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Wednesday, May 6, 1998

Friends face one another in courtroom climax

EDITOR'S NOTE -- There were not one, but two, stunning developments in the trial of Josh Bagwell for the murder of Waurika cheerleader Heather Rich. First, co-defendant Curtis Gambill changed his story yet again and sided with young Bagwell. Then, as this installment of "A Death in Texas" begins, Randy Wood takes the stand without the protection of a plea bargain he has forever renounced.

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By MIKE COCHRAN / Associated Press Writer

WAURIKA, Okla. (AP) -- Across the Red River in Texas, the capital murder trial of Josh Bagwell was nearing its pivotal moment in District Judge Roger Towery's courtroom.

The date was Tuesday, Feb. 10, and a caravan of Oklahoma families had traveled to tiny Montague to hear Randy Wood tell his story about the night Heather Rich disappeared.

His testimony was critical, because Josh Bagwell, his close friend, was the only one of the trio charged in the case to deny involvement in the crime.

But before he took the stand that morning, Wood himself had a visitor at the Montague County jail. His attorney, Pat Morris of Decatur, Texas, remained deeply concerned about his client's stunning decision the previous day to reject a plea bargain and testify voluntarily about the events of October 2-3, 1996.

Morris advice: Accept the deal or don't testify.

But Morris was unprepared for what he found when he showed up that morning for a last-ditch attempt to change Wood's mind.

"Randy carried himself differently," Morris would recall. "He was at peace. He was confident. He was calm."

Morris realized further argument was futile.

Thus, it was a serene Waurika High School homecoming king who entered a courtroom jammed with spectators and family members from both sides -- Josh Bagwell's defenders on the one hand and the bitter and grieving parents of Heather Rich on the other.

Delivered in a weary monotone, this is Wood's account:

The night of Oct. 2 started off like many others during his senior year: drinking with his friends. Curtis Gambill and Bagwell came by his house with a fifth of whiskey, which they consumed.

Bagwell then called Heather and she agreed to meet him at the trailer parked at his grandfather's home.

Gambill and Wood, who no longer dated Heather, left the couple, picked up some beer and drove around for an hour or so. When they returned, both Bagwell and Heather were naked, and a bottle of liquor was half empty. Heather was "nearly passed out, if she wasn't passed out all the way."

Gambill went to the back of the trailer and had sex with the unconscious teen-ager. Wood didn't, but he said in his original confession that he removed his pants and fondled her. She was "screaming and mumbling and stuff" in her sleep.

As the night progressed, Gambill expressed concern that she would accuse him of raping her. "He said he didn't want a rape charge. He wasn't going down for a rape charge. That's when he started talking about killing her."

Gambill kept talking, mostly to himself, until he psyched himself to the point of committing murder. Gambill told Wood twice to dress Heather, which he finally did, and he and Bagwell carried her to a pickup owned by Bagwell's grandfather.

Bagwell drove first to his grandfather's property, but Gambill vetoed that site. He said if the body was found there the slaying could be traced to them.

All the while, Gambill kept saying Heather had to die.

After traveling the backroads of southern Oklahoma for two hours, Gambill took the wheel and drove them to the bridge in Texas over Belknap Creek. Wood and Bagwell dragged her from the truck. She fell once before they laid her out on the bridge.

"I got back in the pickup and sat there with my hands over my face. I didn't want to see it happen. ... A little bit of time went by and I heard the first shot. Then I heard a bunch more."

When Wood, feeling sick, climbed from the truck, he thought Gambill looked "dazed at what he'd done."

Bagwell found a rock to weight down the body and secured it with a shoelace from one of Heather's shoes. The three together tossed the body into the creek. They picked up the empty shotgun shells and threw dirt on the spilled blood. The next morning, Wood burned Heather's maroon-and-white cheerleading jacket.

From his press seat, newspaper reporter Steve Clements of nearby Wichita Falls watched Heather's mother, Gail Rich, as she listened to Wood relate his chilling story. She sat with arms locked across her body, cupping her elbows with her hands, and rocked front to back with a slight, rhythmic motion.

