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Fear, outrage over slayings flourish in neighborhood

This story originally appeared September 2, 2003

By CHARLES ADAMSON, Californian staff writer
e-mail: cadamson@bakersfield.com | Thursday, Feb 15 2007 4:08 PM

Last Updated: Thursday, Feb 15 2007 4:08 PM

A killer is on the loose.

For a long time now, the neighborhood around Third and P streets in central Bakersfield hasn't been considered one of the safest places to live.

Drug users walk the streets at night. Gangs are prevalent.

Many homes have iron bars on the windows.

But nothing could prepare residents for a quintuple homicide -- a family of five, including three children, found shot to death in their home. Now, about seven weeks after the bodies were discovered, the slayings remain unsolved.

Third Street resident Leroy Holley, 83, a World War II Army veteran, said he's not afraid. But he's certainly more cautious now about who he lets in his home.

"I've been here over 50 years and that's the worst thing that has ever happened in this neighborhood," Holley said. "The whole time nobody has been arrested. It could be someone right in here who done it. It's possible."

Holley's neighbor, Alberta Griffin, said the incident scared her.

"We started locking the gates and everything," Griffin said. "I be a little leery."

There seem to be more police patrols in the area since the slayings, she said.

The homicides have been the talk of neighbors since they were discovered on July 8 by a family friend. The victims were Joanie Harper, 39; Joanie's children Marques, 4, Lyndsey, 2, and Marshall, 6 weeks; and Joanie's mother, Earnestine Harper, 70.

They had been shot to death and apparently stabbed.

John Washington used to attend Baker Street Church of Christ with the Harper family. He was visiting with two of their neighbors on Wednesday. They sat outside talking about the slayings for about an hour.

"Sister Harper was very sweet. She would spend her last dime on you," Washington said. "I can't believe somebody done that to them. They never bothered nobody."

Washington's aunt lives in the neighborhood and he said fear has seeped into the community.

"I think everybody is upset," Washington said. "They got an iron door and everything. They're locking the front door, the back door. I used to just walk in the house. Not anymore."

That fear is mixed with outrage.

"Let the neighborhood have them (the killers)," Washington said. "Just drop him off in the neighborhood and let us know who he is."

National and local media stormed the blocks surrounding the Harpers' modest home in the first couple of weeks after the slayings, interviewing every resident who would speak. No one reported seeing or hearing anything suspicious.

It had been the Fourth of July weekend. Several residents told The Californian that with all the firecrackers exploding, gunshots wouldn't have been noticed.

Within hours of the bodies being discovered, Bakersfield police named Joanie's widower and father of her children, Vincent Brothers, as the only suspect. No other suspects have been named publically since then.

Brothers is vice principal of Fremont School but he has been on 30-day leave. On Friday, his paid leave was extended indefinitely by the school district.

He was arrested on July 9 and held for several hours in Elizabeth City, N.C., before he was released without charges. Elizabeth City is the home of his mother, Margaret Brothers.

"He was a very good kid. That's all I'm going to say," Margaret Brothers told The Californian from her home on Wednesday.

Vincent Brothers declined to speak to police under the advice of his attorney and likewise has turned down several requests for interviews by The Californian.

Police spent weeks following his every move and staking out his South Real Road apartment. Detectives followed him, sometimes three vehicles at a time. Lately they have become less conspicuous, if at the apartment complex at all, said one of Brothers' neighbors, who wouldn't give his name.

The police haven't commented on the case since Aug. 1, when they said Brothers continued to be a focus of the investigation.

Meanwhile, the Harper family continues to pray for justice.

Joanie Harper's nephew, Eddie Harper Jr., of Winter Haven, Fla., said his father, Eddie Sr., also of Winter Haven, keeps in contact with police. The family isn't passing judgment on Brothers or anyone else, he said.

"We're just basically praying that the Lord keep strengthening us. If it's His will that whoever is responsible for it will be brought to justice, then that's what will happen. If that's not His will, I will accept it," Harper said.