Published: November 19, 2009 09:50 pm      

Defense continues in murder trial

CENTERVILLE — Six more witnesses for the defense took the stand Thursday in the capital murder trial of Jerry Duane Martin, bringing the jury another day closer to the conclusion of testimony in the case.

Martin is on trial for his escape from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Wynne Unit on Sept. 24, 2007, which resulted in the death of TDCJ officer Susan Canfield.

Fellow inmate John Ray Falk also escaped from the unit, exchanging gunfire with Canfield on the site of the adjacent Huntsville City Service Center, as Martin stole a city vehicle and ran it into Canfield’s horse, causing the officer’s death.

The two inmates were eventually captured, but not before leading law enforcement officers on a cross-town chase, stealing another vehicle and kidnapping its driver along the way.

Thursday’s continued testimony focused on the scene at the City Service Center, with Texas Department of Public Safety forensic scientists Melissa Valadez and Sandy Parent being the first to take the stand.

Both Valadez and Parent — employed in the trace evidence department of the Austin crime lab — were questioned by defense attorney Paxton Adams about their involvement in the investigation on the day of the escape.

“We are all trained to attend crime scenes,” Valadez said. “We are sent out in the field as requested by law enforcement.”

Parent was flown to Huntsville, she said, as part of a forensic team assigned to the case. Both scientists tested evidence in a lab setting as well.

“When we got to the scene, after a short briefing with law enforcement, we began gathering evidence,” Parent said. “We processed the victim’s body, a white truck and red Dodge Ram.

“The evidence was all collected, and we made it back to the lab at about midnight.”

Paxton then asked Parent about the chain of command in processing evidence — who determines what evidence is processed and how it is processed.

“Once we bring evidence back to the lab, it is logged in to ‘evidence receiving’ and gets marked with a case code,” Parent said. “All of the evidence may not be analyzed, unless a specific request is made by law enforcement.

“We receive requests for tests during the initial investigation,” she added. “We receive new evidence and more requests for analysis after that time as well.”

Paxton pointed out certain evidence that was hand-delivered to the Austin crime lab by Texas Ranger Pete Maskunas on Nov. 20, 2007 — almost two months after the initial investigation.

According to the attorney, Maskunas delivered a leather saddle, Canfield’s clothing and standards (blood and hair samples, etc.), projectiles and other evidence to the lab, requesting tests on the items.

“Typically, investigators don’t get too specific about how we test evidence,” Parent said. “They just mark it as ‘trace’ and leave it up to us to conduct the appropriate tests.”

Parent and Valadez shared some of the lab’s findings on the evidence, including hairs recovered from the truck and fence, paint found on Canfield’s horse’s saddle and glass found on Canfield’s clothes.

“Paint from the saddle was not consistent with paint from the white truck,” Parent testified. “Hairs we recovered from the passenger side quarter panel of the white truck were identified as animal hair.

“A hair recovered from the driver’s side roof of the white truck were microscopically different from Canfield’s,” she added. “A hair we recovered from the passenger-side windshield was determined to be a cotton fiber.”

Valadez conducted the glass comparison in the case, finding that the glass from the white truck and the glass from the victim’s body had the same refractive index.

“I was asked to conduct the glass analysis on this case because (Parent) could not perform that particular analysis,” Valadez said. “The request for that test was made on March 20, 2008.”

City of Huntsville employee Billy Wilson, a mechanic at the City Service Center who previously testified for the State, was asked to return to the stand Thursday to recount his experience on the day of the escape.

Wilson had just completed working on a vehicle inside the city garage when he heard popping noises and saw Canfield and Falk struggling at the scene.

“I heard a bullet hit an i-beam in the garage and ran to the grease pit,” he said. “I got in the pit, turned around and and saw (Falk) had grabbed the horse and was trying to turn Canfield around.”

As he was watching, Wilson said he heard the city truck come out and saw it hit the horse.

“The horse flew up and off the pickup onto the other side,” he recalled. “(Falk) got in the truck, kind of stood up over it and pitched out a pistol as they took off.”

Defense attorney William Carter questioned Wilson about discrepancies in witness reports he had given — one to the Huntsville Police Department on the day of the escape and the other to Texas Rangers a few days later.

“In your first statement, you did not say that you witnessed the truck hit the horse,” Carter stated, allowing Wilson to look over the two reports.

Wilson made little response, except stating that “a lot was going on.”

Carter and Paxton called three other state witnesses back to the stand, including: TDCJ Officer Royce Hagans, a Wynne Unit field boss; TDCJ Sgt. Larry Grissom, head of the field squad; and DPS Sgt. John Tucker, who headed a forensic mapping team.

The State, headed by Walker County District Attorney David Weeks, did not cross-examine the returning witnesses.

Thursday marked the sixth day of the capital murder trial, taking place at the Leon County court house in Centerville under 278th State District Court Judge Kenneth H. Keeling.

Defense attorneys reported having one remaining witness to take the stand when court resumes at 9 a.m. today. Keeling said that he expects to hear any rebuttal witness from the State today, with the jury likely to begin deliberations Monday.