lake waco murders blog
lake waco murders blog
lake waco murders blog
lake waco murders blog
Brad, meanwhile, had subjected himself after Dannens presentation to ruthless second-guessing about his behavior at Spences execution. The trial began on June 18, 1984. Im going to see my mom.. A story by the Associated Press in June 2013 also found that since 2000, at least 24 men who had been charged or convicted of murder or rape based on bite-mark evidence had been exonerated. UPDATE:Tony Melendez, the last living Lake Waco murders defendant, died on Friday, January 13, 2017, at 57 at a prison hospice at the Michael Unit in Tennessee Colony, not far from Palestine. At 6:32 p.m., Spence was pronounced dead. He really believed that. Deebs family hired a lawyer, who pushed for a polygraph test, and after four days Simons agreed to set it up. If they execute me on April 3, he told the camera, it will be a cold-blooded, calculated murder. Dateline would eventually follow with an hour-long show, in January 1998, that questioned Spences guilt. The whole community was just in shock. We remember your smile. And, simply, We remember you., One letter in particular moved Thompson. George W. Bush, who was running for president at the time, said the state of Texas never executed an innocent man during his watch. Instead hed come face to face with a chubby middle-aged man who insisted he was innocent. Two others did match a mark to one of the molds, but it was not Spences. 
If theres one thing for certain, its that the Lake Waco murder case does indeed stand on its own. But Melendez later recanted, saying he had only confessed because hed been threatened with the death penalty. She was really excited, he recalled. Its amazing the lack of information weve found out there, Sergeant Dennis Kidwell told the Tribune-Herald. She smiled and said, That would turn anybodys head around, and let me go with a warning.. February 12, 2019 Lanie. We used to fight. Last spring, I tracked Dannen down. Truman Simons (far right) helping carry the body of the teenagers out from the brush in Speegleville Park on July 14, 1982. Not long after Spences trial, Gilbert contacted the deputy; he had seen a news report on Spences getting hustled off to death row, and he now wanted to make a deal before his own trial. The polygraph, given twelve days after the murders, was ultimately inconclusiveyet decidedly strange. Feeling buoyed, Schonemann and Schwartz, now joined by Ken Driggs, decided to again attack the only physical evidence against Spence: the bite marks. I live with this case every day, he said. Kathy Blackwell is an executive editor at Texas Monthly. From day one, they told me Id receive the death sentence if I went to trial. A week later, Simons felt like taking another look around the lake. The deputy had also heardfrom other officers or his informantsthat White had been bitten by her assailant, and so on March 17 he visited Washington in jail and asked for his permission to take a dental mold. Waco didnt get much credit for physical beauty, but this lake, just inside the citys western border, was a jewel, deep and blue. She oversees the magazines travel and style sections. 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. On November 17 they spoke with Otis Douglas, an informant who had testified against Williams. He still thought hed be exonerated.. Three Waxahachie teenagersRaylene Rice, Jill Montgomery, and Kenneth WebLast Lake Waco triple murder defendant dies in prison After almost 35 years, perhaps the final chapter of the saga was closed Friday with his death. During an interview with investigators, she had fingered a man named Muneer Deeb, who she said didnt like Kenneth and became angry at the mere mention of his name. The prosecutors, Owen and Schonemann wrote, had engaged in a campaign of deception that was breathtaking in its scope, including withholding evidence that was exculpatory. Schonemann also cant escape the past. The crime struck Price as unbearably sad. But there was more, said Salinas. A knife, a sex crime, a violent man: Simons was sure he was on to something. As Spence was strapped to the gurney in the execution chamber, he turned to the victims families in attendance and said that they were being victimized again because he was not guilty and the real killer was still free. Though it was supposedly key evidence, the truck then sat outside for more than two years before Simons sold it to a junk dealer, who scrapped it. And theres not a shred of doubt in my mind that Anthony Melendez is innocent. But in my mind, this doesn't change anything as far as Mr. Deeb's culpability goes."