le Battalion s TATE Page 7 « Thursday, November 18, 1999 TGdrT begins deliberations in third Jasper trial ^PFT? TAPI — Aftor he^rincr hie attnmenrin- pr wne nrneprntprl hp w^e thp rinolp^Hpr It w^e errpeeinn of pvpnte ehnw Fhawn Rprrv knpw/ use o/Stj JASPER (AP) — After hearing his attorney in st that Shawn Allen Berry made poor choices Lit was no killer, jurors began deciding yesterday n whether he should be convicted of capital turcier in last year’s dragging death of a black loset of actor/hust astlTexas man. os ( ‘Full House’ Jurors began deliberating shortly after 12:30 le was not thrilled m * following roughly one and a half hours lly turned pair oil argument 5 - into i skirt W 1IK Berr y> g 111 '^ 0 * ca P lta l murder, the i V ‘ „ iryjmust agree that he intentionally took part in O o ' e tekilling and kidnapping of James Bvrd Jr. Con- ig on soniomuig j ct j (m would require either a life prison term or exy - Stamos beo de [ th sentence. on police. S|ate District Judge Joe Bob Golden also gave \ alue his opinion: irors the option of finding Berry guilty of the less- I wear,” she said, -clparge of murder, which does not include the ose girls who goe; idiiapping component and does not carry a po- with one shoe on until 1 death sentence. sks him, 'Whichor- Berry is accused of helping chain Byrd to the mijn-Stamos was or !arpf a pickup truck and dragging him for more the 1999 Sports II! iai i three miles along bumpy, country road to his suit issue and is a ^V 1 on June 7, 1998. Two other white co-de- hi NBC’s "Just Shoe fndants - av °wed racists Lawrence Russell Brew- t she will be unre ra r d • ,0 * in w 'll ian ' 1 Kin g’ were sentenced to die she appears in the 1 se P arate trials earlier this year. ■ srliediileri tor rele Iri closin g arguments yesterday, Berry’s attor- ey, Joseph C. “Lum” Hawthorn, told the jury lat Berry concedes to making “terrible” deci- ons after the killing — not calling the police, cashing off his truck and the chain and lying to •s 10 hours to get he: instigators. 3 s outtit and twoh Jut prosecutors have changed their story to fit '' out. ae defendant in each of the three trials, plays an evil blue hawthorn argued. mijn-Stamos jokedt'Bwhen Bill King was prosecuted, he was the d the part after revet nglcader,” Hawthorn told jurors. “When Brew- k 14 hours to paint )f her “bathing si ; Illustrated, r philosophy is to: er was prosecuted, he was the ringleader. It was still a racial hate crime. Then they shift gears. [Prosecutor Pat] Hardy now says he’s worse than Bill King and Russell Brewer? “The two people who killed James Byrd have been tried, convicted and have been given a death sentence,” he said. ter. Why? it much can be her role. But here “That man right there was the worst of the bunch/' — Pat Hardy prosecutor Berry contends he was a paralyzed bystander when Brewer, 32, and King, 25, decided to kill Byrd in a frenzy of racist hate. His attorney presented more than a dozen witnesses — some black — who testified that Berry was not a racist. Hawthorn also challenged the integrity of the crime scene and certain blood and footprint evidence. “What is amazing to me is the African-Amer icans we had on the stand in this case, in this county — with the Byrd family sitting right there — saying Shawn Berry couldn’t do this,” Hawthorn said. Prosecutors contend that he was aware that his roommates — both covered in white supremacist tattoos — had deadly plans for the black man as they drove into the wooded country outside Jasper. They did not try to prove Berry was a racist, but that his participation made him equal ly responsible for the crime. In his closing. Hardy told jurors that “a pro gression of events ... show Shawn Berry knew what was going on. ” Hardy noted that Berry had Byrd in the front seat of the pickup truck “so he couldn’t get away,” and Berry convinced Byrd he had nothing to fear as they rode out to the remote logging road where the attack began. “Who keeps him in the vehicle? Who soothes him over? Shawn Berry,” Hardy said. Hardy also reminded the jury that prints from the shoes of King and Brewer were found in the dirt on passenger side of the vehicle, meaning Berry must have been driving when Byrd was dragged. “Mr. Berry beat the man up.,” Hardy said. “Mr. Berry had the chain. Mr. Berry drove down to the property he knew. This was Mr. Berry’s show as much as the others. That man right there was the worst of the bunch.” Hardy and Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray have acknowledged that convicting Berry would be a harder sell. Jasper is Berry’s home town, and he is well-liked in the community. Although Hawthorn originally requested a tri al in Jasper, he sought a