The Case of Preston Hughes III: Meet the Hartleys

In my previous post, Witness to Murder, I explained that Drew Hartley and Barbara Szekely were in the same overgrown field where Shandra Charles and Marcell Taylor were murdered, and they were there at nearly the same time. In this post, I'll discuss Drew and Barbara. In the next, I'll attempt to re-trace their footsteps that fatal night.

What I know and write of Drew Hartley and Barbara Szekely I gleaned from the police reports, from standard internet searches and a dreadful experience with one of those paid public records search services. (Prepare yourself for expensive upgrade after upgrade before you get a fraction of the records you are promised.)

Drew Curtis Hartley was born on July 27, 1959. He was 29 at the time of the murders. The Houston police classified him as a "W/M", a white male. That classification consistent with his surname. From The Internet Surname Database, we learn about the origin of the name Hartley.

This interesting surname, of Anglo-Saxon origin, is a locational name from any of the various places so called. Several, in particular those in Hampshire, Kent and Devonshire, derive their names from the Olde English ... "heort", hart, plus "leah" meaning "wood" or "clearing". ... The surname is widely distributed, but it is especially popular in Yorkshire. The surname dates back to the late 12th Century ... The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Hertlay ... Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax.

Barbara Ann Szekely was born on April 26, 1957. She was 31 at the time of the murders, two years older than Drew. The Houston police classified her as a "W/F", a white female. That's consistent with her surname. From Wikipedia:

Székely is a Hungarian language surname. The word "Székely" refers to Hungarian people from the historical region of Transylvania, Romania.

The surname name Szekely is distinctively Hungarian. Of the 21 "famous" Szekelys listed in the Wikipedia article, 17 were Hungarian, 3 were Romanian, and one was Mexican-American. The Mexican-American was comedian Louis C.K., born Louis Szekely. Louis C.K.'s paternal grandfather was a Hungarian who emigrated to Mexico.

Near the bottom of his police report, Drew affirms that he had 14 years of education / college. A favorable interpretation of that statement is that Drew had two years of college, rather than he was set back twice. Near the bottom of Barbara's report, she affirms explicitly that she had two years of college. It's not clear whether the colleges were community colleges or four-year colleges. Nonetheless, each claimed to be college educated, at least to some degree.

The website marriagesintexas.com reports that the two were married (to one another) on January 23, 1987 in Harris County, Texas. That would be 20 months before the murders. In his police report, Drew identified his wife as "Barbara Ann Hartley". In her police report, she identified herself as "Barbara Ann Szekely". As you will see, they apparently had disagreements beyond Barbara's name. Some of those turned violent.

I refer to the two of them as the Hartleys for convenience, rather than siding with him over her.

In his police report, Sgt. Gafford offered the following insight regarding the Hartleys.

These witnesses are known in the area from past incidents, and are known by the area officers to be somewhat unstable, a condition which Sgt. observed on this date as well.

I don't know if "unstable" is a proper description of Drew and Barbara Hartley, though their stories did incorporate some unusual aspects. I note that Sgt. Gafford was passing judgment on them after he had already extracted a confession from Preston Hughes III. Sgt. Gafford may have had a wee bit of bias when he assessed the significance of their reports. Their reports contradicted Preston's confessions.

Drew Hartley certainly did have encounters with the Houston police, but the more serious encounters seem to have occurred after the murders, not before. I see he was fined $250 in 1985 for a DUI, and charged with evading arrest in 1996, but I find no other criminal records dated prior  to the murder. I see at least one drunkenness charge, and at least one burglary, but I have no dates associated with them. They may have occurred prior to the murders, and they may not have.

I note also that Barbara explained in her police report that she and Drew had been evicted from the Lakehurst Apartments, and that she feared arrest if she was discovered in there. The events surrounding the eviction may have involved the police, but I can't say so with any certainty.

Drew's trouble with the law became more serious after the murders. In 1990, he was convicted of trespassing (without forcible entry), failure to identify, possession of marijuana (less than 2 ounces), theft ($200-$700), and assault.

Drew moved to St. Petersburg, Florida sometime thereafter, and matters went from bad to worse. His traffic offenses included DUI, excessive speed, driving a vehicle in an unsafe condition, and driving with a suspended license. His drug offenses included possession of marijuana, possession of cocaine, possession of crack cocaine, constructive possession of a controlled substance, and deliver to minor or hire as agent in sale.Other offenses included grand theft, domestic battery, spousal battery, false imprisonment, and aggravated battery.

Drew Hartley now seems to be in a Florida prison serving some serious time. He is a registered sex offender.

In August of 2003, he was convicted of sexual battery under 794.011(5), to wit:

794.011(5)  Commits Sexual Battery; Victim 12 Or Older And In Process Uses Physical Force Not Likely To Cause Serious Personal Injury

(5)  A person who commits sexual battery upon a person 12 years of age or older, without that person's consent, and in the process thereof does not use physical force and violence likely to cause serious personal injury commits a felony of the second degree, ...

Most of these offenses, as I have already explained, occurred after the murders. Most of them occurred more than a decade after the murders. There's no suggestion that at the time of the murders that Drew was anywhere near as abusive and violent as he would later become.

