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May 7, 2008

MAYS TRIAL: Families, friends forced to re-live painful day

By Jayson Larson

A nervous, still silence filled the courtroom as jurors, lawyers, family members and peace officers waited for the dreaded sound.

After a couple of minutes of relative quiet, the first pop of gunfire made some in the courtroom jump, even though it was on tape. Tears followed.

On the second day of testimony in the capital murder case of Randall Wayne Mays, prosecutors played for the court and jurors a videotape that recorded the events of May 17, 2007. On that day, a domestic disturbance call in Payne Springs ended with two officers dead: 61-year-old Deputy Tony Ogburn and 63-year-old Investigator Paul Habelt.

The tape does not show the deaths of Ogburn and Habelt, nor does it show many other of those involved in the incident. But the hourlong recording — taken from the dashboard camera in Deputy Billy Jack Valentine’s squad car — provides a jolting and painful look at the sometimes calm, sometimes heated dispute between Mays and deputies that day.

For the families of the slain officers, hearing the shots and seeing the scene was a dagger. The sound of the first shot, that killed Ogburn, drew immediate tears from family members. Valentine held back tears as he quietly wept on the witness stand.

He only occasionally looked up at the TV monitor replaying the video suspended above him. As Mays held off the officers with his rifle, Valentine is heard saying repeatedly, “I want this to end peacefully. I want everyone to leave here safe.”

Valentine responded to the domestic dispute call that day, having been dispatched following a 9-1-1 call from one of Mays’ neighbors. Mays and his wife, Candace, were reportedly involved in an argument.

The tape shows Valentine pulling up to the rural residence and speaking to Mays’ wife, and then Mays. The exchange is carried out in calm tones until Valentine began attempting to read Mays his Miranda warning, advising him of his right to remain silent and his right to an attorney. Valentine then tried to apprehend Mays, who ran inside his house and retrieved a rifle.

Valentine is heard on the tape trying to be stern but non-confrontational with Mays, urging him to drop the high-powered rifle as Candace is heard yelling, “No! No!” The deputy then desperately called for backup, saying to the dispatcher, “ ... Get me some help out here!” Soon after, Deputy Dwayne Sanders pulls up in front of the camera in Valentine’s vehicle and trains a shotgun on the front of the residence where Mays was holed up and armed.

A distrustful Mays is heard yelling back and forth with Valentine for several minutes. Mays yelled about an alleged “sexual attack” on his wife from another man — the supposed cause of the domestic dispute — and he also asks Valentine and the other officers to leave. Valentine responded that he couldn’t leave and reiterated his request that Mays drop the rifle and come talk to him.

The officers, including Ogburn, are later heard on the audio urging Mays to come talk to “Deputy Harris” — Kevin, who was at the scene. He was wounded in the leg during the shooting.

As Mays is coaxed toward the deputies, a commotion is heard. Previous testimony revealed that commotion was Valentine trying to grab Mays. Instead, Mays eluded Valentine and ran back toward the house and grabbed the rifle once again. Several minutes of silence are shattered by the sound of the first shot.

Several members of the Ogburn and Habelt families left the courtroom in tears as the shots rang out on the tape. Moments later, a deputy is heard on the tape screaming in anger for Mays to turn himself in and threatening to shoot him if he made any sudden movements. Mays, in turn, repeated, “I understand. I understand.”

Valentine is heard sobbing loudly over the deaths of his fellow officers before the tape ends.

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