The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, February 09, 1998, Image 5

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    iday • February 9, 1998
The Battalion
aggp mm
I : :
:ate execution planned this week
JNTSVILLE (AP) — An East
. . i laborer convicted of killing
Op^'. people during a shooting
' i is scheduled this week for
ttion that’s expected to gen-
little of the worldwide com-
on fhat marked Karla Faye
'rsr’s punishment,
mdemned killer Steven Renfro
that no appeals be pursued and
le receive lethal injection Mon-
;ight for the Aug. 25, 1996 ram-
that left his live-in girlfriend, an
and an acquaintance dead and
“ shall police officer wounded,
don’t think it’s going to be any-
; like last Tuesday,” Texas De-
nent of Criminal Justice
ssperson Larry Fitzgerald said,
le Tucker execution last week
an estimated 1,200 singing,
a! jngor cheering spectators and
200 reporters and photogra-
to the grounds of the prison
wntown Huntsville.
|L^—icker, 38, convicted of a pickax
|Jt)Siiltkin I louston in 1983 that left
5/^ people dead, became the first
an executed in Texas since the
War and the first in the nation
,! 1984. Her attractive looks and
q -again Christian beliefs made
media darling in television ap-
1 ances broadcast around the
world.Harrison County District At
torney Rick Berry said he watched
news reports of the Tucker execu
tion last week keeping in mind his
case was six days away and next on
the lethal injection schedule.
In the history of crime scene in
vestigations conducted by the Texas
Department of Public Safety, only the
Branch Davidian shootout at Waco
and the Luby’s massacre in Killeen ri
val the amount of gunfire, Berry said.
After a night of what authorities
called a drug-booze orgy, Renfro be
came angry, put on camouflage cloth
ing, darkened his face with shoe pol
ish and armed himself with assault
weapons and large-caliber pistols.
At home he shot his girlfriend,
Rhena Fultner, 36, and his aunt,
Rose Rutledge, 66. Then he went to
the nearby trailer home of an ac
quaintance, George Counts, 40,
against whom he had a grudge, and
fatally shot him, firing more than
150 rounds at the mobile home.
When police responding to re
ports of gunfire arrived at the scene,
he opened fire again, wounding
Marshall Officer Dominic Pondant
in the shoulder and turning his pa
trol car “into Swiss cheese,” accord
ing to Berry. Despite his wound, Pon
dant was able to shoot Renfro in the
ensuing battle in which police were
outgunned by Renfro’s .45- and .50-
caliber handguns and an AR-15 rifle
and some 500 rounds of ammuni
tion, including 300 rounds loaded.
“I killed them all,” the wounded
Renfro told officers who arrested
him at the scene.
Less than a year ago he was con
victed of capital murder, ending his
trial by telling the jury he should be
put to death.
“He felt he would kill people in the
future, injure people,” Beny said. “I ar
gued the wishes of Mr. Renfro didn’t
matter. This case deserved the death
penalty and that’s what the jury
agreed on by returning that verdict.”
Berry said after the trial, he and
Renfro — high school classmates in
Marshall — talked for a couple of
hours about how fate had brought
them back together.
“He told me he wanted to go
ahead and die, that he had done this
horrible crime... that he wanted me
to promise him to do whatever I
could to make sure it moved as
quickly and smoothly as I could,”
Berry continued. “And if I would do
that, he wouldn’t file any appeals
and also would work toward has
tening this process.
“And so here we are.”
mflicting testimony casts doubt on Zamora
)RT WORTH (AP) — Unraveling a former Naval
hipman’s youthful, innocent image, prosecutors
called a parade of witnesses to recount how she
them of helping to kill a girl who had a fling with
B ioyfriend.
\ rors even heard that, with a stone cold face, Diane
j ora told her academy roommate that Adrianne
s was a “tramp” who “deserved to die for taking
'sthing that did not belong to her.”
