Vic Feazell was the McLennan County district attorney at the time, and his office gave Simons free rein to try to solve the triple homicide. Simons spent long hours visiting Spence in jail, cultivating a relationship with him in an effort to coax a confession that never came. 
By mid-April, Prices frustration had turned to suspicion of Simonss techniques. A fourth suspect, Muneer Mohammad Deeb, was eventually rele The 1982 Lake Waco Murders refers to the deaths of three teenagers (two females, one male) near Lake Waco in Waco, Texas, in July 1982. As Scott would later recall, Simons said he would solve the case in a week. Also considered was the confession Deeb had made to the two young women about his involvement in the killings and the life insurance policy he had taken out for his employee. They told me they got enough to get me out, he said. In the end, she went on, justice had been delivered when one dogged police officer, Truman Simons, volunteered to pursue the investigation., Spence by this time had grown resigned to his fate. I asked him if it was a snake. But later he told the police that he was out driving around the parks at about eight in the evening; this inconsistency, among other details, had prompted Detective Ramon Salinas and Lieutenant Marvin Horton to briefly consider Franks a suspect. Afterward, the two men would sit and talkabout life, love, Godsometimes until the sun rose. Price soon learned that White had been conducting her own investigation into the lake murdersgoing to bars and asking questions, interviewing figures in Wacos demimonde, looking for evidence to prove that her son hadnt killed the three teenagers. Simons arrested Deeb initially because he learned that Deeb was going to return to Jordan. And theres not a shred of doubt in my mind that Anthony Melendez is innocent. I thought that actually when I started giving the statement, he said in a deposition, [Simons] would see that I didnt know what I was talking about and tell me I was full of shit and I was lying. The two had engaged in verbal confrontations on multiple occasions. All he was waiting on was his final chapter: the exoneration of Tony Melendez. I get people talking, and then I shut up and listen, Simons would later explain. Unfortunately, however, the odontologists took a long time completing their assessments, and as the October 1993 deadline for the depositions approached, the TRC team realized the full odontology report was going to be late. Spence, unaware that he might be a suspect, offered to help the officers in their investigation. The youth and innocence of the victimsall three were high school studentsmade the crime particularly senseless. Her brother, Brad, who had refused her request for a ride to Waco on the day of her disappearance, was so distraught and full of rage that Simons feared hed lunge at Spence as soon as he laid eyes on him; the deputy made him promise hed behave himself. I was out there, he told the deputy. He gave Simons a cryptic message: soon, Butler said, hed be able to tell the deputy whether his theory that Spence had killed the teenagers was correct. A tough 28-year-old from Waco whod served time in the mid-seventies for assault with intent to murder, Melendez had been given seven years after pleading guilty in the aggravated sexual abuse case. Standing over her, he felt overwhelmed by the evil that had befallen her. He, Salinas, Horton, and another investigator on the case, Sergeant Robert Fortune, didnt believe there was nearly enough to make an arrest and were wary of Simons certainty. Melendez had been suffering from multiple maladies, including bone cancer and kidney failure. According to Price, she tried to share this development with Simons, but the deputy was too busy gathering information on Williams, who was arrested the following month for burglary. Gilbert even broke down and cried a few times. The deputy had also heardfrom other officers or his informantsthat White had been bitten by her assailant, and so on March 17 he visited Washington in jail and asked for his permission to take a dental mold. Melendez had always denied any involvement in the lake murders, but now Simons, encouraged by the headway hed made with Spence, began to press the inmate. The two had become friends after working one summer in Atlanta on death penalty cases with the American Civil Liberties Union, and they had developed a passion for representing the doomed. Not once did I hear Well beat this, youre innocent, he said. Washington, however, remained in prison, and Dannen decided to examine his case. The results sent Simons into despair. The nonprofit didnt get many wins in its fight against the death penalty, but Spences case was looking promising. Simons turned his patrol car around and headed for Texas Highway 6 and the Twin Bridges that spanned Lake Waco. She also had marks on her skin that looked as if theyd been made by teeth. Each brother now spoke at length, officially recanting his testimony about Spence. Thompson was making a chocolate cake, and Jill, who had recently lost a lot of weight, asked for a slice. WebThe story of River Road Counseling and Consulting Services actually begins on May 14, 1973. Jan Evans didnt know anything about Waco before she moved there, in June 1981. Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. Now Driggs asked Krauss to set up the study. Hed robbed a Fort Worth convenience store with a hatchet at 21 and served fifteen months. To retrieve it, Dannen had turned to Thompson for help; as a relative of Jills, she had the authority to request that her nieces personal belongings be returned. Recommended. Judge Black didnt address anything we had done.. Dannen rented an expensive high-speed scanner and began uploading pages and pages of court transcripts, case briefs, and medical reports onto his computer. waco murders franks kenneth wacotrib underway efforts exonerate convicted fishermen victim alongside discovering If the new DNA evidence is favorable, Melendez could file a habeas writ and allege that hes factually innocent or that his plea was unsound. The big difference was the first trial was based almost entirely on jailhouse witnesses and jailhouse snitches. from. In early March Feazell announced that he was creating a task force to take a new look at the Lake Waco murders. Could he be more specific? There had indeed been bad blood between Deeb and Kenneth, they learned; Kenneth had shouted obscenities at Deeb inside his store, called him Abdul, and made fun of his limp. Two days later, White was dead. Dannen was something of a curiosity in Wacoa stubborn, garrulous reporter with a New York accent knocking on doors, asking questions about a fifteen-year-old murder case, typing answers feverishly on his laptopbut he had a knack for getting people to open up. But there was more, said Salinas. Some wouldnt talk, but three of them recanted their testimony, saying theyd agreed to speak on the record for food, cigarettes, and conjugal visits. In October Governor Rick Perry gave the former inmate a full pardon based on innocence. CLIFTON, N.J. -- Five New Jersey teenagers were charged Wednesday with what prosecutors described as a bizarre and complicated plot to murder a former schoolmate who was found strangled this week. Finally Franks relented, and the two men met at a Lubys on Valley Mills Drive. Most journalists who came to Texas after Spence was executed werent interested in him but in finding stories about the Texas criminal justice system, remembered Schonemann. But they were running out of time: Spence had been convicted of murder twice, which meant the lawyers had to file a habeas writ in two trial courts, and it had already taken a month just to read all the documents. After three months, Dannen and Blum returned to New York. We were finally going to find out what happened to our kids.. All Dannen needed at this point was DNA from the crime scene. He had grown up in Rosenthal, a tiny town just south of the city, and joined the WPD in 1965, a few years after dropping out of high school. It was yet another coup for Simons, who had visited Tony in jail until the inmate finally broke down. He really believed that. Deebs family hired a lawyer, who pushed for a polygraph test, and after four days Simons agreed to set it up. He was so obsessivehe would never be satisfied until he had proved the case, nailed the story. We held Truman on a pedestal for so long. He was obsessed, remembered Thompson, whom he talked to almost every week. This is where they say those three teenagers were killed, he said Spence told him. 
