by Burl Barer
When Anthony Barder delivered Rhonda Glover to the rental agency, she picked up a Ford Taurus; Barder returned home. Rhonda ran her errands: visiting the firing range, buying ammo, killing Jimmy.
“When Rhonda came back to the house about four P.M.,” said Anthony Barder, “she told my wife, Duanna, that Jimmy had bought the house for a reason, and he invested in cloning. She said she hated Jimmy, and she hated Bush. She said she had been hiding from Jimmy. Rhonda had a place in Houston. She said she thought Jimmy was trying to stalk her or something. When Rhonda came back, she was wearing the same dress she had left in. I can’t remember what kind of shoes she had on. She stayed about an hour and left. This was still the same day, July twenty-first. She said she was going to a Christian place, possibly in Arkansas. When she came back to the house, her demeanor was calm, but she was vindictive about Jimmy. Rhonda said something about documents not being in the boxes in the garage. She said something about God had put documents in some boxes.”
Duanna Barder recalled her afternoon chat with Rhonda Glover as the content was exceptionally memorable. Glover, calm and composed, shared interesting observations about Jimmy Joste and President Bush. “She said Bush was a clone, and she was convinced that Jimmy was Lucifer. She hated Bush, and said she would bring him down. She also claimed that she had found DNA of Jimmy and another woman. She was totally calm while saying all this, and stayed about a half an hour. Rhonda began quoting Isaiah, something about a child out of wedlock and a woman who had never been married.”
Duanna Barder did her best to keep her jaw from dropping on the table as Glover confided astonishing stories about her church in Houston. “It was called the Secret something or other. Rhonda said this church had sent Navy SEALs to her house on a mission, and the SEALs became violently ill on the way there because there was so much evil. Rhonda said they would go in with guns, because there were people inside doing demonic things. Rhonda said she was going to a Christian place in Arkansas, and her church was funding the trip.”
Rhonda’s church, the Secret Place Church, not exactly flush with funds for a paramilitary operation, found this story hard to swallow. They had never sent SEALs—navy, Easter or otherwise—to Glover’s home, but Karol Kyro, emergency contact with the Secret Place Church, told police that Rhonda Glover had said something about setting Jimmy Joste on fire.
“Kyro was erratic during the conversation,” recalled Detective Walker, “and she jumped from topic to topic. She said that Rhonda had been drunk one night, and during the conversation she told Ms. Kyro that Jimmy was the Devil, and said something about the Devil being on fire. She said that when women killed men, it was because of the way men treated them. She said Rhonda was not happy with her situation. There were also some personal things Rhonda talked about with Ms. Kyro, but she was not going to talk about that. ”
Following her posthomicide conversation with the Barders, Rhonda Glover packed up her son in the giant RV. The lovely and enigmatic Rhonda Glover went on her way, wearing a peach sundress and open-toed shoes, and possibly wearing a wig or a weave. Her hair was dark brown. In her bag was a recently fired Glock 9mm handgun.
While Detective Walker and the other detectives were amassing as much information on Rhonda Glover and Jimmy Joste as possible, the postmortem examination by the medical examiner (ME) of the body of James Joste was performed at 3:00 P.M. on July 26, 2004, at the Travis County Forensic Center, Austin, Texas. Deputy Medical Examiner Elizabeth Peacock, M.D., at the request of and authorization of Chief Medical Examiner Roberto J. Bayardo, M.D., performed the autopsy.
“I am a licensed medical doctor in the state of Texas, and I am chief medical examiner for Travis County,” explained Bayardo. “In order to become a medical examiner—first, you must be a physician. Second, you happen to have training in pathology. And third, you have to have training in forensic pathology. I finished medical school in 1958. After that, I had one-year internship and four-year residency in pathology in order to become a pathologist. After ten years of practicing in pathology, I decided to go into forensic pathology, so I went back to school for two more years in order to become a medical examiner. I am certified with the American Board of Pathology as a specialist for the practice of anatomic, clinical and forensic pathology.
