Jury in North Texas capital murder trial hears from witnesses who tried to save victim
A witness who admitted Tuesday that she watched portions of the capital murder trial of Jerry Elders online will be allowed to testify, Visiting Judge Lee Gabriel decided Wednesday morning.
Defense attorneys for Elders asked Gabriel before the jury was brought back in to a North Texas courtroom whether they would be allowed to question Joshua police Detective Lee Sosebee about her watching the trial.
Miles Brissette, one of Elders’ attorneys, told Gabriel he thought the detective’s decision to break rules explained to her Monday was an important detail to establish whether Sosebee is a trustworthy witness. Gabriel said he would not be allowed to question her about that.
Elders is charged with capital murder after authorities said he shot Burleson police officer Joshua Lott three times during a traffic stop in 2021, fled and then kidnapped a woman, stole her truck, killed her and left her outside the Joshua Police Department. If found guilty of capital murder, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
The first thing the jury in Johnson County’s 413th District Court heard Wednesday was testimony from Joshua Simmons, who worked across the street from the Joshua Police Department the day Elders is accused of shooting the police officer and murdering 60-year-old Robin Waddell.
Simmons told the jury he was inside a building when he heard tires screech and stepped outside. He saw the truck Elders was driving break through the gate into the back parking lot of the Joshua police station. He saw Waddell get out from the rear driver’s side door and rush toward the back door of the police department, where she collapsed, he testified. At some point between when the truck entered the parking lot and when Waddell collapsed, he said he heard a gunshot.
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Simmons said he then saw the truck turn around and leave and saw Waddell on the ground outside the police station’s back door.
Defense attorneys questioned Simmons about his ability to see anything that happened. Simmons maintained that he was able to see everything despite the distance and that vehicles seen in a satellite image displayed by the prosecution weren’t there to block his view.
Defense attorneys also pointed out that Simmons’ account of what happened that day has changed. In a written report, he told police he didn’t hear anything that happened after the tires screeched and that he could see that the truck had a driver but couldn’t tell anything about him.
In court Wednesday, though, Simmons said he saw the driver and that he was a white man with a slight build and a shaved head.
Jurors also heard from Raymond Kratky, a fire inspector with Cleburne who was a fire marshal in Joshua in 2021. Kratky told jurors how he and other firefighters and paramedics responded to the scene and attempted to save Waddell’s life. They tried to open airways, attempted to find and stop bleeding and, after she was loaded into an ambulance, inserted a breathing tube. She was not breathing and had no pulse, but was showing electrical signs that her body was trying to make her heart beat.
She had stopped bleeding by the time Kratky reached her, something he said was not a good sign.
Dr. Sam Haroldson, who works in the emergency room at Texas Health Huguley hospital near Burleson, also testified about attempts to save Waddell’s life. He said that before she arrived at the emergency room, paramedics had given her three doses of epinephrine in attempts to restart her heart.
In the end, Haroldson said, it appeared she was shot in the heart.
“If someone was shot in the heart in the emergency room and you were able to treat them immediately, would you be able to save them?” prosecutors asked Haroldson.
He said it was unlikely. It would be even less likely given that she had been taken around 20 miles by ambulance. He’s never seen someone survive a gunshot wound to the heart.
Haroldson testified that he and his team of doctors and nurses tried to relieve tension around Waddell’s heart and a possible collapsed lung. Doctors tried another two doses of epinephrine, then Haroldson pronounced her dead. When asked what comes after that, his response was strained.
“That’s the hardest part,” he told the jury. He paused and cleared his throat a few times. When he spoke again, his words were choked. “You notify the family.”
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