NEW BOSTON, Texas-One of four men accused in the death of a Texarkana father who was murdered as he waited for his children's school bus was described as the mastermind Wednesday in the first day of his capital murder trial in Bowie County.
Anthony Wilson Jr., 20, is the first of the men charged in the March 29, 2016, death of Casey Smith to go to trial. Smith, 28, was shot to death as he sat in his white Tahoe in front of his wife's best friend's house in the 2400 block of Mamie Street in Texarkana, Texas, where he routinely waited for his children's school bus.
Marshall Vallejos, 23, pleaded guilty earlier this year to felony murder and is serving a sentence of life with parole possible. Vallejos admitted to firing a shot from a .357 revolver into Smith's face, according to court documents. Charges remain pending against Jaquelle Rogers, 22, and Jailon Gamble, 20.
Rogers took the stand Wednesday afternoon wearing cuffs and shackles. He told the jury that he and Vallejos, who share the same father, were picked up by Gamble and Wilson early in the afternoon March 29, 2016. Rogers said the men rode in Gamble's car with Gamble at the wheel and Wilson giving directions.
Rogers said Wilson had a gun and directed Gamble to a friend's house to acquire another weapon, which he gave to Vallejos. Rogers said the men bought some marijuana and were riding around and smoking it when Wilson caught sight of Smith driving his Tahoe near the Dollar General store on South Lake Drive and announced that he wanted to rob him. Rogers said Wilson recognized Smith and believed he would have money on him.
Rogers testified under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp that Wilson instructed Gamble to park on North Ann Street instead of in the store's parking lot after Smith pulled in to the Dollar General. Rogers said he and Gamble remained in the car while Wilson and Vallejos walked to the store.
Rogers said Wilson's plan to rob Smith in the store parking lot was abandoned when Vallejos' mother, who was doing laundry at a business across the street, stopped into Dollar General for detergent. The encounter with Vallejos' mother caused the men to depart, with Wilson walking back to Gamble's car and Vallejos walking down South Lake Drive where the other men picked him up a short time later.
Rogers said Wilson told Gamble to follow Smith and that he directed him to park in a field near the Mamie Street house. Rogers said Wilson held a marijuana cigarette and planned to rob Smith after distracting him by asking him to borrow a lighter. Rogers said he walked a short distance from the car so he could see what transpired and that Gamble never got out of his car.
"I couldn't understand what they were saying, and Wilson started shooting," Rogers testified. "I ran back down the trail, they ran the street way, and we meet up and get in the car."
Rogers said Wilson began shooting into Smith's car with a .380-caliber pistol, that Vallejos fired from a .357-caliber revolver, and that the three of them got back into Gamble's car and fled. Rogers said Wilson had Gamble stop for cigarettes before the men went their separate ways.
Texarkana lawyer Derric McFarland asked Rogers on cross examination if he, Vallejos and Gamble "got their stories straight" before being taken into custody, alluding that there was an agreement to blame Wilson. Rogers, who testified he has not been promised anything by prosecutors, said he told the truth.
Vallejos was arrested the night of Smith's murder at the hospital where he went for treatment of a gunshot wound to his knee. Gamble and Rogers both turned themselves in within a day or two. Crisp told the jury in her opening statement that when U.S. Marshals cornered Wilson in Tennessee weeks after the shooting, Wilson jumped through a glass window trying to elude them.
Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab firearms expert Nathan Tunnell testified that the bullet removed from Vallejos' knee and bullets recovered from Smith's body were fired from the same weapon. Dallas County Medical Examiner Stephen Hastings testified that Smith suffered eight bullet wounds but that two of the wounds may have been caused by bullets which passed through one part of Smith's body and reentered at another.
Hastings said all of the wounds except to the one to Smith's face were caused by bullets Tunnell testified could have been fired from a .380 pistol. Hastings testified that stippling, or burns, on Smith's face are evidence that Smith was shot in the face from 1 to 2 feet away. Hastings testified that Smith was shot several times in the back and that one of those wounds would have quickly proved fatal.
Texarkana, Texas, Crime Scene Investigator Mark Sillivan testified that Smith had $36.01 in his pocket when he died. Sillivan said Smith's shattered cellphone was collected from the crime scene and that a marijuana cigarette was found in the floor board of Smith's car which appeared to have been lit but dropped and allowed to die out.
In her opening statement, Crisp told the jury that DNA testing on the cigarette shows that Wilson touched it or had held it to his lips, and she theorized that Wilson dropped the cigarette into Smith's car when he started the robbery attempt.
Robert Jackson, who testified he was working in a friend's yard directly across the street from the shooting, said he saw three men running after the shooting.
"I heard boom, boom, boom, and I hit the ground," Jackson testified.
Jackson said he saw three men run, but could not identify them, though he does recall that one of the men had "blond tips" on his hair. Rogers testified that on the day of the shooting, Wilson's hair had blond tips and that his, Vallejos' and Gamble's did not.
Texarkana, Texas, police officers Jarrod Dean, Joshua Armstrong and Cliff Harris testified under questioning by Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards.
Harris testified that he and other officers stopped the school bus carrying the children Smith was waiting to pick up before it could reach the crime scene where Smith's lifeless body lay.
Casey Smith's wife, Tameron Smith, testified that after receiving calls from a daughter's tutor, the children's school and after being unable to reach her husband on his phone, she rushed to Mamie Street.
"The police were there. They had everything blocked off. People tell me they grabbed me. I zoned out," Tameron Smith said.
Additional experts from the crime lab are expected to testify this morning, and Gamble is expected to take the stand as well. If convicted of capital murder, Wilson faces an automatic sentence of life without the possibility of parole, as the state is not seeking the death penalty.
A verdict is expected this week.