lake waco murders blog

• 8 avril 2023
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A 24-year-old who was wanted in Corpus Christi for robbery and rape, Tony had been taken into custody by the WPD for questioning about the lake case and his brothers involvement and then sent to the Nueces County jail. Not a shred of doubt., For almost thirty years now, Tony Melendez has sat in a Texas prison cell and considered his life. When Simons took a break, Fortunewhod been present for the interrogationmentioned that he too knew Chili. In April 1992 the federal court denied Spences petition for habeas corpus relief. He sent McLemore to visit Schonemann, who handed over trial transcripts and case briefs for them to read. At the park entrance, Simons met a couple of other policemen and some sheriffs deputies. A native of New York and an accomplished pianist, Dannen had a small build and an intense disposition, and he was known for his ability to get interviews with tough subjects, from Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates to New York drug kingpin Lorenzo Nichols. Just die, he said, glaring at Spence through the glass. Now she hoped she could help free Washington and Williamsand cast some light on the DA and his investigator. Now 76, Thompson doesnt get out much. She was shy and craved love and attention, Thompson told me. It was a match. Almost five months after the final conviction in the lake murders, at around noon on March 2, 1986, Price got a call about a questionable death at a house on North Fifteenth Street. Even the judge sat there in dead silence. Then there was the gold bracelet at Koehne Park, which Thompson had come to believe was planted. On May 1 a woman who lived a few blocks from White was violently attacked in her home. At a court hearing in Waco, Feazell accused Dannen of not returning his tapes; Dannen, in an affidavit, said he had made copies and given them back. Bite marks on the victims were also presented as evidence of Spences involvement. Beginning in 2009, he and Reaves had been in a three-year tussle with the FSA lab after they had tried to take the DNA evidence to another lab for new testing; when FSA refused to release it and demanded an additional $35,000 to write a final report, Reaves had threatened to sue. Dannen was preoccupied with his article but asked the publicist to messenger it over. Did you say it to be a big man? He said yes. He and Spence had been riding around in Spences car, he said, drinking and smoking, when they went to Koehne Park. Nobody who knows how this works would believe hed get pardoned on the basis of my book. Better to wait for the DNA results, he said, to prove that Melendez didnt do it and that others did. The two asked for a stay of execution. The crime struck Price as unbearably sad. But he was kindhearted to those he loved. McLennan County DA John Segrest, who had succeeded Vic Feazell, filed a blistering answer. A book comes out by a New York writer that says Tonys innocent and Texas may have executed an innocent manand Tonys going to get clemency? A fourth suspect, Muneer Mohammad Deeb, was eventually released after spending several years in prison. Kader had mentioned a rough biker character known as Chilihis real name was David, she thoughtwho hung around the convenience store. On the streets he could also stay away from the politics and backbiting within the police department, which at times had made him consider quitting.

She also fell in love with a fellow officer, J.R. Price, whom she married; the two bought some land out in the country and acquired a few horses. In the back bedroom, facedown on the bed, lay the nude body of a 54-year-old woman. It had been fifteen years since Dannens initial book contract, and most peoplejournalists, editors, his old friends in Wacohad given up on ever seeing his research in print.

People naysaying the convictions found other suspects and submitted DNA. At Reavess request, the DAs office arranged for four envelopes from Whites rape kit to be sent to the medical examiner; to Dannens horror, they were empty. Now Simons, with the help of Stowers, ordered one and had it installed. And he liked to talk. She talked to inmates, some of whom claimed that Simons sources were liars. Desperate to keep the case open, Owen and Schonemann filed a motion to amend the judgment, and four months later the court granted them an evidentiary hearing on the cases exculpatory evidence. I left him because he was drinking and smoking too much weed., June became convinced that Spence had bragged falsely about committing the murders to earn jailhouse status. Wed work ten hours a day, and I didnt have a car, so Id stay a week at a time. Her name was Juanita White. Youve convinced me that somethings seriously wrong with Waco law enforcement, one of the aides told him, but you havent convinced me that Spence is innocent., If we could conclusively prove innocence, replied Schonemann, we would be asking the governor for a pardon, not a life sentence. Simons, whod relied on his gut so many times before in his career, was stunned. Deeb had an unrequited crush on Kelley, yet she was close with Kenneth. She didnt make any changes, she didnt say anything was wrong with it, and she signed it.). The large, elegant slab of Dakota Mahogany granite was decorated by Jills mother with the girls photo, a poem, and the inscription Forever Seventeen. Not only had Simons kept his promise to avenge Jill, he had also made sure she would never be forgotten. These kids, he felt sure, had been killed somewhere else. He got tattoos: dice on his right arm, Harley wings on his left. Lets go get them and fuck them up. Yet another claimed that Spence told him he had sexually assaulted the girls with a whoopee stick. The inmates denied receiving anything in return for their testimony. A lot of them had a lot of reasons and motivation to make up something.

