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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 9, 2003)
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The > Villas of Cherry Hollow I#*#* ■bit Luxury Apartment Living a» Sparkling pool with waterfall, BBQ grills and picnic tables mm Large Floorplans 9m Ceiling fans and mini blinds mm Laundry Facilities 9m Paid water, sewage, garbage Now pre-leasing for Fall 503 Cherry Street (979) 846-2173 Apartments have been furnished with kitchen appliances and central heating/air conditioning. Convenient off-street park ing. Large bedrooms, ceiling fans coupled with a courtyard view make a refreshing, economical alternative to campus living. Villas of Normandy Cherry Hollow ^ Sq Cherry St Cross St Chni Ji Si University Texas A&M Ql. 6 Monday, June 9, 2003 STATE THE BATTALION ‘Railroad Killer’ says he killed man for whom others got convicted By Mark Babineck THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HOUSTON — Since his arrest, the man known as the “Railroad Killer” has given authorities crucial details that have helped close four murder cases in three states, including one in which another man had been charged. Yet Angel Maturino Resendiz, 43, who sits on Texas’ death row for one of 14 murders in which he is the likely killer, has failed to convince investiga tors he committed the June 1998 slaying of a southeast Harris County man. Lawyers for two people serving life sentences for the crime believe Maturino Resendiz could be the key to their clients’ prison cells. “Nobody seems to be inter ested in these cases,” Maturino Resendiz said recently from death row. “One thing you can take back on this case, they can never prove one case that I've claimed that I haven’t done.” Indeed, information and descriptions given by Maturino Resendiz led to the discovery of a body in Florida and have allowed authorities to conclude he was the killer in two slayings there, one in Bexar County and another in Carl, Ga., where authorities dropped charges against another man. In all, authorities believe Maturino Resendiz is responsi ble for seven killings in Texas, two each in Florida and Illinois and one each in California, Kentucky and Georgia, all near the freight train lines he rode from coast to coast. A Texas Ranger got Maturino Resendiz to cross the border into El Paso and surrender on July 13, 1999, ending weeks of fear over the string of random killings. Yet despite a similar confes sion in the slaying of Darryl Kolojaco, including accurate scene descriptions and a blow- by-blow account of events Maturino Resendiz claims occurred June 13, 1998, prose cutors believe his oft-repeated statement is among several bogus admissions the Mexican citizen has made. Prosecutor Vic Wisner, who successfully convinced two juries that Kolojaco’s wife got her lover to commit the murder using the lure of a $100,000 life insurance payment, said details given by Maturino Resendiz didn’t add up. “We met with the Railroad Killer at length,” Wisner said. “Either he (saw news accounts) or somebody clued him in on the case. But his story is impossi ble as to how he claimed it hap pened.” Assistant District Attorney Lyn McClellan, who helped secure a convic tion and condem nation for Maturino Resendiz in the 1998 slaying of a Houston-area medical researcher, said authorities have good reason to dispute the rail riding serial killer’s statements. “I’m confident Resendiz will do anything and everything to basically draw attention to him self,” said McClellan, who was not familiar with details of the Kolojaco case. “He’s not going to fade away quietly. It’s just not going to happen.” However, attorneys for con victed murderers Diamantina Kolojaco, 42, and 27-year-old boyfriend Andres Moscorro, are hopeful a court somewhere will consider Maturino Resendiz’s confession. So far it hasn’t hap pened, and both have seen their life sentences upheld. Judy Prince, an attorney for Moscorro, said her client was bullied into a confession. “My client gave a statement after nine hours of interrogation after the door was kicked in by the cops at 5 a.m.,” Prince said. “He’s ignorant, with a fifth-grade education in rural Mexico. He gave a statement but didn’t admit to murder by remuneration. “We asked him, ‘Why did you do it?’ He said, ‘Because they kept telling me I was going to get the needle if I didn’t,”’ Prince said. Similarly, Diamantina Kolojaco’s attorney says she was confused by interrogators and signed a confession that didn’t accurately embody her verbal statement to Harris County sher iff’s deputies. “The cops came to a real quick theory: (Diamantina Kolojaco and Moscorro) set it up for a $100,000 insur ance policy they knew about,” Bill Gifford said. Harris County Detective Charles A. Leithner denied the confessions were ill-gotten, saying the pair are desperate convicts willing to say anything for a chance at freedom. Besides, he said, he’d have no motivation to elicit a faulty admission. “There is no conviction worth me risking my job,” Leithner said. “None of them.” Investigators believe Diamantina Kolojaco lured her two teen sons with her to an apartment she maintained with Moscorro in nearby Pasadena, leaving Moscorro to chase Darryl Kolojaco through the home some time after midnight and use a pipe to fatally bludgeon him in the living room two days before the victim’s 37th birthday. Maturino Resendiz maintains Darryl Kolojaco picked him up for day labor work and brought him to the house where the man touched him in a homosexual pass, jibing with the wife’s claim that Kolojaco was bisexual. “Everything started going crazy. The color became gray- blue,” said Maturino Resendiz, who has reported similar black outs before other killings, includ ing such an episode on Dec. 17of that year when, during a Houston-area break-in, he found what he thought were abortion- related materials. Enraged, k said he raped and killed Dr. Claudia Benton in the murder that landed him on death row. In a 2001 letter to his Inal judge. Bill Hannon, Maturino Resendiz accurately described the Kolojaco home, down to tie water tank behind the lot, two distinctive fence styles liningtle back yard and “some big tree that almost touches the house." “I wonder if Diamantina Salinas Kolojaco will be letgofor the killing that I did,” he wrote. Wisner said Darryl Kolojaco did not have access to a car tie night of his slaying ahd could not have picked up Maturino Resendiz. Also, Wisner said Maturino Resendiz mispro nounced Kolojaco’s first name, among other inconsistencies. “His story does not check out. It’s impossible,” Wisnet said. Maturino Resendiz’s convic tion and sentence recently were affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. His court- appointed attorneys will continue the appellate process unless he stops them, which will require a finding by Hannon that he is com petent to make such a decision. If Harmon holds such a hear ing and allows Maturino Resendiz to stop his appeals,tie judge could set an execution date. No such hearing currently is scheduled. Even though Maturino Resendiz’s insanity claim was rejected by a Harris County jury appeals attorney Les Ribnik contends his client is unstable but could hold the secrets of other killings that would die with him in the Texas dear chamber. a His story does not check out. It’s impossible. — Vic Wisner prosecutor Texas deputy may have shot self PALESTINE, Texas (AP) — Officials investi gating last month’s fatal shooting of an East Texas lawman say the veteran sheriff’s deputy may have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Anderson County sheriff’s investigator Shelby Green, 39, was found shot to death May 15, slumped against the open door of his unmarked patrol car. Green had been shot in the chest. Since then, county investigators had said the case was being investigated as a homicide. But last week, Chief Deputy Mike Link told the Palestine Herald-Press that investigators had also begun to consider suicide a possibility in Green’s death. Investigators are still awaiting ballistics results and have no other suspects in the shooting. “We can’t eliminate one of them (homicide or suicide) right now,” Link said in Sunday’s editions of the Herald-Press. “It is our goal to come to a definitive classification. It may not be as timely as everyone wants, but ... we want to be right, we want to be accurate.” In the early hours of May 15, Green had been on his way to back up another officer on a domes tic disturbance call when he noticed a suspicious vehicle at a Bradford area store where he thought a burglary might be taking place, an investigator said