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New details emerge about murder scene, fake confessions
Juror and courtroom spectators learned shocking details about the scene of the Truett Street murder and false leads that led police on a wild goose chase.
By Danny Gallagher, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Jurors in the Raul Cortez trial learned the gruesome details of the crime scene he and Eddie Ray Williams allegedly left behind, and the long trail of false leads left by other suspects that threw McKinney police off course for more than four years.
Later that weekend, Jasso learned that Barbosa had been killed, along with her nephew Mark, 18-year-old Austin York and 17-year-old Matthew Self.
Laurie Wilson, Austin's mother, testified that her son went to his best friend Leonard Barbosa's house to play video games and hang out until his 11:30 p.m. curfew.
Keith Self, Matthew Self's father, said Matthew took his father's pickup truck to meet with Leonard and Austin. He also had an 11:30 p.m. curfew that both parents said they always honored.
Wilson said her son never called that night and were woken up by the sound of the doorbell around 4 a.m. Four sobbing teenagers told them they heard Austin had been shot and killed.
Self said his wife, Nancy Self, was also concerned that her son had not called or returned, so Mr. Self went looking for his pickup truck in the Barbosa's neighborhood in McKinney. Police officers arrived at the Self's home later and told them their son had been flown to Baylor Medical Center of Dallas. Mr. Self said the family later make the difficult decision to take Matthew off of life support.
Police officers first responded to the alarm call at the Cliff's Check Cashing business on W. University Avenue, then the 911 call from Robert Barbosa, Rosa's nephew, who discovered the bodies in Rosa's Truett Street home. Robert said he could hear Matthew gasping and wheezing for air.
Collin County Medical Examiner Dr. William Rohr said Rosa had a plastic zip tie tightened around her neck and strips of red duct tape over her mouth and wrapped around the top of her head over her eyes. Mark had two gun shots wounds to the head and Austin had three to the head. Dallas County Medical Examiner Dr. Lynn Salzberger said Matthew had a single gunshot wound to thr head.
"It was all hell, crazy," he said. "I was just trying to figure out how to keep him (Matthew) alive."
Robert was on probation at the time for distributing LSD and admitted in court that he realized police would search the house. So he disposed of a marijuana plant in a neighbor's trashcan that he kept in the garage before calling 911. He said he didn't want to "taint everybody's name in that house."
"I should have left it there and just explained it from the get go," Robert said.
The dispatch operator stayed with Robert as he held Matt in his arms. McKinney Police Sgt. Drew Caldwell said police found Robert kneeling near Matt "very upset and crying."
Police contacted Sgt. A.P. Davison of the Texas Rangers for assistance with their investigation. The first major break came the following April when McKinney police arrested James Jones for aggravated kidnapping. Jones told police he had been in the home on the night of the murders along with Jecory May and Calvin Walker whom he referred to as "Corn" and "Dallas."
He told investigators May and Walker got into an argument with Mark, Austin and Matthew before firing shots at all four victims. They then tried to break into the check-cashing store after stealing Matthew's truck.
"I think we were all a little excited to have some give us some information at this point," Davison said. "I think everybody wanted to believe that James Jones was telling the absolute truth."
Soon, Jones' story started to fall apart. Jones gave police a location for the disposed murder weapons, but a search of the area found nothing. Jones admitted to Davison he lied about the weapons and changed his story again. This time, he admitted to torturing and shooting Rosa for access to the check cashing business.
Davison said they made the decision to arrest Walker and May.
"If James Jones' stories were true, that means that these two men are potentially dangerous, violent men," Davison said. "We also considered that the public community and law enforcement wanted someone arrested, and we knew these were men we needed to talk to…The more time that went by, the worse the case would be."
Police could not corroborate Jones' story with May and Walker. For instance, Jones said all three used Isotoner gloves during the robbery and murder, but investigators knew the suspects used surgical latex gloves since remnants of latex were found in the tape used to gag and blind Rosa, Davison said. All three were eventually cleared of the charge and are currently serving time on unrelated offenses.
At least two more suspects surfaced in the following months. Davison said he accompanied a McKinney police investigator to Oklahoma to interview Jeremy Strand, a kidnapping suspect who claimed his co-conspirator admitted to committed the murders in Rosa's home. During the interview, Strand declined to divulge any information until they could assure him a deal with prosecutors.
"He refused to tell us anything unless we agreed to cut a deal with the DA's office," Davison said. "We didn't give his story much credibility."
Davis also said in his opening statements that Daniel Guajardo, an then-inmate at the Dallas County jail, admitted to being in the home on the night of the murders. Investigators didn't give his claims much credit and Davis said they believe Guajardo's depression and suicidal nature pushed him to make up a story. Guajardo has been subpoenaed, but has not testified as of Tuesday.
Contact Danny Gallagher at dgallagher@acnpapers.com.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
Letit Geaux wrote on Jan 14, 2009 8:29 AM:
" Did I miss something? This story states "Collin County prosecutors opened their case in the punishment phase". The punishment phase??? Was he found guilty or plead guilty??? "
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