Bad Boy From Rosebud (81 page)

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Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #General, #Law, #True Crime, #Murder, #test

BOOK: Bad Boy From Rosebud
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Page 306
"I was nice to her. She knew I wasn't going to hurt her," Hank lamely replied.
"So, it was a nice rape; is that what you are telling the jury?"
18
Mike Goins followed Worley to the stand. The contrast could not have been greater. By that time Mike Goins had been an engineer for Fina Oil Company for over nine years. Without much trouble, the articulate and polished Goins identified McDuff as the driver of the tan Thunderbird he saw on Powell Street the night Colleen was abducted.
19
Other witnesses produced memorable moments in the courtroom. When one of McDuff's friends named Mark got on the stand to testify, McDuff said aloud, "Tell 'em about the Trans Am you stole." Out of sight of the jury, Mark "flipped him the bird." Louis, the acquaintance who provided information for the first of McDuff's arrest warrants, was asked by Mike Freeman, "Why were you willing to come forward with this information since Mr. McDuff is your friend?"
"I wasn't. Ya'll gave me no choice," Louis replied.
20
Pepper Cole testified that she saw someone looking like McDuff on Bilingsday Road on the morning of March 1, but it was Shari Robinson who positively identified McDuff as the man she served a bowl of beans to on her front porch. The fact that she testified that he was dirty lent credibility to her story She decided to come forth during the trial after she saw news coverage. Robinson "tied the knot," placing him at an area near the gravel pit.
21
Much of the testimony involved tedious information about hair. In order to educate the jury on how hair differs from one person to another, Crawford Long systematically asked various experts to describe pigmentation, clumping, and shapes as they related to samples taken from McDuff. It turned out that McDuff's hair had Negroid characteristics, a fact that bothered the rabid racist immensely During motion hearings McDuff got so bothered that he jumped up and blurted out his displeasure at having his hair described as NegroidBurdette told him to sit down and control himself.
"I haven't seen that degree of clumped pigmentation in a Caucasian sample before," testified Charles Linch of the Southwest Forensics Laboratory of Dallas.
"In other words, are you telling the jury that certain of Kenneth McDuff's hair has extreme Negroid characteristics? Is that correct?" asked Long as McDuff squirmed in his chair.
 
Page 307
"Yes, sir," answered Linch.
Some observers and lawmen could not help but be amused at how upset the testimony made the extremely egotistical McDuff. Of course, it was shallow satisfaction, but many wondered if McDuff could ever be made to feel embarrassed by what he had done. On the serious side, McDuff's hair matched that taken from the jacket removed from Melissa's body and other strands vacuumed from Melissa's Buick Regal. Pubic hairs taken from the car also matched McDuff's pubic hair samples.
22
Each day a van dropped off McDuff at the front door of the courthouse. Reporters asked him a flurry of questions. He reveled in the attention and may have concluded that he was a better spinmaster than he really was. As in 1966, his arrogance led him to a decision that did as much as anything the prosecution could present to lead to his conviction. He decided to speak for himself.
On February 12, 1993, in Judge Burdette's chambers, Kenneth McDuff's attorneys asked to be relieved of their duties as public defenders. Officially, they asserted that Kenneth was preventing them from presenting a viable defense. Burdette immediately denied their request. It had been difficult for McDuff's lawyers to work with him. McDuff continually interrupted the proceedings and second-guessed his attorneys. He did not understand the need to establish foundations for direct and cross examinations, and thus, got impatient with his lawyers when they did not ask the questions he wanted askedwhen he wanted. Against the unanimous advice of his defense team, Kenneth insisted on testifying on his own behalf. "I am fixin' to take the stand," he said in chambers. That was probably why his attorneys asked to be relieved. They may have had reason to believe that perjury was about to be committed. Judge Burdette decided to let McDuff take the stand to make whatever statements he wanted. That was just fine with the prosecutors from McLennan CountyJohn Segrest had a few questions in mind for Mr. McDuff.
23
For two and a half hours, Kenneth McDuff spun a tale of drugs, prostitution, and theft. The condensed version went as follows: he wanted a job in Victoria, Texas, and had an interview with a man whose name he could not remember. When the offer was withdrawn, he despaired and decided to leave Central Texas forever. During the early morning hours of March 1, McDuff stopped at a Love's Truck Stop where he met a man named Al. Alwho never materialized to back up McDuff's storyoffered to buy McDuff's car for $1,500 and a trade for Al's car, which
 
