Ken Roach said that one of the four cars appeared to be a new white Cadillac.  He also saw a dark-skinned man calmly walking along the front of the store, toward a pickup truck which was backed in along the north side of the building.  Ken Roach described the man as of medium build, 150-170 pounds, average height, thirty to fifty years old, wearing dark work clothes or everyday clothes, a dark jacket, and a cap or a hat.  (This was compatible with Charlie May's height, weight, and age; also Mays on Christmas Eve wore a dark sweatshirt with a hood).

The Roaches said that after Zeigler was indicted they realized that they had been near the scene of the murders.  They discussed several times what they ought to do, and Ken Roach finally called the OCSO.  According to him, he gave this same information to a woman who answered the phone, who told him that his statement wasn't needed and refused to give him the name of Zeigler's attorney.

They said that they didn't pursue the matter, but that it continued to bother them, so they looked up Tom Zeigler in the Winter Garden phone directory, to finally give the information.  They claimed that they did not know Tommy Zeigler or the rest of the family.

According to Vernon Davids, who took the statement, the Roaches were credible witnesses: a middle-class couple with children, active in state politics.

Besides the rest of their information, the Roaches' statements are notable for the appearance of the light-colored Cadillac from Felton Thomas's account.2  Their recollection of the lighting in the store resembles Zeigler's description of the lights he claims to have left burning that evening, and the timing is consistent with the first shots heard by Barbara Tinsley, although she did not hear as many as ten reports.

Of course, the Roaches' observations are utterly incompatible with the state's case.  Among other details, the prosecution's theory cannot accommodate four cars, a pickup, and a dark-skinned man walking in front of the store at 7:20; and even with a revolver in each hand, one man alone could not fire off ten shots so rapidly as to produce a sound "like a pack of firecrackers being ignited all at the same time."

THE MCEACHERN CHARGE

In 1981, former OCSO officer Leigh McEachern claimed that he was present at a pretrial conference at which Judge Paul discussed the evidence in the Zeigler case

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2   Vernon Davids, among others, believes that Felton Thomas's statement could be substantially true, except for the identification of Zeigler; that is, that Thomas and Mays actually did meet a strange--not Zeigler--in a Cadillac, that they did test pistols in the orange grove, that Thomas pulled the switch on the breaker box, and that he actually did run away because he was frightened by something that he witnessed at the store.