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from The Paris News:
Press Releases:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | June 3, 2009
Woman gets 3 years in prison for shooting estranged boyfriend
A Paris woman who admitted shooting her estranged live-in
boyfriend five times was given three years in prison by 62nd
District Judge Scott McDowell Wednesday.
Cherrie Elaine Tingen, 47, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon stemming from the June 2007 incident. She
told the judge she shot Rickey Cassel, 50, during a night of
drinking at a home where Cassel was staying in west Paris.
Both Paris Police Sgt. Tim Moree and the victim testified
Cassel was shot once in the head and four times in the back before
Cassel walked to a nearby apartment and knocked on the door after
3:00 a.m. Sgt. Moree said Tingen appeared to be intoxicated when
he spoke with her at the scene.
Cassel was eventually taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas
by helicopter where he underwent neurosurgery to remove a .38
caliber bullet from his head. Cassel said he still has three
bullets in his torso and will soon have shoulder surgery due
to the shooting. He said he was in the hospital more than a month
and underwent reconstructive surgery to his forehead.
Cassel testified Tingen had frequently physically abused him,
including stabbing with a knife and striking him in the head
with a hammer six months prior to the shooting. Cassel admitted
filing an affidavit of non-prosecution asking the charges be
dropped in the hammer incident.
Both the defendant and the victim admitted they reconciled
after the shooting and lived together for more than six months
in 2008. Tingen said their relationship spanned more than six
years total.
Tingen testified she was a victim of frequent abuse from Cassel,
both verbal and physical. Dr. Claire Haslam, domestic violence
expert, told the judge that Tingen suffers from battered woman
syndrome. Tingen told the judge she suffers from bipolar disorder
and depression and is a recovering crack cocaine addict which
she said she often smoked with Cassel when they were together.
Defense attorney Ben Massar asked the judge to give Tingen
probation, but Judge McDowell said, "Crimes like this of
such a violent nature demand more than probation." The range
of punishment was two to 20 years in prison. Tingen must serve
two years before parole eligibility and has five months credit
from time served in Lamar County Jail.
Assistant Lamar County and District Attorneys Jill Drake and
Greg Barber prosecuted the case.
Victims have no local refuge
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Published May 22, 2009
Victims of domestic violence or sexual assault still have
no shelter in Lamar County, and that is a huge problem, according
to Lamar County Victims and Witness Coordinator Allan Hubbard.
The problem developed with the closing of the troubled Family
Haven, after months of accusations and a state investigation
caused funds to dry up and resulted in the indictments of a former
Family Haven official and its director.
Victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse then had no official
place to go in Lamar County.
Hubbard said SAFE-T, a non-profit Texas Corporation operating
out of Mount Pleasant is attempting to help with the situation.
“They have taken approximately 25 victims to their shelter
in Mount Pleasant, and are offering counseling services locally,
but they cannot get state funding for that, because they already
are receiving the maximum funding in Mount Pleasant,” Hubbard
said.
Hubbard said the state will not provide funds to open a shelter,
and a shelter has to be in operation a year before it can apply
for state funds.
“The state really is not answering our questions,”
he said. “The state views it as the community’s job
to provide a shelter and not its problem. If a shelter has been
established and has been operational for a year, the state then
will provide funds for its operation.”
Hubbard said Lamar County Victims Council met Monday of this
week with law enforcement officers and volunteers and decided
its only option is to wait until an agency of some type steps
up and establishes a victims shelter.
“We have been using Models of the Maker to provide shelter
in some cases, but Models of the Maker has security issues, because
its location is known, it is in the phone book and the victims
of domestic violence are there with others who are seeking shelter
for other reasons,” Hubbard said.
Hubbard said there are many reasons victims in Lamar County
do not want to go to a shelter in another county.
“They have kids in school and can’t take them out,
or they have jobs or other reasons they need to stay in Lamar
County,” she said.
Hubbard said the YWCA has provided shelters in other places
across the nation, but it has not indicated it would do so here.
“Fannin County Crisis Center based in Bonham also has
provided some services in Lamar County for the same thing SAFE-T
is providing in their own time,” he said. “It has received
some emergency funds from the state for its assistance, but it
has no local office in Lamar County.”
Hubbard said a group of churches has gotten together and will
provide short-term shelter — a night or two at a local hotel,
and for some that is all that is needed, but for others who need
extended shelter there is no place locally to go.
“We just have to wait until someone steps forward to
start a shelter or to donate funds to start one for local victims
to get what they need here,” Hubbard said.
Until that happens, victims of domestic violence and sexual
abuse will be scrambling for places to go.
Mennonite youth to get new disposition
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Published May 20, 2009
Sixth Appellate District of Texas justices have found error
in a Lamar County trial court decision in a case involving a
14-year-old Mennonite youth’s traffic accident that left
one of his friends dead and another injured.
Investigators said the boy, driving without a license, was
speeding on a farm road in northwest Lamar County when he lost
control of the vehicle he was driving and the car flipped repeatedly,
tossing two of the four friends out, killing one and seriously
injuring another.
Martin Harder was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver pleaded true to the offense of intoxication manslaughter,
and a jury assessed a 10-year sentence with no recommendation
of probation.
The court entered a disposition order of commitment to the
Texas Youth Commission on a determinate sentence of 10 years,
and the attorneys for the 14-year-old appealed on points of error
involved in the disposition phase of the case.
Defense appeals attorney Gary Waite argued the evidence in
the case was insufficient to prove the requirements for commitment
to the Texas Youth Commission.
The appeals court agreed and remanded the case back to Lamar
County for a new disposition hearing.
In the appeal, the 14-year-old boy claimed his rights to due
process of law were violated because of the repeated references
to the religious group with which he is affiliated.
The appeals court did not find error in the trial court’s
handling on that issue.
A probation officer testified in the sentencing phase of the
trial, the youngster should be sent to TYC because of a lack
of parental supervision that would make probation unsuccessful
in his environment, in his community and in his home.
In his appeal, the 14-year-old boy argued his counsel was
ineffective because his attorney did not interview or cause several
possible witnesses to testify, and that he did not talk with
a psychologist who examined the defendant.
The appeals court justices said they found no deficient performance
on the part of trial counsel.
Attorneys for the youngster contend the evidence is legally
insufficient to establish his parents could not provide the care
and level of support and supervision needed to meet the conditions
of probation or that reasonable efforts had been made to prevent
or eliminate the need to remove him from the home.
On that point, the appeals court agreed and reversed the decision,
requiring a new disposition hearing in the case.
