Texas v. David Graham
"The Cadet Murder Trial"
As in the Zamora trial, confessions are the key in the Graham case
(Court TV) -- David Graham told his former fiancee Diane Zamora that he would do anything to prove his love for her -- even kill for her. According to four witnesses at Zamora's trial this past February, she told them this when she confessed to killing her romantic rival, Adrianne Jones.
Now, approximately five months after Zamora's conviction for her role in 1995 murder of Graham's alleged former love interest, Adrianne Jones, Graham will learn whether his devotion to Zamora will cost him the rest of his life as a free man. And like his former fiancee, Graham's own confession -- as well as Zamora's confession -- hold the key to whether or not he will be convicted for Jones's murder.
Graham and Zamora were the unlikeliest of murderers. Zamora was a high school honors student who aspired to be an astronaut; at the time of her arrest, she was Navy midshipman at Annapolis. Graham had been always described by his friends and neighbors in Mansfield, Texas as a "perfect gentleman" who was a battalion commander for Mansfield High School's Junior ROTC program. Always seemingly destined for the military, Graham had just entered the Air Force in Colorado at the time of his arrest.
A mutual interest in military life first brought Graham and Zamora together. Although they first met in 1991 when they were both enrolled in an Air Force auxiliary training program, they did not start dating until August 1995. The relationship grew very intense immediately, and within a month, Graham and Zamora became engaged. Both of their families would later claim that they had an unhealthy obsession with each other. Some felt that Zamora was overly possesive of Graham; others felt Graham was overly possessive of Zamora.
The obsessive love between Graham and Zamora allegedly was tested by 16-year-old Adrianne Jones, a popular student at Graham's high school and his teammate on the school's cross-county team. According to Graham's confession, he and Adrianne had a one-time sexual encounter in his car when he drove her home after a weekend track meet in November 1995. Guilt-ridden over his infidelity, Graham soon told Zamora about his tryst. In his confession, Graham said that Zamora was so enraged about his affair that she demanded that he kill Jones.
The couple then participated in a plan in which Graham lured Jones to his car, and they drove to a remote Mansfield road. There, Zamora, who was hiding in the hatch of Graham's car allegedly snuck up behind Jones and tried to snap her neck. A struggle ensued in which Jones was bashed in the head with a weight. Jones ran out of the car, and Graham pursued her. He then fatally shot her twice in the head. Graham and Zamora then went to a friend's house to wash their clothes. Jones's body was discovered the next day by a farmer.
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Graham and Zamora could have gotten away with Jones' murder. Unsolved for nearly nine months, detectives did not have their first solid lead until Zamora told her two roommates and classmate at Annapolis about the murder. (The roommates approached Annapolis authorities with Zamora's story, and they contacted Texas authorities.) This soon led to Graham's arrest and subsequent detailed confession; Zamora was also arrested and allegedly confessed her role in the murder to investigators.
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David Graham: Pretrial hearings suggest that he may blame his former fiancee Diane Zamora for Adrianne Jones's murder.
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However, at her trial, Zamora denied actively participating in Jones's murder, blaming Graham entirely for Jones murder. She contradicted her confession, saying that Graham decided to kill Jones on his own. Zamora also said that investigators had coerced her confession by promising her a chance to talk to Graham and possible immunity from prosecution. When confronted with her alleged confession to her roommates and classmate, Zamora said they merely "misunderstood" what she had told them.
Jurors did not believe Zamora's story, convicting her for capital murder. She could not overcome a prosecution that was armed with her various confessions. Ultimately, Zamora convicted herself with her own words -- a scenario that Graham may also face at his trial.
As in Zamora's trial, a gag order has been issued for Graham's case. But Graham's various pre-trial hearings seem to suggest that his defense will focus on his veracity of his written confession to police and the methods by which the confession was obtained. During pretrial hearings where they unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the confession from being admitted at trial, Graham's attorneys argued police coerced his confession. Grand Prairie police allegedly told Graham that if he did not give them a written confession to accompany his verbal statements, they would seek the death penalty against him.
Graham's defense may also support its coercion theory by arguing that police ignored Graham's repeated requests for a lawyer during his 12-hour interrogation. Prosecutors, however, claim that Graham never asked for legal counsel but kept asking investigators, "If I ask for a lawyer, you will provide me with one, right?" Investigators say they asked Graham if he wanted a lawyer, but he felt he did not need one at the time.
