North Texas jury sentences killer to death penalty for shooting Burleson woman, cop
A jury of 12 Johnson County residents voted Thursday to send 31-year-old Jerry Elders to death row, agreeing with prosecutors who requested the death penalty. The defense said he deserved life in prison without parole.
Jurors began deliberating toward a punishment verdict around 10 a.m. Thursday and delivered their verdict shortly before 5:30 p.m. At one point, the jury asked to listen again to audio of the defendant’s phone calls from jail. Jurors also asked for clarification on whether Elders’ intoxication when he committed the crime would be a mitigating factor in deciding the sentence.
Elders was found guilty of capital murder last week. He shot a Burleson police officer during a traffic stop then fled, abducted 60-year-old Robin Waddell in her truck, shot her and threw her out of her truck in the back lot of the Joshua Police Department, authorities have said. Waddell died from her wounds. The officer, Joshua Lott, was shot three times but survived.
Defense attorneys said in closing arguments Thursday morning that Elders was under the influence of drugs when he committed the crimes, was put on the streets by his family as a teenager and was seen by the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office as not being a threat to society because they previously let him out on probation.
The argument from prosecutors in the penalty phase of the trial that Elders is a danger to society, even if sentenced to life in prison, falls flat on its face, defense attorney Miles Brissette told the jurors.
In a courtroom filled with law enforcement, on the first day of the three-week trial when the gallery was standing room only, the defense started the day asking Visiting Judge Lee Gabriel to expel uniformed law enforcement from the courtroom. The concern was that the jury would be intimidated by the uniforms or feel a sense of community expectation to deliver a death penalty verdict.
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Gabriel denied the request, saying that if the general public is allowed in the courtroom that uniformed officers are as well.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Staton argued in closing statements that not only would Elders continue to be a threat to the society in prison, but also he deserves the death penalty.
“Nobody is giving this man the death penalty,” Staton said. “You will answer two questions but nobody in this courtroom is giving him the death penalty. He earned that.”
Jurors asked to decide who Jerry Elders really is
Staton said that witnesses the defense brought in the punishment phase of the trial didn’t know the true Elders. Family members talked about him being fun-loving, humorous and good with children, but Staton said they didn’t know he was stealing catalytic converters, doing drugs and plotting to murder a police officer.
“Who would want Jerry to babysit your kids?” Staton asked.
The prosecution called Elders a coward and said that “what’s buried deep in his soul ... is hatred for the law and for law enforcement.”
The defense said Elders is a man who has been rejected by his family and put on the streets at 13 or 14 years old. Brissette said he’s been in and out of jail since he was a kid, lacked support and faced jealousy from his sister, whose children he said liked Elders more than her.
The prosecution said Elders had support from his family. Staton said they gave him food to eat, money when he needed it and a place to stay when he wasn’t incarcerated.
Both agreed that it is up to the jury to look at the evidence and decide which version of Elders is true.
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