Nov. 11
TEXAS:
DA Hill won't seek re-election
Bill Hill Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill announced Friday that
he will not seek re-election to a 3rd term in November 2006 as the countys
top prosecutor.
In a brief statement released by his office, Mr. Hill indicated he had
accomplished all of his major goals since taking office.
The district attorney specifically cited his offices high conviction rate
and record number of case dispositions, as well as 26 death penalty
convictions including six prison escapees who murdered an Irving police
officer in December 2000. He also said he boosted resources for his staff
of more than 200 attorneys, and secured the largest pay raise in office
history for his staff.
Mr. Hills leadership and style has not been without critics, with some
saying he was not visible or accessible enough.
Others said the district attorney's office was too slow to react to the
2001 fake-drug scandal, in which dozens of innocent people were wrongly
arrested on bogus charges. An independent investigation commissioned by
Mr. Hill recommended changes to the offices policies, and concluded that
individual prosecutors were overworked and could have communicated more
effectively. The investigation leveled most of the blame on a Dallas
narcotics detective who has been convicted of lying in a search warrant
about the cases.
Additionally, a lengthy investigation by Mr. Hill's office into a
jailhouse contract awarded by former Dallas County Sheriff Jim Bowles
resulted in several indictments, but all were legally flawed and
eventually were dropped or dismissed.
The announcement came as a surprise - especially since Mr. Hill had
already held at least one campaign fundraiser - and opens the candidate
field for next year's high-profile race.
Up to this point no strong Republican candidates had emerged to challenge
Mr. Hill in the party primary. At least 2 Democrats, attorneys Craig
Watkins and Larry Jarrett, had announced that they would run against him
in the general election. Because of recent success in county elections,
Democratic leaders had said the were specifically targeting the district
attorneys race in the off-year election.
Official filing for the election begins in December. Mr. Hill said he will
remain in office until a new district attorney is elected.
(source : Dallas Morning News)
**********************
Man indicted in deaths of 2 Port Arthur women
A Port Arthur man has been indicted on capital murder charges in the
deaths of 2 elderly women whose bodies were found in closets at their
homes.
Gary Sinegal, 41, was indicted Thursday by a Jefferson County grand jury
in the April beating deaths. He remained in custody today.
Sinegal was arrested when a witness who says he had attacked her
identified him. DNA evidence placed Sinegal in the homes of Louise
Tamplin, 81, and Margie Gafford, 86, police said.
Sinegal also was indicted on a charge of burglary of a habitation in the
case where the woman says she fought him off.
(source: Associated Press)
***********************
Local man formally charged in 2 of 3 serial killings that rocked PA
More than 6 months after the murders of three elderly women rocked the
city of Port Arthur, a local man has been formally charged with 2 of the
crimes.
Gary Sinegal, 41, was indicted Thursday by a Jefferson County grand jury
on a charge of serial capital murder in connection with the deaths of
Louise Tamplin and Margie Gafford.
"With multiple victims, Mr. Sinegal is at risk to receive the death
penalty," Assistant District Attorney Ed Shettle said.
On April 21, Tamplin, 81, and Gafford, 86, were found beaten to death
inside their homes just blocks away from each other in Port Arthur. Both
women were found inside their closets with their chests crushed. DNA
evidence connects Sinegal to both murders.
Earlier that week, the body of 82-year-old Dorothy Barrett had been found
dead in the same manner in her home.
Although the Sinegal was not charged with the Barrett death in Thursday's
indictment, he has been a suspect in all three of the murders. "The
Barrett case is still continuing," Shettle said. "If the evidence points
to Gary Sinegal then that case will be brought to a grand jury."
Sinegal became a suspect after Brenda Choate, 60, identified him as the
man that attacked her just hours before the bodies of Tamplin and Gafford
were found.
Choate said her attacker road away on a bicycle, and witnesses said a man
on a bicycle was seen near the other women's homes. It was believed the
women were targeted after the killer watched them doing yardwork.
Police arrested Sinegal on April 22 for Choate's home invasion.
At the time of the arrest he was on parole for aggravated robbery and has
been held without bond in the Jefferson County jail.
Sinegal has a criminal history that began at age 13 and included an attack
on a 77-year-old woman when he was 16. In 1984 he was sentenced to 60
years in prison for the aggravated robbery of a woman and her daughter at
convenience store.
