Along the Rails: A Juror's Journey

By Thomas McHenry

Along the Rails: A Jurors Journey takes the reader on an emotional ride through the details of the Capital Murder trial of The State of Texas vs. Angel Maturino Resendiz, known as the infamous "Railway Killer". The author served as a juror on the 2000 high-profile trial which included horrific details of one of this nations grisliest serial killer crime sprees in recent memory. The writers jury experience, which became this book, was emotional and explosive from start to finish. The book allows the reader a rare look inside the isolated world of capital murder jury service. The details of the trials impact left on 12 people from diverse backgrounds are explored in all their emotional rawness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 8, 2007
• ISBN: 9781467817042

Thomas McHenry

Thomas McHenry was born in Houston, Texas and is a self professed member of the “baby boomer” generation.  He attended Texas Tech University majoring in Journalism and moved back to Houston to attend college locally, changing his major to Theater Arts. It was during this time that he began a career on the stage working as a “traveling actor” with a small theater company. After several years of fulfilling his ambition of acting (and very little money), he changed course and elected to go into the travel industry. His career in the international airline industry took him to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and ultimately back “home” to Houston. It was when he was chosen to serve as a juror on a highly-publicized capital murder trial in 2000 that he put pen to paper and began to record the dynamics of the trial as it unfolded. The result of this experience ultimately became, "Along the Rails: A Juror’s Journey”. This is his first book and he is at work on his second. He has currently re-entered the acting profession, having completed study at the Acting Corp. in Los Angeles and has appeared in over 7 feature films.He retired to mid-coast Maine in 2010, where he continues to write. He appears in the April 2013 Discovery Channel's Dicover ID episode which covers details of these crimes and subsequent trial.

Book preview

© 2007 Thomas McHenry. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 2/28/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4259-8610-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4678-1704-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006910910

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

I have always believed that our lives are made up of multiple journeys, some connected, some not, but always forward on a somewhat linear path. We see and experience pieces of life as we journey along, sometimes passing familiar signposts, sometimes treading into completely unfamiliar territory. For me, this experience was without familiar surroundings with which to ground my emotions. I was about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. My personal beliefs and opinions, culled over the years of my life to this point, were to be tested as never before and most likely would never be again. I was going to be shaken to my roots and shocked into a reality that I had never pondered. It started with a questionnaire. And the question that is now etched in my psyche:

"Do you believe in Capital Punishment?

Yes or No."

Contents

Dedication

Thanks to:

And the journey began………

Sleep Interrupted

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step

Curtain Up

He Did It

Deep In The Heart Of Texas

Half Angel, Half Man

Evil Forces Rage On

Organized Mayhem, Point of No Return

Sleep Interrupted…Part 2

Epiphany…

A Push for the Penalty

The Final Curtain

End of the Journey, the sun is shining again.

Epilogue

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of the victims of these crimes and to their families. I also dedicate this to the truly remarkable judicial team who worked tirelessly to bring this case to court. Each and every one went above and beyond most human limits of endurance to bring the case to a close. Their dedication was awe-inspiring.

Thanks to:

-I want to thank my rock, Reeves Gilmore, without whose help and patience this book never would have reached completion.

- I want to acknowledge my wonderful cousin, Sue Murphy and her husband John, who encouraged me constantly to keep at it, no matter what.

-To my precious sister Helen and my brother Reese, a big thank you for your continuing belief in this project.

-And to my dear friend, Lee Raymond .Thank you for your shoulder on which I leaned often.

Note * Out of respect for their individual privacies, pseudonyms have been used for the names of the actual jurors who served with me on this trial. The names of all others in this book are their real names and the comments, testimonies and examinations are all matter of public record. Some dialogue between and among other jurors was created as composites of recalled conversations.

And the journey began………

I drove to the Jury Assembly room on the morning of March 31, 2000. It seemed it was to be a tedious morning ahead spent awaiting selection to serve, as we all must at some time or the other.

My mind flashed on the only trial in which I had been selected as a juror. Civil case, double lawsuit, traffic accident, mildly interesting but ultimately…tedious. One week of my life 14 years prior. Many jury summons arrived in my mail subsequently, but I never had been selected again. I had no reason to feel differently on this morning. I even found myself fantasizing about being selected as a juror on a criminal case. Wouldn’t that be cool, I thought. A good distraction from my work as an airline sales representative ... a little break, a breather … and a chance to get a Perry Mason experience. Ah well, I thought. I just hoped there was a loose newspaper in the huge jury assembly room. At least I can do the crossword puzzle. Maybe I’ll be in the first round of panels and get to leave by noon.

I drove into the multi-level parking garage adjacent to the new Criminal Justice Center in downtown Houston, whirled my car around the drum-like up ramp following the Juror Parking signs. Why does it have to be that last level or two? These ramps make me dizzy. And cranky.

After parking, I followed the signage to the elevators and ultimately was disgorged into the teeming early morning crush of lawyers, court reporters, felons, families of felons, an assortment of people who looked like felons, and various law enforcement personnel. Security was the usual cacophony of shouts, loud commands to walk back through the sensor guards, empty your pockets, turn around…get wanded for the third time. Frankly, I was somewhat grateful that a certain care was taken to ensure that the possibility of weapons was minimized in this milieu of humanity.