earlier. Minutes before his death, Green radioed that he was involved in a pursuit between Bradford and Cayuga. He described the vehicle as a silver-col ored pickup, possibly a Chevrolet. Investigators said Green’s weapon was found about 10 to 12 feet below Catfish Creek Bridgeot Farm-to-Market Road 2961, along the waterway Authorities have said Green’s weapon had beet fired multiple times. Green’s vehicle, recovered in the remote areaof northwestern Anderson County on the northern boundary of Gus A. Engeling Wildlife Management Area, had six bullet holes through the front windshield and another through the drivers side window. Rudy Flores, an investigator with the Texas Rangers, said that cartridge casings recovered ai the scene “are consistent with the type of pistol issued to and carried by Shelby Green.” Link added that some of the evidence also was “consistent with ammo issued by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department.” “Even the placement of the rounds” on Green's vehicle seems inconsistent “with the information given on the radio,” Link said. “...There is no evi dence of a homicide besides his (Green’s) verbal statements at this time.” Authorities also have confirmed that two writ ings allegedly written by Green have been recov ered, but would not call them suicide notes. “Both the writings were provided to us by friends and family members,” Link said. Green, who began as a part-time dispatcher with the sheriff’s department, was a 10-year veter an. He received an award last year from the Drug Enforcement Administration. He is survived by a wife and three children. COLLEGE STATION POLICE DEPARTMENT BLOTTER 6/6/03 9:51 a.m. Burglary of a building, 226 Manuel. Taken: antique table. 6/6/03 10:09 a.m. Warrant arrest, 2611 Texas. Charge: assault family violence. 6/6/03 11:28 a.m. Warrant arrest, 4302 Oaklawn. 6/6/03 12:12 p.m. Warrant arrest (parole violation), 1700 George Bush E. 6/6/03 12:33 p.m. Driving while license suspended. 104 University Dr E., One arrest. 6/6/0312:37 p.m. Traffic arrest (no driver's license, no insur ance, expired license plate), 309 College Main. One arrest. 6/6/03 1:33 p.m. Warrant arrest, 3904 Burning Tree Court. 6/6/03 3:59 p.m. Burglary of a vehicle, 1500 Harvey. Taken: pills. 6/6/03 8:49 p.m. Warrant arrest (no driver's license), HMP/Longmire. 6/6/03 8:52 p.m. Warrant arrest, 134 Luther. 6/6/03 9:15 p.m. Warrant arrest, 134 Luther. 6/6/03 10:51 p.m. Warrant arrest (bail jumping), Wellborn/Old Main. 6/6/03 11:51 p.m. Possession of marijuana, Southwood/Summit. One arrest. 6/7/03 1:11 a.m. Burglary of a vehicle, 313 S. College Ave. Taken: wallet and purse. 6/7/03 1:15 a.m. Traffic arrest (no driver's license). University E/E Feeder 6. 6/7/03 2:28 a.m. Burglary of a vehicle, 313 S. College Ave. Taken: wallet and purse. 6/7/03 2:52 a.m. Public intox ication, 1401 Earl Rudder Freeway S. One arrest. 6/7/03 9:34 a.m. Warrant arrest, 1835 Sandy Point. 6/7/03 3:04 p.m. Theft, 1500 Harvey. One arrest. 6/7/03 8:15 p.m. Possession of marijuana, Olsen/Raymond Stotzer. One arrest. 6/7/03 10:46 p.m. Burglary of a vehicle, 1900 Texas. Taken: CD player. 6/7/03 10:52 p.m. Burglary of a vehicle, 821 Dominik. Taken: purse. 6/7/03 11:13 p.m. Warrant arrest (assault/family violence), 134 Luther. 6/7/03 11:17 p.m. Making alcohol available, 313 S. College Ave. One arrest. 6/7/03 11:58 p.m. Making alcohol available, 313 S. College Ave. One arrest. 6/8/03 12:01 a.m. Warrant arrest (resisting arrest, evading arrest, terroristic threat), 313 5- College Ave. 6/8/03 1:19 a.m. Making alco hol available, 217 University Dr, Two arrests. 6/8/03 1:19 a.m. Aggravated assault, 4075 SH 6 S. No injuries, 6/8/03 1:49 a.m. Major acci dent, Lincoln/Foster. Bruises and possible head injury. 6/8/03 2:52 a.m. Runaway, 100 block of Luther. # Volume 1 Co By TH The n Achievement Corps of Cat the Corps, is this fall, Cor] The progi high school : Reserve Offu Sgt. Gen. Ma tant director o The Junior offers leaders! of the militan “We are ROTC beca diverse,” Hast About 38 ROTC is blac Fier Bryan firefig near Rivers remains urn Bush By Rob THE BA The City ol has closed one Bush Drive E Avenue to Dc construction be heavily traveler The $2.3 scheduled to I February 2004 George Bush two lanes to f for biking and included in plai Glenn Bi Construction ere Drive East on M<