That decision sets up a new disposition hearing sometime in
the next few weeks involving first assistant district attorney
Bill Harris, the juvenile’s counsel and the judge to determine
whether there will be another disposition trial before a judge
or jury.
“While we respect the appellate court’s opinion,
it must be remembered that this juvenile’s actions caused
the death of another human being,” Harris said. “This
court’s ruling sets a dangerous precedent that no matter
the severity of the conduct of a juvenile, if he’s had little
or no interaction with the juvenile justice system, he will almost
be guaranteed probation. This is not fair to the victims of violent
crime and certainly is contrary to the wishes of juries who are
charged with seeing that justice is done and, by their rulings,
the public is protected.”
Trial set for Wagnon case
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Published May 19, 2009
Twenty-eight years after Jean Wagnon was shot and bludgeoned
to death in her Sun Valley home, the case will finally reach
a Lamar County courtroom.
A jury will be picked June 1 in the trial of two men charged
with her murder. The trial is set to begin Monday, June 8.
Trial date is pending for a third man also charged with murder
in the case.
Kenneth Bills and Lewis Tucker were arrested in April 2008
after new technology led to new evidence in the case.
They were subsequently indicted for the murder.
The third suspect, Travis Mitchell, was arrested by U.S. Marshals
in May 2008 in Dallas on a warrant for capital murder in what
is now believed by District Attorney Gary Young to be a murder-for-hire
slaying that took place May 20, 1981, in the home Wagnon occupied
with her husband Harley Wagnon.
Harley Wagnon had been an early suspect in the death, but
was never arrested in the case. He has since died.
A grand jury returned indictments in May 2008 against Mitchell
and new indictments linking Bills and Tucker to the exchange
of money, remuneration for the slaying, according to prosecutors.
Mitchell allegedly was the middle-man in the exchange of money
paid for Jean Wagnon’s death.
Reports in 1981 said she was shot and bludgeoned to death
by two men who burst into her home.
Her husband suffered injuries from a beating.
Suspects were arrested in Oklahoma shortly after the slaying,
but released without charges.
Lamar County Sheriff’s investigator Ted Gibson, armed
with new findings produced through new technology, said Bills
and Tucker have been linked to the crime scene.
Tucker, 60, was originally arrested on charges of use of a
deadly weapon, committing murder in the process.
Bills, 56, was arrested in Choctaw County and faced similar
charges.
Both Bills and Tucker now face the new indictments alleging
they committed murder for money.
Gibson was one of the original investigators in the slaying
and has followed the developments in the case since.
Authorities summoned to the Wagnon home shortly after 11 p.m.
in 1981 found Jean Wagnon dead and her husband beaten. She had
suffered a gunshot wound, but was later determined by autopsy
to have died as a result of a blow to the head.
The .38 caliber weapon used has never been found, but was
determined by law enforcement officials at the time to be one
Wagnon said he carried to the door when the two men he said were
white burst in.
All three suspects now being held in the case are black.
Wagnon told police he carried the weapon because large sums
of money were in the home.
None of the money was taken, according to reports published
then in The Paris News.
Jean Wagnon’s will left her entire estate to her daughter,
Janice Marie Anderson, but Wagnon challenged the will and received
some of the Wagnon property.
Early in the investigation, two Hugo men and an Idabel resident
were arrested in Oklahoma during an investigation of similar
homicides, but those men were never linked to the Wagnon case.
Investigators found three different blood types in the home
of the Wagnons.
Earlier this year, some of the more than 40 pieces of evidence
collected at the home was sent to the Department of Public Safety
lab in Austin. It was at that lab Young said the connection was
made to the current suspects.
No shelter for homeless
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Crime victims, domestic abuse victims and the homeless are
having more difficulty finding shelter in Lamar County, and it
is not the downturn in the economy being blamed.
It is a series of events that have caused the loss of two
shelters that once served hundreds of victims and dozens of homeless
people.
First came the tragic Christians In Action fire that razed
much of the building on Clarksville Street and sent dozens of
shelter residents looking for new homes.
Five people died in that fire, and damages were so severe
to the building it could not be reopened to continue its operation
as a shelter.
The fire hit the CIA shelter in early January, and Don Walker
of Christians In Action said he is still searching for another
building to re-establish the CIA shelter.
Another loss that sent victims of domestic abuse and crime
looking for a new shelter came last month when Family Haven ran
out of money and could no longer aid victims.
That came after a lengthy investigation by the state caused
funds to dry up and eventually brought indictments for a former
Family Haven official and its director.
A Lamar County grand jury indicted Betty Brown, a former official,
and Betsy Mills, director, on securing execution of a document
by deception charges.
The charges came out of the investigation by the state after
Family Haven’s problems began with complaints, some from
dismissed board members, about the handling of clients and programs.
Family Haven denied all wrongdoing.
A search warrant was issued in May of 2007 and state agents
swooped in and seized the organization’s records and computers.
From there, it was a downhill battle to survive. Funding sources
pulled back, including those from Health and Human Services Commission
and the Texas Attorney General, and the organization that helps
victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and their children
in Paris found itself with little help to carry out its mission.
Earlier this year, Mills said Family Haven no longer had enough
money for a shelter staff.
With the indictments and no money, Family Haven’s operations
were brought to a halt.
Some of Family Haven’s properties were lost to foreclosure.
Lamar County Victims Coordinator Allan Hubbard said Wednesday
the Victims Council still has plenty of options to help victims
of crime, but the council has not yet decided on a definite approach
to the situation.
“Shelters in Mount Pleasant and Sulphur Springs are providing
outreach services in Lamar County, but for many victims who have
children in school here and jobs here going to a shelter in Mount
Pleasant or Sulphur Springs is not convenient,” Hubbard
said.
Hubbard said it is not that they don’t have anywhere
to go, it is that it is the convenience issue.
Hubbard said the state will not give money to a shelter unless
it has been in business at least a year.
“The state will not provide funds to establish a shelter,”
he said. “The Victims Council is discussing the issue and
will make a final decision soon on the direction it will take
in directing people to a shelter.”
He said Models of the Maker is helping provide help in the
interim.
For the homeless, the future is not clear.
After the fire at CIA, shelter officials were undetermined
about reopening a shelter.
In recent days, new efforts have been put into reopening CIA,
but a search for a new location may take several months.
“We are still operational in the old building, but we
need to get back to recycling, and we need another building to
do that,” Walker said. “It takes eight men to do the
recycling program, and I have the men over here waiting to do
that. If we can get back to recycling, we can get some funds
through that. If we get a building, it will not take long for
us to be back in full operation.”
Meanwhile, some churches and other organizations are helping
provide homes for some of the men displaced by the fire.
For others, it may be difficult to find shelter.
