Inadvertant Suicide Overcame

Inadvertent Suicide Overcame

February 1, 2007

When I first came to prison at the ripe age of 16, I was convinced that I wouldn't be here nearly as long as my sentence suggested. Ninety-nine years just didn't add up for my role in Ray's death (See: The Memoirs and Musings of Robert Pruett). After all, I didn't kill him and never intended for my father to, so I thought that the appeals court would drastically reduce my sentence because they knew that as well. How wrong I was.

Despite the fact that I utilized every avenue of rehabilitation and self-development that the prison system offered (i.e. earning my G.E.D, a plumbing vocation, participating in A/A and N/A classes and taking college academics) and, in my opinion, grew out of the delinquent behavior that I learned from the streets, the appeals courts denied me relief. In other words, I would have to spend the rest of my life in prison. For an 18 year old filled with optimism and a much more positive perspective on life, that was a hard pill to swallow.

Soon thereafter, my hope and optimism was replaced by anger, hate and indignation. I just couldn't comprehend how society could just throw me away. Of course I'd done many things prior to coming to prison that should've sent me to jail, and I'll be the first to admit that I was a grade A screw up, but did I deserve to spend the rest of my life behind bars because of it? I just couldn't see it. About this time, I realized how blind and unforgiving our judicial system usually is. A dark cloud of despair followed me around as I gave suicidal thoughts room to breathe. Coincidentally, it was around this time when my mother and the rest of my family began to disconnect themselves from me. I'd spent my entire life with my mother and she was always there for me whenever I needed her prior to this, so it was shocking when she blinked out of my life. All of the above made me not give a shit about anyone or anything except a select few inmates that were more like family to me than my own at that point in time. For the most part, I just wanted it all to end ...... one way or another. I'd attempted suicide previously by slashing up my veins and an artery and, obviously, wasn't successful. Right then I knew I'd never be able to take my own life, so I behaved in such a way that should've gotten me killed by other inmates. Disrespecting leaders of prison gangs and some of the most violent inmates in Texas' prison system only resulted in a few fights and my own kind keeping a closer eye on me. I knew that the inmate population was starting to think of me as some kind of psycho with a death wish. They weren't too far off with that. I recall sitting in a college academic class with a friend named James Blue one day when I told him that I just wish the world would disintegrate. He smiled at me and said, "Goddamn, dude! Don't wish the world dead because you had a fucked up life; I got kids waiting at home." I agreed with his point and said, "Well, just me would be good enough."

I plodded along like this for over a year, sometimes experiencing a brighter side of life, but mostly feeling dejected and ready to call it quits..... And then one day it appeared as if my wish would be granted.

I was in a hallway with about a hundred other inmates on the McConnell Unit waiting to go eat chow. If my recollection serves me right, I'd just gotten clean clothes from the necessity room (or maybe I was waiting until after chow? I forget) and I was hanging out by the gym waiting for the chow hall doors to open so I could get my food and go back to my cellblock. Next, tension mounted amongst us inmates and people were moving around nervously. I'd seen some behavior that looked strange, but as per the convict code, I never mentioned it. I just looked the other way. All of a sudden, a group of ranking officers came flying down the hallway leading to 3 building and all of the inmates were subsequently herded into the gym. Shortly thereafter, l observed many of the same officers rushing the body of a guard down the hallway on a stretcher. Someone said that it was Nagle, the guy working three building's desk area.

After about two hours of sitting inside the gym with everyone else, some ranking officers entered the building and asked everyone for ID cards. I'd accidentally left mine in my cell, so Sgt. Ortiz simply wrote my name and TDCJ number down and moved down the line of inmates. After the rank left, about 20 minutes elapsed before they showed back up. This time they ordered me to submit to hand restraints. After about ten hours of torture (they had me practically naked in a steel cage about 2 square feet around with the room temperature below 40 degrees; I guess they were trying to loosen me up), I was taken into a room where I talked with a Major Bill Lazenby, chief investigator for the then Internal Affairs Division in the Southern region of TDCJ-ID. He informed me that I was being charged with capital murder and that the state would vigorously seek the death penalty.