Page 308
McDuff alleged was stolenwhich also was never located. From Love's Truck Stop, McDuff and Al drove to Waco. At New Road in Waco, Al said the T-Bird had broken down. While they were working on the T-Bird someone in a gray car picked up Al and said they were going to get jumper cables. They left and never returned. Poor Kenneth was stuck with two cars, one that did not run and the other one stolen. He then testified that he threw his wallet and all identifying information with the name "McDuff" on the front seat of his car, took Al's car, and drove to his dorm room and went to sleep. (He added that he slept in his clothes.)
Throughout the testimony, McDuff's lawyer, Mike Charlton, tried to keep him on topic, but it was no use. Every attempt Charlton made was met by, "Well, let me explain," and followed by endless nonsense. It was as if McDuff felt that embellishing his lies with detail somehow made them the truth.
McDuff stated that from his dorm in Waco, he went south to San Antonio. It was there he claims to have gotten the fake identification he used in Kansas City From San Antonio he went to Austin. At that point into his testimony he launched into another long, irrelevant story Charlton tried again. "Did you ultimately leave the Austin area?" he asked in vain.
"Well, let me describe step-by-step what occurred," McDuff answered.
Judge Burdette cut him off by calling for a recess. When everyone returned, Burdette sighed and said, "All right, Mr. Charlton, I think you were making phone calls and leaving Austin."
From Austin, McDuff said, he went to Fort Worth, then to Wichita Falls, where he hitched a ride with a black truck driver who dropped him off in Lawton, Oklahoma. He slept under a tree in Lawton, awakened and walked to a bus station, where he bought a ticket to Oklahoma City. (He added that at the bus stop he mistakenly used the women's restroom.) In Oklahoma City, he slept in an abandoned burnt-out house (just like he claimed in 1966 while Roy Dale Green murdered three teenagers).
Mike Chariton tried again: "And from Oklahoma City where did you go?"
"Let me explain what happened in Oklahoma City," McDuff said.
Seated at the prosecution table, John Segrest thought to himself, "This guy won't shut up." But he knew the state was in pretty good shape. The more McDuff talked, the more he became a star witness for the prosecution. Segrest also noticed an unusual change in the jury. The courtroom
 
Page 309
had been set up so that the witness box was very near the jury When McDuff had been called to the stand the juror seated nearest him was a woman. When they returned after Burdette's break, all of the men had positioned themselves between McDuff and the ladies.
From Oklahoma City, he went to Tulsa where he worked in a carnival for one day. After that, he hopped a train he thought was headed for Arkansas, but he ended up in Kansas City, where a fellow train-hopper showed him how to get to the mission.
Once Charlton finally got him to Kansas City, he said, "I will pass this witness."
"Well, there's a few things I'd like to bring up, points we missed," McDuff added.
"We will go back over it later," Charlton answered as he took his seat.
24
At the end of each day of the trial, mobs of reporters converged on the principals of the event. After McDuff's testimony, Segrest shook his head and said, "If they believe this story, then we've wasted an awful lot of time and money here." Indeed, the defense produced nothing in the way of corroboration. Segrest continued, "I think he is an absolute liar. The only thing he can do to save himself at this point is to lie, and he knows how to do that."
"You witnessed what is a personal tragedy. You saw a man determined to tell his side of the story," Mike Charlton said about testimony he had hoped would not occur.
25
Under cross-examination, John Segrest deliberately dismantled McDuff. It was just like what Charlie Butts had done in 1966. All McDuff could do was answer "I had nothing to do about that," over and over again.
26
As the long trial came to a close, Crawford Long rose to begin closing arguments. He reminded the jurors of McDuff's arduous, incredible testimony. "I thought Mr. Charlton was never going to get him out of some of those towns." He also pointed out that the defense had a right to bring out witnesses supporting McDuff's character and reputation for telling the truth. "Folks, there wasn't one soul that testified in this trial that this defendant had a good reputation for truth and veracity." To McDuff's assertions that many prosecution points were "not reasonable," Long replied, "We don't have to allege he's a good criminal. We don't have to allege he's smart."
 
