EL DORADO — Featuring horse and cattle rustlers and mounted, clandestine crossings of the Oklahoma-Texas frontier, the case put to a jury of nine women and three men Wednesday at the Union County Courthouse seemed more suited to the 19th century than the present.
The circumstances surrounding the high profile horse theft trial of Wendi Cox notwithstanding, the jury scarcely needed half an hour to return a guilty verdict on all eight theft counts. Deliberations during the penalty phase weren’t as expeditious.
The jury deliberated nearly three hours, ordering out for pizza at one point, before returning a net sentence of 60 years. Cox, 38, will be eligible for parole in 10 years.
The jury imposed consecutive prison terms for each count. Cox faced a maximum of 92 years for her role in the November 2011 theft of five horses, a trailer, saddles and riding tack from the Southern Arkansas University rodeo team.
“Having closure in this case means a lot to these kids,” said Columbia County Prosecutor David Butler, referring to the seven rodeo team members who testified during the penalty phase. “… I think the rodeo team will be very pleased… As I said in my closing argument, it’s not just stealing a four-wheeler.These horses are so close to them.”
The jury recommended the maximum sentence of 10 years on the first charge, which centered on the theft of Credit Card, the sorrel male whose remains were found December 2011 in rural Mc-Curtain County, Okla.
Billy Hamilton, Cox’s boyfriend, testified Tuesday that he killed Credit Card. His testimony was supported Wednesday by Jaci Jackson, Cox’s daughter and rodeo team member who’s also implicated in the theft. Jackson related a conversation with Hamilton, who described how he shot the horse, slit his throat and quartered him soon after stealing him.
Jackson said Credit Card’s red color, markings and confident carriage made him too conspicuous after Hamilton and co-conspirator George Berrish stole him and the other horses from the SAU stables during the overnight hours of Nov. 2, 2011. The two men on Tuesday testified to using Cox’s truck to haul the trailer, horses and equipment to Oklahoma.
Jackson testified that Badger, an 18-year-old black gelding, almost met the same fate as Credit Card. Hamilton and Berrish suspected the horse might be bearing an identification chip that could lead authorities to him. Hiding the horses was a concern, Jackson said, describing how she painted Gray, a young male, with camouflage paint to conceal him.
Jackson said she, Hamilton, Berrish and a high school friend whom she had recruited to help decided to hide the four remaining horses in Texas, at a spot she said was fewer than 10 miles from her mother’s property in McCurtain County.
They set out after dark on Nov. 6, 2011, aiming to cross the Red River into Texas. When a brushy area proved impassable for the horses, Jackson said they turned back, and she never saw the horses again after she handed their reins to Hamilton.
The horses were found a month later, starving and in poor health, in a wooded area north of Cox’s property. Several of the rodeo team members testified to the horses’ poor health, saying they’ve just started to recover from the harrowing ordeal.
Butler portrayed Cox as the orchestrator of the theft, providing Hamilton and Berrish with a diagram of the SAU stables and instructions on which horses to take.
The testimony of Cox’s three co-conspirators was the focus of the state’s evidence. The state also provided phone records showing 446 calls and text messages between Cox and Hamilton from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8, 2011.
Butler told the jury that the frequency of their communication was consistent with a conspiracy. The testimony of Cox’s youngest daughter, who isn’t implicated in the case, was also convincing, Butler said.
Cox’s attorney presented her as an unassuming nurse incapable of hatching a scheme of the scope described by the prosecution. He pointed to Hamilton’s previous convictions for cattle theft in Pike and Little River counties, the later theft occurring just weeks before the horses were stolen from SAU, as proof that Hamilton planned and executed the theft.
“They’re saying a nurse is the mastermind behind a criminal enterprise like this, with these other individuals acting as her soldiers,” said John Stroud, during his closing argument. “If there is any individual who has a greater pattern of livestock theft than Billy Hamilton, I’d like to see it. He’s like something out of the Old West.”
Stroud maintained during the closing argument that self-interest compelled Jackson, Hamilton and Berrish to testify against Cox.
“I submit to you that their sense of self-preservation has them saying whatever they can to save themselves,” he said.
Butler said he expects the three co-conspirators to plead guilty to the charges against them when they appear April 4 in Columbia County Circuit Court. He stressed during his opening argument that their testimony wouldn’t lessen their punishment.
Judge Larry Chandler granted Stroud’s motion for a change of venue last month. Stroud said his client couldn’t receive a fair trial in Columbia County. Charges are also pending against the defendants in Oklahoma.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 03/28/2013