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Margaret Litchfield trial series

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

 

A trial of Margaret Litchfield for the 1999 murder of her husband Raymond "Red" Litchfield begn on Monday Oct. 4, 2106 in Gatesville, Tx of Coryell County.

The case had been a cold case until reopened by Coryell County district attorney Dusty Boyd in January 2014.

Margaret Litchfield, the victim’s widow, was arrested in April 2015 and booked into the Coryell County jail for the murder. She was later released on bond.

The trial has had several continuances requested by both the prosecution and the defense which were granted by 52nd district court judge Trent Farrell. The last trial date had been set for June 6.

On Jan. 29, 1999, Litchfield was found dead in his home on Lawson Lane with gunshot wounds from a. .22-caliber weapon. His wife had left early that morning to clean houses and came home about 2:30 in the afternoon, when she fiscovered his body.

The coroner put the time of death between 4:00 and 8 a.m.

Litchfield was known to keep a .22-caliber hand gun next to his wallet on his bedside table. The only thing missing from the home was the gun. His wallet was left full of cash.

After the case was reopened, Boyd put out a call in March 2015 to the public for assistance in identifying a man found in several photographs at the Litchfield home, and that individual came forward and cooperated with the investigation. His identity and connection to the case have not been revealed as of yet. Margaret Litchfield was subsequently arrested after that investigation.

 

Jurors hear opening statements in Litchfield murder trial

 

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

 

The trial for murder of Raymond “Red” Litchfield continued with more testimony from forensic, medical and law enforcement witnesses, focusing on the timeline of the murder and the estimated time of death as well as other possible suspects, at the 52nd district courthouse in Gatesville on Thursday.

The first witness of the day was Carla Polidoro, formerly Armstrong, who was the EMT paramedic who responded to the 9-1-1 call on January 29, 1999. She told the jury how she arrived at the scene and found Litchfield lying on the floor of the kitchen. Polidoro explained what the protocol is when EMS arrives on the scene: check for signs of life; if there are none, check for signs of death; and look for cause of death.

Litchfield was blue, which was a sign of asphyxiation, likely from his lungs filling up with blood, Polidoro said. There were signs of lividity, or liver mortis, where the blood pools to an area of the body during and after death. Litchfield showed signs of lividity on his back, Polidoro said. There were also signs of rigor mortis, where the body stiffens after death. Litchfield was “stiff as a rock,” Polidoro said. One of his arms was raised and his other arm was slightly elevated while one of his legs was bent. When Polidoro rolled him over, nothing moved, she said. It was like rolling a log, Polidoro said.

Polidoro was shown pictures taken at the crime scene of Litchfield’s body and asked to identify if lividity and rigor mortis were present in the photos to which she said yes. Polidoro, who has been a paramedic for 22 years, said that given the lividity and rigor mortis, she would estimate the time of death to be five to six hours prior to when his body was found at 2:00 p.m. This would place the time of death around 8:00 a.m.

The defense for Margaret Litchfield, Robert Harris, asked Polidoro how much experience she had with responding to calls where someone has died. Polidoro said her shift averages 10 to 30 calls a day and deals with around one death a day. She repeated that her answer of the time of death was a “guesstimation” and said that she is not an expert and could be wrong.

Polidoro was asked about her interaction with Margaret Litchfield by district attorney Dusty Boyd.

“In a nutshell, it felt like it was roleplaying,” Polidoro said, adding that the mannerisms and behavior of Margaret were not typical of a grieving widow and that she had a gut feeling that something was off.

Harris pointed out that people react differently to a sudden loss of a family member and that there isn’t a grief protocol. Boyd asked Polidoro how many calls she had responded to in her 22-year career that dealt with family members of the victims. Hundreds, if not thousands, Polidoro said. Boyd asked if she still held the opinion that something was off about Margaret’s behavior. Polidoro said she did.

The next witness was Kendall Crowns from the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office where he is a deputy medical examiner. He was contacted by the D.A.’s office to consult on the cold case, where he was given a copy of the autopsy report to review, Crowns said. Crowns came to Texas from Chicago, he said, and is very familiar with gunshot wounds. Crowns’ testimony focused on setting a range for time of death by using lividity and rigor mortis, which he defined for the jury. He explained that full rigor mortis, where the entire body is stiff, is usually seen six to 12 hours after death, possibly even 18 hours. For a body in full rigor found at 2:00 p.m., the time of death would be between 2:00 a.m. and 8 a.m., Crowns said.

