Final hearing held before murder trial
NEW BOSTON, Texas—Final pretrial matters were discussed Thursday at a hearing in the case of Billy Joel Tracy, a Texas prison inmate facing the death penalty in the July 2015 beating death of a correctional officer at the Barry Telford Unit.
Tracy’s lead defense attorney, Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant, Texas, said he intends to supplement a previously filed motion for a change of venue in the case with additional arguments and copies of news articles after 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart said he is willing to rule on the issue. A jury of seven men and five women was seated earlier this month after weeks of jury selection. Two women will serve as alternates.
Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson, who also represents Tracy, said the defense would have stricken two of the existing jurors had Lockhart allowed them more “strikes” than the 17 they exercised during the selection process. Lockhart said the average
age of the jury is 48. He said the youngest juror is 24, that more than half of the jurors are college educated, and that the group is racially diverse.
Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said the state is working with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to quickly acquire employment records for witnesses expected to testify for the state who currently or formerly worked in prison units where Tracy has been housed. Crisp also addressed the matter of experts expected to testify for the defense in the event Tracy is found guilty and the trial enters a second phase to determine punishment.
“Are they qualified? Is this reliable science?” Crisp said. “We don’t even know what kind of hearing we’re having. Is this hard science? soft science? This could go on for days.”
Crisp said the state wants the opportunity to review reports such as “brain scans” and the underlying science on which the defense experts will base their testimony and opinions so that she can raise any challenges to their testimony before the punishment phase of trial begins. Both sides are entitled to question expert witnesses about their qualifications and the data, studies or theories, for example, on which they rely and seek a ruling from the judge as to whether the testimony should be admitted during the trial.
If the jury finds Tracy, 39, guilty, the court will have at least a couple of days to conduct hearings before the date for punishment testimony is scheduled to begin. Lockhart said Thursday that he expects the guilt-or-innocence phase of trial to take about a week. The punishment phase is scheduled to begin Nov. 1, in the event Tracy is convicted.
Tracy is accused of beating Correctional Officer Timothy Davison, 47, to death the morning of July 15, 2015, during a routine walk from a prison day room back to Tracy’s one-man cell in administrative segregation. Tracy, who had allegedly packed all of his personal belongings before walking out of his cell for an hour of recreation, attacked Davison after slipping his left hand free of its cuff. After knocking the officer to the floor, Tracy allegedly grabbed Davison’s metal tray slot bar and used it to pummel him. The attack reportedly was captured on video surveillance from multiple angles and is expected to be played for the jury during the first phase of trial.
Tracy’s prison history began in 1995 when he was sentenced to a three-year term for retaliation in Tarrant County, Texas. Three years later, Tracy was sentenced to life with parole possible, plus 20 years for burglary, aggravated assault and assault on a public servant in Rockwall County, Texas. In 2005, Tracy received an additional 45-year term for stabbing a guard with a homemade weapon at a TDCJ unit in Amarillo, Texas. Tracy was sentenced to 10 years in 2009 for attacking a guard at a TDCJ unit in Abilene, Texas.
The jury has the option of sentencing Tracy to life without the possiblity of parole or death by lethal injection.