Courts And Trials

After proclaiming for 26 years that he was wrongfully convicted, Edward E. Graf Jr. admitted Tuesday he killed his two adopted stepsons.

County officials are taking their time in evaluating the best way to repair the 112-year-old Themis statute that crowns the historic courthouse in downtown Waco.

There is no evidence that an accelerant was used to start the fire in which Jason and Joby Graf died, and the doors to the shed were not locked, a fire investigation expert testified Thursday.

For three hours, chants of “Iretha Lilly, somebody loves you” rang outside of the McLennan County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, as family and friends of the 37-year-old Lilly protested a lack of information about how she died in custody last week.

A career criminal testified Tuesday that Edward E. Graf Jr. confessed to killing his two adopted stepsons by locking them in a shed and setting it on fire and said he should have done the same thing to his ex-wife and her sister.

While jurors in the capital murder retrial of Edward E. Graf Jr. have been left so far to speculate about why Graf owed a $75,000 debt to Community State Bank when he left his employment there, they will hear tomorrow that Graf embezzled the money and was fired, a judge ruled Monday.

The following people were indicted Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014 by a McLennan County grand jury. The District Attorney’s Office no longer furnishes the age or residence of the people indicted on this list.

A Temple couple who pleaded guilty to a slew of charges in connection to widespread mail theft — including mail from several McLennan County cities — this summer were sentenced to federal prison time Wednesday in Waco, U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman announced in a press release.

Edward E. Graf Jr. beat his adopted stepsons with a belt and complained to his friends that the boys were causing his marriage to falter, prosecution witnesses testified Wednesday.

McLennan County prosecutors opened their case against Edward E. Graf Jr. on Tuesday by telling jurors that the trial will detail a story of “greed, lies and arrogance.”

In a court hearing that likely was a first for the McLennan County justice system, a Waco attorney, who is representing two Baylor University employees charged with drunken driving, failed Friday in his efforts to disqualify the special prosecutor in the cases.

If modern DNA results had been available in the 1993 capital murder case of Richard Bryan Kussmaul, it is “reasonably probable” that he and his three co-defendants would not have been found guilty, a retired state district judge ruled Thursday.

McLennan County’s district judges have changed their minds about supporting a plan to create a new associate judge position, saying the idea is not economically feasible and the matter is no longer up for consideration.

A Dallas-area lawyer who filed a complaint against U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr., alleging he “engaged in abusive sexual contact” with a deputy court clerk in 1998, said his charges are being investigated by a federal appeals court.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys selecting a jury in the retrial of the 28-year-old Edward E. Graf Jr. capital murder case will be assisted by a four-page questionnaire that will help them get to know potential jurors.

The family of a 35-year-old Corsicana woman alleges in a wrongful death lawsuit that officials at the former Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center administered lethal doses of pain medication after she was hospitalized for lower back pain three years ago.

A former prosecutor, who was fired by Abel Reyna when he was elected McLennan County district attorney almost four years ago, is waging a write-in campaign against Reyna on the November general election ballot.

Changes are coming to Valley Mills in what the mayor calls a “major overhaul” of the municipal court after a law firm’s initial assessment of the area showed problems that were systemic and chronic, including about $10,000 in city money that was not deposited in a bank.

The following people were indicted Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014 by a McLennan County grand jury. The District Attorney’s Office no longer furnishes the age or residence of the people indicted on this list.

A parolee from McGregor charged with fatally stabbing a 19-year-old Waco man in June outside the Gospel Cafe was indicted Wednesday.

The last of three defendants in the 2011 Lakewood Villas double-homicide case was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday.

New DNA findings presented Friday in a 22-year-old rape and double murder case may cast doubt on the guilt of four area men who claim they were wrongly convicted.

Former McLennan County Justice of the Peace Jean Laster Boone made her first court appearance Thursday since federal authorities charged her last month with felony theft, and she will remain free on bail until the case is resolved.

Three death penalty cases and an upcoming capital murder retrial have overshadowed the capital murder case of D’Arvis Tyrell Cummings, who has been in the McLennan County Jail for 1,217 days.