The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 9

GALVESTON COUNTY, TEXAS THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1998 -Tt A9 Families face tragedies of murder, ill feelings during trial Editor's note It began as a saga of restless and rootless kids in small-town Oklahoma-that erupted with the discovery of the brutalized body of a popular high school cheerleader. In this installment of "A Death in Texas," one family bitterly contests a courtroom verdict and another faces the future without "the most important thing in our life." By MIKE COCHRAN Associated Press Writer WAUMKA, Okla. Cherese Bagwell was fiirious with the capital murder conviction and life sentence of her son Josh in the slaying of Waurika High School honor student Heather Eich. Immediately afterward, and in the weeks that Bagwell's mother accused District Attorney Tim Cole of prosecutorial misconduct, berated the jury, criticized news coverage and dismissed Gail Rich as a "professional victim." In conversations with The Associated Press, a remorseless Cherese Bagwell also fiercely defended Josh. "My son is no angel, but he damn sure is no murderer," she If jurors in Montague County, Texas, had followed the judge's instructions closely, she added, "There was no way they could have convicted Josh." Maintaining that Cole's trial tactics were unethical, Mrs.

Bagwell repeated claims that he used legalized blackmail" to obtain Curtis Gambill's testimony. It was Gambill's original confession that enabled investigators to break the case and arrest her son and his Waurika classmate, Randy Wood. "I can understand why she would say that because she's got A Death In Texas PART FIVE A Mother's Anger a son who was convicted partially on Gambill's testimony," Cole said. "She's attacking me because I convicted her son." Although she refused post-trial terviews, Mrs. Bagwell later shared her complaints with an AP reporter.

They included 58 "Points to Ponder" that were contained in seven pages of typewritten notes pertaining to her son's case. She suggested that Randy Wood was tiie only party with a motive to kill Heather, that he was infuriated when his former girlfriend showed up at the trailer to have sex with Josh. "By Randy's own testimony," she said, "the only time she screamed and did not consent to the sex was when Randy attempted to have sex with her." She questioned again Wood's motivation for reneging on the plea Arguing that Wood's testimony was suspect, she said there was no case against her son without it. Perhaps the most poignant moment of the trial occurred when jury members tacked a largely symbolic 99-year prison sentence for conspiracy onto the life sentence given Bagwell for murder. Testifying during the punishment phase, Gail Rich spoke from the witness stand about how the loss of Heather affected her and her family.

"When we're all together," she said of her husband and three sons, "it actually hurts worse, A This is Heather Rich's grave in Retcher, Okia. Heather was killed in the eariy morning of Oct. 3,1996 and her body was dumped into Beiknap Creek in northern Montague County. (AP) because we all feel that missing It's affected us spiritually, because if hard to go to church when you question God. Our home has very little laughter in it anymore.

Heather was the one who brought the laughter. "She was a joy." The mother said she tries sometimes to force a smile and act as though everything's OK. "But if not. Tm dying inside." After the verdict, she confronted Bagwell directly. Reporter Steve Clements noted that Bagwell looked at her blankly while members of his family rose and marched but of the courtroom, "By your family exiting, I see a lot of things that make me see why you are the way you are," she said pointedly.

"You haven't ever had to pay for the mistakes you made. "But you're going to now. "You took away the most important thing in our life." The contrast between the defiance of Cherese Bagwell and her son and the remorse of Randy Wood was not lost on Heather's mother. "Thaf the thing we've seen with both the other boys," Gail Rich said recently. "There is no remorse from, them or their families.

That's been the hardest thing for us." The families of the two other defendants act like Heather "got what she deserved," Mrs. Rich says, but that has backfired. "They've been at it since the very first day, and we're a little town. But what they ended up doing was making enemies. The people who knew Heather know better than that." Still adamant that her daughter was kidnapped and raped, she concedes that at the worst, Heather was a flirt.

"A big flirt. She loved attention, and she came by that honestly. We're a very outgoing bunch of people here. But the label put on her after this happened is wrong." Although not widely discussed, Gail and Duane Rich have sealed off Heather's bedroom, leaving it essentially as it was the night she disappeared. Duane Rich cannot bring himself to enter.

In the living room of the family's home in Waurika, a glass China cabinet serves as a memorial to their slain daughter. It contains photographs and personal effects, including her cheerleading uniform. Several ceramic angels, gifts of friends, are there because because Heather believed in her childhood she could talk to "her angel." The centerpiece of the memorial is a school photograph of Heather, smiling through her braces, taken only a short time before she was murdered. The parents did not see the picture until after her funeral. Motorists making the two- hour drive from the Fort Worth- Dallas area to Montague travel through rolling woodlands that shelter deer, turkey and quail.

Cattle and sheep graze on farmlands where Commanches and Kiowas once roamed. There has been a visitor to the bridge over Beiknap Creek. Someone armed with white paint left a scrawled message: "In memory of Curtis. Bro's Always." And this: "Life Sucks." Across the street from the four-story Montague County Courthouse is the sheriffs office and jail where Randy Wood awaits his trial for the murder of Heather Rich. On July 7, he will be 20 years old.

By reneging on his plea bargain, he could be 60 or older when he leaves prison. With time served, he could have been released in his late 40s. Assuming the case goes to trial this year, prosecutor Tim Cole said he will prosecute Wood for capital murder. And while Wood technically is eligible for a death sentence, Cole does not intend to seek the death penalty. Next: Part VI, Apology and Forgiveness.

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