“As chief medical examiner my primary duty is to conduct inquests and investigations of any death that occurs in Travis County that is considered suspicious, unexpected or violent. We conduct autopsies in order to obtain information as to the cause of death, and in the examination of the deceased person, we follow several steps in doing that. First we have to identify the deceased, and describe whatever the body looks like. We go by the sex, race, height and weight, the color of the eyes, the hair color, and whatever scars or tattoos might be on the body. The next step is to look for any injury, such as stab wounds or gunshot wounds. We make a detailed description of the injury.
“The next step,” said Bayardo, “is to open up the body, including the chest, the abdomen and the head, and we remove the internal organs, dissect them and examine them, looking for any evidence of injury. Then we make a list of our findings, which we call our diagnosis. The last step is to render an opinion as to the cause and manner of death.”
Dr. Bayardo had personally performed over fifteen thousand autopsies in his career, and Deputy Medical Examiner Peacock followed the exact same protocol and procedure, as did Bayardo. “When you are looking at her work, it could be the same as my work,” acknowledged Bayardo. “The only difference being that she physically performed the autopsy.”
There was a rumor that there were African-American hairs found in Jimmy Joste’s pubic region, a rumor later promulgated by Rhonda Glover. This was simply not true. There were no strange hairs found on Joste’s “privates” during the autopsy. There was one hair on the upstairs carpet that had African-American characteristics. “These can easily be postmortem,” said Detective Walker. “They tend to float around, and can be transferred via the air-conditioning system. A single hair can be transferred from anywhere to a shoe, and then to a carpet, and be there for a long time.”
The body is that of a normally developed well nourished white male, whose appearance is compatible with the recorded age of fifty-five, stated Peacock in the autopsy report. When unclothed, the remains weigh 161 pounds and is 71½ inches long. Preservation is poor in the absence of embalming. There is advanced decomposition artifact with extensive skin slip, green coloration, and mummification of the fingertips.
The body of James Joste was photographed prior to autopsy. Crime scene specialist Lee Hernandez also took fingernail clippings, swabbed the hands and checked for hair and fibers. Joste’s clothing was cut off in a manner to preserve the bullet holes. There were a total of five holes in the shorts, and three holes in the shirt. “Most of Joste’s fingers were too decomposed to get prints off of,” said Hernandez. “Prints were retrieved from his right thumb, left thumb and index finger. ”
X-rays of Joste were taken prior to Dr. Peacock beginning the autopsy, and there were bullets seen in the X-ray. Some were possible fragments. Dr. Peacock narrated that she found six holes in Joste’s right elbow from three bullets, entry and then exit. She retrieved five bullets from the body, and labeled each with a brief description of where they were retrieved as follows:
Bullet #A: Right lung—traveling upward
Bullet #B: Left side lower torso
Bullet #C: Left side mid torso
Bullet #D: Left pelvic bone
Bullet #E: Lower left abdomen
The bullets went through and damaged the following organs: spleen, heart, liver, both lungs and the aorta. Joste’s body was X-rayed again in an attempt to locate the last bullet, and the X-ray showed it to be in the dissected organs. Dr. Peacock and assistant Mechum tried for a long time to locate the last bullet with negative results. “Let it sit until tomorrow,” Peacock told Mechum, “and try again with fresh eyes.”
“When Dr. Peacock collects a bullet out of the
body, it is taken to a place where it can be photographed, and where the lightbulb won’t drown it out, and then it is documented,” Walker explained. “Dr. Peacock usually puts them in separate envelopes and marks like A, B, C, D and E. Once Dr. Peacock does that, the envelopes are placed in our evidence room.”
On Tuesday, July 27, 2004, the last bullet was located in the dissected organs, and was collected by the Austin Police Department Crime Scene Unit. Following the autopsy of the decedent, detectives went to the medical examiner’s office and took custody of the inked prints taken from the fingers of Jimmy Joste.
