Live blog for Corey Allen Trumbull's murder trial for 11-year-old's death: Day one
Editor's note: This story contains graphic content that may be disturbing to some readers related to child abuse, sexual abuse, animal abuse and murder.
Editor's note: Check back often for live updates and catch-up entries on this blog covering the murder trial for a drifter accused of killing an 11-year-old boy in Wichita Falls. The child's mother is also charged with his murder.
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023 — The day started with opening arguments for the murder trial of Corey Allen Trumbull. He is accused of beating to death Logan Cline, 11, on Dec. 14, 2019, and dumping his body in an abandoned car.
Logan's mother, Stormy Johnson, is also accused of murdering him at the Red Roof Inn off Interstate Highway 44 and helping dump his body, which was found Feb. 27, 2020, about a half block from the hotel.
Trumbull is charged with capital murder of a person 10 or older but younger than 15. He is also charged with murder and tampering with evidence. Johnson is charged with murder and tampering with evidence.
Logan's father was in the 78th District Courtroom Tuesday, and he could be heard weeping softly when photos of his child's body were displayed on a large screen for the jury to see.
The photos are graphic and at times close up of the clothed body found decomposing in the backseat of a car parked in the 1200 block of Kenley near a derelict house.
After opening arguments, prosecutors began presenting their case against Trumbull.
4:58 p.m. — Thirtieth District Judge Jeff McKnight recessed the trial for the day. It is to resume at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
4:31 p.m. — Wichita County Assistant Public Defender Will Hull began cross-examining Logan's sister about the visit from Child Protective Services in Chillicothe.
She confirmed that CPS visited because she and her brother were not attending school, and that she was using meth then.
Logan's sister testified that her mother beat him before she met Trumbull and handled discipline, but then Trumbull made the rules when he came on the scene.
"It sounds like Logan was treated differently and not a part of the adult stuff that was going on," Hull said. "But you were allowed in some of those adult conversations and those adult behaviors."
Logan's sister confirms that was true.
"When you told CPS you felt safe, you felt safe then?" Hull said.
"No," Logan's sister said.
She confirms that she didn't tell the truth to CPS because she didn't feel safe, and Logan also told the CPS he felt safe when he didn't.
3:48 p.m. — The break is over, and Logan's sister resumes her testimony.
She testified about life with Trumbull. She described assaults from Chaos on Logan. Her mom laughed while they were happening. The assaults took place from five to 10 times in Wichita Falls, and they hurt and humiliated Logan.
Trumbull treated the 11-year-old like a dog and called him a demeaning name, his sister testified. Trumbull kicked Logan into the wall at one point because the boy displeased him.
Logan was under the sink in the bathroom when Trumbull stomped on his head and knocked him unconscious, Logan's sister testified.
After the beatings, she noticed that one of Logan's eyes was "completely lazy," and he couldn't move it, she testified. He also couldn't talk, communicating with noises such as hums.
It was clear to his sister that he needed emergency medical treatment, but Trumbull mentioned going to jail if help was called.
After Trumbull stomped on Logan's head, he apologized to the boy and told him that he wouldn't do it again. There were multiple days when Logan couldn't talk or walk.
His sister testified calmly, but it was clear she was working hard to maintain her composure and continue testifying about the details of horrific treatment she contends Trumbull and her mother dealt out to the boy,
It became clear to Logan's sister that he was going to die. She apologized to him for failing him.
"I told him I loved him. He hugged me and told me he loved me, too. He told me to get away," she testified.
She tried to rub his feet to comfort him, but Trumbull stopped her. Johnson tried to feed Logan chicken noodle soup while he was on the bed farthest from the room door.
"Logan started coughing up blood. The defendant tried to give Logan CPR, but it wasn't working," she told the jury.
Logan did not have a pulse, and Trumbull put a bedsheet around him. Eventually, Trumbull said they had to do something. He carried Logan's body to the bathtub.
Trumbull told her mother they needed ice and cleaning supplies. She bought three bags of ice back to the room, and a container of bleach. The ice put in the bathtub was to keep Logan's body from decomposing.
Trumbull told Logan's sister to clean up blood on the floor and walls in the hotel room. She and her mother cleaned it up, and she still remembers the smell of the bleach.
Logan's sister asked to say goodbye to her brother, whose body was in the bathtub, and Trumbull allowed it.
"The bathroom was very cold. I was sitting on the toilet, and I was too scared to open the (shower) curtain. I told him I loved him and how sorry I was, and I hoped he was in a better place," she testified.
Johnson told her daughter that Johnson and Trumbull were going to scrub Logan's body with bleach. They got rid of Logan's bloody clothes at some point and dressed him in clean clothes, Logan's sister testified. She did not go with Trumbull and Johnson to get rid of Logan's body.
When they returned from dumping the body, they acted "proud and like they had had a night out." They were also laughing, doing drugs and watching the cartoon show, "Futurama," Logan's sister testified.
Trumbull was Logan's primary abuser, but his mother joined in at times, his sister told the jury.
3:24 p.m. — The judge sent the jury out for a 15-minute break, and Logan's sister got a break from testifying.
2:44 p.m. — Before Logan's 18-year-old sister is called to testify, Judge Jeff McKnight instructed the jury that her testimony regards circumstances outside the indictments against Trumbull.
