Five Questions – Part 1

Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. This one and the four posts that follow it were part of a chapter in Aggravated, called The Night of the Rodeo. In that chapter I answered and/or explained the first five questions and items (out of thirteen) in just a few paragraphs. The other eight required …

Read more

Searching for Karla Spivey – Part 2

Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. This is the second of four posts about a search for some evidence. If you haven’t read the first post yet, you should probably do that before reading this one. Here’s a link, Part 1, Why I Searched for Karla. A Trip to Deep Springs In late-August …

Read more

The Voir Dire – Part 9

The Responsibility of Judges Do judges have any responsibility to comment or interrupt or notify the attorneys, or even to strike a venireperson on their own [which is called sua sponte, “of his own accord”] if they spot an irregularity during a jury voir dire? Judge Hawes founded the Deep Springs chapter of CASA. He …

Read more

The Voir Dire – Part 4

Questions From the Prosecution Hawes turned the proceedings over to the prosecutor, Elmer Ross, who said, “This is the point in the process where we will be talking to you a little bit about your background and about your life experiences to determine whether or not you would be an effective and impartial juror on …

Read more

Finding Money for Defense – Part 4

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that Steve’s first attorney, Roland Mathis, within his first six or seven months, had been paid $7,500 by Newbold and Vanderhoop (N&V), our mother’s lawyers, and that money was borrowed against Steve’s eventual inheritance. Within nine months that amount had risen to $27,928. Steve and Robin paid N&V …

Read more

Hanna’s Counselor – Part 2

Parts of this post were used in Aggravated. Numbers and Details The more I looked into Ada Dixon and others associated with Steve’s trial, the more I began to wonder how accurate their testimony was. For example, in the second trial (August 2006), Dixon was asked by the prosecutor, Elmer Ross, how many times (in …

Read more

Name Substitutions

The disclaimer in the book, Aggravated, explains how and why I changed the names of almost everyone involved in the story. That passage can also let you know what to expect on this blog and website, since I will be doing the same thing here. Here’s the passage. “This is a true story, filled with …

Read more

Deep Springs: Real vs. Fictional

I’m using a fictional city named Deep Springs, Texas, as the primary setting for this (non-fiction) book, Aggravated: The True Story of How a Series of Lies Sent an Innocent Man to Prison. I realize that’s quite a mouthful, so I usually just refer to it as Aggravated. I wanted to include this post on …

Read more