The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 11, 1988, Image 8

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Page 8/The Battalion/Thursday, February 11,1988
Uncle charged in death
of raped, strangled girl
Inmate will
be executed
for murder
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SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A 13-
year-old girl who was raped and
strangled while her parents slept in a
nearby r,oom had been monitored
for 11 years by social workers who
suspected child abuse, officials said
Wednesday.
The girl’s stepuncle, Kelvin Lee
Odoms, an exterminator company
worker who had lived with the fam
ily for two months, was in the Bexar
County Jail Wednesday in lieu of
$100,000 bond on a capital murder
charge, Chief Deputy Maurice Rose
said.
“He had sex relations with her
and she got up and got dressed and
threatened to tell her parents and he
got mad and just strangled her,”
Rose said.
Shanique Herbert was killed Fri
day while her father and stepmother
slept in their room, and her body
was dumped in a culvert 100 yards
away. Her coat and purse also were
taken to the site in order to throw off
investigators, who found the body
Sunday, Rose said.
Texas Department of Human
Services officials said they had been
investigating charges of abuse of the
teen-ager for 11 years.
David Reilly, regional administra
tor for the Texas Department of
Human Services, said social workers
could have monitored her situation
more in recent years if budget cuts
had not forced the staff to look into
more severe cases.
“I don’t think anybody could have
predicted this could have hap
pened,” Reilly said.
He said social workers became fa
miliar with the girl in 1977 when she
was 2 years old and living with her
natural parents.
The girl was placed in foster care
after reports of physical abuse, but
was soon returned to her parents’
home, Reilly said.
Shanique was removed from the
home again in 1978 after her infant
sister died from severe head injuries,
Reilly said.
No one was charged in connection
with the infant’s death and Shanique
left foster care in 1980 to live with
her paternal grandfather, Reilly
said.
Two other reports of child abuse
cases — one in April 1986 and in one
in January 1987 — were filed with
state authorities.
Reilly said those reports involved
excessive torce in connection with
beatings with a belt when the girl was
living with her father and step
mother.
“She was whipped with a belt for
some kind of a school problem. We
couldn’t find any bruises,” Reilly
said. “She had misbehaved and that’s
the way they had disciplined her.
They had put her on the bed and
spanked her with the belt.”
Reilly said the family was referred
to counseling and that the depart
ment never considered removing
her from the home.
“She wasn’t considered to be in
any danger, but we did believe the
discipline was excessive,” he said,
adding that he has not determined
how she ended up with her father.
A sheriffs department report said
Shanique told a friend that she had
been physically and verbally abused
and that she had been beaten in the
face and elsewhere with shoes.
i Teiil
Rose said that when authorities
started questioning the family about
the girl’s slaying their stories did not
fit.
Odoms, 27, was the brother of the
girl’s stepmother.
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By Jamie Russell
Staff Writer
AMA
Marketing
Society
National Marketing
Week
February 15-19
Mon: Speaker Series
7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
Refreshments following
Tues: Faculty/Student Luncheon
noon-1:30
Blocker 307
Wed: Banquet
6:15 Cocktails 7:00 dinner
Speaker:
Steven Moore - Coca Cola U.S.A.
Brand Manager
Thurs: New Orleans Trip
Depart 10 a.m. Fish Lot
A former Texas A&M student has
donated more than his name to the
University’s library.
A $250,000 endowment from
Sterling C. Evans may create an op
portunity to enhance the library’s
faculty and provide a better facility,
library director Irene B. Hoadley
said Wednesday.
“The principle reason for the li
brary endowment is to recognize the
library as part of the academic insti
tution,” Hoadley said. “Another rea
son is to enhance the director of li
brary position so as to look more
attractive, more desirable for the
next director.”
Evans donated $250,000 to set up
the Sterling C. Evans Endowed
Chair in library Administration.
Hoadley said the endowment will
add to the funds used for library
purposes such as acquiring books
and providing services.
“As of yet, we don’t know how the
funds will be spent,” Hoadley said.
“The interest from the investment
won’t be available anytime soon.”
Two endowed chairs were estab
lished in the January meeting of the
Texas A&M Board of Regents.
John and Sara Lindsey of Hous
ton gave $250,000 to set up a en
dowed chair in liberal arts to be held
by A&M President Frank E. Van
diver when he resigns as president
later this year to head the newly cre
ated Edward J. Mosher Defense
Studies Institute.
The funds for both chairs will be
matched by the Texas A&M Univer
sity System under provisions of the
Endowed Faculty Scholars Program,
making the chairs worth a total of $ 1
million.
Evans said he is pleased with the
library and hopes the chair will help
the library to improve.
