Two boys left to die during a bloody rampage in a Memphis home

Two boys left to die during a bloody rampage in a Memphis home turned into key witnesses who helped convict their uncle of six murders in one of the city's worst mass slayings.
Jurors concluded Monday after less than two hours of deliberations that Jessie Dotson, 35, shot his brother in the head during an argument, then used two guns to kill five other people, including two young nephews, trying to eliminate all witnesses. He then stabbed three more boys, who hung on for some 40 hours until help arrived, prosecutors said.
Two years later, two of the survivors pointed to their "Uncle Junior" as the man who shot their dad and slashed at them knives, enough to convince the jury that Dotson was guilty of six murders and not the gang members he said committed the crimes. Those same jurors will decide beginning Tuesday if Dotson should be sentenced to death by injection. Dotson showed no emotion, looking straight ahead as the verdict was announced.
One of the survivors, Cecil Dotson Jr., now 11, was found in a bathtub with a 4½-inch knife blade embedded in his skull. The boy, his brother 8-year-old Cedric Dotson, and Jessie Dotson's mother were key prosecution witnesses.
"CJ solved it," said prosecutor Ray Lepone. "He had the courage to come in here and point out his uncle."
Jurors concluded that the short, thin Dotson after a day of drinking, shot and killed his brother, Cecil Dotson, in the dark early morning hours of March 2, 2008. Then he went after everyone else in the house with two guns, boards and several knives, leaving no DNA evidence behind in the house, which the defense pointed out.
Also killed were 4-year-old Cemario Dotson and 2-year-old Cecil Dotson Jr. II; Cecil Dotson's girlfriend, Marissa Williams; and friends Hollis Seals and Shindri Roberson.

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