In their police reports, Drew and Barbara each listed their address as the Star of Hope Mission. Star of Hope is a shelter for the homeless. From their website, I offer the organization's Mission Statement:

Star of Hope is a Christ-centered community dedicated to meeting the needs of homeless men, women and their children. Positive life changes are encouraged through structured programs which focus on spiritual growth, education, employment, life management and recovery from substance abuse.

Drew reported that he lived at the Star of Hope Mission on 407 La Branch. Barbara reported that she lived at the Star of Hope Mission on Main Street. It is not uncommon that homeless shelters house men in a different facility than women and children. I do not know that is what happened in this case. Whatever the arrangements, however, it seems to me that Drew and Barbara were more likely residing with someone in the Lakewood Village apartments than they were spending most their nights at the mission.

Drew reported that they were "visiting" a friend in the Lakewood Village Apartments on the night of the murder. The Lakewood Village Apartment complex is 17 miles from 407 La Branch. Neither Drew nor Barbara reported having a driver's license. (Given Drew's driving record, I'm not surprised he didn't have a license.) Drew reported also that they planned to visit other friends who lived in the Lakehurst apartment complex. It's not clear when they planned to find their way back to the Star of Hope Mission that night.

Both Drew and Barbara reported that they worked at Federal Import and Export located at 11111 Wilcrest Green. Drew reports that he had worked there only two weeks, and that he was in Sales. The listed address is only two miles from the Lakewood Village Apartments. For a couple not having a car, the Lakewood Village Apartment complex is a considerably more convenient residence for someone working at Federal Import and Export than is the Star of Hope Mission.

Drew and Barbara must have lived at least for a bit at the Lakehurst Apartments. Recall that the Lakehurst Apartments are located just north of the Lakewood Village Apartments. From Barbara's report:

Drew was going to take a short cut through the Lakehurst Apartments and I would not go through the apartments because we were evicted from the apartments and I knew that we would be arrested there if the security guard caught us there.

Instead of taking the short cut, Drew and Barbara walked through the dark, overgrown field. As they did so, they became aware of one or two shadowy figures, one of them with an afro. The figures were so threatening that Drew and Barbara ran from the scene and called police. Barbara reported also that Drew had seen a black male on the very trail segment where the murders occurred soon thereafter. Drew reported that he heard a female scream from within the area of interest.

The police declared their information to irrelevant to their investigation.

We, on the other hand, will consider their information more carefully, in the next post in this series.

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The Impending Execution of Gary Simmons

Gary Carl Simmons, Jr. sits on death row awaiting execution by the people of Mississippi on 20 June 2012. I offer a summary of his case from the appellate decision of Simmons v. State (2001).

On October 11, 1996, Gary Carl Simmons, Jr. (Simmons), and Timothy John "Timmy" Milano (Milano) were indicted for the capital murder of Jeffery Wolfe, while engaged in the commission of a robbery. Simmons and Milano were also indicted for the kidnaping and rape of Charlene Brooke Leaser. ... 

In the early morning hours of August 11, 1996, Jeffery Wolfe and Charlene Brooke Leaser drove from Houston, Texas, to Jackson County, Mississippi. They had only known each other a few weeks. Wolfe asked Leaser to accompany him on a trip to the Gulf Coast to "pick up some money" from some friends that were in his debt. Leaser later learned that the debt accrued some weeks earlier from a transaction involving drugs. While on the Gulf Coast, Wolfe also planned to buy new wheel rims and tires for his vehicle and then return through New Orleans with Leaser for a short vacation. Wolfe left Houston with twelve hundred dollars in his wallet. Leaser had approximately two hundred dollars in her purse. 

Upon their arrival on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, they checked into the King's Inn Hotel. Wolfe and Leaser fell asleep. Wolfe awoke early and left Leaser at the Hotel to meet Sonny Milano, Timothy Milano's brother, who worked at a local tire store. Apparently, they met a few weeks earlier while Wolfe was on the Coast conducting his illicit business deal. Later that afternoon, Wolfe and Sonny returned to the hotel room to pick up Leaser for dinner. Sonny Milano left to get his girlfriend and the four met in Wolfe and Leaser's room at the hotel. They all took Wolfe's white Honda Civic to Shoney's where they dined together. 

Sonny Milano testified that during dinner, Wolfe asked if Sonny planned to go to Simmons' house that evening. Sonny Milano, over loud protests from his girlfriend, decided to go to Simmons' house, arriving there late that evening after dropping her off. When he arrived, Simmons and Sonny's brother, Milano, were the only two at the house. Simmons asked Sonny if he had seen Wolfe and Sonny told him that they ate dinner together. Simmons asked Sonny to get in touch with Wolfe. Sonny contacted Wolfe at his hotel room and told Wolfe that he was at Simmons's house. Wolfe was pleasantly surprised to hear that Sonny was there, since Sonny's girlfriend was opposed to his going. Wolfe told Sonny that he would be there in a minute. 

Sonny conveyed this information to Simmons, who less than one minute later, approached Sonny as he talked to Milano and asked him to leave the house. Sonny testified that he did not find this unusual because "that's just Gary." Sonny left without explanation, with Wolfe on his way. 