The trials began in May, with testimony from dental specialists supplementing the evidence that the prison witnesses had provided. He asked an investigator with the DAs office to accompany him, and the two men wandered through Koehne Park. I killed them. Though he then apologized and said he was joking, Kelley felt certain he was not. He was executed in Huntsville in 1997. Her brother, Brad, who had refused her request for a ride to Waco on the day of her disappearance, was so distraught and full of rage that Simons feared hed lunge at Spence as soon as he laid eyes on him; the deputy made him promise hed behave himself. Courtney Bond is an executive editor of Texas Monthlys Food & Drink and BBQ sections. Her personal opinion, she continued, was that this Frueh guy had something to do with it. Frueh was no longer alivehe had been stabbed to death by a teenager in 1991but Dannen discovered that he had lived less than a block away from Franks. Waco had been having a violent summer; it was July 14, and already a dozen people had been murdered in the city of 100,000. The victim, he could see, was just a boy, with a wispy mustache. There they found a footprint on the front door, which had been kicked in, and some smudged fingerprints around the house. 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. He traced the van that Harper had driven the night of the murdersthe one that witnesses had seen parked next to the Pintoand discovered that, though the vehicle had been destroyed, the owner had saved its interior gold carpeting. As Kelley, a slim brunette, answered their questions, Simons got a sudden hunch.

Simons investigative style and penchant for cultivating jailhouse snitches came under fire, even from his former Waco police colleagues. Three months later, Dannen flew to Austin. Let us help you so you dont go to death row. It was Melendezs lawyersChuck Youts and Jim Barlow, both now deceasedwho urged him to plead guilty. I get people talking, and then I shut up and listen, Simons would later explain. Each man was charged with three counts of capital murder, and each would stand first for the killing of Jill Montgomery. The family was impressedand heartened when Dannen told them he planned to publish his findings in his book, which would be out in about a year. WebUPDATE: 10/26/05 Jeremy Jones was found guilty on all 4 counts of capital murder and on 10/27/05 the jury recommended the penalty of death in a 10 - 2 vote. Spence was caught off guard and hurthadnt he been trying to help the investigation?but he enjoyed his time with the deputy so much that he nevertheless continued their late-night discussions. Dannen showed the crime-scene photos to a longtime homicide detective he knew in New York, whose reaction supported this idea. Hed driven that road many times, and as he crossed the reservoir, he looked out over the water. After a lengthy investigation, COLQUITT, Ga. (WALB) - One person was killed and another is recovering after a Saturday night shooting in Miller County, according to the Miller County Sheriffs Their decision would prove pivotal: after two weeks of testimony, in a ruling that sent shock waves through Waco, Deeb was found not guilty. Schonemann and Schwartz had no time to lose. Yet there was one nagging question: How to explain the many people whod heard him say he was the murderer? He took it to the girls mother and aunt, who both said she had owned a bracelet like it. I dont have the authority to do anything.). Product Details About the Author If the new DNA evidence is favorable, Melendez could file a habeas writ and allege that hes factually innocent or that his plea was unsound. I was very fond of David, Schonemann told me. Melendez has various jailhouse tattoos: a cross on his left hand, a lowrider and a jalapeo on his right. When Simons had shown it to her, all she could say was that shed bought Jill one that looked similar. As the verdict was read, Spence stared solemnly and a collective gasp went up from the courtroom. Getting Tony out will be the other greatest thing., Was Dannen about to solve the 32-year-old mystery? After the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty, in 1976, the first Texas execution took place in 1982; by the end of that decade, the state was responsible for 33 of the countrys 116 executions. The interview went smoothly, so the two were surprised when, as they got up to leave, the conversation took a turn. Then the lawyers waited. They couldnt all be lying.

