In one day Bruce Willacey went from being the star witness in the trial of a cop killer to the prime suspect in that same cop's murder. Well after 7 nights in jail, today the 30-year-old Willacey was freed on bail. He was granted bail after the DPP's office withdrew the charge of murder and replaced it with a charge of contradicting previous evidence. Willacey was charged with murder on Friday after he testified on the witness stand last Wednesday that he did not see John Earl Young Crawford shoot Constable Euwin Armstrong in November of 2004. Today Willacey told us that what he said on the witness stand a week ago was the truth.
Bruce Willacey,
"They chance more than one people, not only me. Everyday they do that."
Keith Swift,
They say you changed your testimony on the witness stand. Did you?
Bruce Willacey,
"I didn't do anything, they beat me to sign something which they put their way to say that he was in it but I wasn't there. I went home early."
Keith Swift,
So you didn't see John Earl Young Crawford shoot the constable?
Bruce Willacey,
"No, I never did see that."
Keith Swift,
Anything else you want to say?
Bruce Willacey,
"I want to go home."
Willacey was released on two thousand dollars bail and is due back in court on April 10th. In court today, Magistrate Sharon Frazer advised Willacey to consider suing the police for false imprisonment. Of course in the backdrop to all this legal back and forth is the still unsolved murder of constable Euwin Armstrong. The uniformed constable was walking to work when he was fatally shot. Investigators believe Armstrong was targeted because was wearing his police uniform. And again, John Earl Young Crawford cannot be re-tried for the murder.
