Freedom For Tonya Hudkins McCartor (Margo Freshwater)

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A Message from Tonya Hudkins McCartor

I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and support given to my family and myself.

Sincerely, Tonya Hudkins McCartor

Please sign the petition for a new trial!  We are manually maintaining the petition for the moment while we are experiencing some difficulty with PetitionOnline.com.  You can read and sign the petition here.  Please be sure to include your name, e-mail address, city, and state.  Your personal information will remain private.

Update 7/6/2009

February 5th of 2009 was the last hearing with the judge who denied us two previous times: once for an evidentiary hearing (which the appellate court granted), and the second time for a new trial. We then went back to the appellate court in October of 2007, making our case for a new trial. A year later, in October of 2008, their opinion was to remand it back to the trial court because the trial court didn’t follow the appellate court's guidelines.

This brings us back to this year 2009. The opinion from the lower trial court, as of 7-6-2009, was to deny Tonya a new trial. The opinion was 42 pages long, much too long for this site. In short, the reasons given were:

1.She didn’t find the new evidence as soon as she could have. (It ignored the fact that the state kept it sealed until the law changed in 1998. She couldn't have found it because she didn’t even know it existed.)

2.In the court's opinion, the new evidence wouldn’t have made a difference in the outcome of the original trial. (However, at the evidentiary hearing in 2006, the judge heard testimony from an original juror who said that, had he heard this new evidence, it would have acquitted Tonya. The judge said he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, take that in to consideration.)

So, now we go back to the appellate court to try again for a new trial. We expect a date to be set some time in late winter or early spring of 2009/2010.

Based on the previous times before the appeals court, by the time we get to give our oral argument to the appellate court and they render an opinion, it may be two more years before we know the next decision.

Previous updates

Innocence Betrayed
Commentary by Kelly

What is a young woman's worst nightmare? Rape? Assault? How about turning to a trusted, respected, recommended authority figure only to be dealt that very fate?

Remember when you were 18? Most of us think back on those years cringing at our horrendous lapses in judgment and thank God that we had someone to steer us straight. A parent, a friend or maybe even a judge or other authority figure may have stepped in and helped us to right our wrongs and see things clear, momentarily sweeping away the cobwebs of youth and forcing us to see with adult eyes if only for a moment. But suppose for an instant that there was no one to advise your young mind on life's tricky way of making something seem so right when nothing could be farther from the truth. Think back to some of your biggest flubs of teen-dom, things that could've been bigger and worse without some caring individual to help out. 

Now imagine that it still haunts you everyday of your life. 

You are now taking a walk in the shoes of Tonya Mccartor. One of the millions of young girls in our nation who made a small, trivial mistake in youth and without guidance or intervention, made it worse.  Once upon a time, Tonya was a little girl named Margo Freshwater. Growing up with more than your average fare of troubles, little Margo still turned out to be a pretty nice young woman. She didn't kick puppies or take candy from babies, and when a friend got himself in trouble that landed him in jail, Margo traveled alone at the age of 17 from her home in Ohio to a recommended lawyer in Memphis TN to ask for help for her friend. Glenn Nash was a slight eccentric on his way to being a complete head case by the time young Margo sought his help. Immediately recognizing her vulnerability and playing her youth and inexperience against her , he put her up in a boarding house. Keeping her complacent with promises of his help and legal expertise, his slide into full blown schizophrenia snuck up on her. He began to spy on her every move, talked of his belief that the TN Bar Association had employed the whole world in a conspiracy to get him disbarred.  He became irrational and enraged when she tried to return home, and finally showed up at her room with a loaded gun, forcing her to accompany him to his first murder. He drove them to Square Deal Liquor store where he tied up and shot the clerk, Mr. Hillman Robbins. Margo attempted to untie Mr. Robbins, but Nash stopped her. She was numbed by horror as he murdered and robbed Mr. Robbins before dragging her on a three state blood bath. Glenn Nash later revealed to the court through his confessions to law enforcement officials and mental health experts that he committed all three murders, claiming to be in fear for his life.  Margo never wavered from her innocence and testified of her attempts to free the first victim.  Margo's nightmare lasted through horror after horror as Nash shot his way across three states, killing and robbing another store clerk and a cab driver in Florida and Mississippi. The two were finally arrested at a bus station in Greenville, Mississippi. Authorities arrested Margo, believing her to be Nash's accomplice and not his hostage. After two attempts to convict her, prosecutors in Mississippi were discouraged when the jury failed to reach any verdict either time. Florida never found sufficient cause to prosecute her at all. Tennessee, however, charged Margo with the murder of Hillman Robbins. The prosecutions display was a court TV episode gone awry with lurid depictions of teenage promiscuity and sexual innuendo. They failed however to provide any evidence of Margo's involvement in the murder, only that she was co-conspirator in armed robbery. Despite this and the complete confessions of Glenn Nash, the Memphis Tennessee jury convicted her and handed down a sentence of 99 years.

