Teen Found Dead At Milwaukee Tow Lot Should Still Be Alive: Lawyer

MILWAUKEE, WI — A senior at James Madison High School in Milwaukee who was discovered dead inside a crashed car at a city tow lot in June would still be alive today if it weren't for a lack of concern from police and those who handled the aftermath of the crash, an attorney for the 17-year-old's family argues.

The mother of James Stokes Jr., Kina King, learned her son was in the June 1 crash from the family of another involved teen, she explained to Patch in an interview at her Milwaukee home on Friday.

But nobody knew where James was immediately after the crash, King said, which sparked a dayslong search for the presumed missing teen. The search only came to an end on June 5 when the car's owner spotted the teen dead inside as he went to retrieve items from the vehicle at the city's 3811 West Lincoln Avenue tow lot, according to King's attorney, William Sulton.

"If we would have went to the tow lot and found the car, James probably would have been alive," said King. She asserted her son was alive for hours after being towed alongside the crash to the city lot while they were searching for him.

"Importantly, there are no injuries that would support a claim that James died in the car crash," wrote Sulton in an email to Patch about the medical examiner's investigation. "The bottom line is that had the police, the tow truck driver, or tow lot employees had the decency to look into the car, James would be alive today. James died a horrible death, injured and boiling in a car on a hot summer's day."

James wanted to be a truck driver in the future, according to his sister, Danielle Carey, with whom he shared a room since they were young kids. He had hopes of owning his own business, Carey said of her sibling, who was younger by about two years. James would have turned 18 on July 24.

James had asthma but had adjusted to living with it and enjoyed playing basketball and football, according to his mother. He was religious, went to a Baptist church, and believed in God, and when King bought him a puppy, she said he gave it the same name as one of his friends and raised it himself. James loved his friends, too, although King said she tried to explain to him that they didn't always love him back the same.

In-person classrooms were not a favorite for the teen, his sister noted, and his mother recalled occasions when he acted out in school, but he seemed to adjust to virtual learning when the coronavirus pandemic shifted how students took classes. James was looking forward to graduating high school, his family's lawyer noted, and was working at McDonald's and a grocery store with the goal of saving up for a car.

James cooked for his family sometimes. King laughed when recalling a day she was hungry and asked her son to make something, but the dish—"whatever it was"—turned out "hard" and "horrible." But he could cook a great steak, his sister said, and his spaghetti dishes were well-liked.

King said she last saw her son alive less than a day before the crash. Life has been more boring ever since without James and his playfulness, she said, but her family is still looking for answers.

Why did the 17-year-old die?

The family's attorney, William Sulton, said heart failure caused James' death, though noted it was up to the medical professionals to determine what exactly caused that heart failure. King said James didn't have a known history of heart problems.

There are things the family knows about how James died, Sulton explained, but other things they still don't know nearly two full months after his death.

"They've deprived us of the opportunity to conduct a meaningful second autopsy because they let his body decompose even after they recovered it," said Sulton.

There is still more that can be unearthed about how James died, Sulton said. Body camera footage that has yet to be released and other evidence could give additional insight into the exact mechanism and timing of James' death, he said, "but everything right now is all pointing in the same direction and I think the public can have confidence that he died in that tow lot."

"And I don't want it to ever happen again to another family," King said.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office on Friday said they have yet to sign off on a cause of death for James as they await results of a toxicology test and further investigation from police, although their autopsy was completed. Police on Friday told Patch there is no new information to be released and that the investigation is ongoing.

Sulton told Patch he doesn't believe that police are actively investigating, but if they are, he said they should have the courtesy to explain to the family what they are doing, if there is any discipline going on, and what the timetable is for answers.

"One of the things that I think about this case that's really troubling is the lack of transparency from the police department and sort of the 'tight-fistedness' that they've dealt with information and unnecessarily so," Sulton said, referring to a hold on information that police placed on the medical examiner's office.

The medical examiner's office refused to release information to Patch early on in the investigation in June, citing a do-not-disclose order implemented by police. The office on Friday told Patch the order had been lifted but declined to confirm additional information about the time and cause of death, citing the ongoing investigation by police.