After dinner, as the couples parted ways, Wolfe and Leaser returned to their hotel where they relaxed before leaving to meet Wolfe's debtors. They drove out to Simmons's house but found no one home. After leaving the house to pick up cigarettes and a beverage, Wolfe and Leaser returned to the hotel. To pass the time, the two then went to Wal-Mart, and again tried to meet Simmons at his house. Still, no one was home. By this time it was nearly 10 in the evening, August 12, 1996. Again, they returned to the hotel. Near midnight, Wolfe received a phone call while Leaser stood outside smoking a cigarette. Wolfe hung up the phone, gathered Leaser, and left the hotel headed toward Simmons's house. 

Upon arriving at the house, they found Simmons sitting on the front porch. The three began talking, and Simmons offered them some marijuana. Leaser and Simmons smoked a marijuana cigarette, but Wolfe refrained. Milano drove up as they finished the marijuana. Simmons was related to the Milanos by marriage; Simmons married their sister, Lori, but that marriage ended in divorce. Simmons offered his guests a beer, and all four adjourned to the kitchen and living room area. Simmons walked into the kitchen to get a beer while Leaser sat down at a table in the living room to roll another marijuana cigarette. 

Leaser heard Wolfe and Milano chatting in the doorway separating the kitchen and living room. Wolfe mentioned the money he was owed. Apparently, Simmons and Milano owed Wolfe between twelve and twenty thousand dollars. They did not have the money, nor did they have the drugs. Simmons returned from the kitchen while Wolfe and Milano discussed this predicament. Leaser testified that she heard gunshots and saw Wolfe fall to the ground. Immediately thereafter, Simmons grabbed Leaser and ordered her not to look in the direction of Wolfe's body. Leaser noticed Milano standing directly behind Wolfe holding what was later identified as ... a .22 caliber rifle. 

Simmons took her to a back bedroom of the house and forced her to lie face down on the floor. He placed himself on top of her and began questioning her, asking whether she or Wolfe were law enforcement officers, whether Wolfe had any drugs with him, and who knew they were in Mississippi. She became understandably hysterical and simply responded that she did not know anything, as she and Wolfe had only become acquainted a few weeks ago. After Simmons finished questioning Leaser, he tied her hands behind her back, bound them to her feet with some rope, and locked her in a metal box with dimensions similar to a large footlocker near his bedroom, telling her he was "on a time frame" that he could not "mess up." 

Leaser managed to untie her hands and feet and began kicking the top of the box unsuccessfully trying to get out. Leaser continued kicking the top of the box until Simmons returned. He removed her from the box, stripped her nude, tied her up again and returned her to the box. Again, Leaser managed to free herself from the knotted ropes, but remained unable to get the top off of the metal box holding her. After some length of time had passed, Simmons returned to the box and took Leaser out. Simmons was undressed. He again forced her to lie face down on the floor of the bedroom. Leaser was in the middle of her menstrual cycle, so Simmons forced her to remove her tampon. He then raped her, telling her that her life depended on how well she performed sexually. Leaser testified that she thought he was holding a pistol to the back of her head during the assault. 

Afterward, Simmons asked Milano if he would like to rape her as well; Milano declined. Simmons then took Leaser to the bathroom, allowed her to clean up with an athletic sock; and yet again, tied her up and locked her in the box. 

While Leaser was secured in the box, Simmons and Milano went about their plan to dispose of Wolfe's body. Simmons, by trade, was a butcher in a meat market. Simmons's co-worker, Charles Jenkins, testified that during the preceding workweek, Simmons sharpened all of his knives and took them home from work for the weekend. Jenkins testified that this was rather unusual because everyone normally leaves their knives at work. Apparently, the only time that Jenkins could remember anyone taking their knives home was before leaving on an extended vacation or quitting the job. Simmons took those knives and began dismembering Wolfe in the bathtub. After gutting him and severing his head and limbs, Simmons, with Milano's help, began distributing Wolfe's remains into the bayou that ran behind Simmons's property using a boat Simmons borrowed from neighbor Donald Taylor only hours before. Alligators were known to inhabit the area. The bayou had a running current that eventually, through tributaries, fed into the Gulf of Mexico. 

Leaser, still locked in the box, again untied herself. Simmons returned to the box smoking marijuana and offered some to Leaser. She accepted. After sharing the marijuana cigarette, Simmons locked Leaser in the box with a blanket, where she fell asleep. She awoke to the sound of the telephone ringing. When no one answered it, Leaser reasoned that the house was empty. She mustered all of her energy and began banging on the top of the box. The lid popped off and Leaser managed to get out of the house. On her way out of the door, she grabbed a bag with some of her clothes and belongings in it. She then partially dressed herself. Leaser ran to a neighbor's house and convinced the neighbor to call the police. Upon their arrival, Leaser recounted the events of the previous twenty-four hours. 

Many different law enforcement agencies were involved in investigating the scene of the crime. Leaser told police officers that Wolfe was inside, had been shot, and that she had been raped. Once the police arrived, they began to secure the area and investigate Leaser's claims. Moss Point police officers Lee Merrill and Richard Cushman entered the house with Leaser to determine if a crime had, in fact, been committed and if so, whether other victims were still in the house. Once the police officers saw blood and other evidence of violent crimes, they left the house and secured a search warrant. 

After obtaining a search warrant, the police called the Mississippi Crime Lab, and they entered the house to gather evidence. From inside the house, they collected portions of fingernails from a wastebasket, a used condom, and two used tampons, among other things. The local police department also recovered a Marlin model # 60 .22 caliber rifle, eight empty .22 caliber shell casings, and Wolfe and Leaser's personal items originally left in their hotel room. 