The DA told the assistant prosecutor not to give the confession document to her public defender. This was kept sealed till 1998, when the law was changed.

Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee courts all found Nash incompetent to stand trial and sentenced him to a stint of 15 years in a mental facility. He is a free man today as Margo sits in prison. Unfortunately, Margo's case is even more complicated. A year and a half into her sentence, Margo escaped from prison and eluded capture for thirty two years, growing into a law abiding, spiritual, American citizen. After obtaining a new identity as Tonya, she married, had children, grandchildren and successful careers. She was a church leader and community mentor.

The sad fact is that similar situations happen to young girls every day. Margo grew up in the 1960's and despite the progression of the women's movement in years since, society continues to push the problems of young women aside. Even if we dismiss her lack of community service as a young woman and the “iffy” circumstances of her crime - where was the counseling and guidance for an 18 year old girl in a women's prison? Even now, some thirty five years later, rehabilitative services are geared toward hardened criminals. There are few, if any, programs specifically aimed at young first offenders, who are the most likely to change their lives around. Our justice system today seems to be struggling with their own purpose, whether to punish or rehabilitate. There has to be happy medium, a time and place to do both, not simply one or the other.  Since 1979, studies of 15,000 first time offenders tell us that those who receive adequate counsel and competent evaluation physically and mentally are 87% less likely to commit further crimes.  There are of course arguments for both sides.  People who feel the use of public monies to rehabilitate criminals would be better of spent in schools and other well deserving causes. 

There are those that fight for this cause and succeed in fits and spurts, yet women like Tonya remain in their cells.  She, like so many others, have found a meaning to life in prison. She works in the laundry for 17 cents a day and returns to her cell to teach her cell mate to read.  As her pastor Frank Luchsinger aptly put it, “Tonya has bloomed where planted.” But hoping some day to be put back in the garden of family from which she was taken.

The day Daryl proposed to Tonya

A Story Without an Ending

“Only God knows what the ending is for Tonya .”

This is a life story that you would think only could be in the movies.  Unfortunately, it is very real and does not have an ending yet.  My wife, Tonya Hudkins McCartor (a.k.a. Margo Freshwater), at age 18 found herself caught up in unimaginable circumstances.  She set out to help a boyfriend, but found herself fearing for her life when an attorney 20 years her senior, was asked to help her boyfriend. The attorney turned out to be a mad man interested in her. Not knowing this until it was too late to get away from him, he took Margo on a crime spree.  To this day he is a free man and she was left to face 99 years to life for a crime she did not commit.  He made it look like she was an accomplice when in fact she was a hostage fearing for her life and the life of her family.  And so now he is free today and she is in prison at age 56 facing a 99 year sentence.  Read more about the case!

·       Tonya appeared at Criminal Court for Shelby County, Tennessee on April 24, 2003 for an initial hearing on the case based on a petition from her attorneys.  Summary of the hearing.
 

·       We are trying to start a grassroots movement to help free Tonya.  If you are interested in helping us, please write to:

    

·       Daryl McCartor is available for speaking appearances within a 400 mile radius of Columbus, OH.  If you are interested, please e-mail.
 

·       Daryl McCartor tells the story of how he met Tonya.  He has also written about his first trip to visit her at the Tennessee Prison for Women.

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