Sunday, July 15, 2012

The Case of Preston Hughes III: Miscellany

We have pretty much completed our investigation of the crime scene and surrounding area, our evaluation of the victim's wounds, and our consideration of witness testimony. It is nearly time to examine Preston's apartment and the evidence secured therefrom. We will do that soon in a sub-series of posts. Now is a good time to catch up on some miscellaneous issues, none of which is probably worthy of its own posts.

Afro
Barbara Szekely reported that the shadowy figure that watched / stalked / pursued her had an "afro type haircut". One reader asked if Preston wore his hair in an afro. According to Preston's mother, Preston did not. Also according to Preston's mother, Douglas Swanson did not, at that time, wear his hair in an afro.

Time of Death
In Prelude to Murder, Act III, I approximated the time Drew Hartley heard a woman scream to be 9:42 PM. I suggested also that he may have then witnessed a woman being dragged into the field by two black males, and that the woman may have been Shandra Charles. At least one reader argued Shandra Charles could not have been dragged into the field at 9:42 because Shandra Charles died closer to 11:30 PM.

That argument requires a reasonable, logical leap that I declined to make. The argument assumes that Shandra was killed soon after she was abducted around 9:42, or that Hartley saw a different woman abducted, or that Hartley saw no one abducted.

In any case, I did not claim or assume Shandra was killed immediately after she was abducted. It is time, however, for for me to make a shocking admission.

I know Shandra's time-of-death within a minute or two.

I know her time-of-death much more accurately than I know when Drew Hartley heard a woman scream. I know her time-of-death much more accurately than I know when Drew Hartley saw a woman (whom he believed to be his wife) being dragged in to the field by two black males.

I know, with high confidence, that Shandra Charles died 90 seconds after her carotid artery was severed.

What I don't know with any great accuracy is when Shandra Charles was stabbed in the neck. While it is not unreasonable to suspect that she may have been stabbed immediately after being abducted, I am not yet ready to make that assumption.

Preston's Walk Home
Also in response to Prelude to Murder, Act III, one reader suggested I had gone a long way to proving Preston's guilt. That reader felt that 9:42 PM was suspiciously close the time Preston Hughes usually walked from the bus stop to his apartment via Shandra's trail. (Note the multiple questionable assumptions, which I'll let pass.) Given that Hughes claimed to have missed the bus on the very same day that two young people were killed at the very same time and place Hughes would normally be walking, the reader felt it was all too coincidental.

There are numerous problems with this hypothesized coincidence, but I will mention just one. After sleeping through his bus stop the first time, Preston called a cab. The cab dropped him off at his apartment complex. The details of a cab ride could have been (and certainly should have been) checked by the police.

Guest Blogger Al mentioned the cab ride in the very first post in this series, in Part I of his two-part summary. From that guest post:
Hughes has no alibi. He had been drinking that night with his friends after work from 6:30 to 8pm. He then caught a bus and a cab to get home, and though there is no documentation in the police report, it's likely he arrive at his apartment near 10.30pm that night.
The cab ride was also mentioned in the HPD Police Reports, to which I have linked many times. The police accepted Preston's cab ride as true. From Sgt. Gafford's report.
Hughes rode fell [sic] alseep [sic] on the bus and ended up at end [sic] of the route at Hwy 6 and Westheimer. Hughes called a cab and was taken home to the Lakehurst Apts. He stated that he went into the apt and checked the football game score and after that he went to bed.
Hughes provided the most detailed telling of that incident in his first confession. I have not yet included his entire confession in any post, so I'll include the relevant portion here. From his first confession:
I was feeling good and fell asleep on the bus and then didn't wake up until the end of the route at Westheimer and Hwy 6. I walked a couple of blocks to a circle K at 14244 Westheimer and called for a cab. A yellow cab took me to my apartment complex, right in the parking lot behind my apartment. I got home about 10:30 or so, and went to my apartment and turned the T.V. on to check the game.
Holy alibi, Batman.

Preston Hughes might indeed have an alibi. If Hartley did hear Shandra scream and/or if he did see Shandra abducted, and if my time estimate is correct or approximately so, then Hughes was on a bus, or walking to call a cab after missing his bus stop, or in a cab when Shandra screamed as she was being dragged into the field.

Maybe that's why the police were so quick to dismiss Hartley's eyewitness / earwitness account, and why they seemingly failed to check the cab company records.

