Testimony shows no physical evidence found linking suspect to murder scene
San Jacinto News Times - December 2007

COLDSPRING – Graphic pictures and testimony linking a father and his two children to the brutal murder of Willow Springs resident Murray Burr unfolded Tuesday as the capital murder trial of Richard Winfrey Sr. got underway.
The jury of eight men and four women was picked Monday and opening statements by San Jacinto County Criminal District Attorney Bill Burnett and Defense Attorney Steven Taylor opened Tuesday’s proceedings.
Richard Winfrey Sr. sat calmly, listening intently with little expression as Burnett told of Burr’s body being found by his sister on Aug. 7, 2004, “brutally and senselessly beaten and stabbed to death” in his Willow Springs mobile home.
“A large amount of evidence was gathered at the scene by the Department of Public Safety Crime Lab that will show two people surfaced as suspects early in the investigation – Megan Winfrey, then 16 years of age and her brother, Richard Winfrey, Jr., 17 years of age at the time of Burr’s murder,” Burnett said.
“Evidence will show that Megan became the focus following statements she made at the school she attended. She knew that Burr had money in his home and was heard saying somebody should beat Burr up. Evidence will show that two separate dogs hit on canine scent pads of Megan and Richard Jr.,” Burnett said.
“It was there that the investigation stalled. There was no other physical evidence at the scene to tie Megan and Richard Jr. at the scene. Evidence will show that in the summer of 2006 a break came in the case. An inmate contacted Montgomery County authorities with information regarding a murder in San Jacinto County. Evidence will show that inmate had extensive contact with Richard Winfrey Sr. and while they were together, Richard Sr. made certain statements to the inmate including that the kids got him into the house and that he had beaten and stabbed Burr and stolen guns during the encounter. Not even law enforcement was aware that guns were taken from the scene,” Burnett told the jury.
An investigation in 2006 confirmed that two guns were stolen as Richard Sr., had said, according to Burnett.
“Consequently a canine scent lineup was taken from Richard Sr. All three dogs hit on his scent from scent pads taken from Burr, indicating that Richard Sr. had been in contact with Burr. In his own words he killed Burr and the canine lineup will show he was in contact with Burr’s body. We expect to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Richard Sr. murdered Murray Burr,” Burnett said.
Defense attorney Taylor told the jury, during opening statements, that no one will testify that the three Winfrey’s were seen any where around Burr’s trailer.
“There are no finger prints, no palm prints, no shoe prints of anyone at the scene,” Taylor said.
“Nothing was removed from the property, nothing was found out of place and no one can substantiate that guns were taken. There is nothing to suggest a robbery was committed,” Taylor said.
“Hairs were found on Burr’s clothing, a woman’s, and pubic hair on the bed that doesn’t match any of the Winfrey’s. There is no blood, no weapon, no knife that ties them (Winfrey’s) to being there. Nothing was missing or used without Burr’s permission. Nothing was found to tie the Winfrey’s to the incident. If this was a robbery, what was missing?” Taylor said.
“You’re going to hear gossip and rumors but not anything that Richard Sr. was at the scene the night of Burr’s death – just statements from an inmate that would snitch on his mama if it would get him out of prison faster,” Taylor told the jury.
The first witness called to the stand was Burr’s niece, Tracey Brown.
She quietly sobbed as she identified a picture of her uncle who would have retired in January 2005 had he lived.
“He purchased the mobile home in February 2004 for his retirement home,” Brown said.
She described Burr as “slow, more like a child than a grown person.” He was employed as a janitor at the Coldspring-Oakhurst Consolidated Independent School District for about 27 years, according to Brown.
She last saw her uncle alive on Aug. 5, 2004, around 8 p.m. she told defense attorney Taylor.
The second witness called by the state was Dorothy McFadden, Burr’s sister.
She too cried as she identified a picture of her slain brother, describing him as slow and needing help with his finances.
McFadden testified that the last time she saw her brother alive was on Tuesday, prior to finding Burr’s body in his mobile home on the following Saturday morning.
“After trying to get into the house, I finally remembered having a key because I had been letting others in to work on his house,” McFadden said. She said she found marks of blood in the kitchen and she followed them to the bedroom.
I just stood there and looked at him and said what in the world,” McFadden said.
McFadden testified that Burr had a Bible he had shown her that was missing from the scene. “Mother gave it to him,” she said. “It had been on the entertainment center.”
Asked if Burr had any girlfriends, McFadden said, “No. He socialized with his family and had no enemies.”
Taylor asked McFadden if she had seen anything in disarray. “No.” she said. McFadden told Taylor she noticed nothing missing such as a television or VCR and said she had no personal knowledge of a female visitor other than family.
The third witness called to the stand by Burnett was Steve Winfrey who said he had known Burr all of his life. When asked if he was related to Richard Sr., Steve said yes, a second cousin. He testified that he had been bailing hay on Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 and saw Burr that afternoon before dark setting on a concrete block outside, petting a cat.
He told Taylor that he saw no one else with Burr, just the cat.
Burnett called San Jacinto County Sheriff Lacy Rogers to the stand next.
Rogers said he contacted the Texas Rangers and the DPS Crime Scene Lab in Houston after arriving at the murder scene.
“I put gloves on and walked through the residence, finding Burr’s body in the bedroom past the kitchen. Blood was in the living room and drag marks were made through the kitchen to the bedroom,” Rogers said.
