Volume 46

1 IN THE CRIMINAL DISTRICT COURT NO. 3
2 DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS
3
4
5
6 THE STATE OF TEXAS } NO. F-96-39973-J
7 VS: } & A-96-253
8 DARLIE LYNN ROUTIER } Kerr Co. Number
9
10
11
12
13 REPORTERS RECORD
14 CLOSING ARGUMENTS
15 IN GUILT OR INNOCENCE
16 VOL. 46 OF 53 VOLS.
17 January 31, 1997
18 Friday
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5188

1 C A P T I O N
2
3
4 BE IT REMEMBERED THAT, on Friday, the 31ST day of
5 January, 1997, in the Criminal District Court Number 3 of
6 Dallas County, Texas, the above-styled cause came on for
7 a jury trial before the Hon. Mark Tolle, Judge of the
8 Criminal District Court No. 3, of Dallas County, Texas,
9 with a jury, and the proceedings were held, in open
10 court, in the City of Kerrville, Kerr County Courthouse,
11 Kerr County, Texas, and the proceedings were had as
12 follows:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5189

1
2 A P P E A R A N C E S
3
4
5 HON. JOHN VANCE
6 Criminal District Attorney
7 Dallas County, Texas
8
9 BY: HON. GREG DAVIS
10 Assistant District Attorney
11 Dallas County, Texas
12
13 AND:
14 HON. TOBY SHOOK
15 Assistant District Attorney
16 Dallas County, Texas
17
18 AND:
19 HON. SHERRI WALLACE
20 Assistant District Attorney
21 Dallas County, Texas
22
23 APPEARING FOR THE STATE OF TEXAS
24
25
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5190

1 ADDITIONAL APPEARANCES:
2
3 HON. DOUGLAS D. MULDER
4 Attorney at Law
5 2650 Maxus Energy Tower
6 717 N. Harwood
7 Dallas, TX 75201
8
9 AND: HON. CURTIS GLOVER
10 Attorney at Law
11 2650 Maxus Energy Tower
12 717 N. Harwood
13 Dallas, TX 75201
14
15 AND: HON. RICHARD C. MOSTY
16 Attorney at Law
17 Wallace, Mosty, Machann, Jackson & Williams
18 820 Main Street, Suite 200
19 Kerrville, TX 78028
20
21 AND: HON. S. PRESTON DOUGLASS, JR.
22 Attorney at Law
23 Wallace, Mosty, Machann, Jackson & Williams
24 820 Main Street, Suite 200
25 Kerrville, TX 78028
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5191

1
2 AND: HON. JOHN HAGLER
3 Attorney at Law
4 901 Main Street, Suite 3601
5 Dallas, TX 75202
6 ALL ATTORNEYS REPRESENTING THE
7 DEFENDANT: DARLIE ROUTIER
8 MR. HAGLER HANDLING THE APPEAL
9 AND:
10 HON. ALBERT D. PATILLO, III
11 Attorney at Law
12 820 Main Street, Suite 211
13 Kerrville, TX 78028
14 APPEARING FOR: Witness-
15 Detective Jimmy Patterson
16 only on one date in trial
17 AND:
18 HON. STEVEN J. PICKELL
19 Attorney at Law
20 620 Earl Garrett Street
21 Kerrville, TX 78028
22 APPEARING FOR: Witness
23 Officer Chris Frosch
24 only on one date in trial
25
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5192

1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2
3 January 31st, 1997
4 Friday
5 9:00 a.m.
6
7 (Whereupon, the following
8 proceedings were held in
9 open court, in the presence
10 and hearing of the
11 defendant, being
12 represented by her attorneys
13 and the representatives of
14 the State of Texas, but
15 outside the presence of the
16 jury, as follows:)
17
18
19
20 THE COURT: All right. Let the record
21 reflect that these proceedings are being held outside of
22 the presence of the jury and all of the parties in the
23 trial are present.
24 Have both sides had a chance to read
25 the Charge of the Court?
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5193

1 MR. GREG DAVIS: Yes, sir, we have
2 MR. JOHN HAGLER: Yes, sir, your
3 Honor.
4 THE COURT: All right. What says the
5 State?
6 MR. GREG DAVIS: The State has no
7 objections to the Charge, specifically we have no
8 objections to the extraneous offense charge as it is
9 given in the Court's Charge.
10 THE COURT: All right. And Mr.
11 Hagler?
12 MR. JOHN HAGLER: We have no objection
13 to the Charge as it presently exists. We -- is the
14 extraneous charge in there, Judge?
15 THE COURT: No, it is not? Didn't you
16 want that removed?
17 MR. JOHN HAGLER: Yes, sir, it's our
18 request that that be removed.
19 THE COURT: Granted.
20 MR. JOHN HAGLER: And also we had
21 thought about a limiting charge at one time, but we would
22 prefer that not to be in the Charge.
23 THE COURT: Granted.
24 MR. JOHN HAGLER: We're satisfied with
25 the Charge.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5194