Lividity is noticeable after four hours, Crowns said, but the fixing of blood to the point where the skin can’t be blanched when pressure is applied occurs after eight to 12 hours. A nude body on a tiled floor in a climate controlled house would push that time frame closer to 12 hours, Crowns said. The defense pointed out that the temperature of the house and of the tile floor was not known and was not in any reports.

The third witness of Thursday was retired Texas Ranger John Aycock, who was one of the only blood stain experts in Texas at the time of the murder. He was called to the scene but unable to get there until the next day due to a broken leg and not being able to drive himself, Aycock said.

Aycock identified different blood spatter and transfer stains, including the larger transfer stain on a set of bottom kitchen cabinet doors which Ayock said likely came from Litchfield leaning against the cabinet doors and sliding or slumping down. Aycock said he distinctly remembers the hole in the wall in the hallway, because he was looking for something out of place. He said he was shown a picture of the hole cut out of the wall. Raymond Litchfield’s right ankle had remnants of sheet rock on it as well. Litchfield didn’t run out of the room normally but rather, he came out backwards and ended up hitting the wall with his heel, Aycock said. When asked what could have caused Litchfield to turn around, Aycock said that he could have been backing out of the room because he knew his shooter and could have been trying to make conversation or talk them down.

The next witness was Joseph Guileyardo, a forensic pathologist and anatomical and clinical pathologist who performed the autopsy of Raymond Litchfield in 1999. Guileyardo was shown his report from 1999 as well as the two bullets taken from Litchfield’s body during the autopsy. One was a plain lead bullet while the other had a brass coating. Guileyardo recounted how many bullets struck Litchfield’s body as well as where.

The first struck over his ribcage on the right side and penetrated the liver and landed in the spine, Guileyardo said. The second passed through his side, exiting a few inches away from his spine, Guileyardo said. Both of those shots had stippling in the medium range, Guileyardo said. He estimated that put the gun between one to two feet away when fired. The third wound had no stippling and was on the back, a few inches below the right shoulder. The bullet went through the rib and perforated the upper level of the lung before coming out through the sternum, staying present in Litchfield’s chest, Guileyardo said.  Guileyardo said that there was around two quarts of blood in the right chest cavity. The average amount of blood in a human body is five quarts, Guileyardo said.

The first witness on Friday was Robert Poole, who worked at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science for 35 years before retiring. He specialized in fire arm and tool mark identification. He was sent fired bullets, bullet fragments, cartridge cases and boxes of ammunition from the crime scene to analyze, he said. He used an FBI database to compile a list of possible guns that could have fired the bullet pulled from Litchfield’s body, after determining the caliber, the number and measurement of lands and grooves and the type of twists, Poole said. Litchfield’s missing gun, a Ruger .22 Mark I revolver, was on the list, Poole said. The fired bullets were also consistent with the bullets found in the box of ammunition that was found in the Litchfield home, Poole said.

The next witness was Ricky Helms from the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office. In 1999, he was one of the investigators on the case. He told the jury about the crime scene and how the body was found. He also told of when he began to go door to door to talk to neighbors who claimed to have heard gunshots earlier that day, just after noon. Close to 11:30 p.m., Helms and a Texas Ranger named Ray Cummings interviewed Margaret at the Coryell County Annex in Copperas Cove, Helms said.  Margaret gave them background on what she did for a living and said that their financial situation had been rough but was doing a lot better, Helms said.

 She gave her statement of what had happened the 29th, starting with when she woke up at 5 a.m. A friend had called her to warn her of a nearby creek rising due to rain which she said woke her husband up. She told Helms that they drank their coffee together and that Raymond told her to leave the gate open because he wasn’t going to work and some of his friends were coming over to play dominoes. Helms said that Margaret told him she left the house around 6:30 a.m. and that Raymond went back to bed.

 Margaret’s timeline includes her arriving at the house she was supposed to clean but the owners were home so she wasn’t able to clean it. Margaret said she stayed and drank coffee but didn’t tell Helms when she left, Helms said. She then stopped by a friend’s house, Helms said. After leaving the friend’s house, she went to a 10:00 a.m appointment at Benny Boyd’s in Lampasas to get her brakes checked before she stopped in at a restaurant known as Chess’s (that’s now no longer in business) in Copperas Cove, claiming to be looking for Raymond because she couldn’t reach him on the phone, Helms said. She told people she was supposed to be meeting Raymond for lunch there, Helms said. She said she left Chess’s to go pick up registration tags for both her and Raymond’s vehicles, Helms. Receipts showed that that was around 11:45 a.m. She then went back to Chess’s to check for Raymond again, Helms said. She left Chess’s to go grocery shopping at H-E-B and then went home, where she found Raymond’s body just before 2:00 p.m., Helms said.

