Murder case continues despite stall attempt

A defense move, aimed at derailing preliminary hearing for a Lone Grove man charged with the 2007 murder of his mother, delayed proceedings Wednesday, but the case remains on the judicial track and headed for trial.

Mary Bruehl, indigent defense co-counsel for Lee Purser, challenged autopsy and DNA reports linking Purser to his mother, Pam Purser’s, death. The effort to halt the preliminary hearing came when District Attorney Craig Ladd attempted to enter the reports into evidence as he rested the state’s case.

Bruehl, cited a recent Supreme Court decision concerning lab results in a cocaine case, as relevant to her client. She claimed Purser was being denied his rights to “confront witnesses” if the court accepted the reports as evidence rather than demanding those who wrote the reports to testify in person.

The defense attorney also argued a yet-unpublished Oklahoma court decision regarding evidence in child molestation cases also supported her claim.

Ladd rebutted Bruehl’s argument saying the Supreme Court opinion concerned only evidence presented during trial, not pre-trial hearings. The district attorney also questioned the validity of Bruehl’s argument since the decision was directed at lab results in a narcotics case.
“I’d be willing to bet it (decision) doesn’t apply to DNA analysis,” Ladd said.

Special District Judge Charles Tate recessed proceedings taking an hour to research the defense challenge. The judge returned to the courtroom ruling in Ladd’s favor concerning the Supreme Court decision.

However, Tate also discussed the unpublished Oklahoma decision and invited Bruehl and co-counsel Vicki Floyd to file a “written” motion seeking a separate hearing on the issue If they wanted to continue the challenge. The pair of attorneys conducted a brief whispered conference. Bruehl then announced she “stood” on her argument to the court, but would make no other attempts to stay the preliminary hearing.

Ladd entered all three reports into evidence, telling the judge the autopsy report indicated Purser’s mother died as a result of a knife attack. The district attorney told Tate one DNA report identified blood found on Purser’s tennis shoes as his mother’s. He said the report rebutted the defendant’s claim he had not been in his mother’s house before his brother, Gene, discovered her body and law enforcement was on the scene.

Ladd said the second DNA report also substantiated the state’s allegations that Purser was the person who was involved in what was a deadly struggle with his mother on June 17, 2007.
Earlier in the proceedings, Purser’s brother testified. Gene Purser told Tate he and his sibling had both been at their father’s lake house during the weekend preceding his mother’s murder.

On July 17, he left the lake house, driving a friend to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, while his brother returned to Lone Grove. While en route to the airport, he said he got a call from his brother, telling him he was outside their mother’s house and no one was answering the door.

“He wanted to know if he could break in. I told him, ‘No’ he was not to break into the house,” he said.

Gene Purser confirmed that at the time, he and his toddler son were living with his mother and the child was in her care during the weekend. He said he arrived home later in the day and used his automatic garage door opener to enter the residence. While still in the garage, he said he could hear his son crying and “hollering” and the family’s five dogs barking inside the house.

Entering the dark house, he found his son, wearing nothing but a dirty diaper, and no sign of his mother. He began searching the house and found his mother’s body lying face down in her bedroom. He said he dialed 911 and put his son in his room to protect the child from continuing to see his grandmother’s body. He told the judge he then placed calls to his father, his brother and other family members.

Purser’s brother said when authorities, including Lone Grove police and OSBI agents, arrived at the house, he was asked to give them the clothing he was wearing and he complied.

District Attorney Investigator Marc Sanders and OSBI Agent Renee’ Childers, who led the murder investigation, also testified. Childers testified Purser denied having been in his mother’s house on June 17, claiming the last time he was in the residence was the Friday before the Sunday slaying.

She testified investigators asked Purser for his clothing and he voluntarily took an officer to his nearby residence, where he changed clothing and gave what he was wearing, including the tennis shoes containing the DNA evidence, to the officer.

Tate ruled based on the evidence presented to him that he found probable cause to believe a crime had been committed and probable cause to believe Purser had committed the crime.
Formal arraignment was set for 9 a.m. on Aug. 12.

Throughout the preliminary hearing, Purser, wearing shackles and the orange jumpsuit of a Carter County Detention Facility inmate, sat calmly at the defense table. During breaks, he participated in animated talks with his attorneys and smiled and spoke with supporters.

Following Tate’s bind-over ruling, deputies escorted Purser out of the courthouse and returned him to the county jail. Purser has been detained at the jail since his arrest on Nov. 21, 2008. He remains jailed pending the posting of a $2 million bond.

Marsha Miller 221-6529