The Defense's Case

Dionne Baugh's lawyers are quick to point out that most of the evidence against their client is purely circumstantial. Though they are willing to concede that Baugh has not always been completely truthful with authorities, they insist that the prosecution cannot meet its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Dionne Baugh is indeed Lance Herndon's killer.

Though police investigators have suggested that Dionne Baugh tried to avoid them on August 8, the defense notes that Baugh was actually quite cooperative. After speaking to her neighbor and learning that the authorities wanted to question her, Baugh did call the number the police left behind from her cell phone after she left her house.

When she returned home and found the police waiting there, Baugh agreed to speak to them, and even allowed them to do a quick search of her home. She also volunteered to authorities that she was in possession of Lance Herndon's IBM ThinkPad and promptly handed it over to them, even though were were likely not even aware of its existence.

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The defense also rejects the prosecution theory that Dionne Baugh was angry at Lance Herndon because he was about to dump her. They say that the lovers had continued their relationship after the July 10 incident in which Baugh was arrested outside Lance's house. In fact, note defense attorneys, Herndon bailed out Baugh the next day, assisted Baugh in finding a lawyer and even called the police to try to get the charges dropped. Added to his promise that to attend the August 8 court hearing on her behalf, the defense contends that his actions do not suggest that Lance Herndon was trying to distance himself from Dionne Baugh.

They also disagree with the prosecution's contention that the forensic evidence is strong evidence against Baugh. According to the defense, crime scene technicians also found hairs that did not match either Baugh or Lance Herndon, hairs that were never matched to anyone. Baugh's lawyers also claim that some of the other evidence such as the gum wrappers, and leafy material that may have been left behind by Herndon's killer is much too generic to be specifically tied to their client.

In addition, none of Lance Herndon's blood was ever found on any of the defendant's clothing, in her home, in the Mercedes she drove, or on the IBM ThinkPad she voluntarily handed over to police. DNA found under Lance Herndon's fingernails was definitely identified as that of Dionne Baugh, but the defense insists that this shouldn't surprise anyone, given that the victim and defendant were having sex on a regular basis. And even if Dionne Baugh did go to Herndon's home on the night of August 7 and have sex with him, it doesn't mean that she killed him or was present when he died.

The defense also says that the credit card Baugh used was one of many Herndon would hand over to girlfriends he was dating. Baugh claims that she and Lance had together looked at the furniture in question a few months earlier, and that he had given her his permission to charge it. Herndon had also given another credit card to Baugh earlier in their affair. The defense also argues that their client is not stupid enough to charge nearly $3000 on a dead man's credit card the very morning after brutally murdering him.

According to the defense, there are plenty of other people the police could have focused on in the investigation as possible suspects.

Kathi Collins, Lance Herndon's "main" girlfriend, was the women that Baugh saw with Herndon on July 10. Collins claims she was at a restaurant with her niece the evening Herndon was killed, but police never bothered to question the niece to see if she could back up Collins' alibi.

Another of Herndon's girlfriends, Talana Carroway, had a boyfriend named "Jazz" Williams who had once had financial dealings with Lance. Williams may have been jealous of Herndon , the defense charged, and a car resembling the one owned by Carroway (but driven by a male) was seen in Herndon's exclusive subdivision by one of his neighbors around 4:45 on the morning of August 8.

Herndon had once been a partner in a Atlanta nightclub called The Vixen Club. But the partnership had ended in litigation, and Herndon's ex-wife noted that her husband had "a lot of enemies."

In addition to his lavish and spacious home/office in Roswell, police were informed that Lance Herndon may have had a private "secret" apartment in downtown Atlanta. But police never checked out this apartment or even verified whether or not it existed.

The day before the murder, one of Herndon's contract employees was overheard making threatening statements about Herndon. Norvelle Harris had been involved in a dispute over salary payments that Harris claimed Herndon owed him.

While it's possible that none of these clues would have led to Lance Herndon's killer, Dionne Baugh's attorneys insist that police had an obligation to check them out, but that they neglected to do so in their rush to judgment against Baugh.

That same sloppiness has infected this entire case, the defense claims — a case that the prosecution simply does not have enough evidence to prove.