Hartley's Trail
My post Prelude to Murder, Act III also generated comments renewing speculation that Shandra was walking to Fuddrucker's when she was attacked. The reader seemed to realize that Shandra had no loose change in her pocket and therefore was not returning from Fuddrucker's. The reader also seemed to recognize that Fuddrucker's probably closed at 10 and Shandra would not have had much time to order and eat before closing. The reader therefore suggested that Shandra had called in an order and was merely walking along the dark, lightly-traveled pathway to pick up the order before closing. 

I'll try once again to dispel the thought that Shandra was in that field for anything as innocent as purchasing a hamburger walking from (or to) a family oriented hamburger joint. Shandra Charles and Evelyn Brown had been visiting "friends" in the Lakewood Village Apartments. That's the Lakewood Village Apartments, the more southern complex. That is not the Lakehurst Apartments, the more northern complex, where Hughes lived.

Evelyn Brown left Shandra at their friends' apartment around 9:30 PM. Based on Drew's story and my time estimate, Drew heard a woman scream at 9:42 PM, just as he was taking the shortcut through the field from the southern complex to the northern complex.

Earlier, when Drew and Barbara began their walk to the Stop N Go (or wherever they really intended to go), they too left from a friend's apartment in the Lakewood Village complex. According to their reports, they took the southern route, which I will now refer to as Hartley's trail.

If you were to (back then) enter the field from the Lakewood Village complex, and you were heading to Fuddrucker's or the Stop N Go, the natural route was the southern trail, Hartley's Trail. It was more heavily traveled, it was wider, it was less covered, it would have be better lit by whatever moonlight there was, AND ... it would have been shorter. Consider two Frankenmap shots from Prelude to Murder, Act I.
Shandra's Trail (north) and Hartley's Trail (south)
Drew's Trail Highlighted
Given that Shandra left from the Lakewood Village Apartments, why would she eschew the southern trail?

So I ask once again, what as Shandra doing in the field that night?

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16 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's interesting because you were an outspoken critic of the HPD because they could have saved Shandra but took their time. Now you are saying time of death was two hours earlier. So the police officers were able to convince the paramedics that Shandra was really alive because they knew that Preston only got home at 10:30 and they needed to make sure that he had no alibi for when she was killed.

We have no clue why she was in the field, it was either a drug meet, finding a way to get to a pay phone, or perhaps leaving Preston's apartment.

Mike

tsj said...

Mike,
You absolutely and carelessly misstate my position. I was explicit in this post that I do not know what time Shandra was stabbed in the neck. How could you have possibly missed that?

I was indeed an outspoken critic of the HPD because they did not provide Shandra any first aid. That was when I was taking them at their word that Shandra was alive when they discovered her. I have since obtained the autopsy reports and learned that Shandra's artery was completely severed.

Had Shandra's carotid been "merely" punctured, as was Marcell's, then I would have had more difficulty determining how rapidly she bled out. Once I learned that her carotid (and her jugular) were completely severed, research soon revealed that she could not have survived her neck wound by more than a couple minutes.

Now I know why they didn't provide her any first aid. She was dead. I suspect also that had something to do with West Houston Memorial refusing to admit her. She was dead.

That's why I've turned my outspoken criticism elsewhere, such as the manufacturing of evidence in a capital murder case.

Anonymous said...

But if she was dead than the paramedics would have had to decide to take one dead body to the hospital while they left the second one where it was. Was it a big conspiracy that the one officer was able to convince the paramedics to play along so he could frame Hughes?

Hopefully you'll get around to a post where you show why the office chose Hughes to frame.

I'm sorry with giving a specific time of the stabbing.

Mike

Anonymous said...

Mike

The autopsy said her carotid artery was severed. Unless that is wrong, she was dead. That is irrefutable. Dead in 90 seconds. That doesn't seem debatable to me. But yes it is a mystery why they took her to the hospital. Perhaps we'll find out why at a later date

Andy

Anonymous said...

All the cop would have to do is say to the paramedic, "she just talked to me a minute or so ago" and the paramedic would take his word for it and take her to the hospital. The paramedic wouldn't know she had a severed artery. Even is she showed no signs of life they would have to work on her as if she had just been talking minutes before and rush her to the hospital. That seems a possibility to me.

Andy

Anonymous said...

90 seconds would be unconscious with a few minutes after would be death, but it is an estimate. The cops said the boy was still bleeding which would put the death only a few minutes earlier too. So we had one set up of cops show up, try CPR on the girl and say that the girl is still alive, another cop comes and talks to her and supposedly hears things. So what would have happened if the first set of cops applied first aid after the 5-10 minute stabbing time to at least slow the blood loss? Would she still be alive to go to the hospital? Also, the report from one of the officers was that the paramedics pronounced him dead, so your argument is that they wouldn't have checked anything on the girl to see if she was still alive and just take the police man's word?

