Families Of Murder Victims Cry For Justice

Now that Leroy Smith has been acquitted of murder, two families are left without a sense of justice for two murdered men. <br/><br/>News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says the families of Zach Jones and Eddie

Wednesday, January 31st 2007, 3:36 pm

By: News On 6

Now that Leroy Smith has been acquitted of murder, two families are left without a sense of justice for two murdered men.

News on 6 anchor Terry Hood says the families of Zach Jones and Eddie Phenix say the verdict has been hard to take.

Eddie's sister told the News on 6 over the phone, it feels like her brother has been murdered all over again.

Both men were shot to death, execution style, in this hardware store in 2005. Tulsa Police believed Leroy Smith was the gunman. A witness identified Smith and he was on the run from police for almost a month. In addition, his wife says Leroy Smith told her he was involved and didn't want to go to jail. But there was no DNA, no fingerprints, no murder weapon and the jury found him not guilty.

Pastor Stephen Rathod said he considered Zach Jones a son. He made it a weekly ritual to visit Zach at the hardware store. He has been counseling Zach's wife, who is now taking care of five children, alone.

Zach's daughter, Brashawna Gibson, said her father's reputation was unjustly smeared at the trial, as he was portrayed as a drug dealer. "The facts were there. There's no other way of explaining it. There's no other way. Except making a person look like something that he's not. That's all you can explain, that someone looks like someone that they're not."

Zach's family says he was a kind-hearted man, who was always fighting for the underdog. Relatives of Eddie Phenix say he was a hard worker with a great sense of humor.

Both families now wonder if anyone will ever be held accountable for the murders.