Why would it be destroyed? Brad told me. His shift, from three p.m. to one a.m., didnt allow the couple to see much of each other, so hed stop by her office when he could, then head back out on patrol. On November 21, 1983, a McLennan County grand jury indicted Deeb, Spence, and both Melendez brothers for the murders of the three teenagers. Both later recanted their confessions. It was a match. But Thompson had never stopped wondering if theyd made a mistake. Hunt even got an insurance salesman to explain that Deebs insurance policy on Kelley was the kind often used to cover employees in case of accidents. Spence, who had two new attorneysWalter Reaves, whod represented him on the aggravated sexual abuse case, and Bill Vancegrew increasingly agitated, eventually trying to fire his lawyers. The semen found on Whites body had never been tested for DNA, Dannen realized with excitement. Simons parked and made his way to one of the deputy constables, who pointed out two young men standing nearby. On that last day, Jill had stopped by to see Thompson on her way to Waco. Dannen wondered if the answer lay in another detail Thompson shared with him. White, the investigators learned, had gotten off work the previous night at nine-thirty, after her shift at Uncle Dans Barbecue, where she bused tables and washed dishes. I want you to understand I speak the truth when I say I didnt kill your kids, said Spence. I thought, How can you put someone on death row without evidence? Over breakfast at the downtown Hilton, he proposed that the former inmate provide a blood sample, so that his DNA could be compared against that of the semen at the crime scene. The police had developed a few suspects, including Terry Lee Tab Harper, a local tough guy with a long record of assaults. 
This whole experience changed my life, radicalized me, he said. Remains found in May 2022 in the Callville Bay area were identified in August 2022 as those of Thomas Erndt, a 42-year-old Las Vegas father whose family said he drowned during a nighttime family boat outing late Aug. 2, 2002 at the lake.. Other skeletal remains discovered over a three-week span in late July and early August along A book comes out by a New York writer that says Tonys innocent and Texas may have executed an innocent manand Tonys going to get clemency? Because Melendez pleaded guilty, the burden to prove his innocence is especially great. Discussing the case had become so painful that she and Thompson quit talking about it. WebBefore the murders Wiley had been grounded over her relationship with an 18-year-old who testified that he would often sneak into the teens bedroom to spend the night with her. He likes to brag a lot, he told his lawyers, and I just thought he was just trying to brag about that because he thought it was something cool.. Spence claimed hed had nothing to do with the murders, but Simons bided his time, talking to other inmates and coming to the jail outside work hours. I know hes no angel, but as far as what hes there for, thats not what I call justice. The investigation was initially headed by Lieutenant Marvin Horton of the Waco police department, with assistance from Detective Ramon Salinas and Patrolman Mike Nicoletti. In the back bedroom, facedown on the bed, lay the nude body of a 54-year-old woman. Dannen had paid for all the DNA testing himself; by the time the results came in, hed spent close to $10,000. But his most revealing tattoo is largely hidden under his prison shirt. I can tell you he shouldnt have been prosecuted for it., Far from Waco, in Louisiana, Spences ex-wife looks back on the past three decades with deep sadness. Officials believe the teens first were confronted by their killers while they were drinking a few beers at Koehne Park off Lake Shore Drive, with their bodies later dumped at Speegleville Park off Highway 6. One thing Dannen was particularly struck by in the writ was the blood-spatter report. waco civilians murdered happened In return Melendez got two life sentences. Category: - I'm Mad Too, Harry. | Waco/McLennan I dont know how he does it, said one of his fellow officers around the time of the investigation, and I dont want to know. (Simons declined to be interviewed for this story.). WebWaco had been having a violent summer; it was July 14, and already a dozen people had been murdered in the city of 100,000. Simons later charged Deeb, whose business was faltering, with soliciting Spence to kill a teenager named Gayle Kelley. Waco didnt get much credit for physical beauty, but this lake, just inside the citys western border, was a jewel, deep and blue. As Simons stood up, WPD detective Ramon Salinas showed him a photograph of an eighteen-year-old named Kenneth Franks, who had been reported missing earlier that day. Hale, at least, seemed to reassure her that Simons was on the right track. 
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