Testimony continues in capital murder trial
More defense witnesses are expected to testify this morning
NEW BOSTON, Texas— Testimony from defense witnesses is expected to continue this morning in the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial for a Texas inmate who killed a Barry Telford Unit Correctional Officer in 2015.
Billy Joel Tracy, 39, testified during the punishment phase of his trial that he used a piece of metal to defeat his handcuffs as Officer Timothy Davison, 47, escorted him from an interior recreation room back to his
cell in administrative segregation the morning of July 15, 2015. Tracy waited until the door to cell 66 opened and Davison looked away before attacking . After knocking Davison to the floor, Tracy grabbed the officer’s metal tray slot bar and struck Davison repeatedly in the head and face as the officer lay motionless.
Tracy’s jury has heard testimony from dozens of witnesses who’ve experienced Tracy’s violence first hand since the punishment phase of trial was convened Nov. 1 by 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart at the Bowie County courthouse in New Boston. Wednesday the jury began hearing testimony from witnesses for the defense, including a group of experts associated with a consulting firm called Mindset. The medical and scientific defense experts testified Tracy has a cyst in an area of his brain where structures responsible for regulating emotions and impulsivity exist. The experts testified that Tracy’s “broken brain” makes it impossible for him to “put the brakes on.”
Several of the defense experts have suggested that Tracy’s many years of prison living in administrative segregation have made him worse.
Forensic psychologist Mark Cunningham likened administrative segregation to “trench warfare” during his testimony Thursday and compared Tracy to a prisoner of war. Other defense experts faulted Davison, an officer with less than a year of experience, for not “double locking” Tracy’s handcuffs and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for not having a trio of officers in close proximity escort Tracy whenever he is moved about the prison.
The testimony led Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp to display a photo of Kasey Kuhn taken in 1998 as she lay in a Dallas hospital recovering from a near-fatal beating she received from Tracy when she was a 16-year-old girl living in Garland, Texas, and Tracy was a free man. Tracy climbed into Kuhn’s bedroom and assaulted her after she rebuffed his sexual advances.
Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards have questioned the experts about Tracy’s history of “plotting and planning” assaults on prison staff. The defense experts have explained that while Tracy is certainly capable in some areas, he is deficient in others, such as knowing when a fight is over, because of his “broken brain.”
The defense is expected to rest its case this week. Tracy’s jury is likely to hear testimony from rebuttal witnesses testifying for the state once the defense rests. Several medical and scientific experts are sitting through the sentencing phase of Tracy’s trial, taking notes as the defense’s experts testify. Once both the prosecution and the defense have closed, Lockhart will instruct the jury on the law they must follow. The jury will be asked to consider two questions, or special issues: “Do you find beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence in the future that present a danger to society?” and “Whether taking into consideration all of the evidence, including the circumstances of the offense, the defendant’s character and background and the personal moral culpability of the defendant, there is a sufficient mitigating circumstance or circumstances to warrant that a sentence of imprisonment without parole rather than a death sentence be imposed?”
A verdict on punishment could come this week.