After serving 21 years, he was paroled in November 2004 and returned to
Port Arthur.
(source: Port Arthur News)
******************
Busby defense rests without calling a witness
The defense in Edward Busby Jr.s capital murder trial in Tarrant County
finished its case about 9:15 a.m. Friday morning without calling a single
witness before the jury.
Closing arguments were expected to begin soon, with the jury going out
before noon to decide whether Busby was guilty of killing retired TCU
professor Laura Lee Crane.
In a trial that started Wednesday, Busby and his co-defendant, Kathleen
Latimer, are accused of kidnapping Crane, 77, from the parking lot of a
Tom Thumb grocery store on South Hulen Street just after 11 a.m. on Jan.
30, 2004.
Prosecutors say the 2 forced Crane into the trunk of her 1999 Nissan
Sentra, later duct-taping her head so that she suffocated. They also used
her credit cards and a blank check to rob her of more than $775,
prosecutors say.
They were found driving her car in Oklahoma City. on Feb. 1, 2004. The
next day, Busby led police Cranes body in a wooded area of Interstate 35
in Davis, Okla.
Prosecutors Joe Shannon and Greg Miller are seeking the death penalty
against Busby. Latimer is to be tried separately on a capital murder
charge.
Before the jury entered Judge Wayne Salvants courtroom Friday, Busbys
attorney, Jack Strickland, asked the defendant a litany of questions to be
sure that he understood his right to testify. Strickland also reminded
Busby that, if he testified, prosecutors could ask him about any element
of the accusations against him and about his criminal history.
Then, the attorney asked what decision Busby had reached about testifying.
"I wish not to, sir," Busby said.
On Thursday, Strickland called Latimer to the stand outside of the hearing
of the jury. He said he wanted her to testify in front of the jury about
matter she discussed in a statement to prosecutors and an interview with
the media on Feb. 20. Strickland also wanted to talk about a polygraph
examination Latimer took in September 2005.
Over objections from Strickland, Salvant allowed Latimer to invoke her
Constitutional rights against self-incrimination. She left the courtroom
without ever holding eye contact with Busby.
(source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
*********************
8 lawyers call for new trial for baby sitter -- Defense attorneys say
colleague ineffective, leading to guilty verdict in toddler's death.
An Austin defense lawyer came under siege in court Thursday by colleagues
who questioned his work representing a woman convicted in September of
murdering a child.
His co-counsel in the case questioned his courtroom decisions. An appeals
lawyer called him "a hack" who "should have spent more time learning the
rules of evidence." In all, 8 lawyers either testified or wrote in
affidavits that Rosa Estela Olvera Jimenez should get a new trial because
defense lawyer Leonard Martinez had been ineffective.
It was an unusual public lashing of one of their own by local defense
lawyers. Russell Hunt Jr., secretary of the Austin Criminal Defense
Lawyer's Association, compared it to a group of doctors accusing a fellow
physician of malpractice. But Hunt defended Martinez's skill as a lawyer,
calling him a "true believer who cares very much about his clients."
A Travis County jury convicted Jimenez, 22, of killing Bryan Gutierrez by
stuffing a wad of paper towels down his throat. And that verdict will
stand, barring an appeal, after state District Judge Jon Wisser denied her
new lawyers' motion for a new trial Thursday evening. Wisser appointed
Martinez to the case.
Martinez, who wasn't at the hearing, said Thursday afternoon that he made
some mistakes.
"I worked as hard as I possibly could on Ms. Jimenez's case," he said. "I
still believe in her innocence. My only fault is I was maybe so passionate
that I missed some things and let some things go through."
During the trial, Martinez argued that Bryan, who was 21 months old at the
time, swallowed the lemon-sized wad of paper towels on his own while
Jimenez, who was baby-sitting him at her North Austin apartment, prepared
him lunch. Prosecutors said he was too small and too young to have
swallowed the large wad on his own.
Thursday morning, attorneys Kristin Etter and Keith Hampton accused
Martinez of providing ineffective assistance of counsel because he failed
to object during the trial when prosecutors tried to introduce police
affidavits as evidence.
The affidavits, which summarized evidence collected by detectives, should
have been excluded because they included hearsay and denied Jimenez the
right to cross-examine witnesses, the lawyers argued.
