The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 3

THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 17,1993 THE GALVESTON DAILY NEWS 3-A 2 charged in shooting of Houston man on 1-45 By LORA BERNARD Tha Daily Naws GALVESTON Police arrested two Galveston residents Tuesday in connection with the death of an elderly Houston man who was shot to death after he offered some men a ride in his car, authorities said. Police charged Tyrone Darnell Fields, 19, who lives in the 2400 block of Avenue and Ronnie Ray Franklin, 20, of Galveston with murder. Bond for each man was set at $250,000. Additional charges are pending, police said. Police found the men Tuesday morning in Galveston, said police Sgt.

Brandt Raeburn, who investigated the case for the Organized Crime Control Unit. The body of Albert Angelo Asplint, 70, was found at 3:30 a.m. Friday along Interstate 45 north of the Santa Fe overpass. Asplint had been shot twice in the stomach and once in the back. Raeburn said Asplint was visiting Galveston last week.

"(Asplint) was just visiting the island and he made new friends," Raebum said. "From what people have told us he was described as a nice old man who would have done anything to help somebody. He didn't deserve to die this way." Raeburn said Asplint and Fields argued Thursday about using Asplint's car, a 1978 Oldsmobile Delta 88. On Friday, the elderly man let two men ride with him in his car to Texas City, according to police. Shortly after the car was driven over the causeway, Asplint was shot twice in the stomach with a semiautomatic handgun, Raeburn said.

Then he was shot in the back and left alongside the highway, Raeburn said. A couple driving north on the highway saw the man's body and called police. Asplint's car was found late Friday afternoon. Raeburn said no weapon has been recovered. Witness for prosecution describes drive-by shooting By BRISCOE McCUNE Daily News GALVESTON A key prosecution witness testified Wednesday he watched as 21-year-old Robert Jackson Jr.

of Galveston was gunned down in a 1991 drive-by shooting near Wright Cuney Park. Samuel Charles VanNess, 23, of La Marque has been charged with shooting Jackson from the passenger seat of a car as he drove past the Sandpiper Cove apartments with two friends on Jan. 13,1991. The three were returning from a bar in Galveston to a party in Texas City. Charles Rinehart, the backseat passenger, testified Wednesday morning that, as they passed slowly in a Monte Carlo, VanNess fired one shot from a Magnum revolver at a man walking away from them on a grassy area.

"Sam asked us if we'd like to see something," said Rinehart, 25, of Texas City. "We said and then he pulls out a gun and shoots the victim. "I seen him shoot and the man went down. I don't know if he's an expert or what," Rinehart told jurors. Police officer Virginia Tisino found Jackson's body with a gunshot wound to the head.

Tisino testified Tuesday that she and her partner had heard a single shot fired at about 12:30 a.m. Tisi- no said witnesses reported hearing the shot and a car speeding away. Police said the victim was found with a small rock of cocaine and a beeper. Rinehart said that after the shooting, the three circled the park to check on Jackson but that it took several minutes because they stopped at all the stop signs. "I kind of went in shock," he said.

"I was out. of it. I couldn't believe what happened," Rinehart said. Wayne Mallia, the Galveston County first assistant district attorney, rested the state's case Wednesday afternoon. Defense attorney Kevin Rekoff is expected to call witnesses to testify before Judge Allan Lerner of the 56th District Court at 9 a.m.

today. DPS officer shot, killed Associated Press STRATFORD A highway trooper died Wednesday afternoon after being shot numerous times at a roadside park near this north Panhandle city. A suspect was arrested. Bobby Steve Booth, 28, was shot at about 3 p.m. on U.S.

Highway 287 near Stratford, said Laureen Chernow of the Department of Public Safety in Austin. Booth was dead on arrival at 3:47 p.m. at Moore County Hospital District in Dumas, hospital officials said. Jerry Burgtorf, public information officer for the DPS in Amarillo, said Booth had been dispatched to a disturbance call north of Stratford. The caller reported a man waving a gun, Burgtorf said.

"The next information we had was that the trooper had been shot," he said. Witnesses say the gunman left the roadside park in a 1977 truck. About one hour later, Burgtorf said, the suspect was arrested on foot inside the city. IRA? CHECK WITH STATE FARM! COMI'E UllVE MAU. HENHY FNEUDENUUMG INSUHANCE AGENCY.

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