Southern Rites Page #3

- Woman:
Whoa.

- Neesmith:
Hey, doll baby.

Laub:
And how is she

exactly related to you?

My niece is her mama.

But I never... I never

was around her mama much.

My wife didn't even know my niece.

And she left Danielle, this big,

a dirty diaper and...

and a tore-up little T-shirt

on that little baby this big.

I was working at night. When I came home,

I said, "Who's the little baby?"

And she said, "Your niece

brought her." And I said, "Who?"

So I had to think a while,

you know, to figure it out.

I said, "But what did she say?"

She was in a mess. She was

living in Atlanta then,

and she wanted to leave the baby

till she got straightened out.

That was 21 years ago, she never

got straightened out, I don't reckon.

The last time I seen her mama was 1996

when my daddy died.

And I love her to this day,

no matter what she's done,

I still love her.

If she caused all this,

I still love her. You know?

She... I raised her as my child.

And I can't turn my

back all the way on her.

Not 100%, I can't do it.

Laub:
If you were to meet

the Patterson family now,

what would you say to them?

Right now?

I don't know. I don't know.

I can't answer that. I don't know.

Dedee Patterson:
I

have... or I had two sons,

Justin, which was the oldest,

and Shavon being the youngest.

This is really one of my

favorite pictures of them.

I think Justin

may have been probably about four,

and Shavon was one month old.

Justin was a basketball player,

and he played... I mean, he started,

I think, in third grade,

and he played all the way

through his senior year,

and he did not get a chance to play

his college years because he passed away.

Laub:
And tell me what happened to Justin.

You don't go into people's house

unless they knew you was there.

You didn't go up to nobody's house

and walk in if the door was open.

You got permission to do that.

That's something you didn't do.

That's where respect and

disrespect comes from,

just like these two boys that

was in this house right here.

No respect.

Dedee:
Justin had just met this girl

two days ago on Facebook,

and...

you know, Shavon was sharing

with me that

that night, the girls called him

and wanted Justin to come over.

Julius Patterson: The girls was

giving them directions to the house.

It was on a cell phone, talking with them,

and once they

got to the house,

the girls told them to park across the road

to a shed,

like an onion farm.

Neesmith:
They knew it was wrong.

If they didn't know it was wrong,

why would they park over there

and hide the car and walk over here?

The two girls came out and met them.

They talked and whatever

and was invited into the house.

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