2011-10-11 Roys

Man pleads not guilty in 2007 fatal shooting

An Amarillo man pleaded not guilty Monday in a Randall County courtroom to murdering a woman found at the city’s wood-chipping site.

A Randall County grand jury indicted Sebastian Nathaniel Roys, 29, in November 2007 in the fatal shooting of Candice Tenise Herrera, 25, of Amarillo.

Prosecutors said Roys fatally shot Herrera on Oct. 12, 2007. Police found Herrera’s body that morning at Amarillo’s wood-chipping site at 3718 S. Eastern St.

Roys also was indicted in February 2009 on charges of evidence tampering and concealing from investigators the firearm used in the shooting.

Roys’ lawyer at trial, William E. Kelly, is his second attorney in the case. Roys asked Judge Ana Estevez in April to withdraw Arnold N. Miller as his attorney of record citing medical issues, court records show.

Miller, who suffered from cancer, died in May, Kelly said.

Prosecutors are scheduled to call witnesses Tuesday.

Opening arguments begin in murder trial

Candice Tenise Herrera, 25, stopped at a Toot’n Totum on Interstate-40 and Georgia to add credits to a pre-paid cellphone hours before she was gunned down at the city’s wood-chipping site on South Eastern Street, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The cell phone, especially its call log, were central to Randall County prosecutors’ case Tuesday afternoon in the murder trial of Sebastian Nathaniel Roys, 29, in the 251 District Court. Roys, who a grand jury indicted in November 2007, pleaded innocent to the charge on Monday.^[1]

Special Crimes Unit investigators used the phone evidence to trace Herrera’s footsteps on Oct. 12, 2007, the morning she was fatally shot, said former unit coordinator Lt. Gary Trupe.

Prosecutors, who continued to call their witnesses Tuesday, used the cellphone evidence and police testimony to walk jurors through a complicated web of witnesses that includes another man indicted in the case and a slew of the victim’s friends.

Around 5 a.m. that night, police received calls of gunshots near the wood-chipping site at 3718 S. Eastern St., where former Special Crimes Coordinator Lt. Gary Trupe said he saw Herrera’s body near five bullet casings and two bullets.

About half-hour earlier, a police investigation revealed, Herrera made a several calls to a friend who later admitted to police that the conversation involved a drug transaction debt, Trupe said.

Officers who arrived at the scene said they found a receipt from the Toot’n Totum in Herrera’s pocket, with the address of the store at the top of the receipt ripped off, he said.

Police recovered parts of a handgun, which they sent to Lubbock for forensic analysis, Trupe said.

Another man indicted for murder in the case told police the weapon used to kill Herrera was in Roys’ possession, said Randall County Criminal District Attorney James Farren.

The trial continues in the Randall County Justice Center Wednesday.

Testimony reveals drug use before woman's slaying

Candise Tenise Herrera and another man drove around Amarillo collecting drug money and smoking methamphetamine hours before she was killed at an East Amarillo wood-chipping site, a prosecution witness testified Wednesday.

Steven Andrew Solis testified Wednesday in 251st District Court that he and Herrera smoked nearly 20 bowls of methamphetamineand stopped at about three houses to collect drug money the night before she was killed. Solis, 25, drove Herrera, also 25, early the next morning to the city's wood-chipping site on South Eastern St., where her body was found hours later, he said.

Solis testified Wedensday as a prosecution witness against his former friend, Sebastian Roys, 29, who is accused of shooting Herrera to death.

Roys pleaded innocent to a murder charge on Monday. A grand jury also indicted Solis on a murder charge in the homicide, and he has yet to go to trial. He and Randall County prosecutors said Wednesday he was promised nothing in exchange for his testimony against Roys.

Prosecutors called on Solis to detail his, Roys' and Herrera's actions the morning of the shooting, which involved a string of drug transactions.

Roys' attorney Bill Kelly hammered Solis on his inconsistent statements during two interviews with police days after Herrera's death.

Solis, who police arrested five days after the shooting, said he requested to talk to officers about the homicide, hoping to get "help" on a pending probation violation and the murder charge.

Roys told him to clean the bullets from a .45 caliber pistol the afternoon before the shooting, Solis said.

"I hope he [Roys] don't do this," Solis told police he remembered thinking. But at the trial Wednesday, Solis said he did not know anything bad was about to happen.

"You're just a liar, aren't you?" Kelly said.

Solis, who said he was scared, said he did not know why his testimony Wednesday was different from his police statements.^[2]

Testimony is expected to continue Thursday at the Randall County Justice Center.

Prosecutors walk through hours leading to '07 killing

Four years ago, Candice Tenise Herrera, 25, made at least three calls about 4:30 a.m. to two friends about a drug transaction debt, police testified Tuesday.