Margaret told investigators that the house wasn’t disturbed and that she noticed that the blinds were still closed and that normally Raymond opened them when he got up, Helms said. There were no signs of a struggle and there was no blood on her clothes, Helms said. When Margaret’s shoes, which she told investigators she took off at the door, were sent to Austin for testing, they tested negative for blood, Helms said.

Helms said that a life insurance policy worth $30,000 was found two months after the murder that Margaret claimed to not know about.

The defense questioned Helms about the possibility of other suspects, including a man named Randy Patrell who was a friend of Raymond’s and whose daughter was rumored to have had sex with Raymond Litchfield and that there was a video tape of the encounter. Helms said he was not made aware of that rumor but that yes, that would be motive for murder.

The .22 Ruger revolver that Raymond owned had never been recovered and Margaret Litchfield had never been tested for gunshot residue, Helms said. Boyd asked if it were possible for Margaret to have ditched a weapon in one of the many creeks and rivers on her drive from Copperas Cove to the house she was supposed to clean in Kempner, adding that the owner of the house said Margaret didn’t arrive until close to 8:00 a.m., an hour and a half after she said she left her home less than 30 miles away. Helms agreed it was possible.

When asked by the defense if there was anything in his report that pointed to Margaret as the shooter, Helms said no.

The final witness on Friday was Robin Russell (formerly Patterson), who worked at the Copperas Cove branch of the National Bank in their lending department. Raymond and Margaret Litchfield were customers and the day before he died, Raymond had an appointment scheduled to go over getting a loan to buy a boat, Russell said. Margaret called and asked to move the appointment to the next day at 2 p.m., Russell said.

 She remembered Margaret calling several times and sounding frantic and worried, Russell said. Margaret was concerned about credit issues that her husband was unaware of and said she wanted to have the chance to talk with her husband, Russell said. Russell said she thought that Margaret was intimidated by her husband. Harris asked if Margaret was the only woman to be afraid of her husband regarding credit problems and Russell agreed that she was not.

“In your 30 years of banking, has it ever happened that a person got murdered the next day?” Boyd asked.

Russell said no, that was the only time.

The court recessed on Friday and the trial will resume Tuesday morning.

 

Friends and family of Litchfields testify at trial Tuesday and Wednesday

 

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

 

The second week of testimony in the trial for the murder of Raymond Litchfield shifted the focus to friends and family of Raymond and his widow, Margaret, who is charged with his murder, at the 52nd district court in Gatesville on Tuesday.

One of the alternate jurors was sworn in to replace a juror who had a family emergency after the lunch break Tuesday.

Before the lunch break, jurors listened to testimony from Randy Battreal, who had been put forth in previous witness questioning by Margaret’s defense attorney, Mike Magana, as a possible suspect in Raymond’s murder due to the rumor of him finding out about a sex tape involving Raymond and Battreal’s daughter.

Battreal, who claimed to have known Litchfield since the late 1970s, said he had a professional and personal relationship with Raymond and described them to be good friends who talked at least once or twice a week. He added that he met Margaret through Litchfield and that they got along well.

Battreal told the jury that he was at his used car lot by 8 a.m. the morning of Raymond’s murder. Raymond was supposed get a boat that day and was supposed to pick up Battreal to go with him, Battreal said. When he didn’t show, Battreal called and left Raymond a voicemail, he said.

Battreal didn’t learn of Raymond’s death until the next morning when he stopped in at Ches’s Restaurant, he said.

Battreal was asked repeatedly by district attorney Dusty Boyd is he had any reason to hurt, harm or hill Raymond. He said no.

“Raymond was my buddy,” Battreal said. When he was asked again, he said no again. When Magana asked why he was getting so defensive, Battreal said Raymond was his friend and that he had no reason to kill him. Neither the prosecutors nor the defense attorneys asked Battreal about the rumor regarding the sex tape.