Prison time for two Paris men
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Published May 7, 2009
Two Paris men this week received prison sentences in drug
cases involving delivery of controlled substances.
Tuesday, Reginald Hall, 38, was sentenced to 20 years in prison
by 62nd District Judge Scott McDowell after a jury took only
five minutes to find him guilty of delivery of a controlled substance
in a drug free zone.
Paris Police narcotics officers arrested Hall in May of 2008.
He was charged with selling to an undercover officer.
Hall has been in Lamar County Jail nine times since 1992 and
has a lengthy criminal history, including several prior drug
charges.
Wednesday, Benjamin Freeman, 47, received a 15-year prison
sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of delivery of a controlled
substance.
Freeman had come to trial asking his attorney be fired and
demanding to introduce new motions in his case, but shortly after
that decided to take the 15-year plea bargain.
The charges against him also included delivery in a drug free
zone.
He was arrested in April 2008.
Freeman has prior convictions on drug charges and a burglary
charge dating back to 1986.
Robinson pleads guilty before
trial
The
Paris News
Published April 23, 2009
A Paris woman, facing a jury panel and more than 15 witnesses
implicating her guilt, confessed Wednesday to the September 2008
murder of Dontrae Mitchell.
Veta Robinson, 18, agreed to plead guilty and take life in
prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years rather than
take her chances with the jury and receive life without parole.
More than 130 potential jurors waited outside the district
courtroom in Lamar County’s courthouse Wednesday as Robinson
weighed her options with defense attorney Ben Massar.
County and District Attorney Gary Young said defendants often
decide to plead guilty once faced with a jury.
“In Miss Robinson’s case, there were also several
people under subpoena ready to testify about her involvement
in the shooting, which killed Mr. Mitchell. We don’t often
have defendants willing to plead to life,” Young said.
Mitchell, the 25-year-old victim, was shot once in the head
in the driveway of a home he shared with the mother of his children
in northeast Paris. He later died in a Dallas hospital.
Robinson was apprehended in the Dallas area several days later
and charged with capital murder for not only killing Mitchell,
but also robbing him of several hundred dollars.
Mitchell was most known in the community for driving a yellow
car decorated like the television cartoon character Spongebob.
His mother, an aunt and the mother of his children made emotional
victim impact statements to the defendant in court describing
their loss, how Mitchell was loved by his children, and chastised
her for taking Mitchell’s life.
Prosecutors said Robinson comes from a family with an extensive
history of prison and was released from the Texas Youth Commission
early in 2008 for a juvenile felony conviction. Robinson has
continued to have disciplinary action while held in Lamar County
Jail.
“Under the law, the prison system cannot consider parole
for her for 30 years,” Young said. “That doesn’t
mean she’ll be granted parole at that time, when she’s
48 years old, but they can begin thinking about it then. That
will all depend on how she acts while on the inside.”
Jury selection begins in Robinson
trial
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Published April 22, 2009
Jury selection began today in the murder trial of Veta Robinson,
charged in the shooting death of Dontrae Mitchell.
Mitchell, 25, was found shot Friday, Sept. 19, 2008, at 1325-11th
N.E. St. in Paris.
He was taken to Paris Regional Medical Center, then flown
to Dallas Parkland Hospital, where he died two days later.
He was well known as a street vendor, and police theorized
the shooting was the result of a a robbery.
One person was arrested in the case, then released after interrogation.
Robinson, 18, was arrested Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2008, by U.S.
Marshals in a Dallas apartment complex on a murder warrant charging
her with the death.
Mitchell was shot in the head sometime before 4 a.m. Friday,
Sept. 19, in the 1300 block of 11th St. N.E.
“During our investigation we obtained leads that linked
her with Mitchell’s death,” Paris Police investigator
Randy Tuttle said.
Testimony is expected to begin Thursday in what is expected
to be a two-day trial.
Robinson has been in Lamar County Jail under $500,000 bond.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2009
Woman pleads guilty to murder, receives life in prison
A Paris woman, facing a jury panel and more than 15 witnesses
implicating her guilt, confessed Wednesday to the September 2008
murder of Dontrae Mitchell.
Veta Robinson, 18, agreed to plead guilty and take life in
prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years rather than
take her chances with the jury and receive life without parole.
More than 130 potential jurors waited outside the district
courtroom in Lamar County's courthouse Wednesday as Robinson
weighed her options with defense attorney Ben Massar. County
and District Attorney Gary Young said defendants often decide
to plead guilty once faced with a jury.
"In Miss Robinson's case, there were also several people
here under subpoena ready to testify about her involvement in
the shooting which killed Mr. Mitchell. We don't often have defendants
willing to plead to life," Young said.
Mitchell, the 25-year-old victim, was shot once in the head
in the driveway of a home he shared with the mother of his children
in northeast Paris. He later died in a Dallas hospital and the
autopsy ruled cause of death as gunshot to the head. Robinson
was apprehended in the Dallas area several days later and charged
with capital murder for not only killing Mitchell, but also robbing
him of several hundred dollars.
Mitchell was most known in the community for driving a yellow
car decorated like the television cartoon character Spongebob.
His mother, an aunt and the mother of his children made emotional
victim impact statements to the defendant in court describing
their loss, how Mitchell was loved by his children, and chastised
her for taking Mitchell's life.
Prosecutors said Robinson comes from a family with an extensive
history of prison and was released from the Texas Youth Commission
early in 2008 for a juvenile felony conviction. Robinson has
continued to have disciplinary action while held in Lamar County
Jail.
"Under the law, the prison system cannot consider parole
for her for 30 years. That doesn't mean she'll be granted parole
at that time, when she's 48-years-old, but they can begin thinking
about it then," Young said. "That will all depend on
how she acts while on the inside."
Judge rejects request for new
trial
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Published April 8, 2009
Sixth District Court Judge Eric Clifford rejected a defense
plea Tuesday for a new trial for convicted sex offender Aaron
Hart, 18, who was sentenced to 100 years in prison Feb. 13 on
five counts of sexual assault of a child and indecency with a
child.
Hart’s appeals attorney, David Pearson, asked the court
to throw out Hart’s conviction and sentence on the grounds
of ineffective counsel in the original trial.
Pearson said the original defense attorney, Ben Massar, failed
to investigate fully Hart’s mental retardation and failed
to present that side of the case to the jury that sentenced him
to 30 years on three counts and five years on two indecency counts.
“This case cried out for a mental health evaluation to
explain the definition of mental retardation,” Pearson said.
Prosecutor Gary Young told the court Hart was competent to
make the decision to plead guilty and to ask a jury to pass sentence.
