,I '" 1L1,11 -^ |Tuesday, January 30. 2001
STATE
THE BATTALION
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AUSTIN (AP) — The chief sus-
ect in the disappearance of atheist
eader Madalyn Murray O'Hair and
er family pleaded guilty to a single
xtortion charge in exchange for
eading investigators to their’ dis-
embered bodies.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks
n Monday unsealed David Waters’
lea agreement, which was reached
ast week but kept secret by court
rder.
A weekend search aided by Wa-
ers at a Hill Country ranch revealed
he remains of three people believed
o be the missing atheists. All were
uried in a single shallow grave and
ere partly dismembered.
Waters, 53, is already serving
engthy state and federal prison
[terms on other charges and could
et another 20 years under his plea
greement when he is sentenced
arch 30.
Waters was indicted on five
counts of kidnapping and extortion in
he O'Hair case and was scheduled to
o on trial Monday before agreeing
o the deal with prosecutors.
He pleaded guilty to one count of
conspiracy to interfere with com-
erce by robbery and extortion,
he missing atheists disappeared
ith $500,000 in gold coins. The
oney had been taken from the
family’s atheist organizations.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the
ther charges in the indictment and
recommend that Waters not face oth
er charges in the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald
Carruth said the government was
prepared to go to trial but saw Wa
ters’ plea as an easy resolution to a
lengthy investigation.
This might not
have been a great
deal if he had been
21 years old”
— Gerald Carruth
Assistant U.S. Attorney
“This seemed to be a just resolu
tion that would allow us to solve this
case, so to speak,” Carruth said.
Prosecutors have recommended
that Waters be allowed to serve all of
his time in federal prison.
Carruth said Waters’ age com
bined with potential sentences make
it likely Waters will spend the rest of
his life behind bars.
“You do the math,” Carruth said.
“This might not have been a great
deal if he had been 21 years old.”
Waters’ attorney. Bill Gates, said
he would not comment until Waters
is sentenced.
Although specific details of the
crime were not in the records un
sealed by the court, Waters admit
ted he did “threaten and commit
physical violence” to O’Hair, 77,
her son Jon Garth Murray, 40, and
Robin Murray O’Hair, 30, in 1995.
Authorities have alleged that
Waters and others kidnapped the
family and forced them,to take
money from their atheist organiza
tions.
The money was converted into
gold in San Antonio. Investigators
say the family was then killed and the
bodies dumped on the Cooksey
Ranch, about 120 miles to the west.
It could take about two weeks to
confirm the identities of the remains
found Saturday and Sunday, investi
gators said.
Among the items found in the
grave was a metal hip replacement.
O’Hair had hip replacement surgery
a few years before she disappeared.
Dental records, DNA and possi
bly a serial number from the artifi
cial hip could be used in identifying
the remains.
David Classman, chairman of
the anthropology department at
Southwest Texas State University in
San Marcos, assisted with the re
moval of the remains. He said he
had no immediate conclusions
about the causes of death.
O’Hair called herself the most
hated woman in America. She was
involved in successful court battles
in the 1960s to ban prayer and
Bible-reading in the nation’s public
schools.
Agencies need funds for bills
Perry, Railroad Commission chairman to tackle energy costs
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AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry said Monday he
has been talking to Railroad Commission Chairman
Michael Williams about helping public agencies that
;are million of dollars over budget because of soaring
energy costs.
I “I don’t think we have anything concrete yet but
Michael and I have been discussing the impact of gas
prices on particular public sector entities be they hospi
tals, public schools, public libraries,” Perry said.
Williams said it was too premature to discuss specifics
of the conversation with Perry.
Texas’ public universities have been hit hard by rising
gas bills. The University of Texas, Texas A&M and Texas
ech are preparing to ask the Legislature for a combined
(57.5 million in emergency funds to help pay utility bills.
Most state agencies will have similar emergency re-
uests, said Thomas Johnson, spokesman for the Gener-
Services Commission.
The average Texan also is feeling the pinch as the price
f natural gas continues to skyrocket and winter remains
for at least another month.
According to the state’s largest electric company, TXU
lectric, the average residential utility bill in December
increased by 140 percent compared to last year, while us
age increased by 92.5 percent.
The average bill in December 1999 was $34.44 and
increased to $82.65 for December 2000.
Figures released by the federal Department of Energy
showed the price for natural gas to be as low as $2 per
thousand cubic feet a year ago. Now prices range between
$9 and $20.
Williams said it is not too early to plan for the future
so that Texas does not find itself in the same situation
as California, where electric shortages have caused
blackouts.
“I think with the experience of California and the ex
perience of the higher-than-normal natural gas costs that
consumers are paying, it draws attention to the fact that
the need to produce is not simply a producer issue. It’s
also a Texas consumer issue,” Williams said.
As winter lingers on and summer’s air-conditioning
demands loom, the need for natural gas will continue to
persist. Power plants increasingly burn natural gas for
electricity.
The Legislature will likely consider incentives for pro
ducers, including possible tax relief, Williams said.
[
News in Brief
i
OH
Playboy Playmate
back in trial court
HOUSTON (AP) — Nearly a
month after winning a $475 million
bankruptcy judgment from her late
nonagenarian husband’s estate,
former stripper and Playboy Play
mate Anna Nicole Smith told a pro
bate trial jury she will “never ever
know true love again.”
Although Smith dropped her
challenge to the will of J. Howard
Marshall II after the California
bankruptcy case was finalized Dec.
29, she still faces stepson E.
Pierce Marshall’s counterclaim that
she interfered with his inheritance
rights.
Smith, who met the wheelchair-
bound oil mogul in a Houston strip
club in 1991, was 26 and he was
89 when they married in 1994. He
died the following year.
“I hear all the things y’all say ...
my husband loved me uncondition
ally,” Smith said, often sobbing on
the stand. “He bought me things I
didn’t even know about. He wor
shiped me. I never had the love this
man gave me and I’ll never have it
again.”
Now 32, Smith had sued 61-
year-old stepson Pierce Marshall
for part of her late husband’s mul-
timillion-dollar oil fortune. She was
joined in the challenge by her oth 1
er stepson, 63-year-old J. Howard
Marshall III.
The elder Marshall did not in
clude either Smith or Howard Mar
shall III in his will.
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