Martinez's co-counsel, Jon Evans, testified at the hearing that during the
trial he questioned why Martinez didn't object to the affidavits, which
were introduced as evidence. Evans, who was appointed to assist Martinez
said he also disagreed with other trial strategies but was shut out of the
decision-making by Martinez, who was the lead attorney for Jimenez.
Austin appellate lawyer Terrence Kirk testified during the hearing that he
doesn't think Martinez should be representing anyone.
"It's a tragedy because if hacks like this are allowed to continue to
represent defendants, eventually an innocent person is going to be
convicted because the state knows how to run over hacks," Kirk testified.
Finally, Hampton submitted to Wisser affidavits written by six local
defense lawyers not involved in the case. Each lawyer wrote that
Martinez's failure to object to the affidavits was an obvious misstep that
should result in a new trial, Hampton said.
Prosecutors dismissed the contention that Martinez's errors warranted a
new trial, noting that most of the evidence in the police affidavits was
introduced during the trial through witnesses. Jimenez's lawyers said that
the opinion of at least one doctor who didn't testify was included in an
affidavit.
State District Judge Bob Perkins said Martinez is one of only 13 Austin
lawyers eligible to be appointed to death penalty cases.
He also is on the list of defense lawyers who receive appointments in
other serious felony cases. Perkins said he and the other state district
judges carefully select those lawyers based on their skill and experience.
Martinez is 1st-chair lawyer defending the only person facing the death
penalty in Travis County, Milton Dwayne Gobert. The 33-year-old is accused
of fatally stabbing 30-year-old Mel Cotton in 2003 in North Austin.
(source: Austin American-Statesman)
*******************
Law & Order and Andrea Yates and Law & Order
In last night's episode of Law & Order, the prosecutors and a defense
attorney were discussing post-partum psychosis and one of the prosecutors
pointed out that this claim never helped Andrea Yates. The defense
attorney said "In case you hadn't heard, Yates is getting a new trial."
The timing was odd, of course, since yesterday happened to be the day the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals announced that it would not review the
January, 2005 decision by the Texas First Court of Appeals overturning
Yates's murder convictions -- but the comment also had its surreal aspect,
since Yates's psychosis was not, in fact, the reason for the ruling: It
was actually a result of a Law & Order episode. The following article is
reprinted from January 6, 2005:
Don't Blame the Appeals Court
"There was a show of a woman with postpartum depression who drowned her
children in the bathtub and was found insane and it was aired shortly
before the crime occurred" -Dr. Park Dietz, during Andrea Yates's trial
There is some criticism today of the Texas First Court of Appeals, after
their ruling this morning to throw out Andrea Yates's murder convictions
and life sentence. The possibility exists that the Texas woman, who
drowned her 5 children in a bathtub in June of 2001 will go free on bail
until her re-trial. It seems insane to let this woman go free, but that's
pretty much the point:
Andrea Yates never denied killing her 5 children: Her defense was based on
her inability to determine right from wrong due to post-partum depression
and other emotional problems. Dr. Park Dietz testified that a recent
episode of Law & Order, for which he worked as a consultant, featured a
woman who drowned her children in a bathtub and was found not guilty by
reason of insanity (post-partum depression). Yates was known to have been
a fan of the show. This, Dr. Dietz and the prosecution suggested, gave her
the notion that she could kill her children and avoid the consequences by
claiming mental illness. The jury rejected the insanity defense, and found
Yates guilty of three counts of murder.
Problem is, no such episode of Law & Order ever aired.
The appeals court made the right decision this morning: They aren't saying
Yates is an innocent woman. They are saying that the jury's rejection of
her insanity defense was influenced by false testimony.
So wherein lies the blame for what was, in the end, a long and expensive
mistrial? Well, obviously Dr. Dietz made a doozy of an error. The most
charitable assumption is that, as a consultant for Law & Order, he knew of
an episode in the works about a mother who drowns her children and is
acquitted after a post-partum depression defense, and assumed for some
reason that it had aired (though certainly if such an episode had been
planned, it would not have been scrapped because of the Yates case: On the
contrary, because of Law & Order's "ripped from the headlines" story
police, it would be more likely to have aired). Still, he might have
wanted to double-check before offering vital testimony in a high-profile
criminal case.
But the defense could very easily have gone to nbc.com or any number of
other Internet sites to confirm that there had been such an episode (and
in fact during Yates's appeal, her attorneys did think to contact the
producers). It might have been prudent for the prosecution to have done so
as well. Any of the dozens of reporters assigned to cover the trial could
have tried looking it up.