And he didnt eat just anything. She made calls and introduced him to sources who might not otherwise have talked, such as a woman who claimed she had seen Harpers van next to the Pinto that night. The evidence against the men largely consisted of testimony provided by other inmates, who claimed that the defendants had admitted to their involvement in the killings in private discussions, as well as confessions made by Anthony and Gilbert Melendez.

An innocent man has been charged with this crime and is very likely going to be convicted in state court and sentenced to death, they wrote. The family gathered in the living roomJills parents, her brother and sister, another aunt, Thompson, and Thompsons husband and two daughtersas Dannen laid out his case for Spences possible innocence and Harpers involvement. He introduced himself to her after the trial and they were married less than a year later. They told my mom and my girlfriend that they were killing me by not getting me to plead out. (Melendezs mother recalled this too. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. To his surprise, Spence was so friendly that they fell into easy conversation; Simons even told him he was quitting the force. But the inmate also had a soft side, composing poetry and writing heartfelt letters to Price, Gilbert Melendez, and Schone-mann himself. A charismatic, headstrong lawyer, Feazell had stepped into office that month, at the age of 31. $85.00. At last, Simons had confirmation of what he had suspected all along. He had more or less abandoned his life back in New York and dedicated himself entirely to solving the Lake Waco murders. But I didnt kill anyone. Discussing the case had become so painful that she and Thompson quit talking about it. 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. If the DNA test excludes Tony, Spence, and Gilbert, said Reaves, and it includes somebody else who was originally considered a suspect, that would be enough for an actual innocence writ or a clemency petition to the governoror both., But even those results wouldnt necessarily mean a get-out-of-jail-free card. I believe in our system. At the time of the murders, hed been working at Burkes Aluminum, next door to the Rainbow Drive Inn; his girlfriend, Christine Juhl, worked in Deebs store, and Spence had spent many hours there, hanging out and playing video games. Based on his reporting, he felt sure it involved Harper, who was allegedly both a drug dealer and close to Kenneth, and two henchmen. I was like the Anne Frank of Texas, he joked. Reporters wanted a cut-and-dried case, he remembered.

As IVs were placed in each arm, he looked through the glass at relatives of the Lake Waco victims. But in my mind, this doesn't change anything as far as Mr. Deeb's culpability goes."[11]. Reaves and others led unsuccessful efforts to exonerate the defendants before Anthonys death. For days, the departments phones rang nonstop as people called in with leads, most of which amounted to nothing: someone claimed that members of a biker gang known as the Scorpions had bragged about the killings; someone else reported having given a ride to an extremely nervous man with blood on his pants who had been walking along a nearby highway on the morning after the bodies were found; one caller reported that someone had been doing Indian rituals near the crime scene; another said that there was a devils cult operating in the area. a Slo Burn Podcast April 28, 2020 | Quote | Leave a comment March 3, 2016 About On July 13, 1982 Jill Montgomery and Raylene Rice left Waxahachie, Texas to go to Waco, Texas, which was approximately 90 minutes away, to pick up Jills last pay check from Fort Fisher. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Some forty pounds overweight, his eyes staring blankly, the inmate looked soft and harmless. In 1991, Deebs appeal was granted when the Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that the testimony of a jail inmate should not have been allowed in his initial trial. He filed petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court, a motion to reconsider with the CCA, and a petition for clemency from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor George W. Bush. FULL INTERVIEW: Attorney and former district attorney Vic Feazell. WACO, Texas (KWTX) - Forty years ago, before mass shootings became regular occurrences and flags routinely fly at half-staff, the gruesome murders of three teenagers at Lake Waco terrified the community and sent shock waves across the state. Unless they get something powerfully exculpatory, Tonys not getting out, he told me. Truman thought Deeb would confess, recalled Baier. Keeping his whereabouts a secret, Dannen continued his investigation from Mexico, hiring a detective service to pursue leads. Its hard to think of another crime that has provoked so many long-lingering questions and involved so many people, all of whom have a stake in the DNA tests and many of whom remain haunted by events from three decades ago. Dannen, who had read every file in the Lake Waco case, remembered the affidavit Price had given Schonemann in 1991, in which she identified a suspect named Benny Carroll. Back in Waxahachie, Thompson was glad to learn of the new tests, but as a year passed, then another, and then another, she and her family began to despair.

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