Murder and Attempted Armed Robbery
STATE
v.
JOHN HUDSON
Introduction
This case involves an attempted robbery and shooting that occurred in Lazar’s Clothing
Store on February 14, [-1]. The store was owned and managed by Sidney and Sara Lazar. Mrs.
Lazar was shot and killed during the attempted robbery. Two men were involved in the crime.
After the shooting, police arrived and interviewed Mr. Lazar and a bystander, Mr. Green.
That afternoon Mr. Lazar looked through a stack of photographs and tentatively identified photographs of John Hudson and Dale Buckner as photos of the two men who had killed his wife. That night, after checking the two suspects’ arrest records and obtaining an arrest warrant for Hudson and Buckner, the police went to their apartment and arrested them. The police also found certain physical evidence in the apartment. Outside they saw a car matching the description of the getaway car.
The police then called Mr. Lazar and the bystander, Mr. Green. At the police station both
Lazar and Green participated in several identification procedures.
The police records show that Hudson was convicted of aggravated assault seven years ago and was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary.
A ballistics expert at the police crime lab examined a gun found in the apartment and concluded that it had been recently cleaned. Because of this, he was unable to determine whether it had been recently fired. The ballistics expert also examined the bullet that was removed from
Sara Lazar’s body. The expert concluded the bullet was a .38 caliber bullet, but because it was too damaged he could not determine if it was fired from the gun.
A pathologist who performed the autopsy on Sara Lazar’s body determined that death was caused by a single gunshot wound to her head, which entered her brain.
A custodian of the records of the state motor vehicle department looked through the
1
records and found that a [-8] black Cadillac sedan was registered to John Hudson on