Key Documents

STATE OF TEXAS                §
                              §
COUNTY OF LUBBOCK             §

AFFIDAVIT OF OSCAR BALDERAS

1. My name is Oscar Balderas. I am more than twenty-one (21) years of age, of sound 
   mind, and am wholly competent to sign this Affidavit. I have personal knowledge 
   of the facts stated in this Affidavit, and they are true and correct. 
2. Towards the end of April 1996, I was arrested and jailed at the Hockley County 
   jail in Levelland, Texas. I was arrested after my bail bondsman withdrew my bond 
   on a DWI charge.  
3. On or about the first part of August 1996, two brothers, around 18 to 19 years 
   of age, were arrested and placed in the Hockley County jail while I was being held 
   there. I knew them as Jerry and Armando.  I have recently reviewed photographs 
   and have identified Armando and Jerry Ramirez Gonzales as the two brothers I met 
   in the Hockley County jail.
4. While I was in the Hockley County jail with Jerry and Armando, Jerry, who did 
   most of the talking, began to tell me about the shooting at the Jolly Roger store 
   in Littlefield. Jerry told me that he and his brother, Armando, were stopped in 
   Levelland after the shooting at the Jolly Roger because they fit the description 
   of the men involved in the crime and were driving a gold car.
5. Jerry began to tell me about the shooting, like he was bragging about it. Jerry 
   said that he and Armando left Demmit, Texas and were driving home to Levelland.  
   Jerry said that they decided to stop in Littlefield because they did not have 
   enough gasoline to make it all the way home to Levelland. Jerry said they 
   decided to stop at the Jolly Roger to get gasoline, but they didn't have any 
   money for gas. Jerry said that they were going to get gas at the store, but then 
   tell the attendant that they didn't have any money to pay for it.
6. Jerry said that Armando went inside of the Jolly Roger and asked the attendant to 
   turn on the gas pump. After they put gas in the car, Jerry said that they both 
   went into the store.
7. Jerry told me that they told the lady that was working at the Jolly Roger that 
   they didn't have money to pay for the gasoline and that they wanted all of the 
   money in the cash register.
8. Jerry said that when the woman refused to give them the money, Armando panicked.  
   Jerry said that Armando jumped up onto and over the counter in the store and shot 
   the woman. After Jerry told me this, he looked at Armando, and Armando just 
   laughed.
9. Jerry said that Armando was finally able to open the cash register in the store, 
   but that they didn't get much money. Jerry told me that they got enough money to 
   buy some beer in Levelland. While telling me this, they both began to laugh.
10.After Jerry told me about the shooting, a jailer by the name of Linda approached 
   me and asked me what Jerry and Armando talked about. I told her what they had 
   said about the shooting at the Jolly Roger store.  
11.Later, the sheriff asked me about my conversation with Jerry and Armando. I also 
   told him what Jerry and Armando had said about the Jolly Roger murder. The 
   sheriff told me something like, "now that I let them go, I wonder if I did the 
   right thing, because they sure fit the description of the two men who killed the 
   woman in Littlefield."
12.I remained in the Hockley County jail until June of 1997. Before I was released, 
   I saw Armando Gonzales again in a holding cell at the jail. Armando asked me if 
   I had talked to anyone about what he and Jerry had told me about the Jolly Roger 
   murder. I told Armando that I didn't tell anyone about what they had told me.
13.Armando told me that sometimes his brother, Jerry, had a habit of making things 
   up. He also told me not to worry much about what they had said, because the 
   police already got the guys that did it.

FURTHER, Affiant sayeth not.