Texas v. David Graham
"The Cadet Murder Trial"
Graham closings completed, defendant faces lesser included charges
NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS, July 23 (Court TV) -- David Graham's fate is now is the hands of the jury as the prosecution and his defense completed their closing arguments late this afternoon. Although there is a chance that Graham, like Diane Zamora could be convicted of capital murder, unlike his former fiancee, he faces lesser included charges that could result in less prison time.
But Dan Cogdell, Graham's defense attorney did not focus on any potential prison time for his client during his closing statement. He stressed to the 12-panel jury that the prosecution's case against Graham was full of reasonable doubt. If anyone, Cogdell said, has any doubt about the truth of the confession, whether it was coerced, or whether the physical evidence supports the confession, they must acquit Graham of the charges. The state must prove Graham's guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt. "
"Justice in this case is a reasonable doubt," Cogdell said. "Period."
Cogdell told jurors that prosecutors' theory about Adrianne Jones' murder had changed several times. First, he said, they believed that Graham had a one-time affair with Jones, and that set forward the events that led to Jones' murder. Then, Cogdell said, they theorized that Graham was so evil that he lied about an affair with Jones to anger Zamora, setting forward the events leading to the murder.
"We've seen a prosecution conducted like you or I might go to Wal-Mart: everyday, they [prosecutors] wanted you to buy something else," Cogdell said. "They want you to buy this, buy that. This isn't salesmanship. You can't guess your way into a life sentence."
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Defense attorney Dan Cogdell argued that David Graham's statement to police was coerced and did not support the state's physical evidence of Adrianne Jones' murder.
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Cogdell systematically attacked prosecutors' case by trying to using their witnesses' testimony against them. In response to the state's theory that Jones was hit in the head with a weight prior to her death, Cogdell said state medical examiner Marc Krouse testified that the injury was more likely caused by the butt of a gun. He also undermined the state's theory about the markings found on Jones's neck during her autopsy. Krouse thought that the mark was caused by a person significantly bigger than Zamora who used his or her left hand.
Cogdell also pointed out that Krouse said that the head injury Jones suffered would have knocked her unconscious. This, the attorney noted, discredited the theory that she ran out of the car after being attacked.
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However, Cogdell said, another state witness, Zamora's plastic surgeon Scott Kasden theorized that if Jones' attacker had used his right hand, he would have left marks on the left side of her neck. If the attacker would have used his left hand, there would have been marks on the right side of Jones' neck. Cogdell also reminded jurors that Kasden agreed with him when he suggested that an injured person with full use of only one hand (perhaps Zamora) could overcome another person by using a gun.
The defense also focused on the veracity of Graham's confession. Cogdell told jurors that his client's confession was like a Danielle Steele novel; it read like a piece of fiction because it was. And, Cogdell said, two state witnesses prove it. He said that Wendy Bartlett's testimony that she, not Graham, drove Jones home on the night of their alleged affair discredits any theory of a sexual relationship between Jones and Graham. "Why would she [Jones] have gone to meet him if they did not have an affair?" Cogdell asked. The defense was inferring that Graham gave investigators his allegedly false confession to protect Zamora, whom Cogdell believes killed Jones on her own.
Graham's confession, Cogdell insisted, was coerced by a staged argument between Grand Prairie Detective Dennis Meyer and Air Force investigator Keith Kyle. He also said that the Graham was intimidated into his confession by the "option" of the death penalty given to him by Detective Meyer if he did not give a statement. (If jurors believe Graham's confession was coerced or not taken properly by investigators, they could disregard it entirely.)
Cogdell also said that the testimony of Zamora's former roommate at Annapolis, Jennifer McKearney, further supports the inconsistencies of the confessions admitted at trial. According to McKearney, Zamora told her that on the night of Jones' murder, Graham went to Jones' house, and Zamora picked them up there. Zamora was in the driver's seat, never mentioning once, as in the other confessions, that she hid in the car's hatchback. This discrepancy, Cogdell said, also shows that there is reasonable doubt in the state's case against Graham.
In addition, Cogdell attacked the investigation into Jones' murder, calling the Grand Prairie detectives a "confederacy of dunces." He said that the evidence at the crime scene was contaminated and not preserved properly. Cogdell suggested that the crime investigation was botched from nearly its beginning.
The prosecution, however, said that Graham's confession -- and the physical evidence -- prove his whereabouts on the night of Jones' murder.
"Adrianne Jones was sacrificed at the alter of David Graham's ego, arrogance, and lack of humanity," prosecutor Michele Hartmann told jurors. "Make no mistake about it, you know where he was on the night of December 4, 1995. David Graham is a killer, a capital murderer."
The prosecutor also noted the confession clearly said the murder was planned. Hartmann said that the physical evidence corroborates Graham's confession and that the confession corroborates the physical evidence. That, the prosecutor said, means that Graham is guilty of capital murder.
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Prosecutor Mike Parrish said that Graham's confession was freely given and gave details about the murder that were previously unknown.
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Prosecutor Mike Parrish gave the rebuttal closing statement in response to the defense closing. He told jurors that Graham gave his statement to investigators willingly, emphasizing that the defendant took his time (1 hour and 45 minutes) to type the confession himself. Parrish stressed to jurors that Graham gave a detailed confession, noting the amount of times he shot Jones. Realizing that he neglected to indicate the location of the gun in his written confession, Parrish said, Graham even voluntarily told investigators afterwards that the murder weapon could be found in his father's attic. No one, the prosecutor said, forced Graham to confess. He said that Graham used the word "confess" at least three times in his statement.
Parrish also noted that Zamora told her former best friend, Kristina Mason about the details of the murder days afterwards and that nine months later, Graham's confession corroborated Zamora's. The discovery of Adrianne Jones' blood soaked in the cushion of the front car driver's seat supports the confessions of Graham and Zamora. And Parrish tried to diffuse the debate over whether Jones was struck in the head with a gun or weight by saying that Graham had clearly said Jones was hit with a weight in his confessions. The prosecutor mimicked the way investigators say Graham played a guessing game with them during his interrogation. He allegedly tried to make them guess what kind of weapon was used against Jones by saying it was "really dumb." Graham eventually revealed that the weapon was a dumbbell.
In addition to capital murder, jurors has been asked to consider lesser included charges of murder and aggravated kidnapping against Graham. The defense had also wanted the jury to consider aggravated assault and assault charges, but Judge Don Leonard rejected the request. Prosecutors had wanted the jury to consider only capital murder against Graham.
The jury in Diane Zamora's trial did not have the option of lesser included charges. Judge Joe Drago rejected Zamora's request for lesser included charges of murder or involuntary manslaughter, upholding the state's "all or nothing" strategy of having jurors consider only capital murder. Zamora was convicted and automatically sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.
Under Texas law, murder is the intentional killing of another. However, capital murder includes murder with an underlying felony of kidnapping, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or obstruction. The prosecution's theory is that Jones was kidnapped by Graham and Zamora by being deceptively lured by them into Zamora's car on the night of her murder. If Graham had not asked her out on a "date" then Jones would not have been in the car. Prosecutors also feel Graham committed obstruction he shot Jones so that she would not tell authorities about the attack on her in the car.
Graham will face the same punishment as Zamora if he is convicted of capital murder. However, if convicted of the lesser charges, he would face an array of sentences ranging from five to 99 years or life in prison or probation.
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