1 THE COURT: All right. And just to
2 make that clear, these are two charges you are talking
3 about right here?
4 MR. JOHN HAGLER: Yes, sir, your
5 Honor.
6 THE COURT: All right. Let me mark
7 these exhibits as Court's Exhibit B and C.
8
9 (Whereupon, the
10 Exhibits were marked
11 For identification
12 Only, as Court's
13 Exhibit No. B & C.)
14
15 THE COURT: All right. The limiting
16 Charge will be Court's Exhibit B, and the extraneous
17 charge will be Court's Exhibit C.
18
19
20 (Whereupon, the above
21 mentioned items were
22 received in evidence
23 for record purposes only
24 as Court's Exhibit Nos. B & C,
25 after which time,
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5195

1 the proceedings were
2 resumed on the record,
3 as follows:)
4
5 THE COURT: Now, you can examine this
6 Charge, Mr. Hagler, and see if that is the way you wanted
7 it.
8 MR. JOHN HAGLER: Yes, sir, but we
9 don't want that in there any more.
10 THE COURT: All right. Then that will
11 be Court's Exhibit C. All right.
12 MR. GREG DAVIS: If the record could
13 reflect, your Honor, the State objects to the Court's
14 Exhibit B, I believe it is, that you were referring to,
15 and our objection is based upon the fact that we believe
16 it is a comment on the weight of the evidence.
17 THE COURT: Well, okay, I am pulling
18 that. That is just for record purposes only.
19 MR. GREG DAVIS: Yes, sir.
20 THE COURT: All right. And both
21 Court's Exhibit B and C are removed from the Charge at
22 the defendant's request. So what is going to happen?
23 Anything else, Mr. Hagler?
24 MR. JOHN HAGLER: No, sir.
25 THE COURT: So what is going to happen
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5196

1 now, is that we're going to call the jury in and I'm
2 going to read the Charge to them, and then we will hear
3 arguments. And who is going to open for the State?
4 MR. TOBY SHOOK: I will, Judge.
5 THE COURT: Okay. So by agreement
6 there is an hour and a half to the side and how long do
7 you want, Mr. Shook?
8 MR. TOBY SHOOK: Judge, if you could
9 tell me when I have used 25 minutes and then 45 minutes
10 if I go that long.
11 THE COURT: I'll be happy to. And
12 then I will tell you after 45 minutes every 15 minutes
13 thereafter; is that fair enough?
14 MR. TOBY SHOOK:: That will be fair,
15 Judge.
16 THE COURT: All right. So with that
17 in mind. Let's bring the jury in.
18 MR. DOUGLAS MULDER: Judge, we're
19 going to need a few minutes after the State's opening
20 argument.
21 THE COURT: Well, I don't think there
22 will be any problem there. I will take a break any way.
23 MR. DOUGLAS MULDER: Okay, good. We
24 just need 2 or 3 minutes to get our exhibits together.
25 THE COURT: All right. Ladies and
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5197

1 gentlemen in the Courtroom: We cannot have any emotional
2 outbursts of any kind. So, if some of you -- if we do
3 have any emotional outbursts, we will ask that person to
4 leave, in fact, we will remove that individual and you
5 will not be allowed to re-enter.
6 So, if you don't feel like you can
7 take any of the arguments you may hear, the time to leave
8 is now, and no one will think any less of you.
9 Is there anyone who wishes to leave?
10 All right, thank you. All right. If
11 you will bring the jury in.
12
13 (Whereupon, the jury
14 Was returned to the
15 Courtroom, and the
16 Proceedings were
17 Resumed on the record,
18 In open court, in the
19 Presence and hearing
20 Of the defendant,
21 As follows:)
22
23 THE COURT: Let the record reflect
24 that all parties in the trial are present and the jury is
25 seated.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5198

1 Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what
2 is going to happen now is that I am going to read to you
3 the Charge of the Court in the case, that is the law in
4 the case. Then you will hear arguments from both sides,
5 then the case will be yours to decide.
6 The first thing you do when you retire
7 to the jury room will be to select one of your members as
8 the presiding juror. That is what we call the foreman
9 now. Any member of this jury may be the presiding juror.
10
11 Charge of the Court: Members of the
12 jury:
13 The defendant, Darlie Lynn Routier,
14 stands charged by indictment with the offense of capital
15 murder, alleged to have been committed in Dallas County,
16 Texas, on or about the 6th day of June, 1996. To this
17 charge the defendant has pleaded not guilty.
18 You are instructed that the law
19 applicable to this case is as follows:
20 A person commits the offense of
21 capital murder if the person intentionally or knowingly
22 murders an individual under 6 years of age.
23 A person commits murder, if he
24 intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an
25 individual.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5199

1 A person acts intentionally or with
2 intent, with respect to the nature of his conduct, or to
3 a result of his conduct, when it is his conscious
4 objective or desire to engage in the conduct or to cause
5 the result.
6 A person acts knowingly or with
7 knowledge with respect to a result of his conduct, when
8 he is aware that his conduct is reasonably certain to
9 cause the result.
10 The term "individual," means a human
11 being who has been born and is alive.
12 Now, bearing in mind, the foregoing
13 instructions, if you find and believe from the evidence
14 beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant, Darlie
15 Lynn Routier, on or about the 6th day of June, 1996, in
16 the County of Dallas and in the State of Texas, did then
17 and there, intentionally or knowingly cause the death of
18 Damon Christian Routier, an individual, by stabbing the
19 said Damon Christian Routier with a knife, and you
20 further find and believe from the evidence, beyond a
21 reasonable doubt, that the said Damon Christian Routier
22 was, at the time of his death, an individual under 6
23 years of age, then you will find the defendant guilty of
24 capital murder as charged in the indictment and so say by
25 your verdict.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5200