Near the rear of the property, a small "jon boat" was spotted near the water. Officers Magee and Graff investigated and requested that Officer Cushman join them. Near the boat they found four five gallon white buckets, one green plastic barrel, a one gallon bottle of Clorox bleach, a brush, a knife, and a bushhook. The brush and bushhook appeared to be covered in blood. An aluminum boat paddle was covered in bloody finger prints. In the boat, the officers discovered a piece of flesh. The local coroner called Dr. Paul McGarry to help with the investigation. Outside the house, but still on or very near Simmons's property, Dr. McGarry found the rest of Wolfe's body. Dr. McGarry testified that he and a group of police officers floated approximately two hundred yards down the bayou over which they found various parts of the skin, muscle, chest, abdominal walls, penis and testicles, lungs, heart, intestines, liver, as well as fingers and toes from a young human white male. 

Dr. McGarry testified that the body parts had been cut sharply and with precision into block like sections of tissue. Most of the bones had been separated. Of the flesh he found and examined, several pieces had bullet holes in them. One portion of the chest had five bullet holes in it while another portion revealed one bullet hole. Some of the internal organs, the heart and lungs specifically, also had bullet holes in them. The left lung had a bullet lodged in it. Dr. McGarry testified that these gunshot wounds were the cause of death. 

A further search of the area revealed Wolfe's severed head, upper chest portion, and pelvic area sans reproductive organs. Over two days of searching, they found, on the first day, eighty-five pounds of human remains the largest of which was seventeen inches in diameter. The following day, they collected forty-one pounds of similar pieces, with the largest piece measuring nineteen inches. Some pieces found later were large enough to have identifiable tatoos. All of the flesh was identified as belonging to Wolfe. 

Simmons left his house after dismembering and disposing of Wolfe. He drove to Mobile, Alabama, where he made a videotape for his ex-wife and children. Throughout the video recording, Simmons spoke to his family in the most general terms about what he had done, although he never specifically admitted committing any crimes. Simmons mailed the video cassette to his wife and drove back to the Coast. Upon arriving at his house, Simmons noticed that Leaser had escaped. He immediately left again and went to see his friend Dennis Guess. 

Guess testified that while they were conversing, Simmons volunteered that he had just "whacked a drug dealer,... deboned him, cut him up in little pieces, and put him in the bayou." Simmons told Guess that he used a butcher knife and bolt cutters to accomplish the task. Simmons also told Guess that he had a girl in a box and planned to "train her" and "keep her around as a sex toy," but confessed that she had escaped. The conversation then turned to what realistic options Simmons had left. Simmons, after further discourse with Guess on this subject, decided against fleeing the jurisdiction or committing suicide. He eventually decided to turn himself in to the authorities.

I oppose the execution of any person who might be innocent of the crime for which they are scheduled to be executed. In all other cases, I neither oppose nor support the execution. I simply stand mute.

Since I find no evidence that Gary Simmons did not participate in the murder of Jeffery Wolfe, I stand mute with respect to the propriety of his execution.


ADDENDUM
Gary Simmons was executed by the people of Mississippi on June 20, 2012.

The Case of Preston Hughes III: Witness To Murder

From Netflix:

Cheryl Draper (Barbara Stanwyck), without a doubt, witnessed a murder. But when she reports the incident, the police conclude she was dreaming.

From Sgt. Gafford's Report

Sgt [Gafford] learned that there was only one witness at the scene, and determined that this witness had no knowledge of the facts of this case, but had been held being in the area and reporting his wife missing a short time earlier. The male later located his wife and his situation was resolved, however, the police had already been called and were in the area. Officers were flagged down in the Stop-N-Go parking lot by the white male witness, Drew Hartley, and were in the process of looking for the males [sic] wife when they observed as [sic] male named Jamie Hunter taking out the trash at the Fuddruckers Restaurant.

...

There were no known witnesses to the actual stabbing incident excepting the deceased compls [complainants] and the suspect. The uniformed patrol officers had detained a male, and knew the location of the males [sic] wife, who had called the police a short time before the compls were discovered. These witnesses are known in the area from past incidents, and are known by the area officers to be somewhat unstable, a condition which Sgt observed this date as well. The information provided by these witnesses does not appear relevant to this case, with the most important exception being their call was the one which police police in the area at the time of the discovery of the compls in this case. These male and female [sic] were transported to the homicide division where written statements were obtained, and they were released.

...

Interview with Witness Drew Curtis Hartley, W/M-29, DOB - 7/27/59

407 LA Branch, Star of Hope Mission

Work: Federal Import Export, 11111 Wilcrest Green

WK#952-1090, DL* None, SS#---------

Drew states he and his wife were on their way from the Lakewood [Village] Apts to the store, and were walking in the wooded area near a car wash. (This area is not the same wooded area that is behind the Fuddruckers where the compls were found, but it is an extension of that same easement). They heard movement in the brush and thought they were being chased and ran to a Stop-N-Go where his wife called police. Drew lost track of his wife at one point near the car wash a short time later, and he began searching for her, enlisting the aid of a civilian and also the officers who were responding to the call, they were able to learn that she had caught a ride with some males in a truck to their friends [sic] apt at the Lakewood project, and it was during this time that the officers were flagged down at the Fuddruckers. Sgt. P.C. Motard obtained a written statement from Drew however he [Drew] would not sign this statement because he thought he was being handled as a suspect in the deaths of the compls.