For that matter, Dick Wolf, the producer of the Law & Order series, might
have realized something was amiss. He must have been aware that his
program was being mentioned in a trial that was getting media attention
all over the world. You'd think it would have occurred to him "Hey, wait,
there was no such episode" (or if he's really far removed from the
day-to-day operation of the show, maybe an associate producer. Or Sam
Waterson, whose Jack McCoy character never prosecuted the case.
And okay, I could have checked up on this as well, because I was following
the case for the crime site I was then running for another Internet
network -- but I'll absolve myself of some of the blame because the Yates
trial was only a small part of what I was covering at the time.
The point is, everybody took Dr. Dietz's statement at face value, despite
the fact that everybody had access to the truth. And that's a problem far
larger than whatever eventually happens to Andrea Yates. You have to
wonder whether expert witnesses, lawyers and reporters will be just a wee
bit more careful in the aftermath of today's ruling.
Follow-Up: It's even worse: Dr. Deitz realized his mistake while the trial
was still in progress and offered to return to Houston at his own expense
to re-testify. He says he informed attorneys on both sides, but neither
side entered the letter into record until after the jury found Yates
guilty and the judge was unaware of it. The jury did get to see it during
the penalty phase, which was in part why they opted for life imprisonment
rather than a death sentence.
It's tempting here to say "Only in Texas..." This is, after all, the state
in which nobody seems to see a problem with a man being convicted of
murder in a trial during which his lawyer was taking frequent naps.
(source: AllInfoAbout.com)
*******************
CONVICTED CAPITAL MURDERER MAY HAVE SENTENCE THROWN OUT
Gregory Lynn Russeau, a convicted capital murderer whose death row
sentence could be thrown out after a new punishment trial, was brought
back to the Smith County Jail on Thursday.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his death sentence, issuing
a mandate that he be returned to Smith County while awaiting his new
trial, which will be for punishment only.
Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said prosecutors took the
appeal to the Texas appellate court, but the Attorney General's Office
will handle the case when it's appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Local
prosecutors will be involved in the case, he added.
Attorneys have filed a request for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to
recall the mandate while the case is being appealed. If it is recalled,
Russeau will be returned to prison until the Supreme Court ruling, 114th
District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent said.
After nearly 3 years on death row, Russeau could avoid the death chamber
after the appellate court ruled that his Sixth Amendment right was
violated. The Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the capital murder
conviction of Russeau, who was found guilty by a Smith County jury for the
May 30, 2001, slaying of James Syvertson, 75. But the court found that the
35-year-old's Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against him was
violated when witness statements were admitted into evidence while those
witnesses didn't testify. The court ordered that he be resentenced. The
ruling states that the trial court "erred" in admitting into evidence
Smith County Jail incident reports and Texas Department of Criminal
Justice disciplinary reports containing statements written by corrections
officers. The documents alleged repeated disciplinary offenses by Russeau
while he was incarcerated.
The officers' statements relied upon their own observations or the
observations of others but no one who saw the disciplinary offenses
testified at Russeau's trial. Most of the reports were read aloud to the
jury during the punishment trial.
Bingham said that before 2004, records could be admitted under the
business record exception to the hearsay rule. But Crawford v. Washington,
a case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, found that it was
unconstitutional.
If the state loses its appeal, a new Smith County jury will be selected to
hear Russeau's punishment trial, which is set for March, and sentence him
to life in prison or the death penalty.
Syverston's body was found in his Vine Avenue mechanic shop. The
defendant, who was on parole with a pending theft charge, was found in
Longview in the victim's car.
Russeau is defended by Clifton Roberson and Brandon Baade.
(source: Tyler Morning Telegraph)
******************
Escaped killer back where he started: on death row -- This time, he'll be
monitored under the most severe restrictions
His short-lived dash for freedom over, twice-condemned murderer Charles
Victor Thompson is back on Texas' death row.
Thompson, 35, was returned to the custody of the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice after a probable cause hearing on his escape charge
Tuesday morning in Houston. Wednesday, he rejoined more than 400 death row
inmates in the Polunsky Unit near Livingston.
Wynona Donaghy, the mother of one of Thompson's victims, said she was
relieved to learn her daughter's killer was back on death row.