After identifying crime scene photos, Rogers told Burnett and the jury that he turned the scene over to Texas Ranger Grover Huff.
Rogers said persons of interest developed early in the investigation and included Megan and Richard Winfrey Jr.
“The investigation was focused on them as possible suspects,” Rogers said.
“We tried to determine if Burr had any girl friends. We interviewed Georgia Smith and Teresa Jennings but they were eliminated as girl friends,” Rogers said.
Rogers said hair samples and DNA swabs were taken from both and from others with no results. He said the investigation reached a stand-still until July 14, 2006 when he got a break in the case. “I interviewed David Campbell, an inmate at Montgomery County Jail after receiving information that he knew something about the murder,” Rogers said.
Rogers said Campbell gave them new evidence that guns had been taken from the murder scene and that no one knew about the guns missing in 2004.
“A follow-up investigation confirmed guns were missing,” Rogers said.
The guns have never been found.
When Burnett asked about the significance of the Bible missing from the scene, Rogers said his mother always kept valuables in her Bible.
“At this time Richard Sr. became the primary suspect and an arrest warrant was issued charging him with capital murder in the course of robbing Burr,” Rogers said.
On cross examination from Taylor, Rogers said nothing was found missing from Burr’s home other than the Bible that he was told had been there. He said the guns have never been found and he does not know if they ever were there.
Rogers told Taylor no finger prints were lifted from the residence tying Richard Sr., Richard Jr., or Megan to the scene. He said a shoe print was found in the blood but no evidence was found to tie the Winfrey’s to the shoe print. He told Taylor there was no evidence if cash, credit cards or anything else was missing from the residence.
Burnett noted to Rogers and the jury that DNA evidence and finger prints are not recovered in many cases.
On cross examination Taylor said to Rogers, “You have three pieces of DNA that matches no one you know.”
“Yes,” replied Rogers.
Could unknown hairs belong to non-participants,” asked Burnett.
“Yes,” Rogers said. “Burr was a janitor at a school. They (hair) could have been picked up there.”
“You found the hair of a female and didn’t find the female and she is still out there. Maybe she has the Bible,” Taylor said to Rogers.
Burnett called Burr’s brother-in-law, Jessie Oates to the witness stand next.
Oates testified that Burr had brought two guns to his house and shown them to him – a .22 semi rifle and a single shot shotgun – and that the guns were not in Burr’s mobile home.
Oates told Taylor that he had no knowledge of Burr returning the guns to his own home or that the guns were in the house at the time of Burr’s death.
Burnett called Texas Ranger Grover Huff to the witness stand who said he took several pictures of the crime scene when he arrived.
Huff said he found no evidence of a forced entry into Burr’s home. Huff described the murder scene and blood stains found in the living room, kitchen and bedroom. Huff said he believes that Burr’s body was dragged from the living room, through the kitchen and into the bedroom. Blood splatters were also found on clothes hanging in the bedroom closet where a vacuum cleaner was found knocked over with blood stains under it and on top of the vacuum cleaner.
“There was a larger pool of blood found under the victim’s head indicating this is where the more serious injuries occurred,” Huff said.
Huff said he collected a lock set off the front door of Burr’s mobile home that contained a partial blood print but no identifiable prints could be lifted off it or any other evidence found at the scene.
Huff said the focus of his investigation included several suspects, all associated and he named Richard Winfrey Sr., Richard Winfrey Jr., Megan Winfrey, Christopher Hammond and Adam Szarf. He identified canine scent pads collected from Burr’s clothing, saying the dogs did not alert on Hammond or Szarf but did alert on the three Winfreys.
Burnett introduced as evidence to the court a copy of a video tape of the dogs performing the scent line up under the direction of their canine scent officer Keith Pickett of Ft. Bend County.
Huff said that during an interview Richard Sr. said he had not seen Burr in four or five years and was never in Burr’s home, yet the canine line-up showed that Richard Sr’s scent was on Burr’s body at the murder scene.
Huff said that Richard Sr. indicated during the interview that he was not involved in the murder and that he believed his children were not involved. Huff said he also interviewed Megan and Richard Jr. who claimed to have no involvement with Burr’s murder.
Huff identified aerial photos of Burr’s residence and Winfrey’s residence on Willow Springs Road and Winfrey Road and identified bucal swabs taken for DNA testing from Hammond, Szarf and the three Winfreys.
Blood stains were found in a white Ford vehicle on Aug. 24, 2004. The vehicle was found to belong to Joyce Berry, grandmother of Megan and Richard Jr. but no evidence of finger prints collected at the scene that came back to the Winfreys.
“From the look at the scene, with the exception of the blood, it would be difficult to determine if anything happened there. The scene was very clean,” Huff said.
Huff told Burnett that DNA and finger prints are not found at many crime scenes and that absence of DNA does not rule out a person was not at the scene.
Huff told Burnett, “His (Burr’s) house was cleaner than mine. There was no indication that Richard Sr. had ever been in Burr’s house other than his scent.
“If I wore your jacket and left it down the hallway in another room, would that mean you were in the room?” Taylor asked Huff.
“No,” Huff said.
The court recessed at 4 p.m. Tuesday until 9 a.m. Wednesday. The trial is expected to go to jury by Friday.