STATEMENT OF FACTS AND EVENTS
Mohave County vs. R. W. Murray

On Sunday morning we left Las Vegas headed to the Grand Canyon for a sight seeing visit before driving back to, Alabama. On the highway going South toward Kingman Arizona, we passed a sign pointing to a side road giving me the impression it was another road to the Grand Canyon. Remembering I had been to the Canyon in 1986, I recalled a northern road from Flagstaff was the best route. We continued to drive, planning to layover in Kingman for rest and meals before continuing our trip.

Later in the day we arrived in Kingman, found a place to eat and then a motel. We stayed for the night recovering from a weekend of drinking and gambling in Las Vegas. The next day was Monday. We slept until around eleven in the morning. Waking late we decided to drive back up the road toward Las Vegas where we had seen the other access to the Grand Canyon. We left Kingman around noon and headed north. About an hour and a half or two hours later we spotted the road leading east into the Canyon.We started down this very curvy road and arrived at a location, which appeared to be a resort. There was a lake, several houseboats, camping area, large parking lot, and a bar/restaurant. We parked and went over to the bar area and found it didn't open until 3:00 p.m. It was then about 2:30pm

We had two pints of Early Times Whiskey left over from the weekend. Since we hadn't obviously found the Grand Canyon, we decided to hang around the bar in hopes of finding entertainment. We had a couple of shots from whiskey and waited in an outdoor seating area the bar had set up. A little after 3:00 p.m. the bar opened. We went inside and ordered drinks. We started with Jack and Coke and had conversation with the Bartender. After two or three drinks, we began to speak with the bartender about his upcoming retirement in Mexico. During the conversation we started to drink tequila Margarita drinks. After a couple of hours (around 5:00 p.m.), we left the bar and drove around to another lake access.   We spent about half and hour changing into clean clothing more suited to the night. Then we spent about half an hour driving back and drinking the remainder of one pint of the whiskey.  About 6:00 p.m., we returned and ordered another drink. There were two or three others in the bar. One was a man from California who had purchased one of the houseboats at the dock. He was repairing damage to the boat during the day.

We continued to drink and have conversations with the bartender and patrons, playing the video games and playing music. At some point some women from the restaurant side joined us for a while. The restaurant was not opened at this time, but at some point we managed to go over to the Cafe and have some kind of snack. Later the bartender said it was past closing time - an early time just for Monday nights. We said our goodbye and left with the man from California. He got in his car which was a mini van or land rover type car. We got in my car and left. The road was curvy and I was pretty much intoxicated. I drove slowly until we got back to the main road some 28 miles away. During this time we finished off the second bottle of whiskey. We were both pretty drunk, but since I assumed I could drive like so many, many times before, we decided to drive back to Kingman and get another room for the night.

I began driving on the highway headed south for some time and many miles. Before long I noticed Roger had fallen asleep about the same time we entered Kingman. I was driving with the windows down and the radio volume turned up very high. Before I realized it, I thought I was in the middle of town, I decided to turn around and found that I had actually turned onto the Interstate Forty access road. A couple of minutes on 1-40, I realized I was going the wrong way and couldn't find a way off. I drove a few miles west and pulled into a rest area.

I parked somewhere around the middle of the rest area and settled in for the night. I dozed off and on for sometime between one and two hours. At some point I noticed a tow truck pull into the front parking area and hooked behind it was a small looking light colored car.  I watched a few minutes as the car was unhooked. I saw three people. It was dark, however I could tell one had long blond hair, who I thought was a woman. The other two appeared average. I watched the car unhook and both truck and car left the area.

A few minutes later I was unable to sleep and feeling better I started my car and drove out to the interstate heading west looking for an overpass or exit which would allow me to head back east. I drove a couple miles and spotted the tow truck sitting off the road, I was upon the truck before I realized it. I slammed on my brakes about the same time that I passed the truck, because I thought the car was facing the tow truck with its hood up and might need some help. When I hit my brakes Roger slid off the seat onto the floor. Items on the seat went onto the floor. I stopped in the right lane for a moment to compose myself and began to back up. I got about halfway back when the other car pulled out and went around me heading west on the interstate. I twisted around looking back through my rear window when the car pulled out. At that time I realized the trunk of the car was what I had noticed as being up instead of the hood. I watched the car speed away west and I backed up beside the truck to stop in the right lane. We both got out of our car to see if anybody was around that needed help, or anything. Noticing the passenger door open on the truck, we walked around to that side. We spotted a large dark colored bag on the seat.