“It is a fact Aaron Hart committed the crime,” Young
said in his closing arguments. “The evidence was overwhelming.
It is obvious Hart has problems, and the jurors felt he is a
danger to this community. There simply is no evidence to warrant
a new trial.”
Pearson said there are a lot of factors in competence.
“Would a reasonably responsible attorney investigate
this further?” asked Pearson. “He (Hart) is barely
functional.”
Hart called Paris High School principal Gary Preston and PHS
special education teacher Elizabeth Cole to the stand.
Both said it would have been beyond Hart’s ability to
understand the Miranda Warning given him by police after he confessed
to the crime at the arrest scene.
Neither was called to testify in the original trial.
“It was often difficult to have verbal communication
with him,” Preston said. “It was hard to understand
what he was saying.”
Preston said he feels Hart knows right from wrong, but has
a tough time understanding the severity of certain wrongs.
Pearson called two expert witnesses, Dr. Vincent Ramos, a
licensed psychologist, and John P. Niland, of the Texas Defender
Service.
Ramos said Hart is functioning with moderate retardation and
was diagnosed that way at the age of 5.
“His intelligence is not going to improve over time,”
he said. “He would have a difficult time being able to determine
the degrees of right and wrong.”
Niland told the court Hart has an IQ of 47 to 52 and the understanding
of a child at the age of 6.
“There were a number of steps counsel should have taken
in the original trial, and he did not,” Niland said. “Investigation
in this case fell below reasonable standards.”
Young moved to impeach each of the expert witnesses on the
basis they also did not investigate the case thoroughly, having
not read the original psychology report by Dr. David Bell, who
determined Hart competent to help his attorney in the original
trial.
Pearson called the original defense attorney, Massar, to the
stand, and Massar said he felt he had taken all the necessary
steps in defense of Hart.
Massar said it was Hart’s decision to plead guilty and
ask the jury to pass sentence.
“He was hoping for probation,” Massar said.
Defense investigator Jim Chadwick also was called to the stand
and told the court it was indeed Hart who made the decisions
in his own defense.
After the jury passed sentences of 30 years on three counts
and five years on two counts, Clifford then stacked the sentences
to run the full 100 years.
“The kid is of diminished intellect and does not need
to be in prison, but there wasn’t any place to put him,”
Clifford said after the original trial.
At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Clifford said: “Irregardless
of whether he understood the Miranda Warning, the evidence was
overwhelming. The court denies the motion for a new trial and
a new sentence.”
Ceremony dedicated to victims
of crime
Staff Report
The Paris
News
Published March 29, 2009
A ceremony of hope scheduled this week acknowledges the plight
of crime victims of all ages and begins a month of events planned
by a group of advocates.
“Sometimes victims are children, sometimes they’re
adults. They all need our compassion and our righteous anger
at their circumstances,” said Allan Hubbard, member of the
Lamar County Victims Council.
The group of area agencies hosts the annual Light of Hope
ceremony at 6 p.m. Thursday at Calvary United Methodist Church.
Special music, a time of reflection, and honoree recognition
are planned at the candlelit ceremony followed by a reception.
Anyone is welcome to attend, Hubbard said. He added that he shares
the concern and hurts of what victims go through.
Guest speaker is Messina Madson, assistant district attorney
in Dallas County. Madson specializes in family violence prosecution
and trains officers on domestic disputes at Dallas Police Academy.
April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and Crime Victims Week
falls within the month.
A memorial wall will be erected April 1 on the first floor
of the Lamar County Courthouse for victims to post memorabilia,
poems, photos and the like in memory or honor of victims.
The Victims Council is made up of representatives from CASA
for Kids, Child Protective Services, adult and juvenile probation,
SAFE-T, the County and District Attorney, Child Welfare Board,
Children’s Advocacy Center, NETO, and People Against Violent
Crime.
For more information, contact Hubbard at 903-737-2458.
Fugitive roundup begins Thursday
By Mary Madewell
The Paris
News
Published March 23, 2009
Persons with outstanding misdemeanor arrest warrants have
until Wednesday to clear their names before a large scale fugitive
round-up begins, according to Greg Barber, assistant attorney
with the Lamar County/District Attorney’s Office.
“Persons with active warrants may be arrested at their
homes, places of employment or wherever they may be found,”
Barber said today.
“Those with active warrants have until March 25 to clear
their names by turning themselves in or paying off their fines,”
Barber said. “The warrant fee is being waived for those
who pay in full prior to arrest.”
After Wednesday, law enforcement will actively pursue those
who still have outstanding warrants from courts involved in the
warrant round up.
In addition to Lamar County, participating entities include
the City of Paris and the City of Reno.
Precinct 5 Place 1 Judge Cindy Ruthart said earlier that courts
have a backlog of misdemeanor cases.
“We have a backlog and this is to help to dispose of
some of these cases,” Ruthart said. Most Class C misdemeanors
are for traffic tickets and simple assaults.
County warrants can be paid at Justice of the Peace offices
at the Lamar County Courthouse.
In Paris, fines may be paid in person by appearing from 8
a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday at the Municipal Court
Building, 2910 Clarksville St. Payments can be made by cash,
check, money order or cashier’s check. Debit or credit card
payments adds five percent to the original amount.
In Reno, fines can be paid during the same business hours
at Reno Municipal Court, 160 Blackburn St.
Up for parole
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Published March 6, 2009
Two confessed murderers sent to prison for life in early 1980
in Lamar County cases soon could be walking the streets as free
men.
The two will come up for parole this year after serving 30
years of their sentences behind bars.
Charles Parham, 49, pleaded guilty to killing Richard Todd
Lewis, 18, in a case that involved drugs in July of 1979.
Parham first injected the victim with battery acid, and when
Lewis did not die, he shot him with a handgun.
A jury assessed punishment at life in prison on Jan. 9, 1980.
Parham came up for parole in 1999 but was denied.
As of July 2009, he will have spent 30 years in prison, and
will come up for a parole hearing again.
Lewis’ surviving family members have said they will be
writing letters of protest asking the parole board not to grant
parole.
In another case, L. C. Stover, 57, pleaded guilty to killing
his father, Jessie Daniel Stover, and step-mother, Juanita Stover,
at their home in the 400 block of Clarksville Street in Paris
Nov. 24, 1979.
Judge Henry Braswell assessed punishment at life in prison
Jan. 10, 1980.
Stover told the court he and his father got into an argument,
and the defendant took a .22 caliber chrome revolver handgun
away from the father and shot him when the father advanced toward
him. He said he then shot his step-mother, who came into the
room after hearing the shots.
She stumbled outside and bled to death on the front lawn.
