Initial Investigation
George Ford was killed on July 24, 1974 after agreeing to cooperate in a federal narcotics case against Frank Lucas. Charles Morris later supplied information linking Lucas to the homicide, but prosecutors initially considered the evidence insufficient and the murder file went dormant.
Reopening
The investigation revived in 1978 after Leslie Atkinson and Herman Jackson, themselves cooperating after Lucas had testified against them, implicated Martin Trowery as the shooter and Lucas as the person who arranged the killing. Separately, Warren Sims supplied statements attributed to Trowery and Lucas.
Immunity Problem
Because some of the renewed evidence flowed indirectly from Lucas’s own immunized cooperation, the prosecution had to distinguish tainted evidence from independent evidence. That dispute became the central issue in the 1980 People v. Lucas ruling.
Selected Source