Mother of two murder victims frustrated with justice system

Mother of two murder victims frustrated with justice system

By JILL MCNEAL
6 News Anchor/Reporter

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- A Knoxville mother says justice for one of her murdered sons has been forgotten.

26-year-old Chris McBath was shot to death this past September. Three people have been charged with first degree murder in his death. 

29-year-old Djuansay Freeman was stabbed to death in 2007. A woman was charged, but that case still hasn't gone to trial.

"He had a lot of love for people. A lot of love," says Freeman's mother Terry Jefferson.

She vividly remembers the night, two years ago, when she was called to the hospital after he was stabbed.

"When we got back there to see him, he was already dead," she says through tears.

Tyeshia Stewart was charged with second degree murder, but her trial has been delayed several times because the prosecutor in her case, Takisha Fitzgerald, is also handling the Christian/Newsom murders.

"I'm getting frustrated. The trial has been reset to June. All the way to June," she says.

Jefferson wants to make it clear she holds no ill will toward the other victims' families, whom she saw recently in court. 

"I even went up to each of the family members and told them, my heart goes out to you as a mother, as a parent who has lost a child," she says.

Jefferson saw prosecutors that day as well.

"But they were so exhausted and what does that say to me? It says they're just too exhausted to hear my case," she says.

And that makes her feel left behind.

"I don't understand how you can look at a calendar and schedule a court date and then on top of that say well this murder is more important. But the way I've been told is that it goes in order. They got killed before Dee," she says.

Meanwhile, the suspect in Freeman's death is out on bond, and that makes his mother nervous.

"You know where it says liberty and justice for all? It's really liberty and justice for some," she says.

John Gill from the district attorney's office says Fitzgerald was assigned to the Freeman murder because she's one of the best prosecutors they have.

But because the multiple trials in the Christian/Newsom murders have also faced delays, her other cases had to be pushed back as well.

Gill says he understands Jefferson's frustration, but that one person can't be in two places at the same time.