Not only could I have pointed Lazenby in the right direction that night, I could've come forward numerous times over the following couple of years leading to my trial. I simply chose not to. First of all, I had a 99 year term and a snitch is the worst kind of person inside these gates. No way did I want to live in here like that. Secondly, I wanted to die anyway, so the death penalty didn't scare me one bit. I actually longed for it for quite some time because it was better than life in prison. In addition, I was placed in administrative segregation after they charged me, which meant that I didn't have to work in the fields or fight for my manhood on a daily basis. I could just sit in a cell, alone, until they figured out what to do with me. To sum it all up, I sat complacently while Lazenby's investigators built a case against me, took me to trial, and got the death sentence that they were looking for. At trial I made a half-assed effort to defend myself so my dad and brother wouldn't think I was giving up, but I knew what to say and what not to say. I honestly felt a sense of relief when the death verdict was announced. To me, it meant that this experience they call life would soon be over……

I once read that if the universe came with a handbook, rule number one would be that everything changes and nothing stays the same. And so it is with my attitude about life. Previously, I didn't have anything in this world worth hanging around for. But after living on death row for almost five years and gathering people around me that not only care but love me like their own, I want to stay around for them. Well, not just for them, I'd like to live out my life and learn everything that I've come here to learn. If that means dying on death row very soon, then so be it. If it means spending the next 50 years in isolation, then I'll go for that. Whatever life has in store for me, I'm ready for it. But I think I need to fight off this capital murder charge once and for all and that's the purpose of this writing. If it's too late for me (I'm already in the federal courts), then I accept that as well. I just think that I should make an effort rather than sit around complacently while these people try to kill me, which is basically what I've been doing up until this point.

******* ******* *******

My first course of action in the fight for my life is to outline the case against me and show how it's a non-existent one. Mt attorney, Richard Rogers, wrote, "The state's case was built around the purported eyewitness accounts of five inmates. They claimed to have seen [Robert Pruett, hereafter Petitioner] attack Nagle. This testimony was supported by circumstantial evidence. Nagle had a reputation as a strict officer and he and Petitioner had a heated exchange over a rule violation several hours before the stabbing. A metal rod was identified as the murder weapon. Petitioner also had a cut on his thumb that the medical examiner said was compatible with using a metal rod to stab Nagle.
"Petitioner denied killing Nagle. He testified at both stages of the trial. The defense was based on the theory that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Identity of the perpetrator and credibility of the witnesses were the main issues in the case. The defense argued that once the word had gone out that prison authorities believed Petitioner was the actor, inmates - some who had initially refused to give false information - started coming forward to give false information supporting the authorities' belief that Petitioner was guilty. This was in exchange for recommendations for early parole or other beneficial treatment. Major inconsistencies in the testimony of inmate witnesses as to where things happened and what people were wearing or doing indicated that their knowledge of the case came from sources other than their personal knowledge. Most of the testifying inmates had extensive criminal histories involving serious offenses, further undermining their credibility. There was no blood or fingerprint evidence that definitively connected Petitioner to the offense. There were no cameras focused on the area where the stabbing took place. Once the State focused on Petitioner as a suspect, Petitioner argued that the state failed to investigate the possibility that Nagle had been killed by some other person. The defense attempted to show that defense witnesses who wanted to cooperate were subject to mistreatment" (Federal Habeas Corpus filed in the US District Court, Corpus Christi Division on my behalf. The above excerpt was endorsed by both defense and state counsel).

As mentioned above, the state's case against me revolved around inmate witnesses, all of which received something in exchange for their testimony, some of which changed their statements repeatedly, which had glaring inconsistencies at the trial when they testified. My lawyers even brought in guards to rebut what a couple of these inmates were saying [For instance, inmate Anthony Casey testified that on the day of the stabbing, before the stabbing occurred, he overheard me talking about a weapon. Later, he claimed that I told him not to come into the multipurpose room (where Nagle was murdered) because "something was going to happen." Casey said he went to the outside rec yard and while there he saw me take my clothes off and push them through a gas port into the outside recreation yard. This testimony was put into question by the testimony of Correctional Officers Peter Schaffer and Lorelei Glue, who had full views of that hall and the recreation yard and saw no such activity. Also, the state's key witness claimed that he observed me stabbing Nagle, then he ran down the hallway to the first officer he could find to let them know a guard was being assaulted. He testified that he first encountered an officer at A-turn out, which was located beyond Officer Glue's check point, so he would've had to pass her in order to get to the first officer he informed. Ms. Glue testified that she never saw that inmate and that he never spoke to her about a stabbing].

No one testified for free. There were even inmates who claimed to have seen me kill Nagle that weren't even on the prison unit when he died. The State revealed that hundreds of inmates, most of which weren't anywhere near the scene of the crime and couldn't have been there, claimed to have seen the crime and wanted to testify in exchange for something.

