The Collin County Observer

It was the day after Christmas in 2007 when police were called to a house just south of downtown Frisco.

A woman who had been shot had run to a neighbor's house and called for help. Upstairs in the house next door, the police found the body of 36 year old Craig Nail. He died of gunshot wounds before the police arrived. The woman who was shot was his girlfriend, Therisa Hofman. She was Care Flighted to a hospital, and later recovered.

Mark Lyle Bell

Vera Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail

Thomas Edward Grace

Two weeks later, the Frisco police announced they had made an arrest in the murder/shooting case. Arrested was Craig Nail's ex-wife, Vera Elizabeth Guthrie-Nail.

Later a Collin County Grand Jury indicted Guthrie-Nail, Thomas Edward Grace, and Mark Lyle Bell -- all on charges of capital murder. Guthrie-Nail was accused of using Thomas Grace as an intermediary to contract a murder for hire with Mark Bell, the triggerman.

During the grand jury investigation, prosecutors learned that Mark Bell's wife had given his attorney, Keith Gore, some letters and a sealed shoe box, which she told Gore contained evidence crucial to his defense, but which prosecutors allege contained evidence that would tie Bell to the murder.

The District Attorney's office then went to Judge Robert Dry, who was supervising the Grand Jury and asked for a subpoena for the box, letters and a pair of boots they believed were also given to Gore by Mrs. Bell. Dry scheduled a hearing on the request for 5 days later.

However later that same day, the DA and a Frisco police detective also filed a request for a search warrant on Keith Gore's office with a different judge. Judge Mark Rusch issued the warrant, and detectives seized some letters, a multi-page, stapled document, and a sealed shoe box. No boots were found.

The seized items were taken by police to Judge Rusch, who was at home at the time, and later to the Frisco police evidence room.

What happened next is in dispute.

The Collin County District Attorney's office and the Frisco police allege that Judge Rusch used a knife to open the seals of the shoe box and inspect its contents. Judge Rusch denies this and says he gave the box back to the prosecution team still sealed.

According to a motion filed with the appeals court by the defense, at a later court hearing officers involved in the search stated that the contents of the box had been switched out. They said the box originally contained a Wal Mart receipt, but later the receipt was missing and a business card from a Wal Mart security officer was substituted. The defense claims that the receipt was exculpatory evidence - that it would prove that the boots sought by police were purchased after the murder.

But the receipt is gone. Who done it?

Claiming that by inspecting the seized evidence, Judge Mark Rusch became a material witness, the defense team sought to have Judge Rusch recused. A hearing was held before an assigned judge who ordered that Rusch recuse himself from the case -- to be replaced by Judge Chris Oldner.

The defense also accused the Collin County District Attorney's office of prosecutorial misconduct and sought to question the First Assistant District Attorney, Greg Davis. Judge Oldner denied the request.

Oldner also denied a defense motion to disqualify the District Attorney's Office from the case.

Bell's attorneys appealed Oldner's decisions to the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas, which also refused to force the DA off the case. Bell has now appealed again, this time to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which earlier this month agreed to hear the case and has ordered that arguments be submitted.

So who is lying - The judge? The DA? The police?

Perhaps we'll never know who opened the shoe box, and what happened to the evidence. It does seem possible that misconduct and mishandling of evidence could make prosecution of Mr. Bell difficult if not impossible.

This 2 year old case is starting to look like something from a television detective story plot. Unfortunately it's unlikely that a super detective is going to come on the scene with his scientific tool kit and tell us who done it.

CSI:Frisco? Not hardly.

Bill

-----------------------------

Notes:

IN RE MARK LYLE BELL, Order holding in abeyance, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, February 5, 2010

Appeals Court refuses to recuse DA in Bell case, CCO, December 9, 2009

Mark Bell's attorneys ask appeals court to force DA off the case, CCO - November 23, 2009

Application for Writs of Mandamus and/or Prohibition with Incorporated Brief in Support and Motion for Stay of Proceedings Below, by Steven Miears and Keith Gore before the Texas 5th Court of Appeals, November 20, 2009

Case 401-80353-08 Texas vs. Mark Bell, case history -- Collin County 401st District Court

Judge Rusch recused from Bell murder trial, McKinney Courier-Gazette, August 27, 2008

Hearing on "raid" of attorney office rescheduled CCO - August 7, 2008

Amicus Curiae brief of the TCDA, August 5, 2008

Defense attorney search warrant motion hearing moved - McKinney Courier-Gazette, Aug. 6, 2008

One of these days these boots are going to walk all over your attorney-client privilege - Grits for Breakfast, Aug. 3, 2008

Where are the boots?: Details from the Gore warrant, affidavit and return - CCO, July 31, 2008

The Warrant, affidavit and return and more

The Defense motion in Response to the State's Motion to Disqualify Defense Counsel

MCG - AG opposes subpoenas of Rusch and Dry - CCO, July 23, 2008

Not Judge Rusch's first controversial warrant - CCO, July 21, 2008

NBC5 - Detectives Seize Documents From Murder-For-Hire Suspect's Attorney - CCO, July 18, 2008