last-minute change of venue that was denied. The trial also was complicated by a separate legal battle between prosecutors and CBS execu tives over a tearful interview Berry gave to an chor Dan Rather, portions of which aired on “60 Minutes II” in September. After the fight reached two appellate courts and a CBS producer was facing jail for contempt of court, the network turned over the entire tran script of Berry’s interview to prosecutors. Jurors will be able to compare Berry’s expla nation of his role in the statement he gave police with the CBS interview. ee charged in beating death News in Brief ig the performance being a musician, kage,” she said. “I m with fun. ]• WACO (AP) — Two teen-agers hink that fashioner nd a 19-year-old have been ut attitude,” she sail barged with capital murder in the nee you strip thbeating death of a 68-year-old see that we all c tandyman. le beginnings and vi. (IVaco police said Edward M. it none of us haste .ee was killed during the robbery so seriouslv." Iiesday morning of a downtown Naco used car business. ■The owner of Burns Used Cars, Jlenn Burns, arrived shortly after he attack and also was assaulted ay the suspects, police say. pfRayshun Dewayne Gooden, 19, and a presente an d a 14-year-old boy, whose iden- i and finally preset hty is being withheld as a juvenile, were arrested by police shortly af- a person listens f< 4er ^ ee ' n § the scene, n w new types ofmn ^ third aspect, a 16-year-old nale, was arrested late that after hall, put a CD on oiW n - Pol , ic f declined to release id everything you’ve iY' UVt ] ni e S name , . ., , f j u j.,Gooden remained tailed yester- s formed your ear. M» at the McLennan County Jail uch with what youaj| eu of $ 5 00) 000 bond. The ju- it you don t knowanc en jj es were being held in a local efention center, officials said. swer session to foil: a typical question-acS _____ In an arrest affidavit, police said it appeared Lee had been beaten with an unknown object, “causing severe blunt force trauma.” “There was definitely a struggle and quite an amount of blood (in side the office),” Justice of the Peace Billy Martin told the Waco TYibune Herald. “What we have right now is a victim, and it defi nitely appears to be a murder or homicide. We don’t know much more than that right now.” Police said Gooden and the 14- year-old were in possession of two bank bags that the car lot’s owner dropped when one of the suspects attempted to hit him with a fire ex tinguisher. The business owner was not seriously injured. Gooden was also in possession of credit cards that belonged to Lee, police said. Lee often arrived at the busi ness shortly before 9 a.m. to open the office for Burns, employees of nearby businesses said. Boy grazed by bullet while on school bus SPRINGTOWN (AP) — A 12-year- old boy was injured yesterday when a bullet struck him while riding on a school bus. The shooting appears to have been an accident. The shot came from a small-caliber weapon out side the bus, possibly from a hunter, officials said. Authorities said the bullet grazed the boy’s head, and the injury does not appear life-threatening. The youngster went by ambulance to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth. Deputies were questioning a young person at the scqne of the shooting in Wise County, 28 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The shooting happened about 4:30 p.m., Lt. Randy Joy of the Wise County Sheriff’s Department said. Hunters and target shooters frequently use the rural area where the shooting happened. When the bus driver heard a gun shot, he told the children to duck. He drove into Parker County before calling police. Swiss architects quit project at UT AUSTIN (AP) — The Swiss archi tects who have been designing an art museum for the University of Texas have quit, a setback that could delay the museum a year. The resignation of Herzog & de Meuron was announced Tuesday by UT officials. University president Larry Faulkn er, who had been negotiating with the firm to resolve regents’ con cerns about its nontraditional de sign, said the architects did not be lieve they could satisfy the regents’ demand that the design be com patible with the campus master plan and other university buildings. UT now will search for a new ar chitect “with a closer coupling with regents than is normally done,” Faulkner said. .i will see something| ione before, andl opes to introduce tk hestral music, avorites mixed wilt once,” she said. “HI vone involved, notji® We Can Do It All! From Local to Nationwide Moving m T O II Miles Moving & Storage 778-MOVE or 2X9-0284 Ira! r * - - 1 20x20 Party Canopy 40 Chairs 5 8ft. 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