Press Coverage

Former Prosecutor In Murder Trial Refutes Claim Of Flawed Testimony

P. Christine Mills

Avalanche-Journal

Lamb County District Attorney Mark Yarbrough, who helped gain murder convictions in 1998 for two men who say they did not commit the crime, testified Wednesday that he is still unaware that the eyewitness testimony to the crime was flawed.

The statement elicited a "stunned" reaction from the defense attorney for Alberto Sifuentes and Jesus Ramirez, who have served seven years of life prison sentences for the murder of Evangelina Cruz, a Littlefield Jolly Roger convenience store clerk, on Aug. 6, 1996.

During a hearing aimed at reversing the convictions in 99th District Court on Wednesday, questioning centered on eyewitness testimony that helped convict the two men and a store's surveillance tapes that show she was not at the store near the time of the murder.

"You learned at the outset of the Sifuentes case that you sponsored false testimony in the Ramirez case with (eye witness) Brenda Ayala," said Barry F. McNeil, a Haynes and Boone LLC attorney representing Sifuentes and Ramirez.

"I still don't know that I've ever learned that, Barry," Yarbrough testified.

"I'm stunned. I'm stunned," McNeil said.

Yarbrough's statement indicates that through two years of investigation leading up to the trials, through two trials and for seven years afterward, he never looked at the tapes that show that Ayala, the witness, was at a Town and Country convenience store at 12:34 a.m. and not at 2 a.m.

Ayala had said that she had first gone to the Town and Country store to buy a Popsicle at about 2 a.m., but that store did not have the kind of Popsicle she wanted. She had said that she then immediately proceeded to the Jolly Roger store, where she encountered Sifuentes and Ramirez immediately before the murder, according to court documents.

"One of the tapes conclusively proved that Ms. Ayala had been at the Town and Country store at 12:30 that morning, not 2 a.m.," the defendant's writs of habeas corpus state.

The writs, which outline claims of new evidence that has come to light since Sifuentes and Ramirez were convicted, are the reason the men have another chance in court this week.

Ayala also failed to pick Sifuentes out of a lineup, but the writ alleges she changed her mind and picked him after she overheard his defense attorney say that she did not pick Sifuentes.

Haynes and Boone attorney Ron Breaux on Wednesday also questioned Greg Parrott about the videotapes. At the time, Parrott was an Attorney General's office investigator who was assigned to the Cruz murder case nearly a year after it occurred.

Parrott on Wednesday said that the 12:34 a.m. time could be inaccurate, but Breaux produced Parrott's trial testimony when he stated that his investigation revealed that time to be accurate.

Breaux's questioning was geared toward getting Parrott to explain what he did to verify Ayala's claims that she saw the defendants at the scene immediately before the murder.

"What did you do ... to corroborate Brenda Ayala's statement that she had been at the Jolly Roger at 2 a.m.," Breaux asked.

Parrott replied that he had arranged for the suspect lineup and had reviewed some of the store videotapes but he does not recall talking with any of Ayala's friends or family members. Other members of the law enforcement community reviewed the videotapes as well, he said.

"Why didn't you look at the tapes from August 6 between 1:45 a.m. and 2:15 a.m. to see if in fact she was where she said she was," Breaux asked.

Parrott responded that the tapes were out of order and it would have been difficult to pinpoint the tape, and the portion of the tape, with that specific time.

"The tapes were not in proper sequence?" Breaux said. "Could you have figured it out?"

The hearing, which began Monday, continues today at 9 a.m. with Yarbrough scheduled to take the stand once again.

Other testimony this week centered on an alibi witness, the presumption of two new suspects in the case, ineffective assistance of defense counsel and exculpatory evidence that was allegedly either hidden or missed.

The trial judge, Felix Klein, appointed Judge Marvin Marshall to preside over the hearing. After the hearing concludes, Marshall will provide his conclusions to Klein. Ultimately, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will make the decision on whether the convictions stand.