Opinion ID: 6107999
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: After the Murder

Text: After responding to the crime scene and gathering information, officers from the Texarkana Police Department went to Virginia's home around 2:00 a.m. on December 4. Detective Paul Nall called Virginia and asked her to surrender herself outside. After several minutes, she walked outside and was placed under arrest. When officers entered the house to collect evidence, they discovered that Virginia had placed chairs under all the door knobs. Detective Jason Haak testified that, during interrogation later that day, Virginia's demeanor was laid back and nonchalant and that she did not appear to be scared or nervous. Virginia was neither tearful nor upset upon learning that Patricia had been murdered. Haak said Virginia told him that Patricia had probably been in an accident because she was a horrible driver. Virginia initially denied owning a .38-caliber revolver; however, when she was confronted with information that James had asked about the gun, she stated that they might have lost it when they moved a few months earlier. Virginia first claimed that she had not fired a gun in 25 to 30 years, but she later said that she had not fired a gun in 8 to 10 years.  Virginia told the detectives that James had left her and that James and Patricia had been having an affair. She thought the affair had been going on for two or three years and she said that James had been to Patricia's house two hundred and nineteen days in a row. At first, Virginia denied having problems with Patricia and going to her house on December 2. But Haak said that Virginia changed her story when officers confronted her with a statement from James that he had called Virginia at Patricia's house that day and told her to leave. Virginia then admitted that she had been to Patricia's house around 8:00 a.m. on December 2. She said that she went there looking for James and that when she got there, she saw Patricia sitting on the front porch. Haak stated that Virginia told him she spoke with Patricia but denied that their meeting was confrontational. When asked if she had gone back to Patricia's house at around 8:00 a.m. on December 3, Virginia said that it was too foggy to drive that morning. But she then changed her story and said that she had driven that morning. She told Haak that she went to McDonald's around 8:00 a.m. to get a sausage biscuit for her mother and then went to her mother's nursing home, where she stayed for about an hour, before she went to Phyllis's house to watch The Price is Right. Testimony at trial revealed that video surveillance obtained from McDonald's indicates that Virginia, while driving her white Lincoln, did not stop to get food until approximately 9:30 a.m. Video surveillance obtained from the nursing home shows that Virginia entered the nursing home, carrying a sack, at 9:42 a.m. and left at 9:54 a.m. Detectives also obtained video footage from the E-Z Mart located about three miles from Patricia's house. Detective Nall testified that video shows a vehicle matching Virginia's car heading in the direction of Patricia's house at 7:53:42 a.m. He testified that a similar vehicle was captured by video footage at 8:16:18 a.m. traveling in the opposite direction. 5 After Virginia was arrested, officers conducted a search of her home. Several items of clothing, including a shirt that tested positive for gunshot residue, were lying on Virginia's bed. Nall testified that some of the clothing that was collected matched the clothing that Virginia was seen wearing in the McDonald's video and the nursing-home video. Officers also found .38-caliber ammunition at Virginia's home but did not find a .38-caliber revolver.