Tracy sentenced to death
Inmate’s lengthy history of violence gives jury cause to recommend ultimate punishment in jailer’s death
NEW BOSTON, Texas—A Bowie County jury deliberated just over an hour Wednesday morning before sentencing Texas prison inmate Billy Joel Tracy to death.
Tracy, 39, will face the ultimate punishment in the July 15, 2015, fatal beating of Barry Telford Unit Correctional Officer Timothy Davison.
“The evidence you’ve seen in this trial could not be more horrible,” said Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp, who led
who led the prosecution. “Today is judgment day for Billy Joel Tracy. If Billy Tracy is not deserving of the death penalty, then who is?”
The jury had to consider two questions, or special issues, in arriving at Tracy’s sentence: “Whether beyond a reasonable doubt there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat 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.”
The jury unanimously answered “yes” to question one and unanimously answered “no” to question two. Each of the nine men and three women on Tracy’s jury was polled after 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart read the jury’s answers. Lockhart formally sentenced Tracy to death. A packed courtroom watched in silence, some of them with hands over their mouths, as Lockhart released the jury. Davison’s brother, niece and sister-in-law sat surrounded by Texas Department of Criminal Justice staff as the trial ended.
“I’m relieved but there will always be a big void for his children and for the rest of us,” Ken Davison said. “I am so thankful for the whole team of prosecutors. No other verdict would’ve done. Justice has been a long time coming.”
Ken Davison’s daughter, Renda DiBrizzi, said she still grieves.
“My uncle didn’t deserve this. This guy is going to get what he deserves,” DiBrizzi said. “I just pray nothing happens while we’re waiting.”
Tracy attacked Timothy Davison, 47, as he opened the door to cell 66 and briefly turned his gaze. After knocking Davison to the floor, Tracy grabbed the officer’s metal tray slot bar and wielded it like a hammer, striking Davison repeatedly in the head and face after he lost consciousness. Tracy took Davison’s pepper spray before throwing him feet over head down the stairwell. As a group of Davison’s fellow officers approached, Tracy fouled the air with the chemical agent and retreated to his cell. A member of the fiveman extraction team that entered the cell to remove Tracy was bitten.
During the trial, Tracy’s jury learned that he has been regularly violent from a young age. The jury heard of planned and calculated attacks on officers at Texas prisons across the state.
Tracy was serving two life sentences plus 20 years assessed by a Rockwall, Texas, jury in 1998 for an assault on a 16-year-old girl, an assault on a police officer and a residential burglary. Before he could be transferred from the Rockwall County jail to a Texas prison, Tracy nearly shot jailers there during an escape attempt.
In 2005, Tracy received multiple 45-year terms for repeatedly stabbing Correctional Officer Katie Stanley at the Clements Unit in Amarillo. After using a weapon fashioned from four razor blades to slash and permanently scar the face of Correctional Officer Brianlee Lomas in 2009 at the Robertson Unit in Abilene, Tracy received an additional 10-year term. In 2014, Tracy was caught trying to escape from the Hughes Unit in Gatesville, Texas, and was moved to the Telford Unit.
“Officer Timothy Davison was brutally murdered while simply carrying out his job protecting the public,” said Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Bryan Collier, who was in court when Tracy’s sentence was pronounced. “The actions of this offender robbed the world of a father, son, friend and co-worker. While nothing can bring him back, it is my hope the jury’s decision will provide some level of closure for his family and friends and his colleagues at the Telford Unit. I greatly appreciate the work of the Office of Inspector General, TDCJ staff, Bowie County District Attorney’s Office and many others who worked tirelessly to see that justice was done in this case.”
Dozens of witnesses testified Tracy was a troublemaker and a daily problem for prison staff. But at times, Tracy would follow prison rules for long stretches when it benefited him to do so or when he was plotting an attack and wanted to catch a victim off guard. The state argued that Tracy is an incorrigible person with a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder who will continue to murder and maim if he is allowed to live.
“The state of Texas will never bring you a stronger case for the death penalty,” argued Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards.
Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told the jury that someone will be sentenced to death at the end of Tracy’s trial.
“Will it be another correctional officer with TDCJ, or will it be Billy Joel Tracy?” Crisp asked. “You decide.”
Defense experts and Tracy’s defense team, Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant and Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana, argued that Tracy suffers from a “broken brain” compounded by a horrible childhood and years in administrative segregation.
“He didn’t choose this kind of brain. Billy had bad nature and bad nurture,” Harrelson said.
Crisp argued that giving Tracy a sentence of life without parole would be akin to not punishing him at all in light of the multiple sentences, some consecutive to the original life terms, he was already serving.
Bowie County District Attorney Jerry Rochelle expressed his condolences to Timothy Davison’s family and to TDCJ for their loss. Rochelle offered praise for the jury, prosecutors Crisp and Richards and Investigator Aaron Ragland of the District Attorneys Office and to TDCJ for work on the case.
“Let there be no doubt that the verdict was not only fair, but just,” Rochelle said. “The jury had a challenging job and handed down the only sentence warranted by the evidence presented.”
After advising Tracy that the state will pay for lawyers to represent him as he appeals his death sentence, Lockhart mentioned to Tracy that he might want to consult Numbers 35:16 in the Bible.
“If you don’t know it,” Lockhart said. “Look it up.” llarowe@texarkanagazette.com