Roger climbed up on the step and looked inside. He said, "You ain't gonna believe this shit".
 I climbed up and looked inside and saw what I thought was thousands and thousands of dollars. At this time we decided to take the money and leave. The bag was heavy and seemed like over one hundred pounds. We pulled it to the edge of the seat. I grabbed the bag in sort of like a bear hug and took off to the car where Roger already had the door open.  I tossed the bag in the car and we left the tow truck. We started down the interstate west looking for a way to head east.  Driving for several miles we finally found an overpass back on the interstate east. Roger reached over the seat and pulled out massive amounts of paper money. We thought we'd hit the big time. Low on gas we started to search for a gas station and found one after another several miles.

We pulled into the station for gas. Roger began the pump and I got out and walked around the car to the rear passenger door. I opened the door and began to dig through the bag; I found lots of paper money and pounds of change. Mixed in the money I found a double barrel shotgun. I breached it open and noticed it had two spent shot shells. I removed them and looked around for a trash can. I looked into the store window and saw the store employee looking out at me. At this time I shoved the shot shells into my back pocket for later disposal Ii. About the same time I reached into the bag and grabbed a large handful of change so I could purchase a soft drink from the machine. I dug around in the bag and found two more weapons. They were pistols. After the gas was paid for, we left the station and headed east.  I drove for several miles while Roger went through the contents of the bag. We found numerous shotgun shells and pistol shells. There was a scanner and many pairs of gloves. Roger climbed over the back seat to better reach the bag. He found a pillowcase with two pairs of tennis shoes, a couple more pair of gloves, two pair of blue jean cut off shorts, a tee shirt and one dark baseball cap.  We drove on and tossed everything out the window that we didn't find useful. Then we put all the paper money in the pillowcase and continued driving east.

We continued to drive until early morning. About the time the sun started to peak, we stopped at a Burger King out on the interstate near Flagstaff. We parked in the lot and Roger went in for our order. Several minutes later he came out with the order of breakfast foodstuffs. We sat eating for 15 to 20 minutes, when Roger changed out of my shoes into one of the pair we found in the bag. It was unusual because the shoes were new, or close to being new. There may have even been a tag or something to make us think they were new. After about thirty minutes we got back on the interstate. We drove east falling in behind a semi truck moving about 60 mph. We continued behind the truck for several miles.

At some point the truck quickly swerved into the left lane to pass a very slow moving car and we switched lanes right behind the truck. The slow moving car happened to be an Arizona DPS Trooper. We followed the truck past the slow car and then continued to move back into the right lane behind the truck. We continued on for a couple of miles when I noticed the DPS Trooper gaining at a high rate of speed.

I instantly felt sick and very nervous, I panicked to realize he was about to pull us over. I didn't know what to do with the contents from the bag. I knew we had stolen it from the tow truck and did not want to get caught with that stuff in the car. During this panicking, we decided to try and gain distance from the trooper. We thought if we could get far enough ahead to toss out the contents of that bag, it would be much easier to except a ticket for trying the evade the police, as opposed to facing charges for stealing something from a tow truck. We thought that we could gain some distance by taking an exit. The first one we took was a dead end. We turned around and drove out past one of the troopers and got back on the interstate going west. A mile or so down the road another exit appeared and we took it. This exit was dirt and we thought we could get ahead enough to toss the contents. To my surprise the road had a gate. I could not stop and we passed the gate going over a mound of dirt and wire fencing over to the right side. The bumper of our car slammed into the dirt almost knocking off the bumper. We drove around into the desert and found the trooper still behind us and we realized we would never get any distance and decided to give it up.

