By Angela Weatherford
May 12, 2008 09:36 am
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Tony Ogburn Jr. used to call his father every day for advice.
Since May 17, 2007, those calls have ceased to exist.
“I don’t know what to do sometimes,” he said tearfully Saturday, speaking about his late father, Tony Ogburn Sr., in 392nd District Court. “I don’t know who to call for advice.”
Tony Ogburn Jr. was one of four witnesses called by the state to begin the punishment stage of the Randall Wayne Mays’ capital murder trial. Mays was found guilty of killing Ogburn Sr., a 61-year-old Henderson County Sheriff’s deputy, Friday after an hour of jury deliberations.
Now the jury must decide if Mays will receive life in prison or the death penalty.
All four who testified Saturday morning — Ogburn Jr., Pat Ogburn, Kevin Harris and Billy Jack Valentine — talked about the impact Randall Wayne Mays’ actions have had on their lives. Pat is the widow of the slain deputy, while Harris and Valentine are also HCSD deputies who were at the scene the day of the shootings — which also left 63-year-old HCSD Investigator Paul Habelt dead.
Valentine — who was trapped by the window from which Mays was shooting — told the jury he wanted to call his family on his cell phone and tell them he loved them.
“I wasn’t coming home,” he said. “I made my peace with God.”
Harris was shot in the leg and told the jury he is no longer able to run patrols because of his injury.
“I am as good as I’m ever going to get,” he said. “I don’t think that I could hold my own in a hand fight.”
Both Harris and Valentine said they think about that day every day and what they could have done to change the outcome.
“I wish I could have been a better cop and this wouldn’t have happened to him,” Harris said.
Valentine said the only thing he could have done differently was shoot his gun earlier, but didn’t because it wasn’t part of his job.
“I still wanted to do my job and do it right, like I was taught by Tony and Paul,” he said. “I looked up to (Ogburn) and wanted to be just like him.”
Mrs. Ogburn said she is still mad about her husband’s death and feels it could have been prevented.
“I haven’t been the same (since Tony died),” she said. “I don’t know if I can ever be the same.”
She said her husband loved helping the public and would start each morning with a prayer in his squad car.
Mrs. Ogburn had a stroke in 1996 that left her unable to drive. She now travels in a wheelchair. She said her husband was her “soul source” and always there for her.
Valentine remembered Ogburn going home at lunch each day to check on “Mrs. Pat.”
“A part of my heart is gone,” Tony Ogburn Jr. said.
He told the jury he has nightmares about his father’s death, and is always looking over his shoulder when he is in public.
“When my kids get older I don’t know how to explain to them why their grandfather is gone,” he said.
“We are all scarred from this.”
The defense is scheduled to begin its case in the punishment phase Monday morning at 9 a.m.
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