The jury assembly room had that faint aroma of government institution, not unlike the school smell on the first day of classes each fall semester. I found an aisle seat, foolishly thinking that this choice would hasten my exit when I would be released. As the vast room filled, I began to relax a bit. So many people, I thought…what are the odds? No big deal. I never win anything, and this process should be no exception. What are the odds? I kept thinking. What was for dinner tonight? How many calls were on my office voice mail. For sure, I was already in unread E-mail Hell. I remember sighing deeply. This was mind-numbing at best. My thoughts of civic duty were derisive ones at this point.

Surprisingly soon, my juror number was called out, and I made my way to the front of the huge auditorium-like room and was asked to remember my number and to sit in the row indicated. At this point, as in most jury process selections, a small camaraderie develops among the potential jurors.

"Are you 121? Oh, you aren’t? I guess that means I’m next to her. Oh, you’re 124…oops, sorry. I guess then I’m in this seat."

The people in charge of this little square dance see this every day, several times a day. It surprised me that they seemed, for the most part, to keep their sense of humor; to keep from blowing sky-high, perhaps? We were finally seated in numerical order by rows. Good. That was done. There were about 50 people or so in my grouping. I was actually impressed at the swiftness of this procedure.

With surprising speed we were told to stand, move single file out of this cavernous room, and to follow the deputy. It seemed that some natural obedience began to take place among the group. I assumed the real troublemakers were still in there waiting their turn to plead their cases to be excused from jury duty. We found ourselves in what appeared to be an oversized break-room, full of vending machines and the usual government furnishings. I wondered why just a little taste couldn’t be exercised for these surroundings. I supposed that they would detract from the serious business of court. I just found it depressing. When the irritating chair scraping came to an end and we had all found seats at these tasteless tables, we each were handed a rather lengthy questionnaire. It was a defining moment. I had just begun to wonder if I might wind up being considered for a civil or criminal trial when the words on the cover page of the questionnaire jumped up and out at me:

The State of Texas vs. Angel Maturino Resendiz Charged with the Murder of

Dr. Claudia Benton

My heart pumped up a bit in my throat. Oh, that case! My mind raced ahead. Who hadn’t heard about this case? Dr. Claudia Benton, a respected Pediatric Medicine Research Specialist, had been found brutally bludgeoned and stabbed to death in her home in the upscale West University Place area of Houston. The murderer had become known as the Railway Killer, hitching rides on passing freight trains, jumping off whenever he was struck with the need to kill his victims who all lived in proximity to railroad tracks. Dr. Benton’s home was just a few hundred yards from the freight line tracks running through southwest Houston. The local inner city residents were astonished that something so brutal could happen in such a nice neighborhood.

After Resendiz’s arrest, he admitted to a string of previously unsolved murders of at least nine other souls. These were the most outrageous and vile crimes committed in anyone’s recent memory. Each victim was not only violently butchered, in some cases raped, but left in such grotesque condition to be found by loved ones and friends, making the crimes even more unfathomable, if possible. Those living in Texas, especially this area, were more than just a little knowledgeable about the case. The media had done its job. This murderer was known far and wide. I had, like a lot of the nation, watched the live TV broadcast drama of Resendiz’s surrender to the perfectly outfitted Texas Ranger on the International Bridge in El Paso. It was dramatic. Hollywood couldn’t have written or produced that moment any better.

I was confused about the charge. Hadn’t he admitted to killing numerous people, not just Claudia Benton? I was to find out later that this was the way the case was programmed, and if found guilty of this murder, the other heinous crimes would fall into place and then become part of the punishment. I couldn’t possibly serve on a jury for this case. To me it was simple. Under oath during the voir dire process, if I made it that far in the selection process, I couldn’t lie about having read or seen reports of this case. That would disqualify me, right? Plus, I reasoned, I did not believe wholeheartedly in the death penalty punishment issue, and it was common knowledge that the State of Texas was going for it in this case. Well, I reasoned, the thing to do was answer the questions on the sheets of paper and put no on the vital and key question of capital punishment. That should do it. No way am I going to sit on this jury. So there.

How very wrong we can be no matter how long we live on this earth! I wasn’t even close to being right about this. And this was to be the first of a long series of visits to uncharted territories for me. I wasn’t prepared. Not by a long shot.

We were sent back into the main jury assembly room and herded into rows once again. Glancing around, I noticed this group of people were somewhat subdued, lost in their own thoughts. Mine were jumbled. This was a twist. I shook my head slightly and focused on the floor. Man, this will be a good story for my family and friends! Of course I won’t even get close to serving as a juror on this case, but look how close I came to being even slightly associated with one of the most gruesome serial killing sprees in U.S. history. Wow. I even found myself wondering if he was even in this building, somewhere waiting for his jury to be selected. That thought made me shudder a bit. He was a true boogeyman, even though the media pictures and videos of him belied this. He seemed calm and……normal. Oh well, case closed, as they say in court, let’s