...

Interview with witness: Barbara Ann Szekely, W/F-31, DOB - 4/26/57

407 LaBranch, Star of Hope Mission

Work: Federal Import Export, 11111 Wilcreast Green

Wk#952-1090, DL# None, SS#---------

Barbaras [sic] story is much the same as Drews [sic] and she states that after she caught a ride with the males at the car wash, she rode around with them for a while and then asked them to drop her off at the friends [sic] apt at the Lakewood complex. They did so and she was found there later by patrol officers. She was brought to the Homicide Division and a written statement was obtained by Sgt. C.R. Williams. She described a "shape" she observed in the bushes as that of a black male with an afro.

Report of Officer V.L. Cook and Officer C.J. Becker

Officers riding Unit 20G40 were flagged down by a person known as Drew Curtis Hartley regarding his wife missing. The time was approx 2330 hrs and the location was the Stop N Go parking lot at 2303 S. Kirkwood.

Hartley stated his wife had been walking in a car wash bay located east of the Stop N Go. He stated possibly two black had [sic] abducted her and drug [sic] her into the field located south of the Stop N Go: Hartley had a flashlight in his hand and stated he had been looking for his wife for a while.

[Cook and Becker discover the bodies.]

Officer Becker continued to look in the immediate area for any susp(s) or evidence. Becker then went back to the Stop N Go and picked up Hartley from the store and brought him back to the scene. Cook stayed at the scene and observed numerous officers attending to the black female. ...

Officers transported Hartley and wife to homicide division for a statement.

Drew Hartley's Statement

Before me, the undersigned authority, on September 27, 1988 at 02:50 personally appeared Drew Curtis Hartley, who, after being duly sworn, upon his/her oath deposes and states:

My name is Drew Curtis Hartley

I am 29 years of age;

I live at Star of Hope, and my phone number is ___-952-1090.

I am employed by Federal Import Export whose address is 11111 Wilcrest Greeen

My driver license number is _ and my Social Security Number is [redacted].

I was born 07/27/59.

My name is Drew Hartley. I am woring at the Federal Import Export Company on Wilcrest Green and have worked there for a couple of weeks. I am in the Sales Dept.

Tonight, I was at Victor Alfeiri's at 17770 Westheimer #2206 at the Lakewood [Village] Apartments visiting. My wife, Barbara Ann Hartley, was with me. Sometime after dark, we walked from Victor's to the woods behind the apartment complex. This short [cut] between the apartment complexes. Barbara and I were going to another friends [sic] apartment. While I was walking through the woods, we heard movement in the brush. We didnt [sic] see anybody at that point, but think that we were being chased. We ran to a nearby Stop-N-Go where my wife told the employees what had happened. The employees called the police. My wife stayed at the Stop-N-Go and waited and I left. I went to the Lakehurst Apartments and visited Gino. I knocked on the door and talked to them briefly and then left. I went back to the Stop-N-Go to get Barbara. Barbara wouldnt [sic] go past the Stop-N-Go unless she knew that Gino or somebody was home. Anyway, Barbara and I started to walk through the car wash. While walking along, we were walking and she walked on one side of a wall and I walked on the other side. When I got to the end of the car wash, Barbara was gone. I went on through the fence opening going into Gino's apartment complex. As I did so, I heard a yell. I thought that it was my wife. I went to Gino's and was frantic. I told Gino, Oscar and Teal somebody took my wife off and she disappeared. We didnt [sic] find anything. I went back to Gino's and ran over to Victor's through the complex's [sic] to see if Barbara was there. Barbara was not there. When I came back, I went the same way that Barbara and I had previously taken. I was running through here. I ran down the edge that seperates [sic] the woods from the plain field. I was going through the car wash and met this white guy that was parked there. I approached this guy and told him that my wife was missing. He and I then went out into the woods. We could hear the woods and weeds moving while looking for my wife. Barbara didnt [sic] turn up. This white guy then gave me a ride to Victor's. She is not there and Victor is not home. I then went out to the bus stop and Barbara is not there. A white boy with a cowboy hat was the security gaurd [sic] gave me a ride over to Gino's. Gino and I went out with the flash light. We didnt [sic] locate Barbara. I sent Gino to the Stop-N-Go to see if the employees knew what happened to Barbara. Gino told me no so I went to the Stop-N-Go and asked them to call the police that my wife was missing. They called the police and an officer came out. The officers is [sic] looking with a spot light driving down the street. Barbara is riding in a pickup truck with three white guys. Barbara said that she was fine and to get into the truck because I was making a scene. I got into the truck. I decided to tell them to drop us out. The truck pulled over and stops. I get out and Barbara wouldnt [sic] get out. They pulled up into a driveway and turned around and drove at squeling [sic] and I ran. I heard them say that they out [sic] to beat my ass. I ran up to where the police officer was at the Stop-N-Go and told him that I had found my wife. The officer told me that there had been some murders out there and he took me to Victors. [sic] I met Barbara there and the officer took me to the scene of the crime.

