Defense wants video of guard’s death withheld from jury
Inmate accused in beating death of correctional officer at Telford Unit
NEW BOSTON, Texas— Lawyers representing a Texas prison inmate accused of capital murder in the 2015 beating death of a correctional officer do not want surveillance videos that captured the killing shown to a jury.
The state is seeking the death penalty for Billy Joel Tracy, 39, in the July 15, 2015, death of 47-yearold Timothy Davison, a correctional officer who had been on the job less than a year when he was beaten to death with a metal tray slot bar at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Barry Telford Unit.
Tracy’s lead defense lawyer, Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant, Texas, recently filed a motion seeking to suppress videos of the killing and of Tracy recorded afterward.
At a pretrial hearing Friday at Bowie County Courthouse in New Boston, Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart her office is working to acquire a copy of a transcript of Tracy’s 1998 trial in Rockwall County that ended with a life sentence. Cobb and Crisp said the only copy they have managed to track down is in the Rockwall County District Clerk’s Office and must be manually copied.
Crisp said her office may need Lockhart to sign an order that will allow Rockwall County officials to release exhibits used in Tracy’s 1998
trial so that the documents can be used in the capital murder trial in Bowie County later this year.
Cobb’s motion complains the video that allegedly recorded Tracy killing Davison is distorted because of angle and perspective. He also argues that statements Tracy allegedly made after the attack were given without the aid of a lawyer.
According to a critical incident review report prepared by TDCJ staff, Tracy commented after the attack that “They didn’t know how dangerous I am.” He also allegedly told a warden who interviewed him at the TDCJ’s Coffield Unit near Tennessee Colony that he had no issues with Davison. The suppression motion is expected to be addressed at a hearing next month.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Sept. 13 and could take weeks to complete. Crisp and Lockhart agreed during a discussion on jury questionnaires on Friday that testimony likely will begin in mid-October.
Lockhart routinely has given Tracy the opportunity to speak at the end of his monthly pretrial hearings. Tracy declined to speak Friday.
According to TDCJ, Davison was walking Tracy back to his cell in administrative segregation from an hour of recreation in a prison day room when Tracy allegedly attacked. After reportedly knocking Davison to the floor, Tracy allegedly grabbed Davison’s metal tray slot bar and wielded it like a baseball bat to beat him before tossing Davison down a flight of stairs.
The alleged assault was over in less than two minutes.
Before reportedly locking himself in his cell, where he allegedly had already packed his belongings in expectation of a transfer, Tracy allegedly threw the bar at an approaching group of guards and doused the air with Davison’s pepper spray.
Tracy has a long history of violence both in and out of prison. He began serving two life sentences in Rockwall County in August 1998. Tracy was convicted of attacking a 16-year-old girl and of assaulting a police officer who tried to take him into custody. He also has received sentences of 45 and 10 years for attacking guards at other Texas prisons.
“Offender Tracy had 49 major disciplinary convictions on file, to include attempted escape, possession of contraband, possession of a weapon (multiple), staff assault with a weapon (multiple), offender assault with a weapon (multiple), tampering with a locking mechanism, refusing to obey orders, and creating a disturbance. His last major disciplinary was on April 22, 2014, for attempted escape,” the critical incident report states.
If Tracy is found guilty of capital murder in Davison’s death, a jury will have two sentencing options: life without the possibility of parole or death by lethal injection. llarowe@texarkanagazette.com