The next witness was Amanda Wood, whose house Margaret was meant to clean the morning of the murder. Wood told jurors that Margaret arrived around 8:30 and didn’t clean the house because she and her husband had decided to stay home. Margaret left about 30 minutes later, Wood said. The next time Margaret tried to come clean the house after Raymond’s murder, Wood’s dog would not let her in the yard, Wood said. Wood and her husband spoke to investigators twice- once in 1999 and once several years later with a Texas Ranger named Jesse Ramos. In 1999, they did not admit to buying marijuana from Margaret, Wood said.

“I would leave the money on my dining room table and the marijuana would appear,” Wood said. Boyd clarified that she bought from Margaret. Wood said that had happened a couple of times.

Another witness was John Kilpatrick, who had worked for Raymond prior to his death. In previous witness testimony and reading of police reports, Kilpatrick’s name came up as being part of a $500 dispute with Litchfield.

Kilpatrick testified that he never fought or had a verbal argument with Litchfield. They had talks about money and about changes to houses, Kilpatrick said. When Magana brought up the $500 dispute, Kilpatrick said that any dispute with Raymond was taken care of. There was no argument and Raymond ended up paying him, Kilpatrick said.

Margaret’s former daughter-in-law, Hilda Ness, testified next. Margaret had become her mother-in-law but had acted as her mother since she was 17, Ness said. Ness testified that when she saw Margaret in the hours after Raymond was found, Margaret was “uncontrollably upset.” Margaret ended up going to stay with Ness and her husband, Ronald “Corky” Bryan, until the house was released by Texas Rangers.

Ness told Magana and the jury that she believed Margaret was innocent and would have never allowed Margaret to come live with her if she thought otherwise, because she had a 17-month-old baby at the time. During Ness’ testimony, Boyd brought up several of Margaret’s Facebook posts from 2013 and 2015 including one that said “I support a woman’s right to choose revolver or pistol”; one that said “If your dog doesn’t like someone, you shouldn’t either”; and one that said “Repost this if you know someone still alive because you can’t afford a hitman.” Those posts seemed inconsistent with someone who lost their husband the way Margaret did, Boyd said.

Ronald “Corky” Bryan, Margaret’s son, was the next witness and also spoke about Margaret’s character and her relationship with Raymond. They were best friends, he said. He believed Margaret was innocent and couldn’t have killed Raymond.

David Brown, who went to school with Raymond and later hired Margaret to work at his business, told the jury he believed Margaret was innocent and that he trusted her enough to let her run his business when he was in the hospital for a few weeks. He didn’t believe she killed Raymond because he watched as she lost her two trucks and nearly lost her house, Brown said.

“Margaret had everything to lose and nothing to gain from killing her husband,” Brown said.

As he had with Ness and Bryan, Boyd confirmed with Brown that he did not know every detail or fact of the shooting or Margaret’s exact whereabouts that day. Their opinions and beliefs of Margaret’s innocence were based on personal history and interaction with Margaret, not because that had proof of her innocence, Boyd said.

By the end of the day Tuesday, 11 witnesses had testified, compared to the 13 who had testified in the first week of the trial.

Wednesday started with testimony from E.A. Hughes, who considered himself a longtime friend of Raymond’s.

Boyd brought up Hughes’ grand jury testimony where he had articulated that he believed Margaret had something to do with Raymond’s death, because of Raymond’s temper and the issues with the boat, but that he had no proof.

Boyd also brought up Margaret’s grand jury testimony from 2014 and 2015 when former Texas Ranger Fred Cummings took the stand. Boyd compared the written statement Cummings took from Margaret in 1999 to her grand jury testimony and pointed out the inconsistencies. In 1999, she said she last saw Raymond lying in bed, on the east side. In 2014 and 2015, she said he was in the kitchen by the counter. Boyd said. In 1999, Margaret said Raymond had two cups of decaffeinated coffee while she had regular coffee. In 2014 and 2015, Margaret said that she didn’t make coffee that morning and that if Raymond drank coffee, it would be at Ches’a.  Another inconsistency Boyd brought up was how Margaret told a friend that the life insurance policy she found in March 1999 was worth $20,000, how she told the grand jury that it was worth $10,000 and how it was actually worth $30,000. These inconsistencies would be highly suspicious, Boyd said. Cummings agreed that they would be.

The final witnesses of Wednesday were David Litchfield, Raymond’s son, and Faye Litchfield Powell, Raymond’s sister.

David told the jury that he called Margaret after he found out from his aunt about Raymond’s death. She didn’t seem that upset, but he assumed it was shock, David said.

