Texas v. David Graham
"The Cadet Murder Trial"
Trial opens as questions arise over alleged sexual tryst between Graham and Jones
NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS, July 15 (Court TV) -- The trial of David Graham opened with both the prosecution and the defense raising questions about the sexual encounter between Graham and Adrianne Jones that led to Jones' death.
Prosecutors had said they were not sure whether the sexual encounter had occurred and maintain that view in opening statements. However, Graham's defense said that Graham's fiancee, Diane Zamora, made up the sexual encounter.
Jones' high school cross-country coach, Lee Anne Burke, and her friend, Wendy Bartlett, gave testimony that supported the state's claim that Graham lied about his tryst with Jones. The state maintains that Graham told Zamora the tryst occurred after a cross-county meet the first weekend of November 1995. In his confession, Graham said he and Jones had an encounter in his car as he drove her home from the track meet. This alleged affair angered Graham's then-fiancee Diane Zamora and set forward the events leading Jones' murder.
Burke testified that after the track meet that weekend, Jones did not go home right away and helped her put away some of the track equipment. The coach also testified that another male member of the team, whom she was "100 percent" sure was not Graham, also helped store away the equipment. Bartlett, who had been billed as a "surprise witness" in the case, said that she, not Graham, drove Jones home on the night of their alleged romantic encounter.
The testimony of Burke and Bartlett support the contention that Graham did not take Jones home on the night in question. In his opening statement, prosecutor Michael Parrish characterized Graham as being so malicious and controlling in his relationship with Zamora that he told her about an alleged affair with Jones and helped her carry out the murder. However, defense attorney Dan Cogdell believes their testimony supports his theory that Graham's written confession to police was made up, that he never participated in Jones murder, and that he was trying to protect Zamora.
In his openings, Cogdell portrayed Zamora very jealous woman who constantly accused Graham of infidelity. Zamora, Cogdell said, created scenarios in which Graham would cheat on her and his client would deny the accusations. She insisted Graham had had an affair with Jones and insisted that the 16-year-old could not come between her and Graham. Cogdell told jurors that Graham was not even present when Jones was killed and said that Zamora carried out the murder on her own. Graham, he said, was worried that Zamora would harm Jones and called the victim the night before her murder to warn her. Graham, the defense says, told Jones to tell Zamora that "nothing is going on between them."
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On the night of Jones' slaying, Cogdell told jurors, Graham found out that Zamora had killed Jones and vowed to her that if they were caught, he would confess to the murder. "If Graham's confession sounds like a piece of fiction, that's because it is," Cogdell said. "Zamora's confession is all over the place. It varies. The truth doesn't vary."
Prosecutors succeeded in linking the weapon used to kill Jones, a 9 mm Makharav pistol, to Graham. Forest Day, a Grand Prairie auto dealer, testified that in late October 1995, he discovered that his briefcase containing the gun had been stolen. I turned out that Day's nephew, Nicholas, had stolen his briefcase, hoping to find money so that he could run away to Montana. (Day had testified that sometimes on business trips he kept the gun and a lot of money in the briefcase. Nicholas was aware of this.) Nicholas, a classmate of Graham who was also a member of the ROTC, said on the stand that he sold the gun to Graham so that he could acquire money for his runaway to Montana. He never told Graham that the gun was stolen. Graham told him that he was buying the gun "for a friend."
Nicholas said did not tell his family that he had stolen the gun until late December 1995. Around that time, he asked Graham to give the pistol back. Graham eventually told Nicholas that he had given the gun to a friend and could not get it back. When Nicholas Day learned about Graham's arrest in Jones' murder nine months later, he contacted an attorney. During cross-examination, the defense tried to question Nicholas' credibility by asking him whether prosecutors had made a deal with him in exchange for his testimony against Graham. But Nicholas said that prosecutors never suggested any deals for his testimony and never suggested that he would not be prosecuted for the gun theft. (Nicholas is currently on probation for the gun theft. He also stole a gun from his brother in September 1995 and sold it to Graham, again never mentioning that it was stolen.)
Linda Jones, Adrianne Jones mother, also testified and emotionally told jurors that her daughter received a call the night of her murder and told her it was "David from the track team." According to Mrs. Jones, Adrianne said that Graham was upset and described her daughter as "very antsy" that night. When she discovered that Adrianne was missing the next morning, Mrs. Jones said she called the high school and asked Adrianne's track coach, Lee Anne Burke, who was "David from the track team." Burke testified that Graham was the only David on the track team, and once she received the call from Jones, she asked April Grossman, Adrianne's friend and teammate, to find Graham and ask him if he had talked to Adrianne the previous night.
Grossman testified that when she found Graham, he denied talking to Adrianne and told her that he would contact her if he heard about her whereabouts.
Roberta Porter was the final witness called for the day. Porter, who used to be a police officer, was dispatched to the crime scene where Jones was found, and she took photographs of the evidence. She was then called back to the scene again, and a detective handed her more evidence: shell casings which had been found. These casings were handed to Porter wrapped in cellophane from a cigarette pack. This upset Porter because she knew that that could not have helped preserve the evidence. Porter could not say how Adrianne Jones' hair got attached to the barbed wire fence near where her body was found, but it could have been from Adrianne running through or into the fence. Porter identified many crime scene photos, including graphic ones of Jones' body.
Testimony resumes Thursday morning.
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