The defendant was arrested at the scene.
He was first considered for parole in 1999, but was denied.
He will have spent 30 years in prison as of November 2009.
Some surviving family members still live in Paris.
The brother is petitioning the parole board to allow his brother’s
release and has asked he be allowed to live with him in Oklahoma.
“When a murder trial takes place, or any kind of long
prison sentence is handed down, there is a tendency to think
it will be a very long time before parole eligibility ever comes
up,” Lamar County Victims Coordinator Allan Hubbard said.
“And it is a long time. But eventually, that day does come.”
“We’re committed even after a prison sentence is
long under way to making sure defendants remain where they belong,”
said Lamar County and District Attorney Gary Young. “Parole
is an acceptable measure for some defendants, but not for murderers.”
The district attorney’s office is attempting to track
down surviving family members in both cases.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2009
Man pleads to life in prison for continuous sexual abuse
of child
A Paris man Wednesday pleaded guilty and agreed to go to prison
on a life sentence for sexually abusing three family members.
The man is not being named so as not to identify the child
victims in the case.
The 47-year-old man listed a west Paris address and was indicted
in October 2008 for the first degree felony of continuous sex
abuse of a child and second degree felony of indecency with a
child. The man has been in the Lamar County Jail since late September
2008.
"There was a large amount of child pornography found
on his computer and I agreed not to file those cases if he would
agree to go to prison for the maximum sentence on what he did
to the kids," said Lamar County and District Attorney Gary
Young. "Thankfully, we avoided putting those children through
trial testimony and he still got the maximum through the plea
bargain."
The children were interviewed at the Paris Children's Advocacy
Center after one of them told parents of the ongoing molestation.
Child Protective Services were involved and Paris Police Sgt.
Shane Boatwright led the investigation which resulted in two
computers being seized from the man's home. One was found to
contain more than 1,000 pornographic images and videos, many
involving children.
One of the children told authorities the man made them look
at the pornography and that the man "did a lot of the same
things to me."
Young said the details of the crimes were shocking. "Let
me just say if there ever was a defendant who deserved life in
prison for molesting children, it was this guy," Young said.
The man was represented by court-appointed defense attorney
Diane Sprague. He must serve 30 years before parole eligibility,
when he will be 77-years-old.
Alberts guilty of sexual abuse
The
Paris News
Published February 25, 2009
A Reno man was found guilty Tuesday of sexually abusing one
of his grandchildren and another child. He was sentenced to a
stacked sentence of 64 years and will be eligible for parole
in 32 years.
Michael Lee Alberts Sr., 58, was charged with multiple counts
of molestation of the two children who came forward in 2006 as
a result of an investigation into a completely unrelated offender.
“We frequently do risk assessment interviews at the Children’s
Advocacy Center with all children who have close contact with
someone accused of sexual abuse,” said Gary Young, Lamar
County and district attorney. “These children were forensically
interviewed on risk of one perpetrator, but revealed they had
been sexually abused by Mr. Alberts.”
Both children testified, as did expert witness Children’s
Advocacy Center forensic interviewer Rebecca Peevy, who said
children frequently do not tell right away when they are sexually
assaulted. Peevy said children show different ranges of emotions
when they finally confide in someone and that perpetrators commit
such crimes in secret outside the view of other witnesses.
“What you did to those children was disgusting, but making
them have to come up here and testify and tell people in open
court was even more disgusting,” Eric Clifford, 6th District
judge, said. “My intention in stacking these sentences is
that you never get out of prison.”
A third child took the stand in the punishment phase and said
Alberts had also molested them five years earlier.
Defense attorney George Preston asserted through witness testimony
by Alberts’ family members that no one else saw the crimes
happen. Preston said the children had been coached to tell the
stories.
Alberts took the stand in his own defense, cited his multiple
heart attacks and health problems and said he could comply with
terms of probation. In a round of questioning marked with frequent
objections between Young and Preston, Alberts admitted that a
person who molested children should go to prison but he fell
short of admitting he committed the crimes.
“I have to say ‘I did it’ because the jury
found me guilty, but I pled not guilty because I didn’t
do it,” Alberts told Assistant County and District Attorney
Jill Drake.
Local sex offender therapist Dr. Joann Ondrovick testified
she had seen Alberts on 10 occasions and was paid for her testimony
for the defense. Preston asked Ondrovick if Alberts was a good
candidate for probation, but Young objected and pointed out the
ethical stance established by a sex offender treatment association
that says therapists should not make such judgments.
“Those children have to live with what he did,”
Drake said in her closing argument. “Is this a probation
case? No. Send him to prison.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2009
Grandfather guilty of sex abuse gets 64 years in prison
After a jury found a Reno man guilty Tuesday of sexually abusing
one of his grandchildren and another child, they sentenced him
to prison and district Judge Eric Clifford stacked the sentences
to total 64 years.
"What you did to those children was disgusting, but making
them have to come up here and testify and tell people in open
court was even more disgusting," Clifford said at the trial's
conclusion. "My intention in stacking these sentences is
that you never get out of prison."
Michael Lee Alberts Sr., 58, was charged with multiple counts
of molestation on the two children who outcried in 2006 as a
result of an investigation into a completely unrelated offender.
"We frequently do risk assessment interviews at the Children's
Advocacy Center with all children who have close contact with
someone accused of sexual abuse," said Lamar County and
District Attorney Gary Young. "These children were forensically
interviewed on risk of one perpetrator but revealed they had
been sexually abused by Mr. Alberts."
Both children testified as did expert witness CAC forensic
interviewer Rebecca Peevy who said children frequently do not
tell right away when they are sexually assaulted. Mrs. Peevy
said children show different ranges of emotions when they finally
confide in someone and that perpetrators commit such crimes in
secret outside the view of other witnesses.
Defense attorney George Preston asserted through witness testimony
by Alberts' family members that no one else saw the crimes happen.
Preston said the children had been coached to tell the stories.
A third child took the stand in the punishment phase and said
Alberts had also molested them five years earlier.
Alberts took the stand in his own defense, cited his multiple
heart attacks and health problems and said he could comply with
terms of probation. In what became a contentious round of questioning
with frequent objections between Young and Preston, Alberts admitted
that a person who molested children should go to prison but he
fell short of admitting he committed the crimes.
"I have to say 'I did it' because the jury found me guilty,
but I pled not guilty because I didn't do it," Alberts told
Assistant County and District Attorney Jill Drake.
Local sex offender therapist Dr. Joann Ondrovick testified
she had seen Alberts on 10 occasions and was paid for her testimony
for the defense. Preston asked Dr. Ondrovick if Alberts was a
good candidate for probation, but Young objected and pointed
out the ethical stance established by a sex offender treatment
association that says therapists should not make such judgments.