“With $500,000, the board has a
chance to get the best librarian and
have the best library in the country,”
he said. “I’m very pleased with the li
brary and I want it to be good.”
Only two other established chairs
in administration exist at a university
research library nationwide, Evans
said.
The other two are at Stanford
University and Northwestern Uni
versity.
Vandiver was out of town and
could not be reached for comment
about the creation of the liberal arts
endowed chair. Dr. Robert Walker,
vice president for development at
A&M, also was out of town and
could not be reached for comment.
Man charged with burglary
claims he was chasing cat
Call Battalion Classified 845-2611
DALLAS (AP) — A man charged
with burglary after falling 50 feet to
a concrete floor of a Dallas auto
mobile dealership told police he had
been chasing a cat.
Michael Thornton, 29, suffered a
broken leg and internal injuries and
was taken to Parkland Memorial
Hospital, authories said. He was in
fair condition Wednesday. Dallas
police have charged him with bur-
glary.
Police said Thornton had broken
through a skylight of the Forest
Lane Porsche-Audi dealership and
was trying to reach a rope that teth
ers an advertising balloon floating
over the dealership.
The man lost his grip on a metal
rod and fell 50 feet to a concrete
floor and spent about eight hours
there before he was discovered, po
lice investigator Mike Wallace said.
Employee Bill Hudson found the
man early Tuesday after calling po
lice to report he heard someone yel
ling in the service area.
“When he hollered ‘Help,’ it kind
of scared me, because I’m supposed
to be the only one here,” Hudson
said. “I was trying to decide what to
do, and finally I turned on some
lights and I could see him back
there.”
Thornton asked Hudson to help
him up, but Hudson called an ambu
lance instead.
Officers arrived and found evi
dence indicating Thornton scaled
the building to reach the skylight,
Hudson said.
“I asked him what he was doing in
the building, and he said he fell
through a hole in the roof,” Hudson
said. “So then 1 asked him what he
was doing on the roof. He said he
was chasing a cat.”
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NEW BRAUNFELS (AP)-
Comal County jury senteiH
Richard Lewis Brimage J
Wednesday to be. executed fori
capital murder conviction in
October strangulation of a
A&I University student.
Mary Beth Kunkel, a 19-v(
old freshman, was reportedtt
ing Oct. 5. Her body was disc
ered hound in the trunkofaCi)
dillac in Brimage’s parei
garage in Kingsville two
later. ■
“I feel very relieved,"
Frances Kunkel, the vicin'
mother, after the guilty v
was returned Tuesday. “I ietCn
decide and the court decide.All
wanted was justice.”
During closing argument,4
fense attorney YV.R. “Dick"
chens said Brimage, 32, wasm
guilty of capital murder anil*
gued the prosecution had is
proved a kid napping occurrei
‘T here’s a young girldeadilE
it’s not capital murder,” Hitclul
said.
Hitchens said co-defend"
Leonel Molina’s testimony®
r ated that Brimage did not intet|
to kill Kunkel. Molina, !
pleaded guilty to murder inn
case in exchange for a 50-yi
prison term and his testimony
the Brimage trial.
Brimage, who had sketd
pictures during most of the 16:
mony, cried quietly Tuesdi
while the jury heard a tape:
corded interview with Kingsvl
police Capt. George Gomez)
and Molina.
Brimage’s father, Richard Si
said his son’s actions were nik
by his drug addiction.
“He didn’t do it. Dope did
the elder Brimage said.
Police shoot,
kill prisoner Ac
after escape
El.
■e o\i
Said (1
AMARILLO (AP) — Authoriu
shot and killed a Potter County)
inmite who escaped and tookak
fel.ibli:
I Hie
pital worker hostage Wednesday
ternoon.
Potter County Sheriff Jim® 1 '’- 0
Boydston said Snelby Manuel, iP ' l0
escaped from custody while prep:
ing to have a chest X-ray takenj
Northwest Texas Hospital.
“While in the stage of dressingoil
Pidc-t
111) res
$1 000
■ednt
to get ready for X-rays, he ranotirLl 0
back door, found a scalpel-like::
strument and took an X-ray tecta I
cian hostage,” Boydston said.
Authorities negotiated with MaI
uel for approximately two hourslt I
fore storming a room where heh I
taken the hostage, whose namew I
not immediately released.
A Randall-Potter County Speu I
Crimes unit team shot and ft 1
Manuel, Boydston said. The hij:
tage-taking began about 1 p.m.,# I
Boydston said it was over by 3pi l
Hospital spokesman LynellLafe
said the female hostage was reco
ering and was suffering from "cH
shock.” It was not immediate
known if the Ixistage was preif'
when Manuel was killed.