[11]. Patrol sergeant Truman Simons was driving down Franklin Avenue, in downtown Waco, when the call came over the police radio. Afterward, Deeb had confessed. In 1984, he told me, we were all mad at who the justice systemthe police, the DA, the judge, the jurysaid to be mad at. As the mild-mannered Schonemann knew, Spence had a rough historyhis ex-girlfriend Christine Juhl had told the police that he beat her, and testimony at the close of his first trial had included allegations of violent rape. It happened in the city limits, right out of Koehne Park, three young teenagers brutally, brutally stabbed and raped. They told me they got enough to get me out, he said. We asked Gilbert why he testified and he said, I dont lie to my mother. Spence, unaware that he might be a suspect, offered to help the officers in their investigation. He and Simons, who continues to work as a private investigator in Waco, maintain that there is abundant evidenceincluding the trial records and Melendezs confessionthat shows that the four men convicted in the murders were guilty. He began working on a proposal for a book about the lake murders, and in September 1998 he sold the book to Simon & Schuster. Judge Black didnt address anything we had done.. WebGUN RIGHTS, Happy Ending, harry storm, KWTX anchor, Lake Waco Triple Murder, law enforcement opportunities, nra, oprah winfrey, Parnell McNamara, Parnell McNamara Re Election Campaign, Pat Swanton, Uncategorized, unsolved murder, unsolvedmystery, Waco 2 Comments July 30, 2019 2 Minutes HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE B.S. Each man was charged with three counts of capital murder, and each would stand first for the killing of Jill Montgomery. I thought, How can you put someone on death row without evidence? Jan Evans didnt know anything about Waco before she moved there, in June 1981. He wanted to be something more than he was, something big, she told me. Their parentsits horrible what theyve been through. But that didnt change the truth. He would later point out that the only thing the DNA proved was that neither Washington nor Williams had raped White; it did not exclude them from the crime scene. 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. Im not a forensic expert, but I feel the case has taken a turn, he said. If Simons had a job at the jail, he could get close to Spence and use him to solve the lake murders. One testified that he had heard Deeb ask Spence if he knew of someone who could get rid of Kelley for a share of insurance money and that Spence had replied he could do it. Speegleville was the largest, a pleasant, wooded wilderness that made for good camping, hiking, and fishing. Perhaps Simonss informants knew what they were talking about.
By testifying, she would find out and spare him the pain of telling her directly, Simons said in 2017. Dannen then arranged for a series of DNA tests, beginning with one of the beer cans. 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. And besides, everyone believed Feazell and Simons. He based his first statement on what hed read in the newspapers and heard from his jail mates; when there werent enough details in it for him to testify against Spence, he said, Simons took him out to Lake Waco and showed him around, casually slipping him details. From The Left. Schonemann and Schwartz had no time to lose. But my two children suffered too.
It was there, he felt, that he could actually solve crimes, often using a network of informants he had carefully developed over the years. Evans liked Waco.
My responsibility to Calvin Washington took precedence over my interests as a journalist and book writer, Dannen told me. (As for Frankss polygraph, without context, it is just as likely that Richard Franks statement was that he was with them in spirit.), Spences prosecutors, in fact, had long maintained that they had turned over everything to the defense that they were required to. According to Dannen, Reaves, and Bernadette, after a nearly three-hour meeting, Wiley appeared convinced that Melendez was possibly innocentand that Spence might have been too. Dannen was something of a curiosity in Wacoa stubborn, garrulous reporter with a New York accent knocking on doors, asking questions about a fifteen-year-old murder case, typing answers feverishly on his laptopbut he had a knack for getting people to open up. He would work like a bird dog, around the clock, he recalled. The case was a slam dunk for prosecutors, who presented the same type of evidence in Whites murderinformant testimony and bite-mark evidencethat had been used against her son just a few years earlier. I dont know who it was or the circumstances, but I never believed we got the complete picture, Goble said. Hes gone, she said. WebTop ways to experience nearby attractions. 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. 