I have completed 14 years of school / college and can read and write the English language. I have read this statement and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. I have given this statement to Sgt. PC Motard of my own free will. This statement was typed by Sgt PC Motard.

[Not signed]

Barbara Szekely's Statement

Before me, the undersigned authority, on September 27, 1988, at 02:42AM personally appeared Barbara Ann Szekely, who, after being duly sworn upon his/her oath deposes and states:

My name is Barbara Ann Szekely. I am 31 years of age; I live at Star of Hope Mission - Main St., and my phone is ___-___-____. I am employed by Federal Import and Export whose address is unk Wilcrest Green, and their phone is 713-952-1090. My driver license number is _ and my Social Security number is [redacted]. I was born on 04/26/57.

On Monday, September 26, 1988, I was walking with my husband, Drew Hartley, and we were walking down a pathway in front of a vacant field. This field runs the whole length of the block. It was about 7:30PM and it was already getting dark. As we were walking down the path I heard some other footsteps besides our, in the grass. I looked back after hearing the steps for awhile but I didn't see anything. We kept on walking and I kept hearing the sound which was not actually footsteps but it was the sound of feet in the long grass. I looked back a second time and I saw a shape and  it was grouped in someone there. I thought that there was someone on the path and I asked Drew if there was someone behind us and he told me that I was hearing things. And we walked a little further and he looked back and he said that there was somebody there. It sounded like there was somebody in the field itself too, as well as the noise on the path. I just saw the top of the shape and it appeared to be an afro type haircut and that is all the description that I can give on the person. I began to speed up and then the footsteps began to get faster behind us. I then began to run and Drew didn't run right away but then he began to run behind me. I ran to the Stop And Go and when I got to the pavement and I didn't see anybody. I went in the Stop And Go and talked to the girl clerk and a guy that was with her. I told them that someone was chasing me on the path. I looked out the window and I saw Drew outside, but nobody else. I then went out of the store and went to the car wash behind the Stop And Go and I talked to some guys there and I asked them if I could hang around there for a few minutes and they said it was O.K. with them. I saw two police cars pull in the Stop And Go. I then asked the guys to give me a ride to the front Stop and Go, on Westheimer. I rode around with the guys for awhile and then they gave me a ride over to a friend of mine, named Victor, who lives in the Lakewood [Village] Apartments. About an hour later Drew came to the door with a policeman and was saying that someone had gotten murdered down the street and the police wanted to talk to us. Then the officers asked us to come in and make a statement. Earlier, before we went down the path on Kirkwood, Drew was going to take a short cut through the Lakehurst Apartments and I would not go through the apartments because we were evicted from the apartments and I knew that we would be arrested there if the security guard caught us there. After I would not go through the apartments Drew told me that it was just as well because a "nigger" just went down the path. The officer later told me that this path was the area where the girl was found dead tonight.

I have completed 2 years of college and can read and write the English language. I have read this statement and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. I have given this statement to Sgt. C.R. Williams of my own free will. This statement was typed by Sgt. C.R. Williams.

Signed: [Barbara Szekely]

Subscibed and sworn to before me this 27th day of September, 1988

Signed: [illegible signature]

Notary Public in and for the State of Texas

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The excerpts from the police reports are from the 41 page HPD compilation here. The added emphasis is mine. There are, as yet, no copies of Drew or Barbara's statements available online.

-----------------

There should have been no doubt whatsoever that Barbara Stanwyck witnessed a murder. Who, after all, could seriously question the Big Valley matriarch who gave birth to Audra Barkley?

Drew Curtis Hartley and Barbara Ann Szekely, on the other hand, were in no way responsible for Audra Barkley's appearance on my teenage television screen.

Drew's statement and Barbara's statement, therefore, must to be considered with considerable skepticism. Their statements should, however, actually be considered rather than cavalierly dismissed. The Houston Police failed to consider (or even properly report) their statements, so we shall do that here, in this august blog.

It won't be easy. We'll have to read over their statements many times, compare them with the geography of the area, weigh them in light of what we have already learned about the case, and attempt to resolve the obvious conflicts.

In my next post in this series, I will discuss the couple now of interest to us. You will learn that there is plenty of reason for caution in accepting their statements as absolutely, unequivocally true.

Then I will describe why I believe Drew Hartley and Barbara Szekely may have witnessed the prelude to the murder of Shandra Charles and Marcell Taylor.

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Remarkable Developments in the Case of Hank Skinner

I cut my blogging teeth with a ten-part series about Hank Skinner.

Though Hank was undeniably in the house when his girlfriend (Twila Busby) and her two grown sons (Randy and Elwin) were murdered, and though he had her blood on him, and though he had a severe cut on his hand, I believe he is more likely innocent than not.

Hank's defense was that he was too intoxicated to have committed the murders, and the evidence for that odd claim is substantial.

I have fervently opposed the execution of Hank Skinner because the crime scene was a DNA rich environment, and much of the evidence seems to point to a third party. (Much of the speculation regarding that third party revolves around Twila's allegedly lecherous uncle.) Most of that DNA evidence was not tested before trial, because both the State and and Skinner's hapless attorney felt such testing might not be to their advantage. 

Hank Skinner has spent the last decade and a half trying to get that evidence tested. At one point, some of it was tested, and the results tended to exonerate Skinner. (See Factually Exonerated!) Somehow the other evidence that was to be tested (such as the rape kit and the fingernail scrapings) never were tested.

