by Don Bullis
―Mr. Wilcoxson. You may begin.‖
The Assistant District Attorney straightened his tie as he stood. He buttoned his coat and arranged a yellow pad on his table so that he could refer to it as he went along. He stood before the jury box and cleared his throat.
―Ladies and Gentlemen. We draw near the conclusion of a difficult trial, but one important to every citizen of Valencia County and New Mexico. Two stellar members of our community, Mr. Bud Rice and Miss Blanche Brown, were cruelly and mercilessly murdered, shot down with as little regard as Pontius Pilate showed when he washed his hands of Jesus Christ. Mr. Rice was a respected merchant and Justice of the Peace. Miss Brown devoted her life to educating our less fortunate friends, the Pueblo Indians. Both dead. Slaughtered.‖
Wilcoxson paced back and forth the length of the jury box. ―Nothing good can come of this tragedy, but at least we can all sleep at night knowing that we have the murderer of these people in our grasp. He sits in this room at this moment.‖
The DA moved easily across the room and stood before Billy Ray White. He stared into the defendant's eyes. Billy Ray met his gaze, unblinking. For a few seconds it seemed as if they were playing the old high school game of stare-down. Billy won when Wilcoxson turned back to the jury.
―The state has proven beyond any doubt that this man, Billy Ray White, or Billy Stirling, or Eric Kendrick, or whatever name he happens to use on any given day, committed these murders. We have shown you a chain of events beginning on November 16th, 1967, which provided the defendant with the car and the gun he used to commit these crimes. We have heard testimony in which the defendant admitted he ―wiped out‖ two people—Bud Rice and Blanche Brown—and he chose the right words. He wiped their lives from the face of the earth as though he had some diabolical right to do so. Then with great contempt for the lives he took, he complimented the gun he used to commit murder and complained of the paltry amount of money he was able to steal.
―My friends, there are no living witnesses to this miserable crime. There was one, but Nettie Buckley died two months ago and perhaps we should consider her the third murder victim in this case. The lord alone knows what the shock of Bud Rice's and Blanche Brown's untimely deaths did to her fragile soul.‖ Wilcoxson stopped and faced the jury box. ―But there is a witness who saw the perpetrator within minutes, no, seconds, of the time he did his killing. She suffered fear and anxiety as he repeatedly battered her with the barrel of his gun and forced her to surrender money and then he bound her with tape and gagged her and threatened to kill her, too. I submit to you that Flossie Rice will never forget the face of the man that put her through 20 minutes of pure hell and misery. That face will be with her for the rest of her life, and she has identified Billy Ray White as the man who committed these acts, unspeakable in a civilized world.‖
Wilcoxson walked back to his table and examined the yellow pad and then turned back to the jury. ―Ladies and gentlemen, there has never been a perfect case presented for trial, and there never will be one because cases are presented by people, and we are not perfect. There are always problems, and there are problems with this case, too. But they are minor and insignificant and I have personally never seen a case as compelling as this one is. Nothing detracts from the overwhelming preponderance of evidence that proves without any doubt whatsoever that Billy Ray White, while in the commission of an armed robbery, did shoot to death both Bud Rice and Blanche Brown. All I ask of you, ladies and gentlemen, is that you be as kind and considerate and understanding of Billy Ray White as he was of Bud Rice and Blanche Brown on the evening of November 18th, 1967. I am confident you will reach the right decision. Thank you.‖
―Are you ready, Mr. Pratt?‖
―Yes sir, I am.‖
―Fine.‖
Pratt put on his best smile as he faced the jury. ―I want to thank
you folks for your patience and attention and your good humor, too. I know it‘s not been easy to sit here, freezing one day and sweltering the next. But we're about finished up, and the final say will be yours. I hope I‘ve provided you with the information you need to make a decision that is consistent with the evidence presented over the past three and one half days.