Margaret never asked or talked to David about finding Raymond’s killer, David said.

“I always thought if you weren’t guilty, you would try to find the killer,” David said.

Powell explained to the jury that after Raymond’s death, she approached local newspapers every anniversary to print an article looking for new information in his murder. There was also a large sum of money offered as a reward for information, Powell said.

Powell told the jury that her relationship with her brother was great and remained good even after he moved away and then back. She said she got along with Margaret as well. 

Before Raymond’s death, Margaret got along well with Raymond’s family and mother, Powell said.

“She was always welcome in my mother’s house,” Powell said.

After Raymond was murdered, what was once a steady interaction ceased to exist, Powell said.

“My mother was heartbroken,” Powell said. “She couldn’t understand why.”

Powell added that the last time she spoke to Margaret was at 3:20 p.m. on January 29, 1999 when she asked her “Who in God’s green Earth would kill him?” and Margaret said she didn’t know.

The trial continued on Thursday.

 

First responders, medical examiner questioned during Litchfield trial

 

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

 

The trial for murder of Raymond “Red” Litchfield continued Thursday and Friday last week, with testimony from forensic, medical and law enforcement witnesses, focusing on the timeline of the murder and the estimated time of death as well as other possible suspects, at the 52nd district courthouse in Gatesville.

The first witness on Thursday was Carla (Armstrong) Polidoro, the EMT paramedic who responded to the 9-1-1 call on January 29, 1999. She told the jury how she arrived at the scene and found Litchfield lying on the floor of the kitchen. Polidoro explained EMS protocol when arriving on the scene: check for signs of life; if there are none, check for signs of death; and look for cause of death.

Litchfield was blue, a sign of asphyxiation, with signs of lividity, or liver mortis, on his back, Polidoro said. There were also signs of rigor mortis. Litchfield was “stiff as a rock,” Polidoro said. She identified those signs in crime scene photos. Polidoro, a paramedic for 22 years, said given the lividity and rigor mortis, she would estimate the time of death to be five to six hours prior to when his body was found at 2 p.m., placing the time of death around 8 a.m.

The defense for Margaret Litchfield, Robert Harris, asked Polidoro how much experience she had with responding to calls where someone has died. Polidoro said her shift averages 10 to 30 calls a day and deals with around one death a day. She repeated that her answer of the time of death was a “guesstimation” and that she is not an expert and could be wrong. Polidoro was also asked about her interaction with Margaret Litchfield by district attorney Dusty Boyd.

“In a nutshell, it felt like it was role playing,” Polidoro said, adding that the mannerisms and behavior of Margaret were not typical of a grieving widow and that she had a gut feeling that something was off.

Harris pointed out that people react differently to a sudden loss of a family member and that there isn’t a grief protocol. Boyd asked Polidoro how many calls she had responded to in her 22-year career that dealt with family members of the victims. Hundreds, if not thousands, Polidoro said. Boyd asked if she still held the opinion that something was off about Margaret’s behavior. Polidoro said she did.

Next up was Kendall Crowns, deputy medical examiner with the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office. Crowns was contacted by the D.A. to consult on the cold case and was given a copy of the 1999 autopsy report to review, Crowns said. Crowns, who came to Texas from Chicago, said he is very familiar with gunshot wounds. Crowns’ testimony focused on setting a range for time of death by using lividity and rigor mortis, which he defined for the jury. He explained that full rigor mortis, where the entire body is stiff, is usually seen six to 12 hours after death, possibly even 18 hours. For a body in full rigor found at 2 p.m., the time of death would be between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., Crowns said.

Thursday’s third witness was retired Texas Ranger John Aycock, one of the only blood stain experts in Texas at the time of the murder. He was called to the scene but unable to get there until the next day due to a broken leg and not being able to drive himself, Aycock said.

Aycock identified different blood spatter and transfer stains, including the larger transfer stain on a set of bottom kitchen cabinet doors which Ayock said likely came from Litchfield leaning against the cabinet doors and sliding or slumping down. Aycock said he distinctly remembered the hole in the wall in the hallway, because he was looking for something out of place. He said he was shown a picture of the hole cut out of the wall. Litchfield’s right ankle had remnants of sheet rock on it as well. Litchfield didn’t run out of the room normally but rather, he came out backwards and ended up hitting the wall with his heel, Aycock said. When asked what could have caused Litchfield to turn around, Aycock said that he could have been backing out of the room because he knew his shooter and could have been trying to make conversation or talk them down.