With the help of a professional graphic design artist, I prepared a large summary page of the DNA evidence that has and has not been tested.  I repeat it below.

Of course my efforts had no impact on Texas' intention to kill Skinner before the DNA was tested. He was saved repeatedly by the efforts of his brilliant attorney Rob Owen.  Rob shot down the first execution date because of a technical flaw in the death warrant. That bought one month, since Texas had to issue a new death warrant and the warrant cannot specify an execution date less than a month away. That month was absolutely critical.

In the wee hours of 24 March 2010, I used this blog to say goodbye to Skinner in Godspeed, Hank Skinner. He was scheduled for execution that evening.

With less than an hour before Skinner's once-delayed execution, Rob managed to convince Justice Antonin Scalia (of all justices) to grant Skinner a stay.  Rob argued that Skinner had a Constitutional right to sue the prosecutor in civil court to obtain the DNA evidence.

The Supreme Court as a whole agreed with Scalia that Skinner's case was worth hearing. and eventually ruled that Skinner had a right to press his claim through the Texas court system. (See Hank Skinner and the Supremes.)

Suddenly, after almost two and a half years, the case is developing rapidly. Though I pledged myself not to write of anything other than impending executions and Preston Hughes until I completed the Preston Hughes series, the Skinner developments are suddenly so significant and so frequent that I now grant myself an exception.

So what are the developments. Let me count the ways.

May 2: Top Criminal Court to Hear Hank Skinner and his Death Row DNA Appeal

May 8: Texas AG's Office Rebuked by Three Courts in Five Days

June 1: State Backs DNA Testing for Hank Skinner

June 12: State to Test 40 Crime Scene Items for DNA in Skinner Case

And finally this shocking (but not surprising) item, just in.

June 13: Evidence Missing in Skinner Case

It's not just any piece of evidence that is missing. It is the windbreaker that belonged to neither Skinner nor anyone else who lived in the house. The suspicion is that the windbreaker belonged to Robert Donnell, Twila Busby's allegedly lecherous uncle who left the New Year's Eve party soon after she did. (Skinner was at home, in a drunken stupor on the couch.) 

The windbreaker was the piece of DNA evidence most likely to place someone else in the house that night. And now it is missing.

As it turns out, my post Factually Exonerated! was prophetic. In it, I compared Texas' handling of potentially exculpatory evidence with Lenin's handling of unpleasant historical evidence, such as the very existence of Leon Trotsky.

There's Lenin now, with his friend Trotsky. Oh, wait! Someone inadvertently misplaced Trotsky.

There is, by the way, a piece of non-DNA evidence that has never been tested, that may unequivocally point to someone other than Hank Skinner. A bloody knife was found in a garbage bag. I understand that fingerprints or a palm print was lifted from that bag. I understand further that the prints did not match Hank Skinner. As far as I know, the State has not attempted to match those prints against any other individual. As far as I know, they could attempt a comparison against Robert Donnell, since he had previously been incarcerated by the people of Texas.

And, as far as I know, the Supremes agreed that Skinner has the right to pursue the DNA material, but were mute with respect his right to pursue post-conviction fingerprint comparisons.

Once again, however, Skinner is in little need of any assistance from me. He is blessed with one of the best defense teams of which I am aware.

In the case of Preston Hughes, by comparison, I seem to be all that he has. He would be much better off to have Rob Owen on his side.

The Case of Preston Hughes III: Marcell's Neck

Color me surprised.

Again.

I should have realized this earlier, even as I challenged you with Brain Teaser #2, the one in which I  provided autopsy descriptions of Shandra and Marcell's neck wounds. But you know what they always say: "Blogger, challenge thyself."

In Shandra's Neck, after inserting Preston's knife into the eponymous neck, I concluded that the wound path had to be either front-to-back or side-to-side. The knife could not have been inserted obliquely. This prompted me to send away for the autopsy reports, which the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences provided at modest cost and reasonable speed. Shandra's autopsy report made clear that the wound path through Shandra's neck was from front-to-back, slightly to the right, and slightly up.

The wound path through Marcell's neck was more complicated. It was from front-to-back, slightly to the left, and upwards. Notice the lack of "slightly" before the word "upwards". Marcell's injury was definitely three-dimensional, not approximately two-dimensional as was Shandra's.

Marcell's autopsy report provided enough information to estimate the vertical angle of his neck wound. The entrance wound was 7 inches from the top of the head while the exit would was only 4 inches from the top. In other words, the wound path climbed 3 inches from front to back, assuming the victim was in the anatomical position.

The autopsy report also made clear that the wound path distance between the entry and exit points was 4 inches. Sounds like trig time to me. (For the mathematically faint-of-heart, you may want to look away.) The sine of the angle is the rise divided by the hypotenuse. The rise is 3 inches and the hypotenuse is 4 inches, so the sine of the angle is 0.75. The arcsine of 0.75 is 48.6 degrees. Yikes!

Okay, you can look back. The knife traveled upwards through Marcell's neck at approximately a 45 degree angle. Yikes!

