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~THE CRIME~

Ocolor Heggar was 87 years old. On the evening of her death she was alone in her house in Furney-Richardson, a small town of about 75 - 100 people just outside Teague, Texas. Her plot of land had several houses on it. On one side, about 140 feet away, lived her great grand-nephew, Lester Busby. About the same distance in the other direction lived Eddie Ray Branch, another grandson. Eddie Ray testified that he visited his grandmother with his infant son on the day that she was killed. He was there till at least 6.30p.m. Lester Busby and David Hicks arrived while Eddie Ray was still there and they saw him leave. They later went in to visit with Ms. Heggar.
While they were there, Lester repaid Ms. Heggar 80 dollars which he owed her. They left around 7.15p.m. to go to Ethyl Mae Porter's house next door. Ms. Heggar was never again seen alive by her relatives. The 80 dollars were still in her pocket when her body was found.
At 7.30p.m. an insurance salesman, Emmett Spear, called to see Ms. Heggar. He knocked for about 2 or 3 minutes and got no reply. Her door was open but the screen was closed. Her T.V. was on. He claimed to have left after about 5 minutes but returned next morning around 9.00a.m. and found her home in the same condition. He went to a neighbour's house and raised the alarm. Ms. Heggar's body was found in her kitchen shortly afterwards.
[Lester Busby and Eddie Ray Branch testified against David at his trial. Eddie Ray Branch and his immediate family members had had a burial insurance taken out on his grandmother 3 days before she was killed. Emmett Spear was the insurance salesman who was supposed to have consummated the policy].
David Hicks was with Lester Busby at Ethyl Mae Porter's house for a few minutes after they left his grandmother's. David then left to go home to his father's house which was in the opposite direction from his grandmother's. He was only gone for 5 - 10 minutes. On his return to Ms. Porter's, David looked completely normal. There was no sign of blood on him and he was totally composed.
The prosecution later hypothesised TWO attacks on Ms. Heggar, as there was not enough time for David to have attacked his grandmother during this 5 - 10 minute period alone. The home and the deceased were searched thoroughly as was David's car, home and clothes. No evidence linking David to this crime was ever found - other than the claim by Lifecodes (a major DNA testing laboratory in New York) that his DNA matched evidence recovered from the victim.

~THE AFTERMATH~

Two days after the death, Lester Busby found a hammer and some hair. The hammer was tested and found to have traces of blood. The hair was tested and found to be animal hair. There were reports of a strange looking person wearing a bloodstained T-shirt leaving the area at the time of the crime, but the authorities had no real suspect. They then had the evidence taken from victim tested against the people they thought had an opportunity to commit the crime and David Hicks was found to be a match for that evidence. He was then charged with the crime.
Several months later, after a thorough search of the crime scene, David's court-appointed counsel found startling evidence under the victim's house: another hammer also with blood on it, a syringe with human bodily fluids in it, and a wine bottle. These items were tested but never introduced at trial


( excerpts from "Friends For Life" http://www.friends-for-life.demon.co.uk/index.html )