The next witness was Joseph Guileyardo, a forensic pathologist and anatomical and clinical pathologist who performed the autopsy of Raymond Litchfield in 1999. Guileyardo identified two bullets taken from Litchfield’s body during the autopsy., one a plain lead bullet, while the other had a brass coating. Guileyardo recounted how many bullets struck Litchfield’s body as well as where.

The first struck over his ribcage on the right side and penetrated the liver and landed in the spine, Guileyardo said. The second passed through his side, exiting a few inches away from his spine, Guileyardo said. Both shots had stippling in the medium range, Guileyardo said. This put the gun between one to two feet away from Litchfield when fired. The third wound had no stippling and was on the back, a few inches below the right shoulder. The bullet went through the rib and perforated the upper level of the lung before coming out through the sternum, staying present in Litchfield’s chest, Guileyardo said. After Guileyardo’s testimony, court concluded on Thursday.

The first witness Friday was Robert Poole, who worked at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science for 35 years before retiring. He specialized in fire arm and tool mark identification. He was sent fired bullets, bullet fragments, cartridge cases and boxes of ammunition from the crime scene to analyze. Poole used an FBI database to compile a list of possible guns that could have fired the bullet pulled from Litchfield’s body, after determining the caliber, the number and measurement of lands and grooves and the type of twists. Litchfield’s missing gun, a Ruger .22 Mark I revolver, was on the list. Poole said The fired bullets were also consistent with the bullets in the box of ammunition found in the Litchfield home.

Ricky Helms from the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office was up next. In 1999, Helms he was one of the investigators on the case. Along with telling the jury about the crime scene and how the body was found, Helms described when he went door to door to talk to neighbors who claimed to have heard gunshots earlier that day, just after noon. Close to 11:30 p.m., Helms and a Texas Ranger named Ray Cummings interviewed Margaret at the Coryell County Annex in Copperas Cove, Helms said.  Margaret gave them background on what she did for a living and said that their financial situation had been rough but was doing a lot better, he said.

Margaret had given Helms her statement of what had happened the 29th, starting with when she woke up at 5 a.m. A friend had called her to warn her of a nearby creek rising due to rain which she said woke her husband up. She told Helms they drank their coffee together and Raymond told her to leave the gate open because he wasn’t going to work and some of his friends were coming over to play dominoes. Helms said Margaret told him she left the house around 6:30 a.m. and Raymond went back to bed.

Margaret’s timeline includes her arriving at the house she was supposed to clean but the owners were home so she wasn’t able to clean it. Margaret said she stayed and drank coffee but didn’t tell Helms when she left, Helms said. She then stopped by a friend’s house, then went to a 10 a.m appointment at Benny Boyd’s in Lampasas to get her brakes checked before she stopped in at Ches’s restaurant in Copperas Cove, claiming to be looking for Raymond because she couldn’t reach him on the phone, Helms said. She told people she was supposed to meet Raymond for lunch there, and then left Ches’s to pick up registration tags for both her and Raymond’s vehicles. Receipts verified that that was around 11:45 a.m. She then went back to Ches’s to check for Raymond again, Helms said, then left Chess’s a second time to shop at H-E-B and then went home, where she found Raymond’s body just before 2 p.m., Helms said.

Margaret told investigators at the time that the house wasn’t disturbed and she noticed the blinds were still closed and normally Raymond opened them when he got up, Helms said. There were no signs of a struggle and there was no blood on her clothes, Helms said. Margaret’s shoes , which were sent to Austin for testing, tested negative for blood.

Helms said that two months after the murder, a life insurance policy worth $30,000 was found, and Margaret claimed not to know about it.

The defense questioned Helms about the possibility of other suspects, including a man named Randy Patrell who was a friend of Raymond’s and whose daughter was rumored to have had sex with Raymond Litchfield and that there was a videotape of the encounter. Helms said he was not made aware of that rumor but that yes, that would be motive for murder.

Raymond’s .22 Ruger revolver had never been recovered and Margaret Litchfield was never tested for gunshot residue, Helms said. Boyd asked if it were possible for Margaret to have ditched a weapon in one of the many creeks and rivers on her drive from Copperas Cove to the house she was supposed to clean in Kempner, adding that the owner of the house said Margaret didn’t arrive until close to 8 a.m., an hour and a half after she said she left her home less than 30 miles away. Helms agreed it was possible.