My lawyers argued that people lie (particularly those with something to gain from it), but physical evidence doesn't. The prosecution's theory was that I stabbed Nagle after we got into an argument over me eating in the hallway. At first they said I tore up the disciplinary case he wrote me and left it by his dead body, but no fingerprints were found on the report, only an unknown palm print. It wasn't mine or his. The prosecution further theorized that I cut my thumb stabbing Nagle. I did cut my thumb earlier that day, while adjusting the weight machine on the outside recreation yard. Wouldn't it stand to reason that if I had cut my thumb stabbing Nagle there would be some of my blood on the murder weapon or SOMEWHERE at the scene of the crime? Wouldn't it stand to reason that if I stabbed this man there would be some kind of physical connection to me and him at the scene of the crime or SOMEWHERE on the unit? Casey testified that I changed clothes and pushed my old ones through a gas port, but those were never found and TWO officers contradicted his testimony. The fact is that there wasn't any link between me and this crime except a disciplinary case with an unknown palm print on it. The DNA evidence should've cleared me of this case by itself. But the jury obviously didn't believe in DNA evidence or the lack thereof.

One of my main issues, aside from the DNA thing, in my appeal is that the prosecutors blatantly violated Judge Joel Johnson's discovery order and repeatedly committed prosecutorial misconduct to get an illegal guilty verdict. The following is an excerpt from Judge Joel Johnson's Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, and Order (Application No. B-o1-Mo15-Pr-B):

Tenth Ground for relief-violation of discovery order.
Eleventh ground for relief-statements of Inmates Hall and Ross.

--The accused has the right to inspect evidence material to his defense. (Bell v. State, 866 S.W.2d 284)

--The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure gives the Court the Authority to order the State to disclose discoverable information.

--The trial court made such an order in this case.

--The State violated the order by not disclosing material evidence.

--Hall and Ross' statements claiming the accused had admitted to stabbing Nagle was material evidence.

--Hall and Ross were allowed to testify over objection of the accused as to the undisclosed information.

--The trial court's decision to allow the testimony should not be disturbed unless such a decision constitutes an abuse of discretion. (Gomez v. State, 709 S.W. 2d 352, 353) •

--To determine whether the Court's action is an abuse of discretion, a two-part test should be applied. First the Court must determine whether the State acted in bad faith in calling the witnesses after failing to reveal the substance of their testimony; secondly, the Court must determine whether the accused could have reasonably anticipated the testimony.

--The State acted in bad faith in withholding the information.

--The State deliberately disregarded the Court's order to obtain an advantage.

--Applicant was not in a position to anticipate this testimony under the circumstances. This was error and harmed applicant.

--The trial court abused its discretion in allowing the testimony.

--The prosecutor had in his possession detailed summaries of interviews with Hall and Ross. These constituted witness statements under 615f (2) Rules of Evidence.

--Counsel for applicant was entitled to use these notes in cross-examination pursuant to Rule 615.

--These witness statements contain inconsistencies with trial testimony.

--The testimony of Hall and Ross was the State's key rebuttal evidence.

--The failure of the Court to compel production harmed applicant and violated his United States Constitutional rights.

--In light of these fundamental and material violations of the Constitution, the Rules of Evidence, and the trial court's pretrial discovery order, the Applicant's conviction should be set aside.

So wrote Judge Joel Johnson, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his recommendation for no apparent reason. But these two inmates, Ross and Hall, were sprung on me and I had no chance to defend myself against their lies, thus Judge Johnson ruled the way that he did. If my case is reversed by the federal appeal courts, it'll be because of the insufficient DNA evidence or the above mentioned prosecutorial misconduct.

That's the gist of my case. There's more to the story, and I have an idea as to why I was focused on as the key suspect, but for now I'll take a break on this. Before I do, it should be noted that my defense (my lawyers' that is) was that some prison gang had Nagle murdered because he was interfering with their illegal activities. In fact, two sergeants and a group of other officers were arrested the month after he was murdered in connection to money laundering for a prison gang and running a prostitution ring using female officers on the farm. Two of these sergeants, Sgt. Ortiz (sound familiar?) and Sgt. Martinez were among those indicted. Both of those men played large roles in the investigation after Nagle was murdered and Ortiz was running the building where Nagle died. He would've been the one required to investigate that disciplinary case that Nagle wrote me the day he died. He had no clue about that case, or so he says. The truth is that Nagle had heated arguments with no less than 30 inmates a day and probably just as many officers because he was such a stickler for rules. My encounter with him wasn't out of the ordinary. It certainly wasn't enough to make me kill him. Yet the State held on to this theory despite evidence to the contrary.

Anyhow, I'll wrap this up. I'll write more about this in the future. I just thought it was time for the public to know some of the things that the State has been trying to keep under wraps. I'm going to make a stand and try to fight for my life, but I'll need all the help I can get. So if you're reading this spread it to your friends, family, and everyone you know. Contact media outlets and speak out for me. I can't do it from where I am. I need as much help as I can get.

One Day at a Time,
Robert Pruett #999411