During pretrial hearings, Dan Cogdell, Graham's attorney, suggested that a game of "good cop - bad cop" also forced Graham into making his statement. Allegedly, at one point during Graham's interrogation, Grand Prairie Detective Dennis Meyer and Air Force investigator Keith Kyle argued in front of Graham. Kyle allegedly told Meyer that he would "send his fat ass back to Texas." Kyle and Meyer refute this defense theory by saying their argument was real and that Graham confessed voluntarily; other investigators claim Graham willingly typed his confession himself. Nonetheless, despite claims by investigators, the "good cop - bad cop" references seem to suggest slight coercion.
However, Graham's coercion defense still appears to have several other holes:
- Graham's alleged other confession - During pretrial hearings, prosecutors surprised the defense by presenting a witness who claimed that Graham admitted being Jones's murderer hours after his confession to police. The witness, army staff sergeant Woodie Diamond, was working at the Fort Carson military correctional facility in Colorado on the night Graham gave his confession. While checking Graham into the facility, Diamond routinely asked him what he had done. Graham allegedly told him that he had committed murder. He also told Diamond that he had been read and understood his Miranda Rights. When Diamond asked Graham whether he had a lawyer, the defendant allegedly said, "No, I don't need one...I did it. I killed the girl."
Judge Don Leonard ruled that Diamond's testimony will not be admissible at trial because Graham's alleged admission to Diamond came while he was in custody, and he was not properly informed of his Miranda Rights before talking to Diamond. However, if the defense maintains at trial that Graham was repeatedly denied a lawyer or that he did not understand his rights during his confession, Diamond could still be called as a state rebuttal witness.
- Graham's post-arrest letters to Zamora - These letters, written by Graham to Zamora in the months following their arrest, were not admitted as evidence in Zamora's trial, but its excerpts were read to jurors. Used as part of Zamora's defense, these excerpts were incriminating to Graham and portrayed him as the driving force behind Jones's murder who was trying to persuade Zamora to cover-up his role in the crime. Ironically, this time around, prosecutors may try to use these letters to bolster their case against Graham.
"Don't tell them [prosecutors] anything...just trust me and wait in your cell for my instructions," Graham wrote Zamora. "I told them you wouldn't say anything against me, that you would take the death penalty for me...There's no way I'm going to jail while you walk free. Us spending 10 years in jail married is better than you going free and my spending 40 years in jail."
"I just want you to dedicated to me, to know that you'll do anything for me," Graham also wrote.
Excerpts like these would undermine any Graham defense attempts to shift the blame for the murder towards Zamora. However, conversely, Graham's defense could try to convince jurors that some of the excerpts suggest that Graham was trying to protect Zamora and that he may have been upset about possibly going to jail for her.
- The admission of Zamora's confession - Judge Leonard has ruled that Zamora's confession is admissible as state evidence at Graham's trial. In the statement, Zamora supports Graham's confession and says that he promised to kill Jones after admitting their alleged affair. The confession also names Graham as the actual triggerman in Jones's shooting. On the surface, the admission of Zamora's confession is devastating to Graham's defense. But, if Graham's defense attorneys plan to shift the blame for the murder towards Zamora, they could use excerpts of her confession to their advantage. In her confession, Zamora admits telling Graham that he had to kill Jones to atone for his infidelity. She even boasts that Graham "was not about to say no to me." Ultimately, in deciding Graham's case, jurors may have to decide who was the dominant partner in the Graham-Zamora relationship.
Graham and Zamora last saw each other during a pretrial hearing last fall. But it seems like they may be reunited during Graham's trial. His defense attorneys have indicated that they may call Zamora during Graham's trial to do a demonstration with the 9 mm Makarov pistol used to kill Jones. This may further suggest that the defense plans to blame Zamora for the murder.
The defense's suggestions that Graham made up his confession to police could receive support from a potential new witness who surfaced just prior to trial. A friend of Jones told prosecutors that she, not Graham drove Jones home on the night of the alleged sexual encounter between them. This would show that Graham had been lying about his affair with Jones and suggest that he was, perhaps, trying to protect Zamora. However, this potential new witness's testimony would spark a new question: If there was no love triangle, why would Graham and Zamora want to kill Jones?
Adrianne Jones's parents asked prosecutors not to seek the death penalty against Graham and Zamora. If convicted of capital murder, Graham faces life in prison and like Zamora, would not be eligible for parole until he has served 40 years. If Graham is convicted of a lesser crime, such as murder, he would face a punishment ranging between five and 99 years or life in prison, or probation. Graham would be eligible for parole in 30 years if he was convicted of murder.
After the Zamora verdict, Court TV commentator Joseph Tacopina said that Zamora's case ended with evidence her various confessions and that her explanation of those confessions made her defense "laughable." Surely, it will be no laughing matter for David Graham if jurors don't believe his explanation of his confession and send him to jail for perhaps the next 40 years.
-- Bryan Robinson
July 10, 1998 |