When asked by the defense if there was anything in his report that pointed to Margaret as the shooter, Helms said no.

The final witness on Friday was Robin (Patterson) Russell, who worked at the Copperas Cove branch of the National Bank in their lending department. Raymond and Margaret Litchfield were customers and the day before he died, Raymond had an appointment scheduled for getting a loan to buy a boat, Russell said, adding that Margaret called and asked her to move the appointment to the following day at 2 p.m..

Russell remembered Margaret calling several times and sounding frantic and worried. Margaret was concerned about credit issues that her husband was unaware of and said she wanted to talk with her husband. Russell said she thought Margaret was intimidated by her husband. Harris asked if Margaret was the only woman to be afraid of her husband regarding credit problems and Russell agreed she was not.

“In your 30 years of banking, has it ever happened that a person got murdered the next day?” Boyd asked.

Russell said no, that was the only time.

The court recessed on Friday and the trial resumes today.

 

 

Litchfield found guilty in husband’s murder

 

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

 

On Friday at the 52nd district court in Gatesville, a jury found Margaret Litchfield guilty of murdering her husband Raymond “Red” Litchfield back in 1999.

The jury, made up of seven women and five men, went into deliberation just before noon and did not return a verdict until after 5 p.m. on Friday.

Before the jury deliberated, they heard arguments and closing statements from both the state and the defense attorneys. The day before, Thursday, they heard from the State’s last witness and from the defense’s first two witnesses.

The final witness called by district attorney Dusty Boyd was Texas Ranger Jason Bobo, who was transferred to Lampasas in 2012 and took over former Texas Ranger Jess Ramos’ caseload, including the Litchfield case.

Bobo was also contacted by Faye Litchfield Powell, Raymond’s sister, Bobo said.

Jess Ramos previously testified that he spent six years looking for Margaret’s sneakers, in addition to working his regular case load. Bobo revealed Thursday that he finally located the sneakers, which had been tested for DNA and blood in 1999, and sent them for additional testing. They tested negative, again, for human blood, Bobo said. Bobo also reviewed cellphone records and noticed calls to the National Bank in Copperas Cove. He interviewed employees from the bank who told him about the phone calls and the appointments made, Bobo said.

The information gathered at the bank added to the list of reasons Margaret had something to do with Raymond’s murder, Bobo said.

Margaret’s defense attorney Mike Magana previously brought up the missing pieces of evidence and Boyd asked Bobo if the items that were missing would be crucial for the jury. Bobo said no. The missing items were projectiles and bullet fragments and several reports from law enforcement who were first on scene.

“The facts still stand,” Bobo said, in regards to relying on Cummings’ report. The details from Margaret changed throughout the year, Bobo said.

“The only facts that stayed consistent were things that helped an alibi,” Bobo said.

Bobo pointed to lividity, coldness and rigor mortis as indicating time of death and said there was no evidence to support the idea that anybody was at the residence except for Margaret.

Boyd asked if Bobo believed someone would come into the house unarmed, with the intent of using Litchfield’s firearm from the opposite side of the bed while he slept. Bobo said he’d never seen anything like that.

Magana asked Bobo what evidence he had that it was Raymond’s gun that was used. Bobo said reasonable deduction and reports from firearms experts that included the .22 Ruger Mark I led him to believe that. Margaret also told law enforcement that she believed the gun used was Raymond’s, Bobo said.

Magana brought up the time of death estimate written on paramedic Carla Armstrong Polidoro’s report, where it said the time of death was estimated by the Justice of the Peace to be five to six hours earlier.

“I would never depend on the Justice of the Peace to estimate time of death,” Bobo said. “That’s not what they do.”

The state introduced evidence that included a report on the rainfall precipitation for Lampasas and Killeen on January 29, 1999. The report showed that there was only a total of 0.14 inches throughout the day in Lampasas and no measurable amount for Killeen. Margaret’s original statement indicated the possibility of creeks flooding as a reason to take a longer route. Bobo said he drove the normal route Margaret would take and it took him approximately 35 minutes. Taking an alternative route had a similar time, he said.

Bobo was also asked about gunshot residue. Magana pointed out several times that Margaret tested negative, but previous testimony revealed she had never been tested.

The viable time for collecting GSR is as close to the time of the shooting, within two hours of the discharge, Bobo said. The lab won’t test for GSR if it’s been longer than two hours, Bobo said.

