Black Stepfather Accused of Murdering White Woman Spotted by Estranged Stepson

Chicago Tribune
September 20, 2015

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Judy Beavis is the niece of the woman that was slain by the Negro.

The last time Willie Britton saw his stepfather Jerome Lawrence, the year was 1999, and Lawrence was being arrested on a domestic battery charge for beating Britton’s mother.

Within a month of that arrest, police were interviewing Britton and his mother about Lawrence in connection with a far more gruesome crime — the slaying and home invasion of Far Northwest Side resident Marjorie Collette.

Lawrence escaped from an Arkansas jail before he could be charged and managed to elude authorities despite multiple arrests in Florida.

Sixteen years later, Britton, now 32, who has had nightmares about seeing his stepfather again, relived one of his worst fears as he walked past Lawrence on Friday.

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Jerome Lawrence was arrested when his estranged stepson spotted him 16 years later.

When Lawrence walked into the Cook County Circuit Court courtroom, he stared into the sparsely occupied gallery, where Collette’s niece, Judy Beavis, was seated.

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