Would the cops have mistaken a body dead for an hour or so as being still alive? I wouldn't buy the story of the abductors grabbing her and the child and hanging around the area for an hour or so and then killing her.

Mike

tsj said...

Mike,
Cook and Becker did say Marcell was still bleeding, upwards, against gravity. They found no pulse or breathing, however. That makes their statement contrary to my understanding of physics.

You are mistaken regarding Cook and Becker applying CPR to Shandra. They did not. They said she was unconscious and breathing loudly so they hunted for suspects. They then found Marcell, found he had no pulse or breathing, and attempted CPR. They tried CPR on the person who was dead, but provided no first aid to the person who was allegedly alive. I find that also to be an odd claim.

You are incorrect as well that the paramedics declared Shandra dead. Sgt. Waltmon said the paramedics were applying CPR to Shandra as they rolled her into Ben Taub. According to the autopsy report, she arrived at Ben Taub at 12:57 AM and was pronounced dead at 12:48 AM.

Once again, you are mis-stating my position. I have yet to comment on why the paramedics would transport Shandra if she was dead. I will note, however, that the Sgt. Waltmon claimed the paramedics told him that Shandra was alive when they found her.

I'm working on a post now to discuss all this in more detail.

Matt in California said...

I will preface this comment by stating that the first time I read the circumstances of the case, my immediate reaction was that this sounded a lot like a drug deal that went sideways in a hurry. So I confess that there is assertion not based on direct evidence below.

But first, why in the world was there no toxicology report done on Shandra? Why in the world would a tox report not be a requirement for all suspicious deaths? Did such a test not exist in the 1980s?

Shandra had track marks on her arm, or only what I can assume were track marks. (It was only mentioned in the coroners report, and apparently and inexplicably was not seized on by Preston's attorney during trial). Let's face it, she was apparently using drugs, serious drugs, particularly for a 15 year old. I personally suspect that she may also have been involved in the sale of drugs as well based on the circumstances of the case. That field has all of the makings of a drug deal tableau, even the construction of the opening in the fence was inadvertently done so in a way to shield and faciliate possible drug transactions. I think it also could help explain why Shandra might have had Marcell with her (authorities are far less likely to search a little kid, and dealers take advantage of this a lot).

Lastly, if it's a deal, then any number of things could have been going on in the hour before the stabbings took place. A friend of mine used to sell small amounts of marijuana in high school, and was held up multiple times by different guys that he knew and had just hung out/partaken with him minutes before. If small amounts of low grade marijuana can get a large guy in that sort of predicament, I suspect Shandra was in way over her head.

tsj said...

Matt,
I too have long suspected a drug deal gone bad. If you haven't, see my posts Weed and The 99 Cent Coin. Also see my post Geography, in which the different schools Shandra and her friend Evelyn attended had problems with drugs and gangs.

Regarding the toxicology test, you might ask as well about the rape kit. Or you might ask why the last people to see Shandra alive and well were not interviewed, or why the HPD did not follow up on the phone number found in Shandra's pocket, ad infinitum.

You might ask why they withheld some of the photos from Barbara Lunsford's request for all case documents and photos.

It is an axiom of mine that any wrongful conviction is effected in part by the withholding of exculpatory evidence.

Matt in California said...

Ok, just went back and read them (or maybe reread some of them for all I know, its been a while since we were first introduced to Preston's case). We are both definitely on the same page when it comes to the deal. I'd be really curious to know what became of others in this case, starting with Evelyn Brown and the Doug Swanson guy.

Honestly, this case is causing me to reassess a whole lot of preconceived notions I had about the criminal justice system beforehand.

It also gives me a horribly sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I look at the date and realize how soon November will be here.

tsj said...

Welcome to the club, Matt. The Pit-In-The-Stomach Club. I'm not just a member ....

Andy said...

Has a date been set? I have checked the web sites. Nothing yet.

Andy

tsj said...

Andy,
TDCJ last updated its list of scheduled executions on 9 July. Preston was not on there. I know nothing beyond that.

tsj said...

The Skeptical Spouse points out that I earlier commented that Shandra arrived at Ben Taub at 12:57 AM and was declared dead at 12:48.

Oops. Make that 12:58, not 12:48.

tsj said...

The Skeptical Spouse points out that I earlier commented that Shandra arrived at Ben Taub at 12:57 AM and was declared dead at 12:48.

Oops. Make that 12:58, not 12:48.

Anonymous said...

Preston has a date for November 15.

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