Taco Bell meal helps date 2 killings, Conte jury hears

— A Taco Bell receipt proved key to prosecutors’ efforts Thursday to show that capital-murder defendant Richard Conte could have killed two men in Conway and driven back to Utah in time to place two calls from his remote cabin there.

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Conte is on trial in the execution-style slayings of a wealthy Conway businessman, Carter Elliott, 49, and a family friend, Timothy Wayne Robertson, 25.

The men’s bodies were found at Elliott’s Shady Valley home on May 19, 2002, but it has been unclear whether they died that day or the night before.

Conway police Lt. Jim Barrett, the day’s first witness, testified that investigators found a Taco Bell cup on the floor near the bodies and a Taco Bell receipt in a trash can. The receipt for a value meal was dated May 18 at 8:51 p.m.

The significance of that receipt didn’t come until the last witness of the day, Dr. Stephen Erickson, the state’s deputy chief medical examiner, took the stand.

Erickson said he believed the men “died closer to the time they ate” based on the contents he found in Elliott’s stomach during an autopsy.

Pointing to a picture of the contents, Erickson said he could see ground beef and strands of cheese. Looking in his notes, he said he had written down that the food smelled like Mexican food, specifically from Taco Bell.

Under cross-examination, Erickson acknowledged that he did not include the Taco Bell comment in his autopsy report because it wasn’t a scientific conclusion.

“That’s just a guess on my part,” he said.

The time is significant because phone records and testimony show that Conte made two outgoing calls from his landline phone in Duck Creek, Utah, on May 19, 2002. One was at 9:59 p.m. The other one was at 10:47 p.m.

According to Google Maps, the one-way, 1,365-mile trip between Duck Creek and Conway is about a 21-hour drive.

The defense has argued that Conte could not have made the 2,730-mile round trip in his silver Dodge truck because its odometer didn’t have enough miles on it as of May 21, 2002.

Records introduced into evidence put the vehicle’s mileage at 40,211 after Conte had maintenance work done on it in April 2002 and at 42,959 when he had clutch repairs made on May 21, 2002. Conte did other traveling during that time to account for mileage, defense attorney Jack Lassiter has said.

Also Thursday, a county jail inmate with 11 prior felony convictions and a pending charge of second-degree domestic battery against his mother, testified that he met Conte, who has multiple sclerosis, when they were in the jail’s medical cell last summer.

Rusty Glover, who wore striped jail garb and was handcuffed and shackled, said he and Conte sometimes played cards and that Conte first didn’t want to talk about his case but later did.

“I asked him, ‘Did you do it?’” Glover said.

According to Glover, Conte replied, “Hell, yes, but they can’t prove it.”

Charles Reeves, a former prisoner now free on bond, testified that he overheard the men’s conversation and said Glover later asked him if he had overheard it.

Reeves said he also heard Conte tell Glover that authorities were investigating the wrong vehicle. According to previous testimony, Conte also had a smaller red pickup.

Glover testified that he had written several people about what Conte told him and that he had hoped his cooperation would get him out of jail but that it hadn’t.

He said prosecutors had not promised him anything.

Reeves said he wanted his bail reduced and he got it reduced, but only over prosecutors’ objection.

Still, Lassiter pounced on the credibility of both witnesses, who have long histories of run-ins with the law.

Lassiter introduced numerous letters Glover had written to people, including Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Troy Braswell, in the hopes of getting their help. Glover said he wanted to get out of jail and go into a drug-treatment center.

In a Nov. 10, 2012, letter to Braswell, Glover wrote, “I’ve been in the game for a while. I want out.”

Braswell asked Glover, “Have any of your charges gone away?”

“No,” Glover replied.

“Did you get out of jail?”

“I’d like to,” Glover said.

“Did you get out of jail?” Braswell repeated.

“No,” Glover said.

After jurors left for the day, Judge Charles E. Clawson Jr. denied a defense motion for a directed verdict of acquittal.

The defense begins its case today.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 01/18/2013

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