1 If you do not so believe, or if you
2 have a reasonable doubt thereof, you will acquit the
3 defendant and say by your verdict not guilty.
4 In all criminal cases, the burden of
5 proof is on the State. All persons are presumed to be
6 innocent, and no person may be convicted of an offense,
7 unless each element of the offense is proved beyond a
8 reasonable doubt.
9 The fact that a person has been
10 arrested, confined, or indicted for, or otherwise charged
11 with the offense, gives rise to no inference of guilt at
12 her trial.
13 The law does not require the defendant
14 to prove her innocence, or produce any evidence at all.
15 The presumption of innocence alone is sufficient to
16 acquit the defendant unless the jurors are satisfied
17 beyond a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt, after
18 careful and impartial consideration of all the evidence
19 in the case.
20 The prosecution has the burden of
21 proving the defendant guilty, and it must do so by
22 proving each and every element of the offense charged
23 beyond a reasonable doubt; and if it fails to do so you
24 must acquit the defendant.
25 It is not required that the
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5201

1 prosecution prove guilt beyond all possible doubt. It is
2 required that the prosecution's proof excludes all
3 reasonable doubt concerning the defendant's guilt.
4 A reasonable doubt is a doubt based on
5 reason and common sense, after a careful and impartial
6 consideration of all of the evidence in the case. It is
7 the kind of doubt that would make a reasonable person
8 hesitate to act in the most important of his own affairs.
9 Proof beyond a reasonable doubt
10 therefore must be proof of such a convincing character
11 that you would be willing to rely and act upon it without
12 hesitation in the most important of your own affairs.
13 In the event you have a reasonable
14 doubt as to the defendant's guilt, after considering all
15 of the evidence before you and these instructions, you
16 will acquit the defendant and say by your verdict not
17 guilty.
18 You are further instructed that the
19 indictment is not evidence in this case, and cannot be
20 considered as a fact or circumstances against the
21 defendant in your deliberations. The true and sole use
22 of the indictment is to charge the offense, and to inform
23 the defendant of the offense alleged against her.
24 In deliberating on this case you are
25 not to refer to or discuss any matter not in issue before
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5202

1 you. You shall not consider nor mention any personal
2 knowledge or information you may have about any fact or
3 person connected with this case, which is not shown by
4 the evidence.
5 In determining the guilt or innocence
6 of the defendant, you shall not consider or discuss the
7 punishment, if any, which may be assessed against the
8 defendant, in the event she is found guilty beyond a
9 reasonable doubt.
10 You are charged that it is only from
11 the witness stand that the jury is permitted to receive
12 evidence regarding the case, or any witness therein, and
13 no juror is permitted to communicate to any other juror
14 anything he may have heard regarding the case of any
15 witness therein, from any source other than the witness
16 stand.
17 You are instructed that during your
18 deliberations you should not consider the remarks, the
19 rulings or actions of the presiding judge during this
20 trial, as any indication of the Court's opinion, as to
21 the existence or nonexistence of any fact, or as an
22 indication of the Court's opinion as to the guilt or
23 innocence of the defendant.
24 The Court has not intended to express
25 any opinion upon any matter of fact in this case. If you
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5203

1 have observed anything which you have or may interpret as
2 the Court's opinion upon any matter of fact in this case,
3 you must wholly disregard it.
4 At times throughout this trial, the
5 Court has been called upon to pass on the question of
6 whether or not certain offered evidence might be properly
7 admitted. You are not to be concerned with the reasons
8 for such rulings, and are not to draw any inference from
9 them. Whether offered evidence is admissible, is purely
10 a question of law.
11 In admitting evidence to which an
12 objection is made the Court does not determine what
13 weight should be given to such evidence nor does it pass
14 on the credibility of the witness.
15 As to any offer of evidence that has
16 been rejected by the Court, you of course, must not
17 consider the same. And as to any question to which an
18 objection was sustained, you must not conjecture as to
19 what the answer might have been, or as to the reason for
20 the objection.
21 You are the exclusive judges of the
22 facts proved, of the credibility of the witnesses and of
23 the weight to be given to their testimony, but you are
24 bound to receive the law from the Court which is herein
25 given you, and be governed thereby.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5204

1 After you retire to the jury room, you
2 shall select one of your members as your presiding juror.
3 It is his or her duty to preside at your deliberations,
4 and to vote with you in arriving at a unanimous verdict.
5 After you have arrived at your verdict
6 you may use one of the forms attached hereto by having
7 your presiding juror sign his or her name to the
8 particular form that conforms to your verdict. But in no
9 event, shall he or she sign more than one of such forms.
10 No one has authority to communicate
11 with you except the officer who has you in charge. When
12 the jury wishes to communicate with the Court it shall
13 notify the bailiff, who shall inform the Court thereof.
14 Any communication relative to the
15 cause, must be in writing, signed by the presiding juror
16 and shall be submitted to the Court through the bailiff.
17 Do not attempt to talk to the bailiff,
18 the attorneys or the Court regarding any question you may
19 have concerning the trial of this case. And after you
20 hear arguments, you will retire to consider your verdict.
21 That is signed by me, Mark Tolle, the
22 Presiding Judge.
23 Now, the final page there are two
24 verdict forms, and you will fill out whichever verdict
25 form is appropriate depending on how you decide. Only
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5205

