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This, and only this, would ultimately lead to a hearing where Reaves could question the men who put Melendez and the others in prison and sent Spence to his death, making them answer for their actions a generation ago. Why would it be destroyed? Brad told me. In return Melendez got two life sentences. The town historically offered reasonable, affordable housing for workers and a plentiful infusion of cash when the oil field was booming. Simons investigation included numerous promises to jailhouse inmates and the outright fabrication of evidence against the unlucky suspects, she alleged. With James Stewart, Strother Martin, Mayf Nutter, James Hampton. This Hawkins County Tennessee Most Wanted List posts the top 50-100 fugitive criminals on the run. Her boyfriend, Chico Fierro, pleaded guilty to a murder . Simons, an observer in the courtroom, was flabbergasted. I believe in our system. Youre confusing courage with wisdom). After closing arguments, in which Feazell likened the store owner to Judas Iscariot for his dirty hands in the killings, Deeb was found guilty in less than two hours. Getting Tony out will be the other greatest thing., Was Dannen about to solve the 32-year-old mystery? McFadden, before his escape, was being held in jail on charges he raped and murdered Suzanne Harrison, 18, of nearby Hawkins, Texas, in May. If a purse was inadvertently left in the car overnight, it was still there the next morning. I dont have the authority to do anything.). Harrison was killed by Jerry McFadden in 1986. There was no evidence he was guilty, he would later tell NBCs Dateline. But McFadden's parole to East Texas was granted anyway, in spite of White's objections. In his closing statement Feazell reminded jurors of the substantial testimony against Spence, the pain of the victims families, and the torture the teenagers had endured. Simons, who had become a private investigator after retiring from the sheriffs department in 2000 and now did work for Feazell, agreed. ", Former Wood County Sheriff's deputy and retired constable David Barber, a 38-year lawman. He could not have known that his promise, and every action he took to fulfill it, would shortly come under intense scrutinyand, in the years to come, set the course for one of the strangest, most serpentine cases of criminal justice in modern Texas history. But Schonemann felt strongly about Spence, and the lawyer made frequent visits to the Ellis Unit to interview the convict. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. cemeteries found within miles of your location will be saved to your photo volunteer list. Who would do something like this? I knew they were going to execute him, he later told me. It was only after she had described the bracelet to police that it was found, she told Dannen. The semen found on Whites body had never been tested for DNA, Dannen realized with excitement. He grabbed a stick and dug deep into the leaves. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? White was poor and had had a hard life; shed been married four times and had lived long enough to see her son vilified as a monster, only to die like this. She's a former police reporter who also wrote a book about the KFC murder. But there was just one problem McFadden didn't like following rules. Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. McFadden didn't have the same type of teenage experience the kids in Hawkins enjoyed. This article is the result of a full year of researchdozens of interviews were conducted with the principal and minor players, and thousands of pages of transcripts, depositions, and affidavits, from the cases six capital murder trials and one aggravated sexual abuse trial, were carefully reviewed. Dannen then arranged for a series of DNA tests, beginning with one of the beer cans. He gave Simons a cryptic message: soon, Butler said, hed be able to tell the deputy whether his theory that Spence had killed the teenagers was correct. He had had such an obviously unfair trial, he told me. Grand juries in Wood and Upshur counties later indicted him for the robbery and Suzanne's death. Its not that I thought he was innocent, but I thought, They cant execute him based on this record.. Kenneth told his father that they were going to Koehne Park, which was directly across the lake from Speegleville Park. William Porter, 51, has been charged with the 1986 murder of . Handsome Bryan, recalled as an all around "good guy," was an above-average student and gifted athlete, who played both football and basketball before attending Tyler Junior College. "It seems like yesterday and always will. I called him several more times through the summer, and in our talks he turned often to Spence, saying he had all kinds of photos of the inmate and letters he had written. Deeb had an unrequited crush on Kelley, yet she was close with Kenneth. Manuel I dont know if Calvin Washington or Joe Sidney Williams Jr. killed Mrs. White, Miles told Price. Six members of the Texas Seven were sentenced to death in the Dec. 24, 2000, shooting of Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins. Oh, God, I was with them every minute all night when they were killed, he sobbed. She had been a detective for only two years at that point, and they were after a vicious killer. The next day, at lunch with his sister, he shared Spences story. But no