Texas v. David Graham
"The Cadet Murder Trial"
Zamora's mother says daughter never told her about the murder before her arrest
NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS, July 17 (Court TV) -- Although she did not testify at her daughter's trial last February, Gloria Zamora, the mother of Diane Zamora, was called to the stand to testify against David Graham, and she said Diane never told her about her involvement in Adrianne Jones' murder before her September 1996 arrest.
Mrs. Zamora testified that Diane and Graham started dating in August 1995, saying at one point that "I didn't see much of her after he came into her life." About a month after they had become a couple, Diane and Graham announced their engagement. Mrs. Zamora admitted that Diane's relationship with Graham was her most intense at point in her life. Although they attended different high schools, Diane and Graham spent time with each other every day.
Under direct examination by prosecutor Mike Parrish, Mrs. Zamora said her daughter drove a 1993 Mazda Protege but was involved in a serious accident while driving Graham's pickup truck in September 1995. Three of the fingers on Diane's left hand needed reconstruction, and she had to undergo physical therapy.
She talked about how Diane received her recommendation for the Naval Academy at Annapolis and how she rehabilitated her hand to enable her enrollment in the Navy. Mrs. Zamora told the court that Graham often slept at Diane's bedside following her hospitalization after the accident. He drove her Mazda when they would go out and accompanied her to her physical therapy sessions.
Mrs. Zamora said that it was common for Diane and Graham to spend the night at each other houses (Graham would sleep over at the Zamora household more often than Zamora would at Graham's house.) According to Mrs. Zamora, Diane did not sleeping over at Graham's house until June 1996. (However, defense attorney Dan Cogdell corrected the witness and showed her that Diane actually slept over at Graham's house along with her younger brother for the first time in January 1996.)
In September 1996, after her enrollment at Annapolis, Diane contacted her mother and said she was returning home because she was facing a disciplinary procedure at school. According to Mrs. Zamora, shortly after arriving at the airport, Diane told her about her intent to visit Graham, who was now stationed at the Air Force academy at Colorado. Mrs. Zamora never objected to Diane's announcement and said her daughter was focused on seeing Graham.
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During her direct examination, Mrs. Zamora said that, to her knowledge, Graham had never bought Diane a gun, and she had never seen Diane holding a handgun.
On cross-examination, Cogdell had Mrs. Zamora admit that Graham accompanied Zamora to her physical therapy the majority of the time while she saw her daughter's sessions some of the time. She admitted that she was not sure what kind of movement Diane had regained in her left hand by late November - early December, the time of Jones' murder. Mrs. Zamora agreed that Diane was athletic, worked out with weights, and kept herself in good shape. When asked by the defense whether Diane was a strong-minded person, Mrs. Zamora said, "She worked very hard at what she wanted." The witness also said that Graham was always respectful to her family.
When asked about whether Diane's discussions with her about Adrianne Jones' murder, Mrs. Zamora told the defense that Diane never told her about her link to the murder before her arrest. In addition, Mrs. Zamora told the prosecution on re-direct examination that Diane has "discussed the case some" since her arrest.
Before Mrs. Zamora took the stand, Jennifer McKearney, Diane's former roommate at Annapolis, testified. McKearney, who also testified at Zamora's trial, said that Diane told her that Graham had "killed a girl" while they were in high school.
"She said the girl had slept with David, and in order to make up for it, he had to kill her," McKearney said.
McKearney said that Diane made it very clear that Graham pulled the trigger on Jones. The witness also testified that Zamora told her that they had planned Jones' murder. According to McKearney, Diane also said that she had told her parents about her involvement in Jones' death. McKearney had no understanding of where Jones had been shot. She and another roommate reported Diane to a navy priest, who subsequently contacted Naval authorities. This sparked the events leading to the arrests of Graham and Zamora.
According to McKearny, this was Zamora's story: Graham went to Jones' house. A while later, Zamora picked him and Jones up in her green Mazda. She drove, Graham was in the front passenger seat, and Adrianne was in the back (this contradicts the confessions by Graham and Zamora). At some point, Zamora told McKearney, she dragged Jones out of the car into a field, and Graham shot her twice. During the incident, Zamora was the level-headed one, and Graham was panicking. When Graham and Zamora left Jones, she was still alive. According to McKearney, Zamora never suggested that she had hidden in the car's trunk.
Jeffrey Alcorn, a Naval paralegal who helped search Diane's room following her arrest, testified that he found datebook calendar with an arrow pointing to the date of Jones' death and the notation "Adrianne 1:38 am." (The time noted is the precise time Jones was murdered.) Another datebook belonging to Zamora with the same notation also was introduced into evidence by Grand Prairie forensic investigator Donald Swanz .
Swanz was one of the officers who searched Graham's home and seized the murder weapon. The gun was wrapped in a tee-shirt, duct tape, and three plastic bags. Swanz provided some surprise testimony. In the Zamora trial, he testified that he was not wearing gloves when collecting the evidence. However, today Swanz said he told prosecutors that he wanted to change that story. He now said he was, indeed, wearing gloves.
Swanz changed his testimony was because he talked to the other officers who were with him at Graham's house, and they assured him that he did wear gloves. In fact, he passed some along to him. So Swanz went from being certain that he was not wearing gloves to being certain that he was. Defense attorney Cogdell used this uncertainty in Swanz' testimony to suggest that he had a memory problem and to cast doubt on the witness' credibility.
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