In her closing argument, Mrs. Drake said, "Those children
have to live with what he did. Is this a probation case? No.
Send him to prison."
Alberts will be eligible for parole in 32 years.
Retired trooper sentenced to 20
years on theft
By Bill Hankins
The Paris
News
Published February 22, 2009
Retired Texas Department of Public Safety trooper John Raymond
Cross was sentenced to 20 years in the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice system Friday after being convicted by a Lamar County
jury of theft of more than $100,000 but less than $200,000 from
a retired Deport doctor.
Dr. T. H. Glover, 76, testified he had given Cross $128,952
in interest-free loans to help Cross develop and market an “adjustable
door striker” and a “silent trolling motor” for
fishing boats.
“I trusted him,” Glover said. “He seemed like
a good Christian man and a good church member, and he said he
was sure he had an invention that would make him and the City
of Deport a lot of money by putting a manufacturing plant there.”
After Glover’s niece discovered dozens of checks he had
written to Cross, she went to the Lamar County Sheriff’s
Department and filed a complaint.
Sheriff’s investigator Ted Gibson said Cross told him
in an interview the trolling motor invention was a “pure
fabrication and never really existed.”
For a period of 15 months from 2006 through the spring of
2008, Glover had given Cross a series of checks for such things
as patent searches, applications for a patent, building large
machines to manufacture the trolling motor, transporting those
machines to Oklahoma and back again to Texas.
Testimony showed he told Glover the reason he could not pay
him back was because “the Indian Nation” had reneged
on manufacturing the motor because he had gone to another possible
manufacturer to make the device.
Even before the trolling motor story began, Cross had been
getting money from Glover for another invention he called an
adjustable door striker plate, later telling Glover some “evil
lawyers” in Dallas had gotten hold of his money and would
not release it to him.
Prosecuting attorney Bill Harris told jurors: “Every
time he needed money, he came back to Dr. Glover. He used Dr.
Glover as an ATM machine in a fictitious scheme of fraud and
lies.”
Glover was a medical doctor who had lived in Deport his entire
life and practiced medicine there 30 years.
Harris said Glover had watch Deport’s declining population
and wanted to do something to help the community.
Glover retired in 1989 because of health reasons. He had never
married, and his niece, who had worked for years in the doctor’s
office, was his main caregiver.
He said he met Cross in church and sometimes hired him to
do work around his home.
The checks he paid Cross for work were not included in the
$128,952 for which the theft charges were brought.
Glover said the loans started with a $500 check in 2006 for
the door striker and grew in size over the months.
Checks in 2006 totaled $7,675, in 2007 $96,151, and in 2008
$25,952 before the niece, Betsy, and husband Jerrome Chapman,
discovered them.
During the months, Glover said Cross had told him he won some
lawsuits over the inventions but still did not have the money
awarded him by the courts.
Testimony showed the lawsuits never existed.
Throughout the trial Friday, defense attorney Dianne Sprague
contended the money was simply interest-free loans and should
be a civil matter.
Harris told the court obtaining the loans through false pretenses
and fraud made the case a criminal matter, and the amount of
the funds obtained made it a first degree felony.
Gibson said Cross told him during an interview he was hooked
on gambling and needed the money.
“He said he was sorry for what he had done, and he knew
it would never happen again,” Gibson said.
But prosecutors in the punishment phase of the trial brought
three witnesses in who testified Cross had taken money and not
paid it back in the past.
Law enforcement officer David Stevens testified he had known
Cross “all my life.”
Stevens said the door striker plate deal did exist but Cross
and his partners could not get a patent on it.
“It still could be produced today, but we have no protection
on it,” he said.
Stevens was a witness for the defense.
In his closing arguments, Harris told jurors: “You now
have an opportunity to send a message to the scam artist who
prey on our elderly. The evidence is overwhelming the defendant
tricked or coerced the victim to provide money in a fictitious
venture.”
Sprague told jurors: “I believe Dr. Glover was competent
when he wrote the checks. The money was a loan. He was not investing
in the inventions. John Cross was just out there trying to do
something with his invention. I don’t think you can find
a man guilty of a first degree felony based on loans.”
After he was charged, Cross did attempt to begin paying back
the funds, but only paid $1,300.
It took jurors less than an hour to find Cross guilty of theft
of more than $100,000 but less than $200,000.
Cross had asked 6th District Court Judge Eric Clifford to
pass sentence rather than the jury.
After a short punishment phase, Clifford handed down his sentence:
20 years in TDJC, with parole dependent on restitution.
“He was preying on old people, and what we have is a
pattern of fraud and theft and the victimization of older people,”
Harris said.
Paris teen sentenced to 100 years
in prison
By Charles Richards
The Paris
News
Published February 15, 2009
“It was one of the most heartbreaking things you will
ever see,” District Judge Eric Clifford said after sentencing
a Paris teenager to 100 years in prison on five counts of sexual
assault of a child.
Aaron Hart, 18, of 1055 22nd N.E. St., a special education
student throughout his years in school, pleaded guilty Wednesday
to the Sept. 28, 2008, sexual assault of a young boy who lived
nearby.
Represented by defense attorney Ben Massar, the defendant
asked that a jury determine his punishment. During cross-examination,
Hart answered that he knew what he did to the neighbor child
was wrong.
Asked by District Attorney Gary Young why he did it, Hart
replied there were “voices in my head … and I got dizzy.”
The jury deliberated about three hours Wednesday before coming
back with a recommendation of 30 years in prison for three counts
of sexual assault of a child and five years in prison for each
of two counts of indecency with a child.
Clifford had the discretion of ordering the sentences for
the 2008 Paris High School graduate to be served concurrently
or consecutively.
“I stacked them. The kid is of diminished intellect and
doesn’t need to be in prison, but there wasn’t any
place to put him. I just couldn’t take a chance running
him concurrently with a 30-year sentence and him being back out
in the community in 15 years,” Clifford told The Paris News.
On the day of the sexual assault, a member of the young child’s
family said she was watching through a window as he played outside.
She said she stepped away to go to the restroom, and when she
returned the boy was no longer outside the window.
She said when she went outside, she heard some voices over
near a tool shed and saw Hart with his pants pulled down, next
to the boy. She said she grabbed the child, took him inside and
called police. Hart stood at a window, peeping in at them while
she waited for police to arrive, she said.
There was no question as to the defendant’s mental competence,
Young told the jury during final arguments. He said Hart clearly
knew the difference between right and wrong, can
Sentence read and write, can ride a bicycle, and had worked
around the neighborhood, mowing yards.