The DPS Trooper came out of his car with a shotgun and ordered us out. The anger he expressed was great. We took a moment and decided it would be safer if we went ahead to show the trooper our willingness to give up and that tossing out the guns would better put him at ease. With the trooper standing 15 feet away pointing a shotgun and screaming, we each tossed out a gun to express both of our intentions. The third gun did not even come to mind, by this time I had forgotten we even found it. After tossing out the two pistols, we both got out of the car and moved to the rear of the car doing exactly as the trooper requested. We were taken into custody and charged with failing to stop. I did not know what they were going to do about what we had taken from the tow truck. I really did not know what such a charge would be. I just knew it would be worse than failing to stop.

Roger and I were placed into separate cars. Within thirty minutes we were taken to a sub-station and questioned. After an hour or so of questioning, we were taken to the Navajo county jail. We were separated for a couple of hours when they came to take our clothing and personal property. They refused to tell us anything whatsoever about our charges.

At some point later in the evening, a female judge came to the holding area and advised us of the charges and gave us a bond of fifty thousand dollars. Later in the night two officers visited me from Mohave County. I wasn't sure if this was the county where the tow truck was located. They talked about a crime they were investigating and got some personal information. After a minute or two they wanted to turn on a tape recorder. When they did this, I explained that I needed to see an attorney before I answered any questions. At this time one of them told me I was being charged with robbery and murder in the first degree. I was surprised and attempted to hold myself in a blank expression. I did not understand how in the world they came up with such a charge. I told them I did not understand the charges. One of them explained a little about what was going on. My ears were ringing and I was trying to take all of this in to understand. I could only sit there and look at the officers. As much as I wanted to profess they had it all wrong, I had enough wit about me to realize they were there to charge me and they would have no problem twisting my words to use against me. So, I said nothing. Fearing the ultimate worse, I said nothing.

CLAIM OF MOHAVE COUNTY

The county claimed that we came into Kingman on Sunday and on Monday went to the Tempal Bar Resort maybe, scoping out the crime scene along the way. We were to have left the bar around 9:00 p.m. and driven to the murder scene, arriving at some point later. After sneaking around behind the house, we some how had a struggle with the victims between the house and store. We were to have dragged them into the house and placed them on the floor face down and shot them in the head with three different weapons. Then we were to have spent hours searching the place for money. Then we were to have driven the tow truck around to the front of the store, crashing a gate along the way. Then for no obvious reason, we were to have backed the truck up to the gas pumps. Then we were to have driven the truck into Kingman and got on the interstate to leave the truck west of Kingman. This was to throw them off our trail as we really drove east. Then we were to have run from the troopers because we were running from a murder scene and didn't want to be caught and charged.

The evidence they claimed was matched footprints from the scene. We had small amounts of blood on our clothing, a shell casing from the scene matched one of the pistols, and another shell and slug matched the other pistol. I had spent shotgun shells in my pocket that matched the shotgun. I had a set of keys in my pocket that matched a pick-up at the scenes. A man from Vegas claimed a big person purchased the shotgun. A map in our car had the crime scene  circled and a telephone map in our car had the telephone number of the person who had sold the shotgun.

                            FOOTNOTES

1. We rented a motel room on Sunday afternoon May 12,1991, at the Holiday House Motel in Kingman, AZ paying in cash registering under Roberts name and vehicle tag number.

2. Temple Bar Resort consists of a tavern, cafe, store and gas station. Within a mile there is a U.S. Forest Service sub-station.

3. Lake Mead is located on the western end of the Grand Canyon.

4. Robert Grinder was the bartender the night of May 13, 1991, we had extensive conversations about his Mexico plans.

5. The man from California had purchased a houseboat, which docked at Temple Bar. He had been making repairs to the boat to rent it out.

8. Two women were obviously employed at the cafe.

7. One of the women took Roger to the cafe for apple pie.

8. On May 24,1991, Det. Ingrassi, the case officer, interviewed John J. Anthony at 11:30am. Mr. Anthony stated the following: "On May 13th at about 10:00 p.m. he was driving out of the Chloride road which intersects almost directly across from Grasshopper Junction. At the time he noticed the cafe lights were on and Dean Morrison and Jacky Applehans, the victims, were inside the store. At the time he noticed a small blue car with three persons standing outside talking. They were male, 6'1" brown hairi S'10"-6'0" 2SOlbs,brown hair/the third had long blonde hair. He saw two of the three parked down the street from Grasshopper Junction the day before on May 12,1991, at about 1:30 p.m. The blue car had silver out-of-state tags and he could only remember two of the symbols. Later the night of the 13th about midnight, he returned and noticed the lights were still burning in the cafe. The blue car was gone and an entrance gate to the property was open.