one emerged as a credible suspect. They met with Lieutenant Horton, who stated in an affidavit that the medical examiner had initially told him that marks on Jills breast were definitely not bites; it was only after she reexamined the photos and talked with Butler that she changed her opinion. Clear skies. Spence seemed more and more bewildered about what was going on in his mind. It was left next to the brown granite headstone by a woman who had never met Jill but was drawn to visit the grave site after learning of the lake murders. You never get over it, you just learn to live with it. He likes to brag a lot, he told his lawyers, and I just thought he was just trying to brag about that because he thought it was something cool.. But I didnt kill anyone. Other evidence, meanwhile, had never been turned over to defense attorneys, including dozens of police reports that seemed to contradict the murder-for-hire theory. ADVERTISEMENT Beasley, 29, of Hawkins, was charged in the June 15, 1986, shooting and stabbing deaths of his father, Paul Owen Beasley Sr., 71; his mother, Ruth J. Beasley, 62; and his sister, Linda Birkinbine, 37, of Euless. I can see it still today.". In April district judge George Allen made a decision: Spence would be tried first, followed by Gilbert, Tony, and then Deeb. The only adult (victim) that is still living cannot talk and is not expected to live. Earlier Tuesday, a jury had fond Beasley competent to stand trial on the three murder charges and two counts of injury to a child. Based on his reporting, he felt sure it involved Harper, who was allegedly both a drug dealer and close to Kenneth, and two henchmen. Donna Prudhomme was born on April 23, 1957, in Port Arthur, Texas, and was estimated to be about 34 years old at the time of her death, Ratliff said. "You're standing there, you see it, but you don't believe it," Mrs. Lane recalled recently, wiping away tears. Copyright 2020 KLTV. So the Portland Police Bureau sent the crime-scene DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, a Reston-based firm, which used a database with more than a million profiles from people who have submitted their genetic information from companies like 23andMe or Ancestry.com, the Oregonian reported. The trail went cold again. Then DNA pointed to a serial rapist named Animal., Roger Goodell, Muriel Bowser discussed future of RFK site in December call, Everything you need to know about the National Cherry Blossom Festival, Kyle Kuzma, Wizards start fast and dont look back in win over Raptors, DNA testing that has used public genealogy sites to close scores of lingering cold cases, according to a timeline produced by the Portland police, a recounting of the crime spree by the Tyler Morning Telegraph. Then, just when it seemed things couldnt get worse, in September 1995 the TRC found itself forced to shut its doors. The big paradigm shift for everyone was Calvin Washington, said Dannen. Deeb wasnt from here, he recalled. Thank you very much in advance. 'It appeared to be a family feud,' he said. (Spence was found guilty in late March and given ninety years; he was allowed to remain at the jail because he was helping with Simonss investigation.) STEVENSON, William In July New York Times op-ed writer Bob Herbert dedicated three columns to Spence and the death penalty. The testimonyeveryones bite mark is different, like a fingerprintwas very convincing.. You need a Find a Grave account to continue. We discussed bite-mark evidence and how a landmark forensics report by the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 had thoroughly discredited it (The scientific basis is insufficient to conclude that bite mark comparisons can result in a conclusive match, the report stated). When Simons took a break, Fortunewhod been present for the interrogationmentioned that he too knew Chili. The two had become friends after working one summer in Atlanta on death penalty cases with the American Civil Liberties Union, and they had developed a passion for representing the doomed. Tristan We list below the cases that we are aware of in which the defendant was found guilty of felony murder. Thirty years later, Suzanne's mother is uncomfortable speaking publicly about her daughter's murder, said Mrs. Lane, who spoke for the family. After campaigning on the promise to shake up a complacent DAs office, hed been elected in an upset, and he now set about hiring more prosecutors, tightening protocols for defense attorneys, and increasing security measures. This account already exists, but the email address still needs to be confirmed. Spence found himself with no lawyers. A second wrote that the marks were more likely than not made by insects or artifacts. If the purpose of the exercise, he continued, was to match these marks to a set of teeth, it borders on the unbelievable. A third thought that some contusions on one body were probable human bite marks, but he couldnt match any of the molds to them. When she didnt show up for church the next morning, her Sunday school teacher stopped by the house and found her. Melendez has various jailhouse tattoos: a cross on his left hand, a lowrider and a jalapeo on his right. The parolee agreed initially to follow the rules, which amounted to the obvious: get a job, save money, report in, attend counseling and stay out of trouble. Dannen wondered if the answer lay in another detail Thompson shared with him.