See also: Family Seeks Answers After Milwaukee Teen Found Dead In Towed Wreckage

"I think anyone who's in this circumstance at a minimum wants to know what happened to their loved one," said Sulton, "and it seems as though the city is more interested in trying to manage risk associated with future litigation than treating a family as they should be treated."

A copy of the medical examiner's investigation report, provided to Patch by Sulton, noted that police claimed the two other teens involved in the crash had mentioned they were using a type of drug that may have included MDMA and fentanyl, although the report also noted that an interview with James' sister revealed no concerning history of alcohol or illicit drug use.

Sulton asserted James' death wasn't caused by substances, and that the medical examiner is waiting on toxicology without signing off on a cause of death "because they are hoping to smear James."

Sulton said there was no evidence James died at the scene of the crash, "looking at his body, you're not seeing broken arms, bones, you're not seeing deep cuts to the liver and all this sort of stuff that you would expect to see in a normal car accident death."

Where did the car come from?

When Milwaukee police first announced the discovery of James' body in early June inside the car, they asserted the car had been stolen, but have not yet detailed any possible involvement from James in its theft. The medical examiner's report provided by Sulton cited police in saying the car was taken from Wauwatosa the morning of June 1 before it crashed into a tree that evening near North 91st Street and West Fond Du Lac Avenue.

"The reality is, if you're a young person and one of your friends calls you and says, 'Hey, I'm gonna be picking you up' or something, you don't check to see whether the car was stolen or not," added Sulton. "And again, nobody's alleging that James knew the car was stolen or was involved in it or anything like that."

King said James never had any criminal record and that he had never been involved with police in such a way before.

"And most importantly, it doesn't matter whether you're suspected of a crime or not," Sulton said. "If you're injured and public servants like police officers are there, then they should help you. And that didn't happen, even doing a basic thing like searching a car."

"You would think that if they were investigating a car theft, that they would search the car as a part of any sort of criminal investigation," Sulton added, "and here they didn't do that."

Sulton said there was nothing about the behavior of the police on the day of the crash that suggested the car was stolen. Sulton explained it isn't a case about police seeing James and doing nothing, but rather he alleged that they didn't do anything in the first place and instead "walked away."

Why was James not found sooner?

A copy of the medical examiner's investigation report said the owner of the vehicle spotted James' body on June 5 in the third-row seating of the car because his foot was hanging over the second-row seats. The report said it was unclear at first why James was not found inside before the Kia Sportage SUV was towed away from the crash scene.

The examiner's report said the body was difficult to see inside the trunk and that access to the vehicle was difficult because the trunk wouldn't unlatch. Firefighters removed parts of the vehicle including doors and the roof to remove the 17-year-old, who was on his side in the back row with his leg resting near a headrest for the second row of seats, the medical examiner report said. James' body had already started to decompose.

Days earlier, the teen's family took it upon themselves to find James by searching parts of the city and putting up missing person flyers, King explained. At one point, King said she got so desperate to find her son that she called Investigation Discovery TV.

For James' sister, one experience from the search still gives her chills. She told Patch that she spotted someone who looked just like James walking down the train tracks, and she kept calling his name, but he kept walking until he was gone, Carey said.

When James first went missing, his family asked authorities for an AMBER Alert, but they were refused because he was too old, King said. When King first went to the police to report her son missing, she told Patch they were not helpful, and when she returned another day and was firmer, she said she had to sit at the station for hours.

What's next for James and his family?

King said she misses how her son would play with their cat Destiny and the dog. She wishes the situation had landed him in jail or secure detention, even though he hasn't been directly accused of any crime, because he'd still be alive.

To King, what happened to her son leaves a grim message: That you can go to school for criminal justice or policing, get a badge, and "kill and get away with it."

When King eventually learned what happened to her son, she broke down and started crying, she said. In the wake of James' death, she is looking to bring him justice and further accountability in the future.

One idea King has is a law that would be called the James Stokes Act, which would suspend any officer who disobeys policy and procedure without pay, especially if there is a death involved.

"You took an oath that you will protect and serve, you failed to do that. So take accountability for your actions," said King. "You mess up; Confess that you messed up and have some accountability for what you did wrong, that you know you did wrong. Don't try to cover it up and blame it on somebody else when you did wrong, and you can't face the fact. So, yes, I want some accountability."