A. The jury never heard from Mr. Anthony because neither defense called him. Both appointed defense lawyers failed to call this important witness. The jury never heard this evidence.

B. When Det. Ingrassi was questioned on the stand as to whether he had ever interviewed a witness who had seen subjects at the scene, other than the defendant, the night of the crime. He stated "No". There was a quick objection and the jury was left to assume a witness had seen the defendants at the scene.

C. The jury sent a note to the judge later that same trial day to request further information on any witness who might have seen the defendants. The judge made no reply to the jury whatsoever.

9. On or about May 15,1991, Robert Murray in brief detail tried to explain to his appointed attorney and investigator that he had gotten the items which were located in his car from a tow truck pulling a small blue car with three people - one a blonde. At the time he told of this fact he had no idea a witness would appear to describe a small blue car and three subjects at the crime scene.

A. At the time he gave his attorney these facts, Robert was afraid and uncertain of whom he could trust. His attorney, Ruth O'Neill did take notes.

10. A couch cushion from the scene was found containing: 254 rolls of coins/2,530 $1 billsI75 $5 bills/ 11.$10 bills/1 $50 bill = $4,750.81

11. While picking through the bag, Robert found a double barrel shotgun; opened the breach to find two spent shells. He removed the two shells, looked around and noticed the area was well lighted and the gas station clerk was clearly watching through a large window. Instead of tossing the shells, Robert stuffed them into his back pocket for later disposal, a common hunting practice.

A. For reasons unknown, Robert reloaded the shotgun with shells located in the bag. He then stuffed two shells into his pocket. This again is general practice when around weapons.

12. Robert reached into the bag and scooped out a large handful of loose change coins to purchase a soft drink. He did not examine the coins and simply dropped them into his front pocket. When arrested he still had the pocket full of coins, which also turned out to have a key ring with two keys mixed with the coins and change.

13. Smith & Wesson Model 36 38 cal. revolverlA&G .25cal Auto.

14. Roger Murray climbed into the back seat coming into contact with the bag.  He found excess clothing (all in a pillowcase), a pair of sneakers, which appeared to be Roger's size. All except the sneakers were eventually tossed out of the passenger window.

15. On Saturday, May 11,1991, about 10:00 p.m., Roger and Robert were walking the Vegas strip when Roger broke the heel off his left boot. They walked back to Robert's car where Roger disposed of the boots to wear a pair of Robert's Larger shoes.

16. Pioneer over and under double barrel 12 gauge shotgun: This weapon was checked for fingerprints. No prints belonging to Robert or Roger were even located on the shotgun. However, a print was found under the forestock which was never identifed.

17. They were both taken to the same DPS station where they both fully cooperated with officers.

18. A Navajo County Judge, Sizemore, came to Robert's and Roger's holding area and gave them a bond for the failure to stop which was a surprise felony charge.

19. Mohave County officers, Nick Ingrassi and Jim Stull, came to visit Roger and Robert at the Navajo County jail. They asked some questions and eventually informed them of the charges
Mohave County was pressing.

20. The footprints were a pair of sneakers and cowboy boots. The sneakers were alleged to be Rogers, which he actually got from the bag. The boots alleged to be Roberts, however, everybody in Arizona wears boots. The sole was plain and no match was made. However, Det. Dale Lent claimed the stride of the boot prints was very similar to Robert's stride - with both toes pointing outward. During trial Det Lent testified to a photo, which depicted boot prints with both toes slightly pointed outward and some questions were raised as to this determination.

A. Det. Dale Lent did not determine the boot prints were turned outward from looking at the prints or photos. During Robert's first trip to court he got out of the car and Det. Lent was crouched a few yards to the right watching Robert walk. Seeing Roberts right toe pointing outward, he assumed both toes must turn outward. He then compiled his testimony.

B. Robert suffered a broken right ankle during childhood. This caused his right foot and toe to point outward a great deal to the right. Only his right foot is turned outward, not his left foot. Det. Lent did not know about this. The photos of the boot prints at the scene show both boot prints to be the same; when in fact, Robert's right print would have been turned outward. This fact, beyond a doubt, is proof Robert did not leave these boot prints.

