Tracy's defense to offer witnesses today

Inmate facing possible death penalty over guard's murder

Mount Pleasant, Texas, defense attorney Mac Cobb hands documents to Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp at a hearing Wednesday afternoon before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart during a one-day recess in the sentencing phase of Billy Joel Tracy's capital murder trial. The state rested its case Tuesday. The defense is expected to begin calling witnesses today. Tracy faces a possible death sentence in the July 2015 beating death of Correctional Officer Timothy Davison.
Mount Pleasant, Texas, defense attorney Mac Cobb hands documents to Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp at a hearing Wednesday afternoon before 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart during a one-day recess in the sentencing phase of Billy Joel Tracy's capital murder trial. The state rested its case Tuesday. The defense is expected to begin calling witnesses today. Tracy faces a possible death sentence in the July 2015 beating death of Correctional Officer Timothy Davison.

NEW BOSTON, Texas-Testimony from defense witnesses is expected to begin today in the sentencing phase of a trial for a Texas inmate convicted last month in the July 2015 beating death of a correctional officer.

Billy Joel Tracy, 39, was found guilty Oct. 27 of capital murder, the only offense for which a person can receive a death sentence in Texas. Tracy beat Correctional Officer Timothy Davison to death July 15, 2015, after breaking free from his handcuffs and taking Davison's metal tray slot bar.

Since the punishment phase of Tracy's trial was convened by 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart on Nov. 1, Assistant District Attorneys Kelley Crisp and Lauren Richards have taken the jury through Tracy's criminal past.

 

Rockwall County, Texas

Tracy, then 20, had already been to prison for retaliation when he brutally attacked a 16-year-old girl the night of Jan. 27, 1998. Tracy was acquainted with Kasey Kuhn through her boyfriend and had made unwanted sexual advances toward her as the three socialized earlier in the evening.

Kuhn got ready for bed and was watching a movie in her mother's Garland, Texas, home when Tracy climbed in her window and beat and choked her into unconsciousness. Tracy pushed Kuhn out of her window and continued to assault her as he drove. Kuhn's feet were burned with cigarettes, her jaw and skull fractured and some of her teeth were knocked out.

Rockwall Police Officer Paul Britt said he'd never seen so much blood on a person standing up when he caught sight of Kuhn rising to her feet in a wooded area at a local park. Britt had just struggled with Tracy and suffered a head injury that required seven stitches. Tracy eluded police for most of the day Jan. 28, 1998, and had broken into a home before he jumped from a three-story house and was taken into custody.

Tracy was sentenced July 30, 1998, to two life sentences plus 20 years for aggravated assault with serious bodily injury, residential buglary and assault on a peace officer.

While in the county jail, Tracy repeatedly assaulted staff and other inmates. Several days after being sentenced, Tracy attempted to escape: He overpowered a jailer, took his .45-caliber pistol and nearly shot two other jailers as they fought to stop him.

The following day, a detail from the Rockwall County Sheriff's Office took Tracy to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice rather than wait for the prison system to transport him.

 

Allred Unit, Wichita Falls

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You can get a custom-made cake at the deli counter at Town and Country Supermarket in Anderson.

While housed in administrative segregation, Tracy was a daily problem. Officers searched his cell every four hours because of his ability to acquire and conceal contraband. Tracy threw bodily waste at officers, shot darts and flooded his cell, witnesses testified.

Tracy stabbed an officer in the shoulder when a five-man team tried to extract him from his cell. Several of the team's members slipped and fell as they entered because Tracy covered the floor with a slick liquid.

A former Allred officer testified that Tracy told him "before it was all over he was going to kill a C.O."

 

Clements Unit, Amarillo

In January 2004, Tracy was moved to the Clements Unit, where he eventually was housed in general population. On the evening of Nov. 20, 2005, Tracy attacked Officer Katie Stanley with a homemade knife. Stanley was stabbed seven times and her head was kicked and stomped before Tracy attempted to throw her from a third-floor railing. Afterward, Tracy complained to a TDCJ Office of Inspector General investigator that staff at Clements had taken a tube of toothpaste from his cell.

Tracy pleaded guilty and received three additional 45-year terms in connection with the assault on Stanley.

 

Robertson Unit, Abilene

Tracy was transferred to Robertson after the assault on Stanley at Clements. Here, Tracy's cell was routinely searched every two to four hours because of his constant possession of dangerous contraband, including razor blades, pieces of metal, string and glue. The morning of Jan. 11, 2009, Tracy slipped free of his cuffs and attacked Correctional Officer Brianlee Lomas as Lomas waited to escort him from a shower stall back to his cell. Lomas' face still bears scars from the deep slashes Tracy made with blades removed from the housing of a disposable razor.

Tracy was described as "calm, cool and collected" by an OIG investigator who interviewed Tracy within hours of the attack on Lomas. Tracy told the investigator he cut Lomas because a captain had been screening Tracy's mail.

Tracy pleaded guilty to assaulting Lomas and received an additional 10-year term.

 

Hughes Unit, Gatesville

Tracy was moved to Hughes in 2009 after the attack on Lomas. His ability to acquire contraband and fashion potential weapons from seemingly harmless items continued.

Correctional Officer Russell Wiseart testified that while at Hughes, Tracy used sandpaper to alter 2-cent stamps to appear to be 44-cent stamps. (Prisoners use stamps as currency.) Officer Kimberly Adams testified that Tracy told her he wished Stanley would have died when she asked him about the 2005 stabbing at Clements.

Officers at Hughes became suspicious of Tracy and two other inmates upon observing that the inmates regularly participated in daily recreation in side-by-side outdoor yards at the same time. When officers investigated the scene, they discovered bars in one of the yards had been sawed through and that Tracy and the others were planning an escape.

A saw blade, a circular saw blade, sandpaper and other dangerous contraband were discovered cleverly hidden in Tracy's cell.

 

Telford Unit, New Boston

Tracy was moved to Telford in April 2014 after his plan to escape from Hughes was foiled. He packed his personal belongings the morning of July 15, 2015, before he was escorted to an interior prison dayroom for an hour of recreation. A video of Tracy in the dayroom showed him stretching.

Officer Timothy Davison escorted Tracy from the dayroom, up a flight of stairs and stopped in front of cell 66 in administrative segregation before the cell door slid open. Tracy punched Davison in the side of the head, knocking Davison to the floor. Tracy then grabbed Davison's tray slot bar and beat him in the head and face.

As Davison lay motionless, Tracy repeatedly slammed the bar into his head, grabbed Davison's pepper spray and hurled the officer down the stairs.

A member of the five-man extraction team tasked with removing Tracy from his cell was bitten.

In a video statement recorded about a week after the murder, Tracy said, "I call him Illinois. I don't know his real name."

 

The Defense

Tracy's defense lawyers, Mac Cobb of Mount Pleasant and Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana, are expected to call witnesses today at Bowie County Courthouse. At the conclusion of all testimony, the jury will be asked to consider whether Tracy presents a future danger to society and whether any factors or circumstances warrant a sentence other than death.

The trial is expected to continue into next week.

 

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