Peacock ruled the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds, and the manner of death as homicide. All information was turned over to Detective Walker, the case agent. The investigation was now moving at freeway speeds. Less than thirty-six hours after Janice Van Every called the police, detectives had put together a theoretical timeline of Glover’s activities from the day before Joste was shot until her aunt called the cops. As for Rhonda Glover’s mother, Sherlyn Shotwell, she called Detective Walker the very next day at 9:40 A.M.
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“No one in the family has heard from Rhonda since February,” said Sherlyn Shotwell. She explained that Rhonda had been diagnosed in 1999 with bipolar disorder, and again diagnosed with mental illness in 2004. Rhonda Glover received inpatient treatment at more than one medical facility in both California and in Texas.
Shotwell told the detectives that she believed both Rhonda Glover and Jimmy Joste were involved in drugs because they were “out of their heads,” and they had various paranoid delusions. Shotwell indicated that Rhonda kept journals, that Jimmy and Rhonda were together, on and off, for fifteen years, and that they engaged in “mutual assaults.” Shotwell provided a description of Rhonda’s son, offering to send along a photograph.
“I became so concerned about her, and the safety of my grandson, that I went to Austin from Houston to personally see for myself that Ronnie was okay.” The motivating factor for urgent action was a strong suspicion, confirmed by a friend of Glover’s in San Antonio who called Rhonda’s father, that Rhonda was off her medication and back into illegal drugs.
“I became seriously concerned about her in spring of 2003,” said Shotwell. “Rhonda went to visit a friend in San Antonio, and during that time Rhonda had conversations with her friend about Ronnie being the Second Coming of Christ, and that she—Rhonda—was Mary, Mother of Jesus.”
The first thing she did was contact the Austin Police Department and Child Protective Services (CPS). “I made both agencies aware of my concerns,” she recalled, “and the police department went there that day. They came back and determined that because my grandson was not physically harmed and looked like he had been fed that he was apparently safe, and they came back and said that he was safe.”
Tricia Haverin was employed as an investigator with Child Protective Services; she visited the Joste/Glover household on November 13, 2003. “My job is to investigate in response to reports from the community—to respond to allegations from people who express concerns about the safety and welfare of a child.
“Normally,” explained Haverin, “we will attempt to contact the school-age child outside of the home first, where he is in a more comfortable environment. In this case Ronnie was not in school, so I went directly to the home and spoke with him outside the presence of his parents. After speaking with him, I spoke with each of the parents individually.
“When I spoke to the child,” she recalled, “all his responses to questions were appropriate, and they were not in any way delusional or bizarre. At that point he seemed pretty normal and healthy. In fact, when I went on to speak with his parents, things started off seemingly fine and normal. But then, toward the end of the conversation, things suddenly turned. By ‘turned,’ I mean that the things they were saying turned into more and more delusional comments.”
What triggered the sudden transformation was Haverin coming right out and asking Rhonda Glover, “Do you believe that your son is Jesus Christ?” She asked this because it was “a concern” noted in the original report to CPS from Rhonda’s mother.
“Rhonda actually seemed very surprised that I knew this information, and she called Mr. Joste into the room. From that point on, I was dealing with both of them at the same time in the same conversation.”
According to Haverin, Joste and Glover continually interrupted each other during the course of the interview. “When he came in, I continued speaking directly to Rhonda,” she recalled, “and she was telling me that her mother was from hell, and that her mother had mental-health problems, but she just needed to drink water. Glover insisted that all of the blood and guts from September eleventh had come into our water system, and it was poisoning everyone outside of their home. Joste joined in, and they both talked about their home being on a purified water aquifer, and in looking around the house there were probably eight to ten glasses of water set around the room, some full, some empty.”
In the course of the conversation, Joste and Glover talked simultaneously about water and Jesus and the Second Coming. “I became more and more concerned,” admitted Haverin. “Rhonda did most of the Jesus talk, while Jimmy mostly wanted to talk about the curative power of the water. That was his big thing—the water. I spoke to them as a couple for about a half an hour.”
By the end of the interview, the woman from Child Protective Services was seriously concerned. “I was convinced that Rhonda Glover and Jimmy Joste were delusional. I made my report and brought the entire matter to the attention of my supervisor at that point regarding the safety of the child.
