The Cherokee County district attorney knowingly went to trial unable to prove Tyress Gipson was murdered or even recovering his body.
The Cherokee County district attorney's office has a history of presenting illegally obtained and concocted hearsay to juries, knowing the Twelfth Court of Appeals in Tyler will rubber stamp otherwise inadmissible evidence. They have a fetish of illegally eavesdropping on and recording private conversations, then parsing out what they pretend to be incriminating. The DPS, Texas Rangers, and FBI are the only agencies allowed to intercept and introduce recorded conversations between parties at trial. In the case of missing Jacksonville teen Tyress Gipson, the Texas Rangers supposedly assisted in the failed search but not the criminal investigation. Gipson's "homicide investigation" was handled solely by Cherokee County law enforcement and the district attorney's office. Jacksonville PD introduced cell phone calls between their suspects as murder evidence at trial, and as the reason they couldn't find Gipson's dead body. As in the 2018 shooting death of Trevor Lawson and subsequent Cody Roberts murder trial acquittal, the jury did not believe either. (Source: Jury finds Cody Roberts not guilty of capital murder in 2018 Cherokee County shooting death, KLTV)
Investigators spend little effort in locating missing persons and more time listening in on phone calls.
On February 16, 2023, Cameron Shead was found not guilty on three counts by a Cherokee County jury after being charged with capital murder in the 2020 disappearance of 18-year old Tyress Gipson. Jacksonville residents Breonna M. Jimenez, Derrick D. Hicks, and a juvenile were also arrested for aggravated kidnapping. No evidence was presented at trial other than their mismatched statements alleging the missing teen's homicide. Prosecutors did let the jury hear an otherwise illegally recorded cell phone conversation of Shead bragging to Breonna Jimenez about the police "never finding Tyress' body." Tyress Gipson's actual cause of death or a murder scene was not exhibited to the jury, just finger pointing from the other accused and Jimenez's "concocted story" created by investigating officers. Cherokee County jurors understand when they hear defendants' actual cell phone calls during trial, that law enforcement is listening in on everyone's.
2nd Judicial District Judge Michael Davis signed off on the arrest warrants of the four original suspects who will be walking free after the district attorney played their staged (and illegally intercepted by Jacksonville PD) calls for the Cherokee County jury. Cameron Shead is now set up to sue the City of Jacksonville for invasion of privacy, conspiracy to violate his civil rights, and a whole host of other telecommunications violations.
Eavesdropping on private phone calls is an illegal "investigative" technique that usually ends in huge civil penalties.
The state said Cameron brought Breonna to the police station with a concocted story about that night. Cameron allegedly told her she needed to talk to law enforcement to “get ahead of the issue” and to “clear her name.” Breonna started by telling police the concocted story, but they said she ultimately told the truth. The state said Breonna told police of a location where Tyress’ body supposedly was; they went to the location, and a cadaver dog reacted with alert, but nothing was found when law enforcement dug up the location.
A phone call recorded by the police was played that allegedly captured Cameron assuring Breonna that the police wouldn’t find Tyress’ body. He allegedly told her to keep calm and tell the story they supposedly made. The state claimed Breonna was a scared 18-year-old girl, and Cameron was the mastermind behind the crime.
The defense argued that the investigation lacks evidence.
(Source: Palestine man found not guilty of capital murder in death of Jacksonville teen, KLTV)
Cameron Shead found not guilty in missing teen's death after jury deliberated for three hours. (Courtesy CBS 19)
After feeling pressure from the community to resolve the missing case of Tyress Gipson, the Cherokee County District Attorney conducted a mock murder trial without substantiating evidence or a dead body. Elmer Beckworth and company felt similar pressure almost ten years ago when two Jacksonville, TX women set to testify against Officer Larry Pugh went missing. Their decomposed bodies were actually discovered in a nearby National Forest; authorities did not release autopsy results. The main suspect was not brought up on homicide charges despite both women being federal witnesses and victims in Pugh's assault and retaliation charges. Officer Pugh attempted to kidnap a surviving witness set to testify against him by dragging her off in a van with a belt around her throat. Elmer Beckworth charged him with aggravated assault and tacked on a couple extra weeks in the Cherokee County jail after Pugh completed his 12-year rape and retaliation sentence in federal prison.
