Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: There may be glimpse of former Air Force cadet David Graham's defense as several motions will be filed during pretrial hearings this week for his capital murder trial. The admissibility of Graham's confession to the murder of Adrianne Jones is expected to be one of the issues discussed during the pretrial hearings. Graham's attorney, Dan Cogdell, filed a motion arguing that Graham's written confession to the Jones' murder, as well as his oral statements to police, should not be admitted into his trial because police obtained it illegally. According to the motion, police detained Graham for 12 hours of questioning and denied his numerous requests to talk to an attorney. In addition to the confession, Graham's defense team is also expected to argue that evidence obtained from the search of Graham's home, particularly the gun used to kill Adrianne Jones, should not be admitted because investigators allegedly performed an illegal search. In his written confession, Graham told police that he and his then-fiancee Diane Zamora had lured 16-year-old Jones to a secluded road in South Prairie and killed her. Graham told police that he had a sexual encounter with Jones a month before her murder and ridden with guilt, he told Zamora about his one-night affair. According to Graham, an enraged Zamora demanded that he atone for his infidelity by killing Jones. So, Graham and Zamora allegedly planned Jones's murder together. On Dec. 3, 1995, Graham and Zamora carried out their plan. Late that night, around 10:30 pm, Graham called and arranged a meeting with Jones. Prosecutors say that Graham picked up Jones then drove to a deserted road near Grand Prairie, Texas. Zamora was hiding in the hatchback of the car. According to reports, the original plan was that Zamora would come up behind a seated Jones and snap her neck. Graham would help her dump the body in nearby lake. Graham and Zamora planned to tie weights to Jones's body so that it would sink to the bottom of the lake. However, things did not go as planned. Apparently, when Zamora grabbed Jones, a struggled ensued. Zamora then hit Jones in the head with a weight, but Jones somehow managed to get out of Graham's car and run away. According to Graham's confession, Zamora told him that he could not let Jones get away. Graham took his gun, tracked Jones down in the field, and shot her twice in the head. Graham's statements to police suggested that Zamora was dominant force in their relationship and that she controlled him. But during her trial this past February, Zamora gave the court a very different version of Jones' murder -- and her relationship with David Graham. Zamora told jurors that she never planned to kill Jones during their December 1995 encounter. She blamed Graham entirely for Jones' slaying. Zamora said that it was Graham's idea to have her meet Jones so that they could settle their issues. She claimed that she only wanted to tell Jones to stay away from Graham. According to Zamora, Graham never told her about any plans to harm Jones. During her testimony, Zamora also suggested that Graham controlled her and forced her to have sex several times at gunpoint. Despite her testimony, Zamora was convicted of the murder of Adrianne Jones on Feb. 17 and received a mandatory life sentence in prison. Because of the pretrial publicity surrounding the case, a motion to move Graham's case from Forth Worth to New Braunfels is also expected to be approved. According to reports, Graham's attorneys may also file a motion to prevent prosecutors from presenting any previous offenses by Graham not related to the case at his trial. In addition, Graham's defense may also prosecutors to turn over any records regarding the early weeks of the investigation of Jones' murder, specifically the arrest of Mansfield teen Bryan McMillen. An acquaintance of Jones, McMillen was an early suspect in the murder and was imprisoned by Grand Prairie detectives for three weeks. He was released after he passed a lie-detector test, and prosecutors found that they did not have enough evidence to pursue a case against him. (McMillen then filed a civil suit against the Grand Prairie police, which was settled out of court during Zamora's trial.) Jones's murder went unsolved for nearly nine months until the arrest of Graham and Zamora in late August 1996. Jury selection Graham's trial is expected to start of July 6, 1998. If convicted of Jones' murder, Graham faces life in prison without parole. -- Kathy E "I can only please one person a day, today is NOT your day, and tomorrow isn't looking too good for you either" http://members.delphi.com/kathylaw/ Law & Issues Mailing List http://pw1.netcom.com/~kathye/rodeo.html - Cowboy Histories http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/2990/law.htm Crime photo's Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