The testimony is supposed to speak to the character of Trumbull and other issues.
Logan's sister testified that she would like to be a cosmetologist when she grows up and has lived in Europe. She lived overseas because her father was stationed overseas in the Army.
She said Logan was very energetic and could get on her nerves. Her mother had two other kids besides her and Logan.
The other two children are from another marriage.
The sister testifies that Logan was three years younger than her. She loved Logan, and he loved her. She had just finished seventh grade and Logan had finished fourth grade in 2019. They lived in Midland with their mom and grandmother, Dorothy Holland.
The sister testified that they moved to Midland because of "drugs." When her grandmother was away on a trip, Johnson moved them from their grandmother's to a "filthy, small" room in the Midland Hotel.
Trumbull moved in, too, and immediately wanted her and Logan to call him, "Daddy." He had a male German shepherd-bully named Chaos, a female mutt named Aphrodite and a third dog.
She and her brother were afraid of Trumbull. She had a cell phone and her brother had an iPad. They were taken away from them.
She was close to her "PawPaw" and her step-grandmother, but Trumbull determined when she could speak with them.
Child Protective Services came to their room at the Midland. After that, her mother talked about moving. They moved to a trailer in Chillicothe.
The kids were in the trailer all day long, and they weren't being homeschooled, she testified. Logan's sister knew her mother and Trumbull were snorting or ingesting meth.
In Chillicothe, Trumbull offered her meth, and she got high and felt as if she couldn't sit still. Logan was also given meth.
When taking meth, his sister could stay awake longer and felt less pain, but she also felt discombobulated.
Trumbull grew violent in Chillicothe, and Logan was made to sleep on the floor in a bedroom where the bed had a dirty covering, soiled with dog feces. Trumbull decided when he could come out, and he would get aggressive toward Logan when he came out of the room.,
"He hit him anywhere ultimately," Logan's sister said.
One night, Trumbull hit him the face, and his nose bleed, she testified. Trumbull hit Logan on the stomach, back and legs, and he kicked Logan.
Trumbull would find small to large branches, smooth them down with sandpaper and treat them with epoxy to make them stronger, she testified. He would hit Logan with the sticks, and Logan would beg him to stop.
Logan "was not allowed to eat unless told to" by Trumbull, and her brother got very hungry and tried to sneak food.
Trumbull caught Logan sneaking food and put a knife on his food, she testified. He told Logan if he did it again, "it was going to come off for real."
Wichita County DA John Gillespie puts a photo onscreen of a treated stick leaning on the backseat of the car Logan was found in.
Logan and his sister were very isolated in Chillicothe and not allowed to leave the trailer often.
She dabbed at her eyes with tissues while she testified.
Sometimes, Johnson joined in on beating Logan although Trumbull mainly initiated the beatings, Logan's sister testified. She felt completely under Trumbull's control in Chillicothe, and Logan also seemed to be.
He was beaten nearly every day by Trumbull, who always made sure he was wearing a skull ring during the beatings, she testified.
Logan's sister heard an audio recording on Sunday provided by the DA's Office. She recognized the voices of Johnson, Trumbull and Logan.
They lived in the trailer for a few weeks before being evicted. Their next stop was a room at the Red Roof Inn in Wichita Falls where they lived in the fall and early winter of 2019.
Logan was made to sleep on the floor.
1:47 p.m. The jury selected Tuesday came back in, and an evidence technician with the Wichita Falls Police Department began testifying about documenting evidence after Logan's body was found.
1:24 p.m. Tuesday — Logan's 18-year-old sister took the stand for a hearing outside the presence of the jury.
She testified that Trumbull and her mother, Johnson, used methamphetamine and also gave the drug to her and her brother.
She testified that her perception of time was affected by the ingestion of meth and that she crashed out.
In addition, Trumbull began treating Logan in a dehumanizing way at a trailer in Chillicothe where the four of them were living, she said. Trumbull made Logan endure an assault from one of Trumbull's dogs, a German shepherd named Chaos, for instance.
Logan's sister heard his screams when her mother and Trumbull brutally tortured him, she testified. Trumbull had domination and control over her brother by maltreating him.
Thirtieth District Judge Jeff McKnight ruled that Wichita County District Attorney John Gillespie can ask Logan's sister specific questions before the jury as he did during the hearing.
McKnight is presiding over the trial in the 78th District Courtroom because the 30th District Courtroom suffered water damage.
More: Police: Domestic violence investigation led to discovery of 11-year-old's body in car
12:01 p.m. — McKnight dismissed the jury for lunch and instructed them to return at 1:30 p.m.
11:33 a.m. — The general manager of the Red Roof Inn took the stand to describe what happened as time passed during the stay of Logan, his big sister, Trumbull and Johnson from Oct. 2, 2019, to Dec. 27, 2019.
Nitin Patel rented room 239 to them. It faces the street and not I-44. Patel rents those rooms to longer-term tenants.
Nitin Patel testified that at first, the couple and the two children came down for breakfast.
Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News in Wichita Falls, covers education, courts, breaking news, investigative projects and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Her Twitter handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Live blog for Corey Allen Trumbull's murder trial: Day one