1 one verdict form will be filled out.
2 The presiding juror will sign the line
3 beneath that form, and we would ask the presiding juror
4 to please print his or her name beneath the signature so
5 there can be no mistake.
6 Now, arguments from both sides will be
7 had. The way this works is this: The State gets to
8 open, and then you will hear from the defense, then the
9 State will get to close.
10 And by agreement it will be ninety
11 minutes to the side.
12 Mr. Shook.
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5206

1 CLOSING ARGUMENT IN GUILT OR INNOCENCE
2
3 MR. TOBY SHOOK: May it please the
4 Court?
5 THE COURT: Yes, sir.
6 MR. TOBY SHOOK: Members of the jury.
7 We have had a very long, and tedious trial on the issue
8 of guilt or innocence. We have reached the close of that
9 portion of this trial and now we're having closing
10 arguments.
11 As the Judge has just told you the
12 State will start out. I'm going to go over some of the
13 evidence in this case, some of the things that we talked
14 about on voir dire and Mr. Mosty and Mr. Mulder, I
15 believe, will speak on behalf of the defendant, and then
16 Mr. Davis will close for the State of Texas.
17 The first thing I want to do is thank
18 you for your service and your patience with us. We have
19 come to this county, transferred here because of the
20 publicity in this case, and we have imposed on you. We
21 have taken you from your family, your homes, and your
22 work and we have had you here a lot longer than we
23 thought we would. That wasn't planned in any way.
24 You have been patient with us, you sat
25 through hour after hour of testimony, questions from the
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5207

1 lawyers rehashing the same issues and you sat back there
2 during hearings. We know what we have done to you, and
3 we appreciate your service.
4 But I know that each and every one of
5 you knows just how serious this offense is, and how
6 important this case is.
7 I want to talk a little bit about some
8 of the things we talked about with each and every one of
9 you on jury selection. Remember we talked to each and
10 every one of you about probably 40 minutes, maybe a
11 little longer, some a little less. We went over a lot of
12 different areas.
13 And remember, each and every one of
14 you were chosen for this case. This isn't like another
15 criminal case where each side has several strikes and
16 then they submit those strikes, and just the leftovers
17 are put on the jury. Each side agreed on you as jurors
18 because you are level-headed, and because we thought you
19 had common sense.
20 But I want to talk about some of those
21 issues that we talked about on voir dire.
22 Remember, I talked about motive or
23 Miss Wallace talked to you about motive, and what we had
24 to prove in this case.
25 We had to prove that the defendant
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5208

1 intentionally killed Damon Routier with a knife, and we
2 had to prove that it happened in Dallas County.
3 Now, I talked about motive because
4 everyone wants to know a reason why the crime occurred.
5 That is human nature. And I told you the reason may be
6 very apparent. Sometimes it never comes out in court at
7 all, and sometimes there might be several motives out
8 there. Everyone might have their own version.
9 You could have psychiatrists,
10 psychologists, detectives argue all day long on all of
11 the motives, but you may never know the real motive. But
12 that doesn't change the evidence. And the law does not
13 require the State to prove the motive because we can not
14 always get into the mind of the defendant. That motive
15 may be locked away in there.
16 Each of you by now have your own idea
17 what the motive is in this case, I don't know. I'm going
18 to talk about motive a little bit later. But it is not a
19 requirement that the State has to prove beyond a
20 reasonable doubt what the motive is, and each and every
21 one of you agreed to that.
22 Another issue we talked about was
23 circumstantial evidence. When we try to prove a case we
24 put on evidence, and there's two kinds. You have an eye
25 witness to a crime, or you have circumstantial evidence.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5209

1 Circumstantial evidence covers
2 everything. Physical evidence left, statements made by
3 the defendant, anything that connects the defendant to
4 the offense is circumstantial evidence, and there is no
5 difference between the two. It all connects.
6 Inconsistencies, what they said, how it meshes with the
7 physical evidence.
8 Now, I asked each and every one of you
9 if we brought you a case using solely circumstantial
10 evidence, could you find the defendant guilty if you
11 believed that circumstantial evidence beyond a reasonable
12 doubt and each of you said yes that you could.
13 Now, the other area I want to get into
14 is something that we maybe just said in passing or
15 several times with each of you and that is the one thing
16 you had to remember, the most valuable tool that you
17 could use, and the reason you made it on this jury is
18 common sense.
19 When you review this evidence just use
20 your God given common sense. The common sense that has
21 gotten you through life so far. That's all you need to
22 do.
23 I think the first hurdle when you
24 review this evidence anyone has to look at or anyone has
25 to come to grips with is this: We have a brutal, vicious
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5210