The defendant’s father, who is elderly, testified he
tried to look after his son to the best of his ability. The defendant’s
mother is confined to a wheelchair. The father testified his
son frequently sneaked out of the house at night after everyone
else had gone to bed.
Police told of seeing Hart around town late at night, often
in the company of other boys who they said tried to talk him
into things. Hart was frequently riding a different bicycle than
the last time they’d seen him, officers said.
The Lamar County Sheriff’s Office is investigating reports
that the defendant himself was sexually assaulted in the county
jail while awaiting trial.
Allan Hubbard, victim’s advocate for the district attorney,
said the case is perplexing because life in prison was given
to someone who has a child’s mind in an adult body.
“We’ve seen less sentences for worse crimes where
sex was involved. You don’t want to send him to prison for
life, but you cannot put him back on the street and worry about
what he may do to some other kid,” Hubbard said.
“Speaking for myself and not for the district attorney’s
office, this illustrates the need for some system between probation
and life in prison for someone like this,” Hubbard said.
“It begs for some kind of institutional way to lock a
person up where they cannot get out. But there’s just not
a fit, and this office cannot create that, and the judge cannot
create that.”
After sentencing, the judge met with members of the jury.
They asked what would be the effect of stacking the sentences,
and he told them Hart must serve at least half the sentence and
will not be eligible for parole until he is 68.
“They were fine with it,” Clifford said. “It
was gut-wrenching. There might have been one or two jurors that
weren’t crying when it was over. I felt like crying myself.”
Sex offender receives 45-year
sentence
Staff Report
The Paris
News
Published January 25, 2009
New 6th District Judge Eric Clifford sentenced a sex offender
who violated conditions of his registration to 45 years in prison
Friday.
Clarence Wesley Haley, 42, of Paris, was found guilty by a
jury Friday of two counts of failure to register as a sex offender.
Haley chose to let Judge Clifford set his punishment.
“Clearly, Judge Clifford thinks, as most of our county
does, if you are a sex offender, and you fail to register properly,
you must go to prison,” said Lamar County and District Attorney
Gary Young.
Haley moved to Paris in April 2007 and was operating a tattoo
parlor on Lamar Avenue but had failed to notify Paris police
he had relocated from his previous address in Longview.
First Assistant District Attorney Bill Harris prosecuted Haley
and said his minimum punishment was enhanced to 25 years because
of prior convictions for burglary of a habitation and possession
of a weapon in a penal institution.
Prosecutors offered proof of seven prior felony offenses.
Haley was originally convicted of aggravated sexual assault
in Austin in 1985 after breaking into a woman’s apartment
and raping her, Harris said. Additional trouble in North Dakota
was presented during his punishment phase.
“He broke into a house in North Dakota and was discovered
at the foot of the female homeowner’s bed with his pants
down,” Harris said.
It was also shown during the punishment phase that Haley evaded
arrest in March 2007 in a high speed chase with Longview police.
Out of that incident, he also was charged with endangering a
child because of a young boy who was a passenger in the car,
Harris said.
“It cannot be discounted the excellent work by our city
sex offender registrar, Officer Matt Birch,” Harris said.
“Birch followed up with every angle of the registration
requirements and filed these cases by the book.”
Harris also praised Judge Clifford by saying, “His sentence
obviously shows he recognizes what a menace Haley is and that
a long prison term was appropriate.”
Haley was represented at trial by defense attorney George
Preston.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2009
Sex offender violates conditions, gets 45 years
New state district judge Eric Clifford sentenced a sex offender
who violated conditions of his registration to 45 years in prison
Friday.
Clarence Wesley Haley, 42 of Paris, was found guilty by a
jury Friday of two counts of failure to register as a sex offender.
Haley chose to let Judge Clifford set his punishment.
"Clearly, Judge Clifford thinks as most of our county
does. If you are a sex offender, and you fail to register properly,
you must go to prison," said Lamar County and District Attorney
Gary Young.
Haley moved to Paris in April 2007 and was operating a tattoo
parlor on Lamar Avenue but had failed to notify Paris police
he had relocated from his previous address in Longview.
First Assistant DA Bill Harris prosecuted Haley and said his
minimum punishment was enhanced to 25 years because of prior
convictions for burglary of a habitation and possession of a
weapon in a penal institution.
In total, prosecutors offered proof of seven prior felony
offenses.
Haley was originally convicted of aggravated sexual assault
in Austin in 1985 after breaking into a woman's apartment and
raping her, Harris said. Additional trouble in North Dakota was
presented during his punishment phase.
"He broke into a house in North Dakota and was discovered
at the foot of the female homeowner's bed with his pants down,"
Harris said.
It was also shown during punishment that Haley evaded arrest
in March 2007 in a high speed chase with Longview police. Out
of that incident, he was also charged with endangering a child
because of a young boy who was a passenger in the car, Harris
said.
"It cannot be discounted the excellent work by our city
sex offender registrar, Officer Matt Birch," Harris said.
"Birch followed up with every angle of the registration
requirements and filed these cases by the book."
Harris also praised Judge Clifford by saying, "His sentence
obviously shows he recognizes what a menace Haley is and that
a long prison term was appropriate."
Haley was represented by defense attorney George Preston.
Cody Posey gets probation
By Charles Richards
The Paris
News
Published January 21, 2009
Over the objection of District Attorney Gary Young, District
Judge Eric Clifford on Tuesday followed the recommendation of
his predecessor and ordered 22-year-old Cody Posey released after
serving 95 days of a two-year sentence for negligent homicide.
Former District Judge Jim Dick Lovett had the authority to
revoke probation — as he did on Nov. 21, 2008, after Posey
was arrested for driving while intoxicated — but not to
grant probation again following revocation, Young said.
Only a jury can grant probation on a case in which there was
a finding that a deadly weapon (the irresponsible use of a motor
vehicle) was used, Young said during a morning hearing in the
Lamar County Courthouse.
“You have been left with a decision that legally I don’t
think you can make,” Young said.
“I do feel I have the power. I am going to grant shock
probation,” Clifford said. At the same time, he doubled
the length of Posey’s probation to 10 years.
“Frankly, I doubt he will make it, but we’ll see.
I do not want him released with no strings. If I put him back
on probation, he will be under watch,” Clifford said.
About four hours later, at 2:10 p.m., Posey was released from
Lamar County Jail, where he spent 73 of his 95 days of incarceration.
He spent 22 days — from Dec. 8, 2008, to Jan. 9, 2009 —
in the Gurney Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections, near
Palestine.