Evidence was also introduced regarding checks Margaret had written to herself using the Raymond’s construction bank account. The bank statement for the month before the murder showed a check that was out of number sequence, Bobo said.  It also showed that she wrote the checks, one for $500 and one for $700, from the account at the National Bank and deposited or cashed them at her own personal bank account at First Texas Bank in Killeen. There was also a pattern of insufficient funds in Margaret’s personal checking account, Bobo said.  This evidence also showed an outstanding debt from a Discover credit card worth over $8,000 or $4,120 as the community value. Margaret told law enforcement in her statement that the debt on the credit card was hers, not Raymond’s, and that he didn’t know there was anything on the card.

After 31 witnesses and more than 140 pieces of evidence, the state rested Thursday afternoon.

The defense opted to begin their opening statements, with Magana speaking. Magana said that the evidence would show that Raymond was shot, but not that Margaret did it. He added that witnesses would say that Margaret appeared to be normal and not involved in a struggle, and that 15-plus years later, she would continue to cooperate with law enforcement.

The defense’s first witness called was Robert Liberty, a distribution clerk at the U.S. Post Office. The only question that Margaret’s defense attorney Robert “Buck” Harris asked was whether the USPS would offer to hold someone’s mail if they went out of town or left their residence. Liberty said yes, they do offer that. Harris passed the witness and Boyd declined to question. Confusion was noticeable on the faces of some of the jurors as Liberty stepped down.

The next witness called by Harris was Margaret’s former daughter-in-law, Hilda Ness. Harris brought up how Margaret stayed with Ness and her husband Ronald “Corky” Bryan.

Margaret couldn’t function, Ness said. She needed to be reminded to eat and to bathe, Ness added. Ness also stayed four to six weeks at Margaret’s after she moved back to help Margaret adjust to her life without Raymond, Ness said.

Boyd pointed out that the Texas Rangers released Margaret’s home back to her on January 30, 1999 at 11 p.m., not several days or weeks later as previously implied.

Boyd told Ness that if she didn’t know an answer then she should just say she didn’t know.

“I think the jury would rather you say you don’t know than give an inconsistent answer,” Boyd said. Ness’ voice broke as she agreed.

Before the defense rested, Harris asked Ness if she let Margaret stay longer because she didn’t want her in the house so soon after her husband was killed. Ness agreed.

The court recessed until 9 a.m. Friday, where district court Judge Trent Farrell read the charge to the jury before the attorneys made their arguments. There were more than 30 spectators sitting and listening by the time arguments started.

Scott Stevens, 52nd district court assistant district attorney, argued that Margaret killed Raymond because of her credit issue and because Raymond wanted a boat and had been described as someone who would “whoop your butt over 50 cents.” Stevens said that other possible suspects were eliminated, that Margaret had no concrete alibi for the estimated time of death, that the bank statements showed motive and that Margaret’s statements showed inconsistencies.

Magana argued that the state had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Margaret killed Raymond. None of the evidence proved that Margaret killed Raymond, he said, there was no proof on her that she had killed anybody.

In his closing statement, Harris brought up the Salem Witch Trials, where 13 women were killed without a piece of evidence proving they were witches. He asked for tangible evidence that proved Margaret killed her husband.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you’re trying to see through a smoke screen,” Harris said. “All I’m asking you to do is brush it apart and look for the evidence.”

Boyd’s closing statement mentioned the 11 witnesses from law enforcement, four from medical and forensic fields, two from financial and banking fields and 15 witnesses who were friends, family and other outliers connected to the Litchfield’s. He walked the jury through each witness and their role in the trial and investigation. He brought up the fact that no gun had been found and said even if the gun had been found, it would still have been argued as circumstantial evidence. He brought up previous grand jury witness testimony from Ness where she said that whoever killed Raymond had to have known him. Margaret knew him and lived with him, Boyd said.

Boyd told the jury why this case was important.

“This story demanded to be told,” Boyd said. “Give this family peace. Give this family justice.”

Jurors were released before noon and deliberated for more than five hours before returning a guilty verdict.
Jurors were advised before arguments and closing statements that their decision had to be unanimous and they had to believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Margaret Litchfield killed her husband.

After the verdict was announced, Faye Powell spoke briefly with the Leader-Press.

“Our family is relieved,” Powell said. “After 17 years and 10 months, we’re relieved, but we still don’t have Raymond.”

 

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