1 murder of a child, of two children and we have accused
2 the mother of those children of this crime. And the
3 first thought in anyone's mind is, no mother could ever
4 murder their children, it's not possible. That is a
5 natural reaction.
6 But what you have to do is come to
7 grips with reality, that there are certain people that
8 are capable of anything under the right moment. That is
9 why we have laws. That is why we have to have trials.
10 And when a mother does kill her child, it causes a huge
11 frenzy. That is why this courtroom is packed. That is
12 why there is media out there in front of this Courthouse.
13 That is why we had to come here. But these things do
14 happen.
15 And after you overcome or come to
16 grips with that, then you begin to analyze this evidence
17 using your common sense.
18 Now, I want to go through some of that
19 evidence now. There is a whole lot. We have been here
20 almost a month, there is no way anyone could remember or
21 recall every aspect of it, but I want to touch on some of
22 the high points of how I think this circumstantial
23 evidence meshes.
24 You see, circumstantial evidence comes
25 in piece by piece. One piece may not mean anything if
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5211

1 you just look at it by itself, but it's like a jigsaw
2 puzzle. As it comes in, you start sorting through it,
3 and then you start putting it together. And when it's
4 all in, it all fits, and when it fits in this case you
5 get the true picture of the killer, who sits right over
6 here. Darlie Lynn Routier.
7 So let's talk about some of that
8 evidence. We all know now, that around 2:30 in the
9 morning or so, back on June the 6th, there was a 911 call
10 that came from the Routier home, came from Darlie Lynn
11 Routier.
12 And you know, as you look at this
13 case, and what the State has to prove, the issue comes
14 down to this: You know there is no question Damon was
15 murdered. There is no question he was under the age of
16 six.
17 There is no question that it happened
18 in Dallas County. We have alleged that he was murdered
19 with a knife. I don't think you have to be Sherlock
20 Holmes to figure out this was the knife. The blood is on
21 it. It's the size matching into the body and it's left
22 there. He was killed with a knife.
23 The only issue is who did it?
24 Identity. And it comes down to this: It's either going
25 to be some unknown intruder who came into that house and
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5212

1 committed a horrible murder or it's going to be the
2 defendant.
3 You know that this 911 call came out.
4 I think that gives you the first insight. You have heard
5 that thing a dozen times, you have looked at transcripts
6 from both sides. It gives you the true insight into the
7 defendant, because first of all, and I think it's quite
8 clear she says: "My babies were stabbed, I was stabbed,
9 I was fighting. He went into the garage. I was
10 fighting."
11 That let's you know that she knew what
12 was going on there that night. She was well aware of
13 everything that was going on.
14 It also, towards the end of it you get
15 that unusual statement: "I picked up the knife. Maybe
16 we could have gotten some fingerprints."
17 And that gives you the insight into
18 how her mind works, because that should be the fartherest
19 (sic) thing from a mother's mind in that situation. But
20 she is already trying to cover her tracks, trying to
21 point the evidence and the guilt away from her. Already
22 at that point.
23 Officer Waddell first arrived. You
24 heard from William Gorsuch, a neighbor. He saw Officer
25 Waddell as he came up and met Darin Routier and they went
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5213

1 in that home. Officer Waddell went in, he talked briefly
2 with the defendant. There is a lot of chaos going on in
3 there. And Officer Waddell and Sergeant Walling, they
4 didn't have stop watches and weren't timing where they
5 were at one portion, and how long one conversation took
6 place.
7 Waddell told you that he was told
8 quickly this person was in the garage. Now, he couldn't
9 go and check in that garage right away because his
10 training told him this: There was only one of him, and
11 if he goes in there and gets himself killed, then this
12 family is still exposed. He has to wait on his back up.
13 But he does know this: This woman is
14 not putting pressure, not caring for Damon. Darin is
15 over there with Devon and he asks her to. The entire
16 time she is not caring for Damon. He has to watch the
17 door, he can't administer the aid, but we know the
18 mother, she has one hand on her wound and the other hand
19 has a phone. She is not putting the pressure on Damon.
20 We know that she tells him, "There was
21 a fight over here at the island."
22 We know that Sergeant Walling came in
23 and had a brief conversation with her, as she gives a
24 description of a white male with a hat, and T-shirt and
25 she says they fought on the couch. They put that
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5214

1 description out, and that house is closed down quickly.
2 The paramedics soon got to that
3 location and you heard from them. They moved in quickly,
4 they tried to do what they could. They only stayed in
5 the one family room and cared for those children. They
6 didn't run in the kitchen or into vacuum cleaners or
7 anything like that.
8 And they told you that, you know, they
9 get Darlie out of there quickly. She is holding her
10 neck, they start putting pressure on her neck.
11 You remember the one whose nickname is
12 Toad, I think his name is Koschak. He told you while he
13 was in that room though that he heard the defendant say:
14 "He has a ball cap on. He broke out the window."
15 They put her in the ambulance, there
16 was really nothing they could do for Devon. They take
17 Damon out to the ambulance, and they try to get him to
18 the hospital.
19 They put her in the ambulance and
20 there was a paramedic named Byford who tended to her
21 during that whole trip. She is quiet there in the
22 ambulance, she is anxious, she wants to know, how long
23 it's going to take, "When are we going to get there?"
24 But there are no questions about her children. No
25 questions about their condition.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5215