―I think you‘ve probably learned this week that real trials are not like they‘re presented on the television where the entire matter is resolved in the period of an hour. You also need to know that in demonstrating the innocence of the defendant, the defense attorney has no duty to show who did commit the crime. I have attempted to point out what I feel to be overriding defects and inconsistencies in the state's case. The way the state went about prosecuting this case reminds me of the fellow who went about killing flies with a ball-peen hammer. He had the right idea but the wrong tool. The state has the right idea but the wrong man on trial.‖
Pratt hooked his right thumb under a suspender at belt level as he talked. ―Let's take a look at the state's case. It rests entirely on the testimony of three witnesses. One of them is a victim, and no matter how well intentioned, her previous wrong identification put another man, another innocent man, in jail for nearly three weeks. The other two witnesses are scoundrels. Criminals. Both of them admit being implicated in this crime and both of them combined to point the finger of guilt at an innocent man. Both have been promised immunity from prosecution in this case, and one of them gets immunity for any other crime he might have been charged with in the past. Based on the strength of the state's witnesses alone, a reasonable person could not avoid doubt. But let's review some additional facts.‖
One by one, Pratt made eye contact with each and every member of the jury and then did it over, and over, again. ―Let's begin with physical evidence, or rather the lack of it. Not one scrap of evidence exists that connects Billy Ray White to these crimes. No fingerprints. No shoe imprints. No hair samples. In short, there is absolutely no way the state can prove that Mr. White was ever inside the Budville Trading Post, on the night of the murders or any other time, and I suggest to you that he was never there.‖
Pratt moved to the end of the jury box and rested his hand on the rail. Each juror had a clear view of Billy Ray and the defendant also made regular eye contact with each of them. ―With any murder, the weapon used is of vital importance. In this case, we‘ve been shown a gun which the state says was used to commit these crimes. But what connects this weapon to Mr. White?‖ The lawyer picked up the gun. ―Well, one criminal, Joe Cato, is alleged to have provided it to the defendant and a second criminal, Dave Sipe, is alleged to have helped dispose of it. No fingerprints remained on the weapon when it was found so there is nothing to prove that the defendant ever held it in his hand. No evidence offered proves that this gun was actually used to take the lives of the victims in this case and this gun is certainly not the weapon Flossie Rice described in her original, and subsequent statements.‖ Pratt placed the gun on the defense table and covered it with a yellow pad.
He turned back to the jury. ―A major part of our defense is based on alibi and I'd like to examine that for just a minute. Lyle Bromer is not a convicted criminal. He‘s a man from an established family, and a decorated war veteran with an unimpeached background. He was specific and consistent in his testimony concerning Billy Ray White's whereabouts on November 18th, 1967, and that testimony was supported by a third party who was also present. Lyle Bromer has nothing to gain or lose by his testimony as do Dave Sipe and Joe Peters by theirs. The state, folks, alluded to the head injury Mr. Bromer suffered while in the service of his country, in Viet Nam, but it wasn't Lyle Bromer who was dealt with by hypnosis and psychoanalysis. And his comment that he was here to ―spring‖ Billy Ray doesn't carry the dire connotation the state would have you believe. He is simply here, as he said, to see to it an innocent man goes free.‖
Parker took a drink of water. ―Now then, there are a couple of quick points I‘d like to make. For one, Mrs. Rice said in each of her several statements that the robber wore tight pants, and she also said that he bound her with d
uct tape that he carried in his hip pocket. Looking at the tight pants young people wear these days, I doubt you could get a pack of chewing gum into a hip pocket, let alone a large roll of duct tape. And then there is the matter of the glass jar. Dave Sipe testified there was a large glass container, bloody and full of change, at Mr. White's apartment on Sunday morning the 19th of November, and yet no such container was taken in the robbery of the Budville Trading Post. He also testified that there were bloody clothes in the bath tub. They turned the water pink, he said. But Flossie Rice said the killer didn't have any blood on him. We‘re left with this question: where did the blood come from? Or was there, in fact, any blood to begin with? Equally important is that Mrs. Rice has stated from the beginning, from her original statement, that the killer had a tattoo of some sort on his stomach and yet she identified both Larry Bunting and Billy Ray White neither of whom has any such tattoo.‖
Pratt drank a half glass of water. ―During his remarks, Mr. Wilcoxson told you he‘d traced a series of events that began on the 16th of November in 1967; a chain which pointed directly at Mr. White. I suggest to you that this conspiracy may have originated on the 16th, but Billy Ray White was not a part of it. He left Albuquerque several days before that. Mr. White simply became a convenient scapegoat. And remember too, ladies and gentlemen, no testimony was offered here regarding the whereabouts of Dave Sipe, Joe Peters or Joe Cato on the evening of the 18th, even though Sipe and Peters admitted to complicity in the crime, and Cato is clearly implicated.
