Twenty-five

For five weeks, beginning in late April, Hadley and Vernon  Davids deposed all the major witnesses in the case, and most of the lesser ones.

Depositions are testimony given out of court, but under oath. They are a powerful tool in criminal proceedings, useful not only in fact-finding but for compiling a record that may later be used to impeach the witness's testimony at trial.

The most important depositions in the Zeigler defense were those Hadley took from Felton Thomas and Edward Williams.  Hadley hoped to discredit the two men whose statements on December 25 had led to the arrest of Tommy Zeigler.

Hadley deposed both Thomas and Williams on April 26, in a conference room at the state attorney's office in Orlando.  Robert Eagan himself appeared for the state at the Thomas deposition, in the morning.

Hadley began with the question of Thomas's true name.

Thomas answered: "Well, they call me Felton Thomas; but they don't never use my name as Buddy Felton or Thomas Felton.  They always call me Buddy.  If they call my real name, they call me Felton Thomas."

Thomas said that he was twenty-seven, born in Pelham, Georgia, and that he had been picking fruit for nearly half his life.  He had harvested in Orange County several times since 1972.  In November 1975, he and a friend had come down from New York for the harvest season.

On Christmas Eve he borrowed a friend's car and made several trips from Oakland to Winter Garden and Orlando.  In the evening he joined some friends around a bonfire in Oakland.

"It began to get dark then, when I got back off my last trip.  It began to get dark.  And so, Charlie Mays come up in his truck, his panel truck."

Thomas said that he knew.  Mays, had worked for him the previous season, around January of 1975.

Q (HADLEY): What time was it that Charlie drove up?

A (THOMAS): Just like I say, it was starting to get dark, you know.  He drove up and asked me to come ride with him.  So I told him I ain't have nothing better to do.

Thomas said that Mays drove from Oakland into Winter Garden, then south down Dillard Street and into the furniture store's front parking lot.  There he saw a