Page 310
In the whole McDuff saga, it was Crawford Long who left posterity with the single most erudite description of what Kenneth McDuff was. Raising his left arm and pointing to McDuff, Long shouted, ''I submit to you that the evidence shows that this defendant is every person's nightmare. The evidence shows that he's the monster that comes out of the dark and jerks innocent people off the streets and takes them out and slaughters them."
27
Closing arguments by the defense team focused on the tight time element and how improbable it was for McDuff to choose to go to a house and ask for food. But even Skip Reaves, a defense attorney, acknowledged that McDuff represented "all that we are afraid of, crime and violence." Then he committed what was surely a tactical blunder. He referred to the weakness of Pontius Pilate and asked the jury not to repeat those mistakes.
28
Crawford Long thought comparing McDuff to Jesus was strategically ill-advised and in bad taste. Mike Freeman could not believe what he heard. In his summation, John Segrest said simply, "I really do not want to compare this jury to Pontius Pilate and Kenneth McDuff to Jesus Christ. That is ludicrous." John went on to characterize the McDuff defense as the "ABM (Anybody But McDuff) Defense."
29
The jury deliberated four hours and found McDuff guilty. The first vote was eleven to one for a conviction. The sole hold-out, a truck driver from Pasadena, had to be convinced by the other jurors that McDuff had time to kidnap and kill Melissa, and that the woman who testified that she led McDuff a bowl of beans was credible. Segrest, Long and Freeman then prepared for the punishment phase. The trio became even more determined to put McDuff awayforever. "To paraphrase William Shakespeare's
MacBeth,
'We will lay it on McDuff and cursed be he who shall first cry 'Enough!' " said Crawford Long.
30
During the punishment phase, prosecutors called Roy Dale Green and Alva Hank Worley. Each riveted and disgusted everyone in the courtroom with their tales of horror. It took the jury sixty-five minutes to return a sentence of death for McDuff, making him the first prisoner in Texas history, and possibly in American history, to be sent back to death row after being paroled from death row. No other person had ever been given a
second
death row numberMcDuff's was 999055.
"Kenneth McDuff was a kidnapper, a rapist, and a murderer and he got what he deserved," said Mike Freeman, while wearing a red and black
 
Page 311
necktie with a tie tack in the shape of a hangman's noose. For John Segrest, the most memorable moment of the trial came after the death sentence had been read. Brenda and Richard Solomon, and Melissa's brother, Clay Leger, surrounded and hugged him.
31
As he was being led from the courthouse one last time, Kenneth McDuff tried to answer questions being shouted at him. "I guess I'm gonna die. We all do you know."
"How many people did you kill, Kenneth?" asked one reporter.
"None. Yet," said McDuff as he got back into the police van.
32
In 1966, Kenneth Allen McDuff had been convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Marcus Dunnam. He had never been tried for the murders of Louise Sullivan and Robert Brand. He got out of prison in 1989. In 1993, the McLennan County District Attorney put him away again. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle would not repeat the mistakes of the past. Two of his best assistants, Howard "Buddy" Meyer, and David Counts, prepared to bring McDuff back to court. McDuff was going to answer for the murder of Colleen Reed.
Image not available.
John Allen "J. A." McDuff, shortly
before his death in May of 1993.
Author's collection.

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