―Let me conclude with a thumbnail sketch of what happened in this case. Based on everything we've been told here, the nub of the thing is that the police investigation was about as poor as anyone could imagine. First off, the wrong man, Larry Bunting, was arrested and held for more than sixteen days while the forces of law and order focused all their attention on him until it became obvious he was innocent of the crime charged. No consideration had been given to the possibility someone else did the crime.
―As an aside, ladies and gentlemen, let me mention, too, that in the early stages of the Rice/Brown murder investigation, as many as fifty State Police officers, uniformed and plain-clothed, were assigned to the case. By comparison, when Decillano Montaño was murdered a mile from Budville in July, 1967, four months before the Rice/Brown killings, not a single State Police officer was assigned to the case. Sheriff Jack Elkins handled it alone. And when Eulogio Salazar was murdered up in Tierra Amarilla in January of 1968, six weeks after the Budville slayings, only seventeen State Police officers were assigned in one of the most high-profile cases in the history of the state. And yet we heard testimony that this case was handled like all other investigations. In fact this case received the full attention of about one fifth of the entire State Police department, and what was the result? You‘ve heard the saying, folks, ‗too many cooks spoil the soup,‘ well in this case, too many cops spoiled the case.
―For nearly two months after Mr. Bunting was released, nothing happened with the investigation and that's when it was decided that Mrs. Rice should undergo hypnosis and psychoanalysis to pull from the deepest recesses of her mind the true facts of the case. Such an unorthodox approach only muddied the water and accomplished absolutely nothing. Except for her mistakes and inconsistencies in identifying suspects, her many statements have not varied by five words over a period of sixteen months. Her presentation of the facts in this case is rote. When she is diverted from her memorized presentation, she becomes uncertain and forgetful. Her inability to positively identify the gun is an example.
―Then in February a year ago, Joe Cato, after being arrested for burglary, came forth and implicated Joe Peters a convicted thief and narcotics dealer, Dave Sipe, also a thief, and Billy Ray White. Cato, Peters and Sipe all agreed that Billy Ray actually did the foul deed, and the chase was on. Billy Ray ended up on the FBI‘s ten most wanted list. He was captured in Illinois last September and returned to New Mexico. In the six months since, the State Police have made no effort whatsoever to investigate Mr. White's alibi. You heard the District Attorney, Mr. Wilcoxson, object to two defense witnesses because he had not had an opportunity to interview them. The fact is he wasn't able to interview them in Albuquerque. He had six months to interview them in Missouri or Illinois and chose not to bother.
―The forces of New Mexico law enforcement simply rolled over and went to sleep after the FBI arrested Billy Ray White. There were other areas, other avenues, that might have been explored, but were not investigated. You heard FBI agent Madison testify that Bud Rice testified in a drug trial in Texas a short time before he was killed. Nothing indicates this avenue was pursued and I personally provided the authorities with additional information regarding that trial and some of people involved in it. Nobody, in this entire investigation, bothered to find out that Bud Rice carried a substantial insurance policy on his own life, and that he left a sizable estate, in both money and real property, to his wife. Any Dick Tracy crimestopper or junior GMan would ask the question.
―I've talked long enough, folks. This case is a travesty. It should never have been brought into a courtroom. The sad thing is that the man guilty of this crime will never be brought to justice. I thank you again for patience.‖
Frank Ziram faced the jury. ―Ladies and gentlemen, the matter now rests in your hands. In the hour or so that remains in the day, I suggest you retire and organize yourselves so that you can begin your deliberations promptly tomorrow morning. If any of you have questions regarding a point of law, tell the bailiff and he‘ll contact me. However, no testimony presented here will be repeated for you. Bailiff, please escort the jury to the jury room.‖
Seated at the defense table with John Cook, Pratt checked his watch fifty minutes later as the bailiff left the jury room, crossed the empty courtroom and knocked on the door of the judge‘s chamber. Ziram opened the door and didn‘t invite the bailiff inside.