If Posey violates his probation during the next 10 years,
he can be sent back to prison to complete his sentence.
Clifford announced his decision quickly, after Young and defense
attorney James Rodgers sparred over Lovett’s suggestion
in open court two months ago that Rodgers file a motion for shock
probation after Posey spent some time in prison.
Posey was convicted June 29, 2006, of negligent homicide in
the Dec. 22, 2004, deaths of Marie “Tudy Girl” McDonald,
54, and her grandson, Kevontre “Keke” McDonald, 3.
The jury set the sentence at two years, but granted probation.
Posey’s west-bound jacked-up pick up truck smashed into
and over the McDonalds’ car from the rear during a snowstorm
as they waited to turn left on 36th N.E. Street on Farm Road
195, a half mile off Loop 286.
Clifford was sworn into office Jan. 1 following his election
in November to succeed Lovett, who did not seek re-election.
“I think the judge did the right thing, considering all
the circumstances. He was put in a difficult position, having
to take over and finish what another judge had done,” Rodgers
said.
“He followed the recommendation that Judge Lovett had
made. Actually, he increased it, by extending the probation.
So I think that’s appropriate. I think it shows good consideration
of the entire circumstances,” Rodgers said.
As soon as Clifford announced his ruling, Young announced
his intention to appeal to the 6th State Court of Appeals in
Texarkana.
Young said later that his objection has nothing to do with
Clifford inheriting a case in which he was not previously involved.
“Even if Judge Lovett were still on the bench, it would
be the same thing. Once he’s revoked probation, I believe
he’s prohibited by statute from granting probation because
of the deadly weapon finding,” the district attorney said.
“Everyone I’ve talked to that is knowledgeable about
criminal law agrees with me. We’ll appeal it to Texarkana
and see what they say,” Young said.
DA opposes Posey’s request
for probation
By Charles Richards
The Paris
News
Published January 16, 2009
District Attorney Gary Young said this week he will oppose
a bid by Cody Posey, 22, for release on “shock probation”
after spending only 22 days in the state prison system.
On June 29, 2006, Posey got probation from a Lamar County
jury that convicted him of negligent homicide in the Dec. 22,
2004, traffic deaths of Marie “Tudy Girl” McDonald,
54, and her grandson, Kevontre “Keke” McDonald, 3.
After Posey was arrested in October for driving while intoxicated,
State District Judge Jim Lovett revoked probation and ordered
Posey on Nov. 21 to begin serving the original two-year prison
sentence.
At the same time, the judge gave defense attorney James Rodgers
the option to file a motion after 90 days for shock probation,
said Allan Hubbard, victim witness coordinator for the district
attorney’s office.
In an email to The Paris News, Hubbard said:
“Mr. Young told me our position will be that Posey had
his probation revoked by a judge and should serve the remainder
of his time in prison, as should anyone who is given a second
chance when put on probation for a felony offense and makes decisions
that are in violation of their terms and conditions of probation.”
“It doesn’t happen all that often, but it’s
not uncommon for a judge to give shock probation,” Young
said Wednesday.
“The theory behind it is, you need to go down to TDC
(Texas Department of Corrections) and decide ‘I don’t
EVER want to be here again.’ And it shocks you into doing
the right thing,” Young said.
Posey was incarcerated in the Lamar County Jail from the date
of his DWI arrest on Oct. 14 until Dec. 18, when he was turned
over to the TDC’s Gurney Unit, six miles south of Tennessee
Colony, near Palestine.
Last Thursday, Rodgers applied for a bench warrant to bring
Posey back to Lamar County for a hearing before Lovett’s
successor, State District Judge Eric Clifford, to grant Posey
shock probation.
Clifford signed the warrant the same day and scheduled a Jan.
20 hearing. A Lamar County sheriff’s deputy picked Posey
up on Friday and returned him to the Lamar County Jail.
“It was an accident, and it was tragic, but the guy should
spend more than three weeks and a day in prison,” Young
said Wednesday.
Rodgers calculated the 90-day window to expire on Jan. 14,
three months after Posey’s most recent incarceration began,
since time served in county jail counts toward his two-year sentence.
Young said Posey’s negligent homicide conviction was
escalated from a state jail offense to a third-degree felony
because of the jury’s finding that a deadly weapon —
Posey’s “monster” pickup truck — was involved
in the fatal accident on Farm Road 195 during a snow storm.
Because of that, Posey should serve four to five months in
prison before being considered for shock probation. Any hearing
on shock probation should be scheduled for May at the earliest
— six months from Nov. 21, less 40 days credit for time
spent in the Lamar County Jail, Young said.
“Also, it’s going to be our position that legally
Judge Clifford has no authority to give probation, since he didn’t
have anything to do with the trial or the revocation hearing.
It was something that was dumped in his lap,” the district
attorney added.
Lamar County Sheriff B.J. McCoy denied his office has shown
any favoritism to Posey, whose mother is McCoy’s cousin.
McCoy’s mother and Shirley Posey’s mother were sisters.
“I’ve only met the kid one time, and that was when
he was in our jail a couple of months ago,” McCoy said.
“I didn’t investigate the crime. I didn’t want
to know anything about it. I knew something might come up, so
I tried to stay away from it,” the sheriff said.
January 8, 2009
Drug dealer and child molester
go to prison
A jury trial and a plea bargain this week before 62nd District
Judge Scott McDowell resulted in prison sentences for a drug
dealer and a child molester in separate cases.
James Edward Perkins, 57 of Paris, was found guilty by a jury
for delivering crack cocaine in a drug free zone to two different
undercover informants.
Judge McDowell sentenced Perkins to 35 years in prison after
hearing of his criminal history which included felony theft in
the 1970s and a 1995 drug delivery conviction in Dallas County
for which he had already spent time in prison.
"Mr. Perkins' minimum sentence was enhanced to 25 years
due to his prior convictions," Lamar County and District
Attorney Gary Young said. "He was offered a considerably
lighter sentence prior to trial but chose to exercise his right
to a jury. Our juries in Lamar County do not like drug dealers."
Allen Dewayne Frazier, 48 of Paris, received 25 years in prison
in a plea bargain deal with prosecutors for aggravated sexual
assault of a child.
"In a very unusual occurrence, there was actually an
uninvolved witness who caught Mr. Frazier in the act," said
assistant D.A. Jill Drake. "We avoided having to put that
child through trial testimony since the defendant saw the writing
on the wall and went to prison voluntarily."
Young praised Paris police investigators in narcotics and
crimes against children for their "diligent attention to
good investigating."
Perkins was represented at trial by defense attorney Ben Massar.
Frazier was represented by Dianne Sprague. |