“We made this case a high priority,” continued Haverin, “and maintained contact with the maternal relatives. We were going to take custody of the boy….”
The situation was such that the agency itself was prepared to remove the child and accept responsibility for him. Despite having an opportunity to speak about water and the Second Coming, Rhonda and Jimmy were angry at Shotwell for bringing in the authorities.
“I was concerned about Jimmy Joste’s mental state,” confirmed Sherlyn Shotwell. “I tried to get people to intervene to help him. I called his brother, Kelly Joste, and Jimmy’s banker, and Mr. Mike Cook. These were all people that I knew who had a personal interest or involvement with Jimmy Joste. I made them aware of the conversations I had where Jimmy was saying that Ronnie was Jesus Christ and he could bring the stars and the moon down from the sky into the living room, and that people were hiding in the park across the street to kidnap him, agents from the government because of Ronnie being Jesus Christ, and they wanted to kidnap him.”
At the end of the CPS investigation, a caseworker wrote: The parents’ capacity to care for [the child] is questionable due to their bizarre behaviors. Parents have made references that the child is the “next coming” “Lucifer” and “Jesus Christ.” Although parents did not overtly state that they would physically harm the child, the parents’ unclear statements and behaviors place the child at potential risk of harm. The report ended with the following conclusion: Child is unprotected.
Sherlyn Shotwell was still at the Austin Police Department when her cell phone rang. It was Rhonda Glover and Jimmy Joste. “I put my phone on speaker phone, and Rhonda made statements again that my grandson was the Second Coming of Christ, and she made threats. She said that her life—all their lives—would be in danger because I sent the police to their home, and my life was in danger as well. Well, all this made me even more alarmed and concerned. I was also very frustrated that nobody seemed to be able to do anything to address this problem.”
Shotwell contacted an attorney. “My plan was to take custody of my grandson,” acknowledged Glover’s mother. “It was Friday at the police station, and I came home Friday night to get in touch with an attorney because they were not going to do anything over the weekend. I filed for custody of Ronnie on the following Monday. In fact, I brought him back with me to Houston from Austin, and Rhonda followed me back to Houston and decided to
live in Houston, take up residence there, and Rhonda and I did make a deal, or an arrangement, on the custody issue,” explained Glover’s mother, referring to their joint court appearance on December 18, 2003. “Ronnie could stay with Rhonda as long as she took regular drug tests, kept the child in school and didn’t take him out of Harris or Montgomery Counties.”
There was more to Shotwell’s plan than simply assuring the safety of young Ronnie. She also wanted to help her daughter receive appropriate help for her disquieting delusions. Rhonda complained of injuries supposedly sustained by the brutal treatment of Jimmy Joste, so her mother convinced her to make a visit to the emergency room (ER) of Woodlands Hospital.
“What I really wanted was for her to have a psychological evaluation, as well as a drug evaluation. While she was at Woodlands, she had X-rays on her arm and back.”
The reason for the X-rays, and the excuse used by Sherlyn Shotwell to get her daughter to the hospital, was Rhonda’s insistence that Jimmy Joste had harmed her. Once there, Rhonda Glover spent one evening before being admitted to Rusk State Hospital, where she was treated for cocaine-induced psychosis, paranoia, delusions and possibly bipolar disorder.
“Rusk State is a well-known mental institution here in Texas,” said Travis County deputy prosecutor Bryan Case. “It isn’t something that needs to be explained to the average Texas resident. Just about everyone knows that Rusk is the hospital for the care and treatment of people with mental-health issues.”
“Rhonda Glover had involuntary commitment to Rusk, but they couldn’t keep her for long,” commented Fred Wolfson. This wasn’t the first time Rhonda Glover had been institutionalized for either drug addiction or mental illness. “These are not character defects,” commented Leonard Buschel, a licensed substance abuse counselor and founder of Writers in Treatment. “Both mental illness and chemical dependence are regarded as medical issues, and medical conditions are not against the law.”