Perry Lott

The Crime

On Nov. 2, 1987, a 42-year-old woman, D.R., received three anonymous telephone calls at her home and one at the restaurant where she worked in Ada, Oklahoma. The call to the restaurant came in at about 7:15 p.m. A male voice said a bomb was set to detonate there in 15 minutes. D.R. cleared the restaurant and called the police. No bomb was found. 

A few hours later, at 1:15 a.m., on Nov. 3, the woman arrived home. When she unlocked the door, a gun was put to her head, and she was pushed inside. A man took $120 cash from her and raped her. The woman, who was white, said her attacker’s voice sounded the same as the person who had made the calls. 

She said the man was Black, between 5 feet 7 inches and 6 feet two inches tall, but conceded she was a poor judge of height and weight. She said he wore a cap and had a front tooth that was partially gold. She helped police prepare a composite sketch that did not show any facial hair. She said the man was wearing gloves when he entered, but took them off.  She said the man then put on a condom, saying he was too smart to get caught.

The Investigation

Later that day, Detectives Jeff Crosby and Mike Baskin were filming the home for a Crime Stoppers reenactment. They noticed 25-year-old Perry Lott sitting in a car nearby. Detective Crosby spoke to Mr. Lott and noticed that Mr. Lott had a gold tooth. When questioned about where he was at the time of the crime, Mr. Lott said he had been with his fiancée the night before and remained there until 6:30 a.m. the following morning when he left for work. Mr. Lott’s fiancée confirmed his account. She also said Mr. Lott did not have a telephone at his home and did not make any calls while he was at her home.

Two days later, on Nov. 5, Mr. Lott voluntarily went to the Ada police station and stood in a lineup. Since none of the other men in the lineup had any gold teeth, the police obtained some gold foil from a local flower shop. The fillers used the foil to cover their teeth. As a result, Mr. Lott was the only person who was able to open his mouth fully — the others risked the foil falling out. After about 30 minutes, D.R. identified Mr. Lott as her attacker. Notably, Mr. Lott had a mustache, and D.R. had not described her attacker as having facial hair.

Mr. Lott was charged with first-degree rape, second-degree burglary, robbery by fear, and using a telephone to make threats involving an incendiary device.

The Trial

In March 1988, Mr. Lott went to trial in Pontotoc County Superior Court. The prosecution’s case rested almost entirely on the testimony of D.R. She identified Mr. Lott as her attacker. She admitted that during the lineup, when each man smiled, some revealed a gold tooth, but others did not smile wide enough to see any teeth. 

Detective Crosby testified about the lineup procedure and acknowledged that Mr. Lott was the only person in the lineup without gold foil. 

There was no physical evidence linking Mr. Lott to the crime. An Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) report said that 17 items of evidence were submitted to the OSBI, including the rape kit, D.R.’s bed sheet and pillowcases, fingernail clippings, pubic hair, and head hair. The report said that the crime laboratory determined there was no seminal fluid on the vaginal swabs, a fingernail found in the bedsheets was “not consistent” with fingernail samples from Mr. Lott or D.R.’s ex-husband, and that D.R.’s fingernail clippings were of an “insufficient length” for comparison to a fingernail found in the sheets. The public hair was described as “non-productive.”

Mr. Lott testified that he went to bed around 10 p.m. on Nov. 2, and woke up around 6:45 a.m. on Nov. 3. His fiancée testified that Mr. Lott was asleep when she came home around midnight, and he was in bed with her when she awoke at 6 a.m.

Prosecutor Chris Rogers conceded during his closing argument that “the other subjects in the lineup other than the defendant had a tooth that was entirely gold and the defendant, in this case, had a tooth that was partially gold.”

On March 10, 1988, the jury convicted Mr. Lott of first-degree rape, robbery by fear, second-degree burglary, and using a telephone to make threats involving an incendiary device. He was sentenced to 100 years each on the rape, robbery, and threatening convictions and 50 years on the burglary conviction. Judge Ronald Jones ordered the sentences to be served consecutively. 

The Exoneration

In May 2017, Karen Thompson and Barry Scheck, attorneys with the Innocence Project, filed a motion for post-conviction relief based on DNA testing. The testing of the vaginal swab showed a mixture of two male DNA profiles, neither of which belonged to Mr. Lott. In addition, Mr. Lott’s DNA was not found on any of the evidence recovered from the home or from D.R. 

Paul Smith, the district attorney for Oklahoma’s District 22, which encompasses Pontotoc, Hughes, and Seminole Counties, opposed the motion. 

Ultimately, Mr. Lott’s defense team was not allowed to present evidence about the frailties of eyewitness identification. In February 2018, Judge C. Steven Kessenger scheduled a hearing on the motion relating to the DNA testing for July 9, 2018.

On the eve of the hearing, Mr. Smith offered to allow Mr. Lott to be released immediately if he would abandon the motion to vacate his petition. Mr. Lott agreed, and on July 9, 2018, he was released. He took the offer while maintaining his innocence because he was guaranteed his freedom. He had spent 30 years and four months in prison since the date of his conviction.

Mr. Smith retired in 2022. Erik Johnson was elected to replace him and was sworn in as district attorney in January 2023.

In August, Mr. Scheck, Innocence Project Attorney Adnan Sultan, and Tulsa attorney Joe Norwood filed a supplemental application for post-conviction relief. The motion asserted that Mr. Smith had misrepresented facts back in 2018 and had concealed that Detective Crosby, the lead detective in the case, had committed suicide on the eve of the evidentiary hearing. The motion said that Detective Crosby was expected to be a primary witness at the hearing, and disclosure of his death would have had an impact on Mr. Lott’s decision to accept the deal to get released.

Following a re-examination of the case, District Attorney Johnson agreed that Mr. Lott’s convictions should be vacated. On October 10, 2023, Judge Kessenger signed an order vacating the convictions and dismissing the case.