Kevin Clark and Azie Faison: The 1987 Robbery and 1995 Retrial

The 1987 robbery that connects Kevin Clark and Azie Faison took place just before 2:30 a.m. on August 21, when Clark and two accomplices broke into a third-floor apartment at 1295 Grand Concourse in the South Bronx, handcuffed six people on the floor, robbed and beat them, and then shot each one in the head and body at close range. Three people were killed. Faison, a Harlem drug dealer whose aunt’s apartment was being used as a stash house, survived nine gunshot wounds and later testified against Clark at trial. Clark was convicted of murder and attempted murder and sentenced to 112 years to life.¹²

Inside the Apartment at 1295 Grand Concourse

The apartment, near East 169th Street in Morrisania, belonged to Faison’s aunt and was being used in his drug operation. Six people were inside when Clark, Ronald Timmons, and Henry Bolden forced their way in: Faison, Michael Lamar, 13-year-old Lynette Bell, Myra Enoch, Joane Blue, and Charles Parker.¹

The victims were handcuffed, robbed, and beaten before being shot. Inspector Daniel F. McMahon of the Bronx detectives unit said “three of them had been handcuffed behind the back and were already dead” when police arrived. Enoch, Blue, and Parker were killed. Officers recovered a knife, empty crack vials, and other drug paraphernalia from the ransacked rooms.²³

The three survivors were gravely wounded. Faison, 23, was hospitalized in critical condition with nine bullet wounds. Michael Lamar, 34, was shot five times and had his wrist slashed so deeply that his hand was nearly severed. Lynette Bell was stabbed in the stomach and shot twice in the head; a bullet remained lodged permanently in her shoulder bone. During the attack, Bell told her assailants, “I’m not 12, I’m 13,” and whispered to Joane Blue as they lay on the floor, “We are not going to die, just have faith we are not going to die.”⁴⁵

Why the Apartment Was Targeted

Faison was 23 and one of the better-known drug dealers in Harlem, working alongside Rich Porter and Alberto “Alpo” Martinez. The Grand Concourse apartment was part of his operation, which made it a target for a crew willing to kill everyone inside to take what was there. The attack and his long recovery pushed him away from the drug trade over the years that followed.¹

The Arrests

Clark, then 27, surrendered to police in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on August 23, 1987. He was arraigned before District Justice George Zozos and held in Dauphin County Prison on three counts of homicide and three counts of aggravated assault.⁶ Timmons was arrested on August 25, and Bolden was picked up in Richmond, Virginia, in September 1987. Sergeant Raymond O’Donnell told reporters that no further arrests were expected.⁷

Trial, Convictions, and a Juror Problem

All three men were tried together and convicted in 1989 of multiple counts of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. The prosecution’s case leaned on the three survivors, who identified Clark, Timmons, and Bolden as their attackers. Each defendant was sentenced to 112 years to life.⁵⁴

After the verdicts, the defendants moved to set aside the convictions on the grounds that a juror, Jacqueline Crumm, had been in improper contact with a potential defense witness. A post-conviction hearing established that Crumm had known Zavia Collins since 1976, that the two were connected through family, and that they spoke by phone several times a week during the trial. Collins had been asked to provide alibi testimony for Clark; when she asked Crumm for advice, Crumm told her to “follow her heart.” Collins did not testify.⁸

The Appellate Division called the evidence against the defendants “overwhelming” but found the juror misconduct had tainted the verdicts against Timmons and Bolden, and ordered a new trial for them. Clark’s conviction was affirmed. The court noted that Crumm had been the sole holdout in Clark’s favor during deliberations, so her misconduct had, if anything, worked for him rather than against him. The New York Court of Appeals affirmed that split result on April 5, 1993. Judge Titone dissented, arguing that Crumm’s private knowledge of the absent alibi witness made her incapable of rendering an impartial verdict against any defendant.⁸

The 1995 Retrial

Timmons and Bolden were retried in 1995. Prosecutor Bruce Birns told the jury that the attackers had turned the Grand Concourse apartment “into a torture chamber,” killing three and leaving three for dead “in a matter of minutes.”⁹

Both were convicted again. Bronx Supreme Court Justice Lawrence Tonetti sentenced each man to 112 years to life on May 25, 1995. Michael Lamar confronted Timmons at the hearing after Timmons denied involvement, telling him, “Yes, you did. Yes, you did.” Lamar said he still woke in the night thinking someone was in his house, and that his friends who died “didn’t deserve to die like that — they died like dogs.” Lynette Bell, by then 20, did not attend; in a letter read by Assistant District Attorney Alison Hinds, she called Timmons and Bolden “devils.” Bolden told the court, “These are not good people. I feel like everybody got railroaded.”⁴⁵

What Became of Azie Faison

Faison’s decision to testify was unusual for a drug dealer, and the defendants contested his account at both trials; Bolden claimed there was “a lot of coverup going on” involving the witnesses.⁴

After leaving the drug trade, Faison formed a hip-hop group called MobStyle in 1989 and co-authored an autobiographical book, Game Over, with Agyei Tyehimba. The 2002 film Paid in Full was based on his life and the lives of Rich Porter and Alpo Martinez. Faison later said, “I wish I never played this game,” and that “too many people admire the drug lifestyle, but that lifestyle and that world are based on falsehood and illusion.”¹ Clark’s conviction has never been overturned, and he remains incarcerated under the 112-years-to-life sentence imposed after the 1989 trial.

1
AllThatsInteresting.com. Azie Faison
2
New York Times. 3 Are Slain and 3 Are Hurt in a Robbery Tied to Drugs
3
UPI Archives. Two Women and a Man Were Shot Dead Execution Style
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NY Daily News. Killer Confronts Survivor Before Getting 112 Yrs
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NY Daily News. Survivor Recalls Bronx Massacre Testimony Put Killers Away
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New York Times. Suspect Gives Up in Shooting of 6, 3 Fatally, in the Bronx
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New York Times. Suspect Held in Bronx Killings
8
Cornell Law Institute. People v Kevin Clark
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NY Daily News. 2 Men Back on Trial in 87 Triple Slaying