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. They matched exactly, Campbell told a reporter. The idea that there could have been flaws in the Lake Waco convictions was no longer far-fetched. Wed work ten hours a day, and I didnt have a car, so Id stay a week at a time. After Feazell was acquitted in the federal case, the feds didnt want anything more to do with him, Price remembered. There had been no suppression of exculpatory evidence, the brief stated, and the police reports would not have made a difference in Spences verdicts. Informants they interviewed offered myriad allegations about Feazell and Simons, and the two cops found themselves having to consider the sources. Dannen reached out to Franks to learn more, but for almost a year, he refused to sit for an interview. One determined police officer declares to never rest until the person(or persons) guilty are in jail. But now he didnt know what to think. But the CCA denied Schonemanns last-ditch motion, followed by the Supreme Court and the Board of Pardons, which turned down his requests at four oclock that afternoon. But Melendez later recanted, saying he had only confessed because hed been threatened with the death penalty. Luxurious River Cruise on the Brazos River in Waco. The incident also inspired a made-for-TV adaptation, Sworn to Vengeance, starring Robert Conrad as a fictionalized version of Simons. Gilbert had initially brushed the incident off. The brothers were set to testify against Muneer Deeb at his retrial, in December 1992 in Fort Worth, and both had been promised help with their paroles if they did. Kids were kept inside, Lake Waco was off limits Spence said hed have Juhl ask around on the street about the murders. They traveled to Michigan in September 1999 and followed Gail around Lake Orion but lost their nerve and returned to Florida, he said. A conservative who favored the death penalty, Pardo had asked to see his hometowns most infamous killer, expecting to find a monster. The big paradigm shift for everyone was Calvin Washington, said Dannen. Attorney Vic Feazell was recently interviewed by KWTX-TV News 10 for a special segment on the infamous 1982 Lake Waco murders. In the end, she went on, justice had been delivered when one dogged police officer, Truman Simons, volunteered to pursue the investigation., Spence by this time had grown resigned to his fate. Thompson vowed to help Dannen, doing what she could to open doors for him in Waco and Waxahachie as he tried to reconstruct what had happened on July 13, 1982. That compounded the mystery for Waco police, who were under considerable and increasing pressure to solve the case as the weeks and months went by. Deebs trial, which began on February 25, lasted twelve days and featured forty witnesses, many of whom had testified against Spence, including one jailhouse informant. 
Melendez was one of four men charged in the July 1982 murders of Raylene Rice, 17, Jill Montgomery, 17, and Kenneth Franks, 18, in what prosecutors say was a murder-for-hire scheme gone wrong. If this was true, then the confessions of the Melendez brothers were decidedly false. But the judge ruled the evidence irrelevant to the case against Spence and refused to allow it. They had found Raylene and Jill. I know theyve spent time and money on the case, and they keep telling me theyre confident they can prove I wasnt there. On the morning of April 3, Dannen could barely concentrate on his Hong Kong article. Feazell also included Chief Scott, who had publicly accused him of refusing to prosecute valid criminal cases. We had life-size pictures of the marks and a cast of [Spences] teeth brought into the jury room, remembered one juror afterward. Still, what follows is not a legal document; some of the people involved in the case are dead, others dont remember much, and even othersincluding the patrol sergeant who investigated the case and the DA who prosecuted itrefused to be interviewed. I have a witness.. When Williams was nevertheless found guilty and given a life sentence, Price was so peeved that she stepped up her informal investigation. Simons went back to the inmate, even taking him to Koehne and Speegleville parks the next morning; over two days, Melendez gave three statements that included other discrepancies, such as different times for when he and Spence arrived at Koehne Park. She had been a detective for only two years at that point, and they were after a vicious killer. 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. Ladies and gentlemen, he announced as Simons entered, I thank God for men like Truman Simons. Now she hoped she could help free Washington and Williamsand cast some light on the DA and his investigator. The two men could not have been more different. A soft-spoken, patient woman who kept journals about the Lake Waco investigation, Thompson had attended Spences aggravated sexual abuse trial in 1983, as had Franks; it was there, she told Dannen, that Franks had unexpectedly mentioned to her a phone call hed received the night of the murders that made him think something was wrong out at the lake. I just guessed at it., In truth, back in December 1983 Gilbert had told his first trial lawyers that he had made up his story based on some offhand bragging Spence had done just six weeks after the