C. The jury never knew of this evidence. Roberts appointed lawyer failed to develop this evidence. Robert's appeal lawyer did not properly develop this according to court rules, so the judge ruled it out.

21. The amount of blood located on Robert's and Roger's clothing was so small, it was used up during testing. It was microscopic samples.

A. The blood found on Robert was located on the front of his shirt about the middle of the buttons.  This small smudge was transferred onto the shirt when he bear hugged the bag and No other blood was found anywhere on Roberts clothing.

B. The blood found on Roger's clothing was a minute transfer smudge on his pants leg. This blood was gotten off the bag when Roger climbed into the back seat with the bag. No other blood was located on Roger's clothing.

C . The crime scene was heavily splattered with blood from contact injuries. The bag had a lot of blood splattered upon it. It would have been very unusual for any suspect to be at that scene without getting blood on something. The only small microscopic specks of blood located on Robert's shirt and Roger's pants did not come from the scene. Robert picked up his speck while bear hugging a 100 pound bag, dragging it out of a high tow truck and putting it into the car. Roger picked up his speck of blood while climbing into the back seat with the bag.

D. The jury was not given this evidence. Between the lack of good lawyering by appointed attorneys, and the prosecutor's willingness to call these specks of blood splatters, the jury was not left with a good impression.

22. The pistol came from the bag; it did not belong to the defendants. This shell casing was located at the scene several days after the crime scene was released. Det. Ingrassi just happened to be at the scene when he came upon this 38 cal casing. Months after trial a photo taken by officers of the very location days before Ingrassi found the casing shows no casing at this location. If this casing was not at the scene the day of the crime, how did it get there days later?

A. The photo was not located until after the trial. The jury did not see it. Neither did the appeal lawyer develop it.

B. "See 23-A"

23. This shell and slug was from the 25 cal. The slug and shell was not located at the scene until weeks after it had been released. It was found by a clean up person.

A. The crime scene people from three labs were at the scene for two days. They searched and took photos for two days. They looked at everything.

A. Continued: This 38 cal. Casing, according to Ingrassi, was found just eight feet from the bodies. The lab people during their investigation looked at and took photos of the very location where Ingrassi said the casing was found. It is not in the photo.

B. The 25 cal. casing/shell was located in the middle of the next room about 15 feet from the
bodies. The 25 cal. slug was located in the pantry door where somebody had fired it from the kitchen into the pantry door; the slug made a hole in the door, the shell fell straight down into the middle of the room. All these lab people were out there two days and did not find a fresh bullet hole in the pantry door.

24. "See foot note eleven".

25. "See foot note 12".

26. This person was present at a police line up where he did not pick out Robert. Actually this man picked out a police sergeant. The jury did not hear from this witness.

27. We had a road atlas in our car. Det. Ingrassi took it from our car. At some point from the time Ingrassi took this map from our car and the time it arrived at the lab, somebody had taken a pen
and circled two locations on the Arizona map - one of the places was the crime scene, the other a small store a few miles away.

A. Neither Robert nor Roger circled these places. Somebody else did either on purpose to make us look bad; or by mistake, maybe while trying to show someone where the crime scene was located. The lab people made circles all over the map. The defendants cannot explain these circles.

28. A telephone book from Las Vegas was found in our car. Someplace on this little handout was a phone number alleged to belong to the person who sold the shotgun. This was not part of our
stuff and cannot be explained - except to say it must have come from the bag, or like so many other things - just popped up.

A. Many of various items were in the bag; too many to remember. Anything could have been in there.
It was fu!l and we eventually ended up with all or most of it dumped out in my back seat.

NOTE

*The tire print expert stated our tire tracks were not found at the crime scene. Even in location where it was reported the suspect car must have been, the expert said the tracks were not ours.

*Behind the scene where the suspects were alleged to have waited behind the house/store, unidentified fingerprints were located on the side of a cattle trailer.

*A large roll of money was taken from my glovebox and logged by DPS as a large roll of money. That large roll of money was turned over to Mohave County officers; however, it never made it onto the inventory sheet. Over $1 ,000.00 was missing.
 
 

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