Opinion ID: 2802849
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Underlying Crime, Conviction, and Sentence

Text: Rayford was convicted in December 2000 of capital murder and sentenced to death for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Carol Hall. On direct appeal, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his conviction and sentence. 1 It set out the facts of the crime as follows: Appellant was Carol Hall’s former boyfriend and had lived with Hall and her children for about three years. A couple of months before the offense, Hall asked appellant to move out and ultimately removed him from her home with the help of her uncle. Hall’s twelve-year-old son, Benjamin Thomas, testified that Hall was afraid of appellant. About 6:30 on the morning of the offense, appellant entered Hall’s house with a key. Appellant and Hall began to argue about appellant having a key to the house. The argument escalated, and Hall began screaming for Thomas. When Thomas woke up and came out of his room, appellant stabbed him in the back with a knife. Hall fled the house and ran down the street toward her mother’s house. Appellant ran after her and caught her before she reached the next house. Hall was wearing her night clothes and was barefooted. Thomas, who ran from the house after them, saw appellant pick up Hall and throw her over his shoulder. Hall was screaming and beating on appellant as he carried her toward a creek behind the house. Thomas ran to a neighbor’s house and called the police. Dwayne Johnson, a bus driver who was parked at the intersection by Hall’s house, saw a 1 Rayford v. State, 125 S.W.3d 521 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 823 (2004). 2 Case: 14-70031 Document: 00513051595 Page: 3 Date Filed: 05/21/2015 No. 14-70031 woman and a man run from Hall’s house. Johnson testified for the defense that when the man caught the woman he beat her severely in the head area to the point that she became “lifeless.” The man then dragged her behind the house where Johnson could no longer see them. Police arrived on the scene and began searching for Hall. About an hour later, appellant appeared in Hall’s backyard. He was wet and shivering and complaining of an injury to his knee, and he appeared to have grass and blood on his clothes. Appellant was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment of his injuries. He consented to a search of his person which included giving samples of blood, saliva, and trace evidence. Hall’s body was found shortly thereafter about 300 feet inside a culvert pipe. There was a large blood stain on the concrete wall of the pipe about 150 feet from the entrance. Water was running through the bottom of the pipe. The floor of the pipe, especially where the water was deepest, was covered with broken bottles, glass objects, metal, rocks, sticks, and other debris. Dallas County Medical Examiner Jennie Duvall testified to Hall’s injuries. There was evidence of both ligature and manual strangulation. There were blunt force injuries including blows to the face and scalp and injuries to the knees, upper chest, and shoulder. There were sharp force injuries inflicted by a sharp object such as a knife, including a stab wound on the inside of an elbow. There were also numerous superficial cuts and scrapes about the head and body. The injuries to the head were consistent with striking or slamming against concrete. There were no cuts or other injuries to Hall’s feet, suggesting that she was carried through the culvert. Duvall testified that Hall was alive when strangled. The cause of death was determined to be strangulation, with blunt and sharp force injuries. Hall could have died from the strangulation alone, the blunt force injuries to her head alone, or the combination of these injuries. Duvall further testified 3 Case: 14-70031 Document: 00513051595 Page: 4 Date Filed: 05/21/2015 No. 14-70031 that it was her opinion that Hall died in the culvert because the culvert was the most likely surface to have caused the head injuries and no blood was found until some 150 feet inside the culvert. She conceded on cross-examination, however, that Hall could have been strangled anywhere. Swabs of trace blood taken from appellant’s lip, head, and neck matched Hall’s DNA. Blood on appellant’s shirt matched Hall’s DNA. The blood stain on the concrete in the culvert also matched Hall’s DNA. The DNA expert testified that the probability of the DNA belonging to someone other than Hall was one in 116 billion. 2 The jury found Rayford guilty of capital murder. During the punishment phase of the trial, the State introduced evidence of Rayford’s risk of future dangerousness, including evidence that he had pleaded guilty to the brutal murder of his wife, Gail Rayford, under somewhat similar circumstances in 1986, as well as his habitual drug use. 3 Dallas Police Officer Thomas Hitt testified for the State concerning the circumstances of the 1986 murder. In response, the defense offered mitigating evidence regarding his upbringing, his good characteristics, and his lack of propensity for future dangerousness. The defense offered testimony regarding, among other things, Rayford’s father’s drinking problem, his mother’s relationship with a boyfriend who would beat her violently in the presence of her children, and his lack of supervision as a child. The defense presented the expert testimony of Dr. Gilda Kessner regarding Rayford’s future dangerousness. She reviewed more than 1,000 pages of documents and conducted seven interviews with Rayford himself and his friends and family members. Based on her review, she found that his 2 Id. at 525-26. 3 Id. at 527. 4 Case: 14-70031 Document: 00513051595 Page: 5 Date Filed: 05/21/2015 No. 14-70031 childhood was troubled and was marked by “multigenerational substance abuse” which was “part of celebration and attainment of daily living in some cases,” and that Rayford himself suffered from substance abuse. Dr. Kessner testified that Rayford’s growing up without a father figure in witnessing the domestic violence against his mother caused him to suffer later in life, including from depression. She also testified that he had not been a disciplinary problem in the Dallas County jail and that he had a “positive adjustment” during his previous incarceration for killing his wife. Most relevant to this COA application, Dr. Kessner reviewed the records from Parkland Hospital and records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (“TDCJ”) pertaining to Rayford’s suicide attempt following the 1986 murder of his wife, among other records. Rayford’s counsel had attempted to introduce the Parkland Hospital records at trial, but the State objected that the proper predicate had not been laid, and the trial court sustained the objection. Although the records themselves were not admitted, Dr. Kessner testified regarding the contents of those records. She testified that the records showed that Rayford was admitted into the hospital after killing his wife because he had stabbed himself repeatedly, almost amputating his right hand and necessitating the removal of his gallbladder. Based partly on this suicide attempt, which she claimed demonstrated Rayford’s remorse, Dr. Kessner concluded that Rayford would not pose a continuing threat or risk of future dangerousness, despite the 1999 murder of Carol Hall. In December 2000, the jury sentenced Rayford to death, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed in 2003. 4 4 Rayford v. State, 125 S.W.3d 521 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003). 5 Case: 14-70031 Document: 00513051595 Page: 6 Date Filed: 05/21/2015 No. 14-70031