"It could have been catastrophic, really. It could have been a very
different outcome," she said Thursday.
As an escapee, Thompson will be held under the most severe restrictions
while on death row.
He will be allowed out of the cell only for showers, medical needs or
sharply limited recreational periods.
His visits will be curtailed and he will be allowed to keep only legal
documents in his cell.
"He swore he would 'get' us all (but) he won't have a chance to do any of
that," Donaghy said.
Thompson spent 6 years on death row before being returned to Harris County
in May for a resentencing hearing ordered by the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals.
Thompson had been convicted of capital murder for the 1998 slaying of his
ex-girlfriend, Tomball resident Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new
boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, of Spring.
A Harris County jury reaffirmed the death sentence Oct. 28.
"I'm just angry that one more time, he took over our lives," Donaghy said.
"I am getting too old to have to put up with it."
Thompson walked out of the downtown Harris County Jail after slipping out
of his handcuffs and changing into civilian clothes in a room reserved for
lawyers to meet with their clients.
He bluffed his way past several sheriff's deputies by showing his state
prison identification card and claiming to be an employee of the state
Attorney General's Office conducting an investigation.
The brazen jailbreak remains under investigation.
Donaghy was interviewed several times by reporters after Thompson's
escape, but said she was in a state of shock throughout the entire ordeal.
It wasn't until Monday - the day after his capture - that she felt
completely at ease.
"It finally hit me that it was over," she said. "I was relieved and then I
got mad. It dawned on me that for the last 8 years I have been a victim of
that man."
In a nationwide manhunt involving several agencies, a drunken Thompson was
arrested in Louisiana after reportedly posing as a Hurricane Katrina
victim.
"They let an idiot out. I knew he was one anyway," Donaghy said. "They
were saying he was going straight to the (Mexican) border. That's for
people with good sense, but he doesn't have good sense."
(source: Houston Chronicle)
****************
Police say woman dragged man behind car for a mile while he died
Bloody hand prints on the side of his taxi marked Richard Allen Cullum's
fight to pull himself back into his vehicle as he was dragged to death in
east Midland early Thursday. Police say a female passenger forced the man
partially out of the vehicle before gaining control of the cab and hauling
his body for up to a mile.
Police learned of the homicide after being called to a hit-and-run
accident in the 600 block of Terrell Street at around 2:40 a.m. after a
resident there reported his parked vehicle had been hit. Responding patrol
officers saw blood on one of the vehicles in the resident's driveway and
found a blood trail in drag marks leading south from the house.
Officers followed the trail south on Terrell Street to Missouri Avenue
where the trail turned east before stopping in the 800 block of East
Missouri Avenue. There officers found Cullum's body lying next to the cab,
tangled in the driver's seat safety belt. Midland police later called it
the city's 1st murder investigated in 2005.
Midland County Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Joe L. Matlock, who order
Cullum's body sent to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office for an
autopsy, said "(Cullum's) body was torn up so badly from being dragged
that there is no way to know right now if he sustained any other injuries.
His body was mangled, covered with tons of road rash. I just pray he
wasn't alive the whole time he was dragged."
After speaking with witnesses in the neighborhood, police arrested Monica
Palmer, 30, at the Travel Inn Motel in the 400 block of East Texas Avenue
and charged her with capital murder in connection to Cullum's death.
Sammy Hajar, operations manager for Midessa Transportation, said his
company dispatched Cullum about 2 a.m. to 1004 North Terrell St. where he
was to pick someone up for a ride to a convenience store.
Antonio Cabellas said Palmer stopped at his 1004 North Terrell Street
residence about that time and asked his 15-year-old nephew, who was in the
front yard, to call her a cab.
Cullum picked up Palmer from 1004 Terrell but immediately brought her back
to the residence after the passenger told him she had no money, according
to Hajar and witness statements in an arrest warrant affidavit signed by
Midland police Det. Sheldon Johnson.
Palmer then smoked a cigarette before asking again for the nephew to call
her a cab.
Cullum returned and he and Palmer left the residence driving north on
Terrell before turning around and stopping about 3 houses south of the
1004 residence.
There, the nephew told police, Palmer exited the cab, came around to the
driver's door, got into a fight with Cullum and was partially inside the
cab when it began moving south on Terrell again. The cab then drove into
front yards on either side of Terrell before turning onto Kansas Avenue.