1 Of course, once she hits Baylor
2 Hospital, when there's a lot of nurses there, and you
3 heard from Jody Fitts, the emergency room nurse. She
4 starts yelling, and she is making noise. Now that she is
5 in front of a lot of folks and they get her in there and
6 they see the blood, and she is in there about 13 minutes
7 and she is alert. The doctors come in, they take her
8 upstairs to operate. And you heard from those doctors,
9 Dr. Santos and Dr. Dillawn.
10 Now those guys don't regularly come
11 down and testify. In fact, I think that is the first
12 time they have testified. And they are not paid for
13 their testimony. They owe no allegiance to the State,
14 they owe no allegiance to the Rowlett Police Department.
15 They are just doctors, surgeons, emergency room surgeons.
16 And they have no reason to lie or be biased in this case.
17 And what did they tell you? They told
18 you that they looked at her wounds, it was in the zone 2
19 area which tells them this: They don't want to take any
20 chances, they are going to take her up and do some
21 exploratory surgery. And they did that. And what did
22 they find? Well, they found that the wound had cut
23 across the neck through the skin to the platysma, but not
24 into the platysma. Well, what does that mean? We asked
25 them to explain it in just plain English.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5216

1 Cut through the skin, and cut through
2 the fat and that's all. A superficial wound. Not a
3 serious injury. In fact, I think Dr. Santos said, if
4 this had happened under different circumstances, if this
5 has been a household accident, we would have sewn her up,
6 and she would have been released in a few hours.
7 But they were under the impression
8 that she was a victim at that time. Her children had
9 been killed. She didn't need to go to the ICU, but they
10 sent her there because they wanted to keep her away from
11 the press, and they thought that she would be really
12 going crazy because her children had been murdered.
13 Superficial wounds. There was also
14 two wounds, a small one right here, and one to her
15 forearm. They just sewed it up, nothing serious about
16 that. Another wound right here, nothing serious about
17 that. No wounds to her face, no wounds to her chest or
18 back.
19 You remember Dr. Santos told you that,
20 of course, he checked on her. He deals with this
21 situation all the time. People that have been seriously
22 injured, people that lose their relatives, I mean, that
23 is part of his job.
24 He said he was expecting her to go
25 crazy. Mothers, many times when they lose their
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5217

1 children, they don't accept that fact. They want to know
2 where they are. They won't accept it when you tell them
3 they are dead. But not this woman. She wasn't of the
4 demeanor he thought she would be. Flat affect is what he
5 called it. Flat affect.
6 And the other things those doctors
7 told you was this: That there weren't any major trauma
8 to her arm. This is blunt trauma, caused by -- like what
9 they see in accidents, or someone struck with a baseball
10 bat. And it's something they look for and they didn't
11 see it.
12 They told you, you know, you can't
13 tell how old a bruise is exactly but this looks like a
14 pretty recent bruise. Twenty-four to 48 hours.
15 If she had received the type of trauma
16 that would cause a bruise like this on the 6th, they
17 would have seen it within a few hours. They would have
18 seen it begin forming. They didn't see it, folks. It
19 didn't happen then.
20 You see, Darlie Lynn Routier soon
21 realized that people weren't probably buying into her
22 story, and she had to increase those injuries. And I
23 know it seems almost diabolical, but the evidence shows
24 she went home and caused those injuries to herself after
25 she was out of that hospital.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5218

1 You also heard from the nurses in this
2 case. The first one you heard from, after Jody Fitts was
3 Chris Wielgosz. Remember, he was the nurse who handles
4 people when they come out of an operating room, and
5 usually he handles heart patients, but because of the
6 overflow, he got the defendant. And she is not the
7 typical patient he usually gets, because they are usually
8 unconscious and need a lot of care, but her injuries did
9 not need a lot of care. And she was alert and awake.
10 He told you sometimes people are real
11 groggy when they come out of an operation and sometimes
12 they are awake, and she was awake.
13 And he is just sitting there with her
14 and she starts making these unsolicited comments like:
15 "Gee, I wish I hadn't touched the knife. I might have
16 messed up the fingerprints."
17 He is not even asking her about the
18 offense, but she has to volunteer. See, she has to get
19 this story going, she has to get the people to believe
20 that she is the victim in this case.
21 What did he tell you? And, he has no
22 motive to lie. He is not paid for his testimony. He
23 doesn't come down here and testify. What does he tell
24 you? He says, "Well, I gave her a little bit of Demerol,
25 it didn't seem to affect her, and then the detectives
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5219

1 came and spoke to her."
2 And he told you how the detectives
3 questioned her. They didn't suggest answers to her.
4 They went real slow and methodically, and she told them
5 what she remembered. And she told them that she
6 remembered the man standing over her and fighting him off
7 the couch. They didn't tell her that is what happened.
8 Those were her words. You see, she hadn't come up with
9 the complete amnesia defense yet.
10 And he told you she knew details all
11 about her rings, and ring sizes, and carats and
12 descriptions of that, but it was real hazy and couldn't
13 give a description of his face. And it was real slow and
14 methodical.
15 You also heard from the other nurse,
16 Jody Cotner, who is the trauma coordinator. Remember she
17 had the longer brown hair. She had been there 11 years.
18 One of her jobs is to work with
19 people, to inform people that their loved one has died.
20 She has had to do that hundreds of times. She has had to
21 deal with mothers that lose their children, and what did
22 she tell you? There is nothing like it. The bond
23 between a mother and a child. A grief that is
24 inconsolable. They do it in different ways, but they all
25 show it. And she never saw that reaction from this
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5220