^ ■ it every tale Zamora’s friends retold was vastly dif-
120,*: it, raising the possibility that none of the eerie soap
; is the truth and casting doubt on a damning con-
in she gave police. ■NNMnanaMMHMani
/Ve’re going to show that the
:ment Diane made to police
d not have been accurate and
(5 given under duress,” lead de-
3 attorney John Linebarger said
veek. “She did not commit cap-
ifnufder.”
v/he confession is crucial for state
rneys because they are prosecut-
jora under the “law of par-
” a Texas statute that makes any
implice to a crime guilty of the worst offense corn
ed in its commission.
oth si des agree that David Graham allegedly fired two
shots at Jones. But prosecutors have used a confes-
by Zamora and other evidence to show that she or-
d the killing and helped by hitting her over the head,
onically, Zamora’s credibility may have been shat-
1 because of the different stories her friends say
old.
fou can tell the truth 100 times, but you can’t tell
;ame lie twice,” said Bill Lane, a Fort Worth attor-
:redited with creating the urban syndrome defense
ag a capital murder trial.
Ifie slaying was in retaliation for a sexual tryst Gra-
“You can tell the truth
100 times, but you can’t
tell the same lie twice.”
Bill Lane
attorney
prah trial lawyers verbally reprimanded by judge
dtILLO (AP) — Oprah Win
y’s trial continues into its fourth
ek on Mon-
f with wit-
sses still on
! Stand for
tas cattle-
in, who ac-
se the talk
iw host of
faming beef.
The plain
's’ attorneys
i expected to Winfrey
1 several
ure witnesses to the stand dur-
; the next few days.
The talk show host, her pro
duction company and vegetari
an activist Howard Lyman are
being sued for more than $10.3
million over an April 1996 show
that suggested U.S. cattle could
spread mad cow disease to peo
ple in the United States and
make AIDS look like the com
mon cold.
The cattlemen contend Winfrey
edited the show to eliminate pro
beef statements in favor of more
alarming statements by Lyman, a
former rancher who said that feed
ing ground-up cattle parts to cat
tle in America — a practice that
now is banned — could spread
mad cow disease. Winfrey de
clared: “It’s stopped me cold from
eating another burger.”
Winfrey testified for most of
three days, charming the jury and
occasionally growing frustrated by
redundant questions. She has
been attending every day of the tri
al, which results in lines outside
the courthouse from fans hoping
to view the proceedings.
The audience’s behavior was
complemented by the judge as
court wrapped up Friday, but she
scolded lawyers for both sides,
telling them one thing they’ve got
to do differently this week: Stop
making faces in front of the jury
during testimony.
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ORGANIC 227 ORGANIC 228
ham had with Jones while driving her home from a
track meet.
Based on Zamora’s statement, prosecutors have al
leged the girl hid in the back of a car while her boyfriend
drove Jones to a remote lake on December 1995.
Zamora allegedly hit Jones over the head with a
dumbbell after jumping out of the back seat, then or
dered Graham to shoot her when she tried to flee. But
Jennifer McKeamy, a roommate who offered details from
a late-night dorm-room conversation, said Zamora told
her she was driving the car the night of the slaying, with
Graham in the front seat and Jones in the back.
mmmmmmmmmmmmm Jay Guild, who became a romantic
interest of Zamora’s at the academy,
told jurors another version of the story.
In Guild’s version, Zamora never
mentioned hitting Jones with
weights and said they were all driving
in Graham’s truck.
Besides a questionable confes
sion, prosecution efforts may also
be hindered by more testimony
from Chief Tarrant County medical
examiner Dr. Marc Krouse.
Krouse said that, of the items admitted as evidence,
the wound only could have been caused by the butt of
the gun later used to shoot Jones.
“That was a good day for the defense,” Lane said.
“They only have to show that there is reasonable doubt
that she ordered the killing or participated in the crime,
but the less she did physically to commit the crime, the
easier that might be. That makes the confession even
more important.”
But even if the jury decides Zamora told different
stories in her confessions, Lane said the defense still has
a tough road ahead.
“The different stories and Krouse’s testimony are the
best things the defense has going for it,” Lane said.
You call that a
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