A Waco patrolman holds an assault rifle on a wounded biker who bled out because he said he would kill the men trying to take him to aid if they moved him on May 17, 2015 at Twin Peaks Restaurant
Waco – The four big screen television monitors attached to the massive support columns that stud the auxiliary courtroom in the McLennan County Courthouse Annex building traced with amazing clarity the facial reactions of Judge Ralph T. Strother.
A bailiff had just handed him a freshly file-marked writ in the middle of the beginning of his spiel to a capacity gallery of veniremen from a special panel of 600 about the qualifications to serve as a juror in the first of the 155 Twin Peaks murder conspiracy cases, that of Dallas Bandidos Chapter President Jacob Carrizal.
He noted that nothing they would hear today would serve as evidence in the trial, nor would anything they have read in the media, and then the hammer dropped, and he began to read.
As he paged through the document, his chagrin became – in real time – more and more agitated, and in a voice that betrayed hurt and surprise, he quickly snapped, “I wish to see counsel, the defendant, and the court reporter in the Jury Room.”
Authorities charged Carrizal with the identical offense that all 177 arrested on May 17, 2015, at the massacre that left 9 dead, 20 wounded, and a nation reeling in shock at the televised bloodshed. The event had been planned as a simple legislative update meeting for bikers from the Confederation of Clubs and Independents to learn all about open carry handgun legislation, motorcycle safety funds, and the prospects for bills pondered by Texas legislators then in session to curb motorcycle profiling by police.
Authorities charged total of 177 persons, some them suffering from gunshot wounds, with the offense of engaging in organized criminal activity.
That offense carries a possible sentence of from 25 years to 99 upon conviction. A superseding indictment of Carrizal added an additional count of directing the activities of an organized criminal enterprise, an offense that carries a penalty of not less than 30 years confinement or more than 99.
The bloodshed at the awful incident occurred when he and a small group of fellow Bandidos, arrived only to be ambushed by gun-wielding bikers flying patches of the Cossacks Motorcycle Club and their support clubs. Police arrayed in the pattern of an L-shaped ambush cut down the shooters who had wounded victims with handguns with suppressed fire from assault rifles, not all of which have been identified by ballistic examples.
The Texas Department of Public Safety is withholding evidence of its analysis, and that is one of the reasons Carrizal’s defense counsel, Casie Gotro, is seeking his recusal. He did not order some 12 witnesses or their designees, including the Director the DPS, to furnish the subpoenaed items, nor did he allow her to place them on the witness stand during a pre-trial hearing to learn just why the information is not forthcoming.
Strother has been recused in three other cases by the order of visiting Judge James Morgan only this week following a hearing two weeks ago in which the judge ruled that to the standards of the man in the street, he is “just not being fair.”
There are numerous items in the motion of complaint to have him removed from the Carrizal Case, which at this time is not available.
We will update this story when it is available by hyperlinking the text of the recusal motion to this story.
As the meeting reached only a few minutes in duration, 54th Criminal District Judge Matt Johnson arrived and entered the closed-door meeting. He remained inside the chamber only a few minutes before he swept back out of the room again.
When the bailiff intoned the courtesy announcement, “All rise,” the gallery of about 250 persons burst into rippling laughter.
As the crowded room slowly cleared, Ms. Gotro finished initialing and signing various court papers handed her by a staff member of the District Clerk’s Office. She raised up from the defense table and waved her hand in a sweeping gesture, saying , “Happy birthday!”
Judge Strother disappeared into a conference room.
Seated in the gallery with Kevin Fisk, the private investigator who is working for Carrizal’s defense counsel, “Double D” David Devereaux of the Motorcycle Profiling Project remarked, “You would think that having been recused in three other cases, he (Strother) would recuse himself, without going through all this.
Prospective panelists have been directed to return Setember 12 at 8:30 a.m. to fill out juror questionnaires that will determine “how you feel” about certain items, according to Judge Strother. He had earlier noted in his remarks to the venire that “there is nothing wrong” about having “strong opinions” or “strong feelings.”
When it comes to the jurors’ questionnaire, he said, “There are no wrong answers.
MORE TO FOLLOW
Jacob Carrizal’s Motion to Recuse 10th District Judge RalphT. Strother:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1w0fubr23cnhjd8/Carrizal%20Judge%20Recusal%20Mtn.pdf?dl=0