Less than a half-hour later, officers responded to a call of shots fired at the city's wood chipping site on South Eastern Street, where they found Herrera's body surrounded by five bullet casings and two bullets.

Testimony began Tuesday in the murder trial of Sebastian Nathaniel Roys, 29, accused of gunning down Herrera on Oct. 12, 2007, at the wood chipping site, 3718 S. Eastern St.

The officers, who found no personal identification on the woman, had few clues to start their investigation. The leads included a receipt stub and a cellphone with an option to dial "911" displayed on the screen.

A later investigation showed Herrera, who worked at Sassy's nightclub on Southwest Sixth Avenue, stopped at a Toot'n Totum on Interstate 40 and Georgia just hours before her death to get credits on her prepaid phone, according to surveillance footage.

Prosecutors used cellphone call logs and police witnesses on Tuesday to walk jurors through a complicated web of testimony that includes another man indicted in the case and a slew of the victim's friends, who have yet to testify

For more than three hours Tuesday, prosecutors and Roys' attorney, Bill Kelly, grilled former Special Crimes Unit coordinator Lt. Gary Trupe about the investigation.

At 4:38 a.m., about a half-hour before police received reports of shots fired, Herrera made several calls to friends, Trupe said. He said officers who arrived at the scene said they found the Toot'n Totum receipt in Herrera's pocket, with the address of the store at the top ripped off.

At the scene, police found the subscriber identity module, or SIM card, in Herrera's phone was missing, Trupe said. The SIM card is a portable memory chip used in some cell phones to hold personal information.

During the investigation, another man indicted for the slaying told police the weapon used to kill Herrera was in Roys' possession after the shooting, said Randall County Criminal District Attorney James Farren.^[3]

The prosecution will continue with its witnesses Wednesday at the Randall County Justice Center.

Fellow suspect implicates Roys in 2007 homicide

An Amarillo man testified Wednesday he saw Sebastian Nathaniel Roys push down Candice Tenise Herrera, heard five gunshots and saw her lying motionless at a wood-chipping site where police later found her body.

Steven Andrew Solis, 25, called as a prosecution witness Wednesday in Roys’ murder trial, also faces a murder charge in Herrera’s Oct. 12, 2007, shooting death.

Solis testified Roys, 29, instructed him to clean the bullets for a .45- caliber handgun and told him to bring Herrera, 25, to the wood- chipping site on South Eastern Street where police discovered her body shortly after 5 a.m. that day.

Solis told jurors in 251st District Court he followed Roys’ request and asked no questions.

Randall County prosecutors called on Solis to detail his and Herrera’s actions the day before they met Roys at the wood-chipping site. Solis said he and Herrera stopped at about three houses to collect drug money or smoke methamphetamine the night before the slaying, he said. Randall County prosecutors and Solis said Wednesday he was promised nothing in exchange for his testimony against Roys.

Solis and Herrera smoked nearly 20 bowls of methamphetamine between the two of them that day — mostly Solis, who had about 15 bowls, he testified Wednesday.

As Solis drove her to the wood-chipping site, Herrera asked him where they were going, he said.

“I told her he (Roys) wanted to know why she had a floor plan to my house,” Solis testified.

Solis testified the floor plan was at the center of a rumor that Candice wanted to rob Roys.

As Roys questioned her about the floor plan, Herrera walked to the car before he pushed her to the ground. Solis said he didn’t see Roys shoot Herrera but heard five gunshots ring out before the men drove away in separate cars to a nearby car wash.

Solis said they met a white Ford F-150 truck in the car wash’s parking lot, where Roys gave the driver guns wrapped in T-shirts.

After the shooting, Solis said, he told about three people, including his girlfriend, that “something bad happened” without divulging specifics.

A few days later, one of Roys’ friends told Solis he should stop talking about that night.

Bill Kelly, Roys’ attorney, grilled Solis for more than three hours.

Drawing largely on Solis’ heavy drug use and discordant interviews with police, Kelly questioned Solis’ credibility as a government witnesses.

“You’re just a liar, aren’t you?” Kelly said.

After Kelly’s questions, Solis testified he never saw Roys wrap any guns in a shirt, so he could not be certain Roys gave weapons to the truck driver at the car wash.

Kelly also seized on conflicting statements Solis made to police during two interviews shortly after the shooting, including that Solis knew Roys was planning “something bad.”

Solis walked that comment back after he testified he had no idea what Roys had in mind.

“I don’t know why I said that (to police),” Solis said.^[4]

Prosecution testimony is expected to continue Thursday at the Randall County Justice Center. A grand jury charged Roys with murder in 2007. He pleaded innocent to the charge on Monday.