murders. He also built friendships with more people around Waco, sometimes crashing on their couches when his reporting kept him late. After talking, the brothers refused to take the stand against Deeb. In fact, she told Dannen, though she had felt immeasurable gratitude to Simons and was convinced Spence was a low-life, she had harbored doubts about the case from the beginning. Id never heard of the DA getting involved so quickly in an investigation, recalled J.R. Two weeks into a whodunit like the White case, youre just getting started. Price would continue working the case for the WPD, but she felt blindsided, as if she had done something wrong. One of the most compelling [unsolved] cases in Texas history occurred in the small town of Waco, TX. She scared the hell out of me, said Dannen. As IVs were placed in each arm, he looked through the glass at relatives of the Lake Waco victims. This made for an awkward arrangement, since Simons and the WPD officers had been on cool terms after hed left the force. Dannen was preoccupied with his article but asked the publicist to messenger it over. Price and Turk returned to their investigation in earnest, tracking down all the informants who had testified against Washington and Williams. A possible answer came from Spences ex-wife, June, who, besides Schonemann, was one of the inmates most consistent visitors. Ex-Inmate Now Free as a Bird read the front page of the Waco Tribune-Herald. WebLake Waco Triple Murders Community Send message Hi! A fourth suspect, Muneer Mohammad Deeb, was eventually rele Congress, no longer willing to pay to defend convicted murderers, had pulled the nonprofits funding. FULL INTERVIEW: Attorney Walter Reaves Jr. Waco attorney Rod Goble, who represented Gilbert Melendez in the case, said he has no doubt that Gilbert Melendez was involved in the deaths and that the grisly details he related in his testimony came from him. However, he said he thinks there was another person involved who was never charged. They also tried to track down all the jailhouse informants. Spence was an ex-con. But the states case was entirely circumstantial until Campbell, the bite-mark expert, took the stand. Courtesy Barbara Baker Waco Murder On April 7, 2006, Kari Baker was found dead in According to testimony at the trial, her parents had asked the For his detractors in the WPD, Simonss efforts to go after Deeb were evidence of his questionable methods and fixations. He and Reaves decided to make a case to Governor Perry for clemency. When the officers got to Dallas, he informed them that Washingtons mold matched the wounds on Whites body. 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. Yet Spence hadnt bought his station wagon until two weeks after the murders. He played things close to the vest, Baier would explain later, and that bothered some people. Nevertheless, Scott, convinced of Deebs flight risk, approved the arrest, and that night Simons brought the store owner in for questioning. The nonprofit didnt get many wins in its fight against the death penalty, but Spences case was looking promising. I was with my uncle and my cousins in Bryan, painting apartments, he told me. Reaves, who successfully overturned the convictions of Calvin Washington and Joe Sidney Williams in the murder of Spences mother Juanita White, in Waco, said he also believes the Lake Waco defendants didnt do it. For Simons, this was a promising start, and later that afternoon he and Baier sat down to interview Kelley, who had also been a friend of Jills. Most murder victims know their assailants, but there seemed to be no rhyme nor reason for the deaths of these three teens. I wish you could get the rage from your hearts and you could see the truth and get rid of the hatred., Brad was having none of it. His body was found stabbed, strangled and bitten. Some wouldnt talk, but three of them recanted their testimony, saying theyd agreed to speak on the record for food, cigarettes, and conjugal visits. He had now spent about $30,000 on testing, and the FSA lab had found nothing earth-shattering. Though hed ended up retracting all his statements, Gilbert now told Schonemann, he had agreed to testify against Spence at his second trial because it looked like it was just a hopeless cause. Spence had already been found guilty; what would a jury do to a two-time felon who was Mexican American? Deeb wasnt from here, he recalled. Who had been the caller? Two years later, hed win a Texas Peace Officer of the Year award. Simons, meanwhile, began to work on Gilbert Melendez. Now, Dannen told Williams, DNA testing might prove irrefutably that he had not been Whites assailant. Allen never disclosed anything from the file to the defense. The following summer, in August 1987, Williams went on trial. Some forty pounds overweight, his eyes staring blankly, the inmate looked soft and harmless. I did it, he said.
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