1 woman. Never saw the reaction she has always seen
2 before.
3 The same with the other nurses who
4 deal with this stuff every day. They have never seen a
5 reaction like that. It was more of a whining, no real
6 tears, I think you-all know what they are talking about
7 now, now that all of the evidence is in.
8 They have no motive to lie, but what
9 did they tell you? All day long, during their shifts,
10 what happened? The first one I believe was Dianne
11 Hollon, had her all during the day. "I woke up, a man
12 was standing over me, I yelled and he ran off." They
13 didn't suggest those answers to her, that was her
14 version.
15 And we had Paige Campbell, the little
16 blonde girl who helped bathe her at one point in time.
17 The defendant showed her her hand, "This is where he cut
18 me when I grabbed the knife. He was standing over me
19 when I woke up and tried to stab me."
20 You heard from Denise Faulk, the last
21 nurse that had her all night long. About 3:00 in the
22 morning she took the time to write those notes down the
23 next day or so. About two and a half pages on pink paper
24 and the defendant -- she didn't come up with this story,
25 the defendant did: "I was laying just like this." On
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5221

1 her right side. "When I woke up, when Damon woke up.
2 And there was a man wrestling at my neck area." Denise
3 Faulk isn't telling her to say that. This is her
4 version.
5 "And I yelled out, and he ran off, and
6 I heard glass break. I picked up the knife. He was
7 wrestling at my neck area."
8 She didn't realize at that time that
9 people weren't going to buy this. If you are fighting
10 with a man face to face, you are going to remember his
11 face. She had not come up with her temporary amnesia
12 yet.
13 These nurses have no reason to lie.
14 Let's talk a minute then about the
15 physical evidence. You heard from retired Sheriff's
16 Lieutenant James Cron. He has been in law enforcement
17 for 39 years. He has been to hundreds -- thousands of
18 crime scenes. He knows his business. He had worked with
19 the Rowlett Police Department which is a small
20 department. I mean, it is a suburb of Dallas, but really
21 it's a small town in and of itself. And they called him
22 out there and he made it out there at 6:00 in the
23 morning. They had already sealed that house off. The
24 police had not been running through there except for the
25 officers when they first arrived.
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5222

1 They sealed that house off and he went
2 in with them, and he did a walk through, and he saw the
3 photographs and he looked at the evidence. And it didn't
4 take him long to start figuring out, after he got the
5 story of what supposedly happened, that the physical
6 evidence isn't matching up. What are the things he
7 looked at? The window itself where this intruder should
8 have gone through. It's cut.
9 Then Cron tells you, "Well, the first
10 thing about that is, that is not how intruders get in
11 homes. They just take the screen off. They cut a little
12 slit and take it off. They don't make this big slash."
13 The other thing about it, this man is
14 supposed to be coming in and going out, but there's dust
15 on that windowsill and it's not disturbed.
16 He has also been told that there was
17 some type of struggle. There's dead children that have
18 been stabbed many times. A woman who is supposed to --
19 supposedly has had her throat slashed, he should expect
20 to see some blood on the intruder's hands. There is
21 nothing there. There is nothing disturbed. There is no
22 blood in the garage that he can see. There is no blood
23 outside. That gate is closed, and you can't get that
24 gate open because it drags on the cement. You have to
25 lift it up. But somehow this intruder, if he went out
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5223

1 that gate, shut it behind him. And that doesn't make
2 sense to Lieutenant Cron.
3 What else didn't make sense to him?
4 Well, the inside of the house itself. There's supposed
5 to be some violent struggle, but it didn't look like a
6 whole lot of violence, where two people are dead in there
7 and one woman is wounded. But not -- it's not all torn
8 up. He didn't see tears in the couch where a knife was
9 being thrown around. It just wasn't making sense to him.
10 Then he looked at this, and he was
11 there when it was picked up. This vacuum cleaner,
12 because it is just lying right there in the kitchen floor
13 close to the sink. Now, Officer Waddell and Walling
14 didn't see this. Of course, they are not looking for all
15 of the evidence, they are on a walk through when they are
16 there. They are moving very quickly looking for an
17 intruder, and this is off to the side of the sink and
18 they are not standing by there, so, no, they don't
19 remember it back then.
20 But it's right there, and you don't
21 have any evidence of officers having to move it over
22 there or paramedics having to move it over there. And
23 they notice that there are some bloody footprints.
24 Bloody footprints leading away from the sink. And when
25 they pick this up, bloody footprints are under it. Well,
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5224

1 it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out, that this
2 vacuum cleaner was dumped down on top of those bloody
3 footprints after it was moved. But why?
4 If the defendant did it, it's because
5 it's staging. You need to show some type of struggle
6 occurred, something like that.
7 But what else didn't make sense to Mr.
8 Cron? The wine glass. Supposedly ran into this -- this
9 intruder ran into this wine rack somehow and broke a
10 glass. Well, there's glass on top of the bloody
11 footprints, and the officer said they were careful not to
12 step on blood, and not to step on glass.
13 The trouble is he checked that wine
14 rack and it was real sturdy, and the wine glass had been
15 hooked up inside, hanging upside down. And there were
16 more delicate items lying on that wine rack that were not
17 broken and not moved, and that didn't make sense to him.
18 Of course, all he had to do to get
19 that wine glass out, is reach up and hit it and it will
20 come out, and it will hit the floor or it will hit the
21 wine rack and it will break.
22 That is another indication that
23 something wasn't adding up to him with this story that he
24 had been told.
25 Another thing that didn't make sense
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5225

