By Cindy Wolff
The Commercial Appeal
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Charlene Wheaton Stevens thought she left the pain of 1989 behind in a dingy Orange Mound duplex.
But her past knocked on her mother’s door last week when members of the Shelby County Fugitive Squad served a 19-year-old warrant against her for burglary and receiving stolen property.
The deputies routinely saturate a neighborhood to clear outstanding warrants, said Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Shular. Felony warrants never expire.
“It doesn’t matter if it was issued 19 days or 19 years ago,” Shular said. “We owe it to the victim to bring people to justice.”
The victim, Jacqueline Jones, came home to her side of the Lowell duplex after work Oct. 3, 1989, to find a dinette chair, a stereo stand and her television missing, the warrant said. No sign of forced entry.
She went next door to ask if they’d seen anyone, heard any noises. Stevens, 19 at the time, had just come home from work, too.
Jones noticed her chair and stereo stand in the duplex. Stevens’ boyfriend admitted he took them.
“Give them back,” Stevens told him. He did.
“I thought that was all she was missing.”
Stevens’ name - then Wheaton - was the only one on the lease, so a warrant was issued against her. But no one ever came for her.
She lived there for another year with the boyfriend, who regularly abused her. When things turned ugly, she called her mom, who lived a few blocks away.
“I’d go around there and beat him myself and get him off her,” Willia Wheaton said. “I prayed all the time for her to leave him. He was no good.”
Her daughter eventually left and moved 300 miles south to Louin, a small town east of Jackson, Miss.
The mother of five found and married a nice guy. Now 38, she prays in church every Sunday. She fishes - baits her own hook - watches television and tends flower beds. She doesn’t work.
She drove to the Criminal Justice Center at 201 Poplar on Tuesday to surrender. She wants this cleared up.
Except for a driver’s license violation when she was 21, Stevens never broke the law, she said.
“I taught my kids not to mess with other people’s stuff,” said her 64-year-old mother, adding that she would’ve “tore their asses up. They respected the law.”
Stevens let her fingers roll in ink for fingerprints. She stared straight ahead for a mug shot.
She took off her clothes, put on jail-issue pants, shirt and flip-flops. Jailers handed her linens, a brown sack with toiletries, a spoon and a cup. She was locked in a room with another inmate for nearly nine hours.
She was released on $1,000 bond about 8 p.m. Tuesday.
The next morning she sat quietly on a courtroom bench. People charged with murder, theft, robbery and other crimes stood before the judge.
Her turn was over in a minute.
Get a lawyer, the judge said. Come back June 16 for a hearing. Stevens and her family hurried away.
Prosecutors will try to find the victim, see if there’s a case to be made. If not, charges will be dropped. Stevens’ name will be cleared.
Copyright 2008 The Commercial Appeal