At times she clasped her hands prayer-like or twisted them roughly in a washing motion.

All through the courtroom, spectators sobbed or wept softly.

Defense lawyers knew now it was critical that they destroy Wood.

John Zelbst sought to portray him as a lying, scheming, drug-abusing, jealous killer who was angry at Heather for having sex with his drinking buddies, then rejecting him by screaming in her sleep when he fondled her.

The attack was relentless, and Clements so reported.

Wood conceded that Bagwell never "agreed" to kill the girl and that his classmate did not assist him in carrying Heather to and from the pickup that night. Nor did Bagwell help dispose of the evidence.

But on redirect, Cole brought out the legally significant facts that Bagwell heard Gambill speak of killing Heather before they left the trailer and was present when Gambill was declaring that she had to die.

Furthermore, he said, Bagwell found the rock used as a weight and helped cover the bloody bridge with dirt.

And if any jurors wondered who pulled the trigger, Gambill or Wood, the final witness of the day probably erased any doubts.

A military policeman who worked as a guard at an Oklahoma juvenile detention center in 1992 said Gambill confided to an inmate that his "ultimate fantasy" was to commit a crime that would shock the nation.

His fantasy, the witness said, was to kidnap and rape a beautiful young girl, then "blow her head off."

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The next day, Josh Bagwell, polite, contrite and apologetic, took the stand in his own defense and provided still a third version of the events that long ago night.

He said he left the trailer before Gambill and Wood discussed killing Heather and that he thought they were driving her around to sober her up.

Wood and Heather, he said, argued on the trip to the bridge. Wood was angry because she wouldn't have sex with him and it was he who shot her, Bagwell testified.

He said he had wandered off to urinate when he heard the shots fired.

Denying that he helped dispose of the body or the evidence, Bagwell said he "jumped up and down" and stared at his feet while Wood threw the body into the creek.

If jurors believed his story, they could acquit him on all charges.

Although there were inconsistencies, he made only one notable mistake. Returning to the pickup after the shots were fired, he said he saw "Curtis, I mean Randy, lowering the gun."

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On Saturday, Feb. 15, jurors deliberated seven hours before convicting Bagwell of both capital murder and conspiracy to commit murder. The murder conviction carried a mandatory life sentence, with a possibility of parole only after 40 years.

As the verdict was read, Clements watched as Gail Rich buried her face in a blue fleece jacket, then dug a wide, single-strand gold necklace from her blouse and repeatedly kissed the ring it held.

The jacket and ring were Heather's. Her daughter was wearing the ring the night she was shot nine times and dumped in the muddy Texas creek.

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The trial and capital murder conviction of Josh Bagwell was an emotional roller coaster for everyone involved, but for none more than the two strong-willed women most intimately involved.

"Now we can begin the grief process, which is something we've been denied so far," said Gail Rich, mother of the 16-year-old victim.

"My son is no angel," Cherese Bagwell would declare later, "but he's damn sure no murderer."

District Attorney Tim Cole, who would still have to prosecute Wood, appeared more relieved than pleased by the verdict.

"It's really a strange feeling," he told Clements. "On the one hand, I'm glad that justice was done in this case. On the other hand, it's another young life gone down the tubes. I can't say I'm happy.

"But I do feel we got some justice for Heather."

Throughout the ordeal, Texas Ranger Lane Akin marveled at the strength of the Rich family.

"I don't know how they sat through that trial every day," he said one morning. "I don't know how they survived it. I do know how difficult it must be for them."

He watched them leave the courtroom in tears and knew no parents should have to go through things like this.

"My daughter is 15, about the same age as Heather when she disappeared," he said. "It's easy to empathize with them when you're raising a daughter of your own."

For his part, Zelbst told Clements he intended to appeal the verdict, which he later did, suggesting that the problem was not so much his client as those who sat in judgment of him.

"I guess this is what you call a runaway jury," he grumbled.

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Next: Part V, A Mother's Anger.