Victim devoted to family, children tell Texas jurors considering death penalty for killer

Bill Waddell and Patricia Cook, Robin Waddell’s son and daughter, testified Tuesday that their mother devoted her life to her children, then to her grandchildren. When working overnights for the Star-Telegram as her children were growing up, she would always be home in time to take them to school and she was always there to pick them up when school was out.

Bill Waddell said his mother was someone he knew he could always rely on for advice.

“She was my answer to everything,” he testified.

A Johnson County jury found Jerry Elders guilty of capital murder last week in Waddell’s death. After the guilty verdict on April 25, the state began its punishment case, hoping to convince the jury that Elders should be put to death.

Authorities have said Elders shot Burleson police Officer Joshua Lott three times during a traffic stop in 2021, fled and then kidnapped Robin Waddell at her home, stole her truck, shot her and pushed her out of her truck outside the Joshua Police Department.

As testimony in the trial’s sentencing phase continued Tuesday, Bill Waddell told jurors that his children preferred to be at their grandmother’s house, on the same property, than their own.

Cook said that she’d never seen her mother as a happy as when her first granddaughter was born.

“Those were the sunshine times,” Cook said from the witness stand.

She and Bill Waddell looked at photos of their mother and told the jury the stories behind them. One of them showed Robin Waddell with two of the grandchildren, feeding horses. Another showed her with her husband, on the floor reading to one of their granddaughters.

Some photos showed her with dogs. In one photo, she was putting bunny ears on Cook’s dog Jake and in another she was lying on the floor petting Bill Waddell’s dog, Rowdy. The photo with Rowdy was taken on Christmas Day, Bill Waddell said. She’d just brought new dog beds over as a present.

When she retired, Robin Waddell bought around 100 head of cattle. Those were on a property outside Johnson County. Cook said her mother’s love for animals wasn’t only for dogs and cattle and horses. She would stop to pick up an injured rabbit on the side of the road or help a hummingbird get free if it became tangled in something. She used to chase a wild hog from their property, not because she didn’t want it there but because she knew her husband would shoot the hog if he found it, to prevent it from tearing up their property.

When she was killed, Waddell was caring for her own father. He lived in her home and she would feed him, bathe him and make sure he took his medications and got to the doctor when he needed, her children said. After she died, her father was taken to a group home, which Waddell said her children should do if she died.

Bill Waddell said he wanted to care for his grandfather but didn’t have the time or resources, between working and caring for his own children. His grandfather died a year after being put in a group home.

Cook said the hardest part has been not having the opportunity to smooth over some issues she and her mother had. She spoke at her mother’s funeral, but said she wished she’d spoken with her before she died. They’d had problems in the past and had worked them out.

“There’s no way to do that again because she’s gone,” Cook said. “She was murdered.”

Life in Texas prison vs. death row

Earlier Tuesday, more than an hour of testimony outside the presence of the jury kicked off the third week of Jerry Elders’ trial, with the defense challenging a witness the state brought in to testify about life in Texas prisons.

The defense objection to a witness from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was overruled around 10 a.m. Tuesday. The objection claimed that the witness was being presented as an expert but hadn’t proven he was qualified. Arguments outside the presence of the jury led Visiting Judge Lee Gabriel to decide he was qualified for the testimony he would provide.

Timothy Fitzpatrick, who has worked in Texas prisons almost his entire adult life and primarily at maximum security facilities, told the jury he has been assigned to nine prisons and seen almost every type of custody from state jail felonies to death row. He’s worked jobs from a corrections officer to senior warden. Currently he works in records.

Fitzpatrick told the jury that if sentenced to life without parole, Elders would be in the general population. He would be in either a cell block or dormitory, giving him more freedom to move between housing, showers, toilets and the day room, where he could watch TV and socialize with other inmates. He would also be able to attend religious services with other inmates outside the cell block or dormitory.

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If sentenced to death, Elders would be in a “pod,” a solitary cell without the opportunity to socialize with other inmates, Fitzpatrick testified. There would be no interaction with other inmates and his toilet would be in his room, combined with a sink, and he would have a stool welded to the floor in front of a small desk or shelf. Religious services would be “cell-side,” meaning he wouldn’t leave his cell for them. There is a small day room death row inmates have access to with a bench, small TV and a pull-up bar.

Meals work differently for general population inmates and those on death row, too, Fitzpatrick said. The general population eats together in the dining hall. Death row inmates are ordered to stand back away from their door while a tray of food is placed in their cell. They eat alone.

Death row inmates aren’t allowed to attend college courses during their sentence, something those in the general population can access if they want, Fitzpatrick said. Both can get their GED, with death row inmates getting cell-side classes, but those sentenced to death can only take classes if they’re able to do it completely by mail.

The state’s line of questioning seemed intended to convince the jury that a sentence of life without parole would be too cushy for a capital murderer. They brought up incentives used for motivating inmates to clean their living spaces or work harder, such as movie nights or ice cream parties.

Those aren’t available to death row inmates, but if Elders is sentenced to life without parole he would be able to participate in those events, Fitzpatrick said.

The state has tried previously to show the jury video of Lott being shot as well as audio recorded from Elders’ phone calls in the jail. The admissibility of those was questioned by the defense and they still haven’t been presented to jurors.

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