―Yer honor,‖ the bailiff said, ―the jury wants to go ahead on deliberatin‘ for a while longer before they quit for the night. That be all right with you?‖
―How much longer?‖
―Another hour at the most, the foreman said to tell you.‖ ―They expect to reach verdict? Is that what you‘re suggesting?‖ ―I couldn‘t say, sir. He just asked for another hour.‖
―Tell them they can have it. I‘ll stay around. That all right with
you, Mr. Pratt?‖
―Yes sir, Judge. I‘ll be right here.‖
Ziram instructed the bailiff to inform Wilcoxson and he closed his
chamber door. Spectators seemed to sense that something was happening and by ones and twos they reentered the courtroom and took seats. Flossie Rice sat with the Cardiffs behind the prosecution table while Max Atkins stood at the courtroom door chewing gum and smoking a cigarette. No one spoke as the room filled. At five thirty, one hour and thirty-seven minutes after they left the courtroom, the bailiff knocked on Judge Ziram‘s door once more.
―Verdict, your honor.‖
―Round up the lawyers and get the defendant back up here. Court will resume in fifteen minutes.‖
Benches were jammed with spectators, shoulder to shoulder, and no standing room remained when the bailiff brought the jury into the courtroom. For so many people present, the room remained quiet; no one coughed or cleared his throat. No one whispered a speculation to his neighbor. The room seemed to hold its breath.
―I understand you‘ve reached a verdict. Is that correct, Mr. Forman?‖
Howard Coxie, a Negro man of middle age, stood up in the middle of the back row. ―That‘s right, Judge. We have.‖ He handed a folded piece of paper to a woman juror sitting in front of him and she passed it along to the bailiff who unceremoniously presented it to Frank Ziram.
The judge unfolded the paper. His facial expression gave nothing away. ―Mr. White, stand and face the jury.‖
Pratt and Billy Ray both stood.
The judge continued. ―Please say your verdict, Mr. Coxie.‖ ―We found hi
m not guilty, Judge.‖
Wilcoxson slammed his fist on the prosecutor‘s table. ―I demand a
poll of the jury, your honor!‖
―Very well, Mr. Wilcoxson,‖ Judge Ziram said. ―Does any member of the jury wish to indicate to this court a vote other than that just expressed by the jury foreman, Mr. Coxie?‖
No jury member responded.
Then one obscure spectator in a far corner of the courtroom clapped his hands together. Another joined in. And another until there was a round of applause.
Judge Ziram banged his gavel. ―That‘ll do! I‘ll have order while this court is in session.‖ Order was restored. ―The court thanks you for your time, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. Your work is done and you are excused. Mr. White, you are free to go.‖
Thus ended the case of the Budville murders. No one else was ever arrested or prosecuted.
ADDENDUM
After the verdict in the Billy Ray White trial was read, and Judge Ziram left the courtroom, Max Atkins jumped the rail, a long-bladed pocketknife in his hand. A crazed look in his eye, he kicked over a chair as he lunged at Parker Pratt. Arizona highway patrolman Clive Cardiff also leapt the rail and bar owner Joe Garcia barked his shins as he kicked open the gate in the railing. Cardiff grabbed Max by the collar and slammed him to the floor and Garcia stepped on the assailant‘s wrist and removed the knife from his hand before any damage could be done. No charges were filed. Don Wilcoxson refused. The Chief ADA claimed he hadn‘t witnessed any assault, and if an attack actually took place, Pratt probably had it coming.
Don Wilcoxson quit the District Attorney‘s office a year after Billy Ray White was acquitted. He entered private practice as a criminal defense lawyer. He died of emphysema in 1975.
Flossie Rice and Max Atkins were married in the summer of 1969. The day after the wedding before a Justice of the Peace in Grants, Flossie received a check in the mail from the New Mexico State Police in the amount of six hundred-thirty-six dollars.