1 is the hand print. You will recall, they cut it out. It
2 was Damon's hand print. It was a small palm print there
3 on the couch. Actually, I think it was right in this
4 area here.
5 They cut it out, the blood came back
6 to Damon, and you could see his little hand there. The
7 trouble is they didn't find that until after they pulled
8 the blanket up. You see that blanket had to be placed
9 there after he had walked through there.
10 We can tell from the DNA that Damon
11 moved some after he was stabbed. He sat down, probably,
12 you can see where the imprint of his pants were, and he
13 moved through here, and then, of course, wound up over
14 here.
15 All this was not adding up to Cron.
16 Now, there were fingerprints found on that windowsill,
17 and Cron told you how fingerprints get there, you know.
18 People with their oil will leave a print. Most of the
19 time you don't have a print you can get. Officer
20 Hamilton told you he got lots of prints, but most of them
21 he couldn't match up. When you touch something, it would
22 just smear. It doesn't mean anyone touched it.
23 Cron can't tell you how long that
24 print was there or when it was put there. He can tell
25 you, "Well, from looking at it though, it could have been
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5226

1 a small child." Which would not be unusual. You
2 remember the question Mr. Davis asked Darin: "Didn't
3 your children go through that window to get popsicles?"
4 "Well, yeah, my neighbor told me they
5 did that, but I was not aware of it at the time."
6 And you can tell where that screen is
7 bent, where children could have pried it open and just go
8 in. Because, see, it's no big deal to remove that
9 screen. There is a replica of that window back there
10 with the screen in it. And another thing about that.
11 Remember the screen, you can see in the photographs, it's
12 folded in, which is not consistent with someone coming
13 out.
14 And Detective Frosch went through that
15 window very carefully. That is the only way you can make
16 it through there, the way it was blocked off, one window
17 frame from the other. You have a small area to get
18 through, and if you are not going to knock that window
19 screen off, you have to do it extremely slowly and
20 carefully, which is totally inconsistent with what an
21 intruder would do.
22 But you can take that window back
23 there if you want, and you can try to go through it fast.
24 And I guarantee you, if you go through it fast, that
25 screen will come off. All you have to do is stick your
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5227

1 thumbs down on that screen and flip them, and that screen
2 will come off.
3 But Darlie Routier didn't know that,
4 you see. She thought that you had to cut the screen to
5 make it look like someone came in and out. She didn't
6 have to do that. It comes right off. It's not like Fort
7 Knox. Screens come off easily, that screen comes off
8 easily.
9 You heard from Charles Linch who has
10 worked at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences
11 for, I think, about 16 years. He is what they call a
12 trace analyst. He looks at things that are left behind.
13 He looks at things through a microscope. He went out
14 there that day. He called, he had heard about it, they
15 brought the boys' body in, at the same time Cron is
16 telling Rowlett, you need to get Linch out here. He is
17 good.
18 Linch found a hair in that window
19 frame. A blond hair. He told you what they do. They
20 look at them and they try to look at pigment patterns,
21 and when he looked at it through his microscope that hair
22 matched the same pigment patterns as the defendant. The
23 trouble was it was bleached hair, which he said is the
24 hardest type to match up. And what do they do next?
25 They take the next step and they submit it to a DNA lab
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5228

1 and it turns out to be one of the Rowlett police
2 officers' hair.
3 But he found some other evidence
4 because the police confiscated these knives. In those
5 knives was a bread knife, and he looked at those under
6 the microscope, and he found a glass rod and he found
7 some rubber material and some rubber debris with glass
8 crushed in it and that wasn't on any of the other knives.
9 And he had one of the screens from the
10 garage, and he quickly found that that screen was
11 composed of fiberglass rods with plastic covering over
12 it. And he found that if he used that bread knife and
13 you cut it all the way across, that that screen was cut
14 with a serrated knife, and could be cut in the same
15 fashion with that particular bread knife.
16 And when he tested cutting that bread
17 knife, he looked at it under the microscope and what did
18 he find? Glass rods, the same type of rubber material
19 seen on the bread knife. And that same type of rubber
20 debris with the glass meshed in. The same type of stuff
21 that happens when you cut the screen. And it adds up,
22 that bread knife was used to cut that screen, and Charles
23 Linch found the evidence. And that tells you they were
24 trying to fake the crime scene.
25 You aren't going to have an intruder
Sandra M. Halsey, CSR, Official Court Reporter
5229

1 somehow get in the house and then take the knife out and
2 then cut the window.
3 Charles Linch also looked at that
4 shirt and saw there were some holes in the shoulder, saw
5 there were some bloody smudges where you could have held
6 that shirt up, where someone might have been testing that
7 shirt, but there is no corresponding injuries to her
8 shoulder.
9 Charles Linc