Detectives believe Palmer dragged Cullum for approximately one mile before
coming to a stop in the 800 block of East Missouri Avenue.
Palmer's motive and whether she had also attempted or succeeded in taking
any cash or other items from Cullum was still under investigation
Chief of Police John Urby said detectives charged Palmer with capital
murder, punishable by life in prison or death by lethal injection, because
a robbery was also committed when she drove Cullum's cab.
Midland County District Attorney Al Schorre said, "it is way too early to
know if we will pursue the death penalty."
Cullum, 57, worked for Midessa Transportation for 15 year after driving
taxi cabs in Las Angeles and New York City.
"We talk to our drivers about safety, but this is Midland, Texas," Hajar
said. "The last time a cab driver was murdered in Midland was in 1992.
This isn't exactly the place you expect for this type of thing to happen."
Hajar said Cullum was "a good, solid man and a great worker."
Palmer has a history of felony bookings at the Midland County jail dating
back to 1993 on charges of theft, forgery, retaliation, credit card abuse
and probation and parole violations. She was most recently arrested Aug.
30 for allegedly choking a female clerk during a robbery of the One Stop
convenience store in the 900 block of South Dallas Street. That case has
not been adjudicated.
Preliminary autopsy results are expected today or Friday, Matlock said.
Police interviewed Palmer at the Midland Police Department before she was
booked into the Midland County Jail where she was being held without bond
late Thursday.
(source: Midland Reporter-Telegram)
*********************
Suspect indicted on capital murder charges
The man accused in a July 14 shooting spree that left 2 dead and 2 others
wounded could face the death penalty if convicted of a charge of capital
murder.
A Brazoria County grand jury raised charges Wednesday from murder to
capital murder against John Joe Bodley, 21, of Freeport. The stiffer
charge resulted from the Oct. 13 death of Chasity Smith, a young mother of
4 children. The 28-year-old Freeport woman survived a gunshot wound to the
neck for 3 months before dying at a Houston hospital.
"Theres a 2nd person now dead as the result of Mr. Bodleys intentional
actions," said Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne.
Smith became the 2nd victim in the shooting spree, which elevated the
crime to fit the criteria for capital murder since two people were killed
during commission of the same crime, Yenne said. The other victim was
James Beverly, 31, of Freeport, who died at the scene.
An indictment is not a finding of guilt, only a determination that enough
evidence exists to go to trial.
Bodleys attorney, Buddy Stevens, did not return calls seeking comment.
In addition to the enhanced murder charge, Bodley faces a second charge of
attempted capital murder. Two other people, Ashley Ellis, 18, and Desmond
Nelson, 27, both of Freeport, suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Bodley has
confessed to firing a .22-caliber handgun and shooting people in the
apartment where children also were sleeping, Freeport Police Lt. Gus
Flores said.
Smiths sister, Danielle Porter, is still haunted after discovering the
crime scene. Shes grieving for her sister and the four children who are
now motherless.
"He deserves what he gets because he didn't have any remorse for those 4
people he shot that night," Porter said.
If Bodley is convicted, prosecutors will seek the death penalty, marking
the 1st time Yenne said her administration has sought capital punishment.
Other defendants, like Rita Chapman who was convicted of beating her
2-year-old niece, could have faced the death penalty, but the district
attorneys office does not seek it for every capital case, Yenne said.
"It's a matter of significant concern for society. It is not a small
matter," she said. "We take it seriously. We take life seriously, and
nobody in any manner would ever frivolously seek this."
Yenne said she had a duty to crime victims across the racial and economic
spectrums.
"People in an apartment complex do not deserve to be subjected to the
danger of bullets," Yenne said.
3 months later, Freeport police said they are still searching for a motive
to the violent crime, Flores said. Rumors have swirled the crime might
have been gang-related, but police have not substantiated the claim, he
said.
Drugs were involved because police found crack cocaine inside the
apartment, Flores said. However, police have not found evidence to prove
the crime escalated from a bad drug deal, he said.
The crime, one of the most serious Flores said hes worked, merits the
capital murder indictment, he said.
"It's something that I believe anyone who goes into a residence and shoots
innocent people has to face the consequences," he said.
Porter criticized police for not keeping the family more informed about
the case's development. Smith's family didn't know her relationship to
Bodley, and some family members have feared other acts of violence, Porter
said.
(source: Brazosports Facts)
