed video showing Coker having a cup of coffee and leaving the McDonald’s on Bass Road alone.

Bright and Jones County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Earl Humpharies presented the murder case to the grand jury on Tuesday.

Bright said Capt. Earl Humpharies of the Criminal Investigation Division, the lead investigator on the case, was the only witness to testify before the grand jury. The Jones County Sheriff Captain gave details of the murder in the arrest warrant for Moss.

“The defendant did unlawfully and with malice aforethought cause the death of William Douglas Coker, Sr. The victim met with the defendant on or about March 13, 2012,” according to the warrant. “After the victim never returned home, he was reported missing to the Henry County Police Department. On the evening of March 18, 2012, the body of William Douglas Coker, Sr., was discovered under the back porch of 149 Old Ridge Road, inside the River North subdivision of Jones County, Georgia.”

Moss and Coker had a business relationship, according to Humpharies.

Bright said March 13 was the last day the victim was seen and heard alive.

“We picked the ending date March 18, because that was the day the Mr. Coker’s body was found under her back porch, on March 18, Sunday,” he added.

Tuesday, Moss’ attorney, Frank Hogue, said his client is not guilty.

“My client is going to plead not guilty to the charge of murder. There will be a murder trial, [and] I fully expect to be in court defending Pam Moss of murder one day in the coming months.”

Hogue represented Moss in a Bibb County murder case in November 1997. Then, she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, after being charged with murder, in the death of her mother, Barbara Sherman Frye, 64. Moss served seven years in prison, and served three years on parole, said Hogue.

 
 

Murder suspect now in custody

By Debbie Lurie-Smith - Jcnews.com

March 22, 2012

The woman charged with the murder of a Henry County businessman, whose body was found in River North last week, now resides in the Jones County Law Enforcement Center.

Jones County Chief of Investigations Capt. Earl Humphries said Pamela Moss was picked up from the Wayne County Hospital and booked into the LEC about 6 p.m. March 21. Moss is charged with murder in connection with the death of 67-year-old William Douglas Coker. The victim’s body was found under Moss’ back porch at her residence on Old Ridge Road in the gated community of River North.

Coker was reported missing March 13, and his body was found March 18. A warrant was issued for Moss’ arrest the following day. The victim’s cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma. Humphries said Coker had a significant trauma to his head.

Moss was in the Wayne County Hospital because of an alleged suicide attempt, which is where she was found during the search. Humphries said she was transported to Jones County in the back seat of a patrol vehicle and was placed in a medical cell where she remains.

“She is under vigilant watch. We wanted her to be seen by medical personnel to make sure she is taking the medication she needs,” he said.

 

 

 
 
 
 
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