I attempted to use Google Sketchup (now Trimble Sketchup) to insert Preston's knife into Marcell's neck at a 45 degree upward angle. As it turns out, that's not as easy as it sounds. I was making my third run at the problem this morning when I realized I didn't need a 3-D model to tell the story. The mismatch between the wound and Preston's knife is so egregious that a 2-D model, such as I used for Shandra's neck, will tell the story just fine.

Here we go. I present below Preston's knife inserted into Marcell's neck.

Preston's Knife in Marcell's Neck

Holy Crap!  The knife looks gigantic. I double-checked and triple-checked my work, and I think I got it right, and it's still difficult to imagine. To get Marcell's neck, I scaled down Shandra's neck based on their relative heights.  Shandra was 65 inches tall and Marcell was only 41 inches tall. (Remember that he was only 3-years-old.) Assuming they were scale models of one another, Marcell's neck should be only 65% as large (in each direction) as Shandra's. I estimated Shandra's neck circumference from her BMI and came up with 13 inches. That means Marcell's neck circumference would have been around 8.5 inches. Measured along one side from front to back, it should be 4.25 inches.

I put white 1/4" markers along the left side of Marcell's neck. It took 16.5 of those markers, and that works out to 4.125".  I call that close enough.

I put four of those 1/4" markers across the knife blade (near its base), and they indicated that the knife is 1" wide. The fill-in ME described the blade width as slightly larger than 1".

It looks to me as if I have scaled the knife and neck properly with respect to one another.

From a properly projected top view, the length of the knife would look shorter than I have shown, by about 30%, due to the upward angle of the wound path. I have not foreshortened the knife, however, because the blade length does not seem to be the issue.

The blade passing through Marcell's neck created both an entry and an exit wound. The wound path length was 4 inches long, so the knife should be longer. The knife blade shown is 5.5 inches long, so the blade length is consistent with the wound path length.

I have shown in red the location of entry wound. I centered that wound at a point 1.5 inches from the front of the neck, as per the autopsy. That would be six 1/4" bars. I made the wound 1 inch wide, as per the autopsy. That would be four 1/4" bars total, two on either side of the center point of the wound.

Look at the wound. Look at the knife. You have to be able to see it. Hopefully I don't need to point out the blindingly obvious.

Okay. Fine.

There is no way that Preston's knife could have made the wound in Marcell's neck. No way.

Preston's knife is way too wide, and now it's absolutely obvious. Preston's knife blade is 1 inch wide. The wound in Marcell's neck was 1 inch wide. That doesn't mean the wound and the knife are consistent. It means they are inconsistent. Preston's knife would create a 1" entry wound only if it went in perpendicular to the surface. If the blade comes in at an oblique angle, then the width of the entry wound will be substantially larger than the blade width.

As you can see from the image above, Preston's knife would have left an entry wound approximately 1.5" wide.

Then I remembered that the knife fit nicely into Shandra's neck, and her entry wound was 1.5" wide.  Here's the money shot from Shandra's Neck.

Preston's Knife in Shandra's Neck

So that explained the difference. Marcell's entry would was only 1" wide while Shandra's was 1.5" wide.

But I was wrong again.

As I was preparing this post, I checked the autopsy report for the umpteenth time. It said Shandra's entry wound was only 1-1/8" wide, not 1-1/2" wide.

How did I get that wrong?

Then I recalled that I wrote  Shandra's Neck before I had access to the autopsy report. Instead, I got the dimensions of the wound from the police report of Officer J. L. Waltmon, who arrived at Ben Taub Hospital just as Shandra's lifeless body arrived. Walton wrote (badly):

Sgt. then view the comps. body and found that she had a stab wound to the left side of the neck. This wound was 1 1/2" wide and 1 3/4" down from the left ear lobe on the left side of the neck.

Officer J. L. Waltmon was wrong, and that caused me to be wrong, and I didn't find my error until just before beginning this post. Shandra's neck wound was not 1.5 inches wide; it was only 1.125 inches wide. Preston's knife could no more have caused Shandra's neck wound than it could have caused Marcell's neck wound.

That is true not simply because Preston's knife was single-edged and the murder weapon was double-edged. It is true as well because Preston's knife is simply too wide to have created either Shandra's neck wound or Marcell's neck wound.

Color me surprised, not just because of what I write here, but because of I intend to write next about Marcell's neck.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

ADDENDUM:
Anon (if I may call him by his first name) noted in the comments that Marcell's neck was more likely close to 10 inches in circumference, rather than 8.5 inches as I had estimated. Anon provided a link to support his claim. I reviewed it and I agree with him that 10 inches is more likely.  I have therefore re-scaled Marcell's neck accordingly an present the resulting image below:

Preston's Knife in a 10" Circumference Neck

Notice that there are now 20 1/4" white bars along the left side of the neck. That's 5 inches for 1/2 of the circumference.

The result remains. The 1" wide knife blade (inserted front to rear) is too wide to make a only a 1" wide entry wound, if that would is oriented at an angle to the blade.

The result, as it turns out, is insensitive to the circumference of the neck. If you look at the recreation of Preston's knife inserted into Shandra's neck (which I calculated to have a 13 inch circumference, and which I displayed again in this post), you will see that the a 1" wide blade is too wide to have created the 1-1/8" entry wound in her neck.

Preston's knife was not the murder weapon. It's 1" wide blade is too large to have created the neck wounds. Also, as explained previously, it was single-edged and the neck wounds were created by a double-edged blade.

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