According to Cherokee County District Attorney Elmer Beckworth, Pugh, 45, was transported from a federal facility to the CCSO jail for the charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The charge stems from August 2006 when Pugh admitted to putting his belt around a woman's neck in an attempt to drag her into his van. When the belt snapped, the woman was able to run to safety at a nearby friend's house.
The woman was later identified as a female witness in the federal case against Pugh. (Source: May 18, 2018- Ex-JPD officer released from federal prison, Jacksonville Progress)
Small town Jacksonville PD is not equipped to handle missing persons or murder cases, especially when their own officer is the number one suspect.
Jacksonville, TX police officer Larry Pugh
Authorities say they are treating the death of a Jacksonville, Texas woman whose remains were found earlier this year as a murder investigation, reports CBS affiliate KYTX.
Before her disappearance eight years ago, 26-year-old Shunte Coleman was expected to testify against Jacksonville police officer Larry Pugh, who was being investigated on sexual assault charges.
Shunte Coleman (Courtesy CBS News, August 24, 2014)
Police said they aren't ruling out Pugh as a potential suspect.
Coleman's remains were found in March, in a wooded area of San Augustine County, not far from where the body of another woman, Terri Reyes, was found in 2007.
Reyes was also expected to testify against Pugh. He was sentenced in 2007 to 12 years in prison for rape and other charges.
Courtesy Tyler Morning Telegraph, June 14, 2014
The remains of a woman who disappeared eight years ago after making outcries of sexual abuse against a former Jacksonville police officer have been found, officials reported on Friday.
Skeletal remains of Shunte M. Coleman, who was last seen July 3, 2006, were found on March 12 by a forester in a thickly wooded area in San Augustine County, east of the "T" intersection of Farm-to-Market Road 1196 and County Road 347, officials said Friday in a news release.
In 2007, Alvin Boykin talked to the Tyler Morning Telegraph about the day his friend, Ms. Coleman, left his Jacksonville home on foot. He said then that his home was an ad hoc shelter, offered to anyone needing a place to stay.
Ms. Coleman, a mother of two, had freely come and gone from his residence — but so had a handful of other women needing a boost. So when Ms. Coleman said she was leaving for a while, Boykin watched her go.
She didn't come back. Neither did another frequenter, Terri Renee Troublefield Reyes, who disappeared around the same time as Ms. Coleman. The 38-year-old Athens woman was last seen alive on May 21, 2006, and was found dead and unclothed in Angelina National Forest in fall 2006.
The women knew each other from Boykin's home, and both were pinpointed as potential witnesses to testify against former Jacksonville police officer Larry Pugh.
In 2006, Pugh was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the sexual assault of women while on duty and retaliating against a woman for reporting the crime.
Ms. Coleman and Ms. Reyes both went missing while Pugh was out of jail on bond — between February 2006 and August 2006.
In 2007, Pugh pleaded guilty to perjury for lying about sexually assaulting women while on duty. The next year, he was sentenced to 18 months for perjury. He was sued in two additional lawsuits by eight women claiming they also were sexually assaulted by him while he was an officer.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Pugh, 41, is incarcerated in Marianna, Florida, in a medium-security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp. His release date is listed as May 13, 2018.
Shortly after Ms. Reyes' remains were identified through DNA testing in 2007, attorney Curtis Stuckey told the Tyler Morning Telegraph that he might have used Ms. Reyes as a witness in the civil trial, but he never had an opportunity to talk to her because she disappeared.
"She had made an outcry" to law enforcement, like several other women, he said.
Stuckey represented a 43-year-old Jacksonville woman who was raped and retaliated against by Pugh in a civil lawsuit against the former officer.
Stuckey said he also would have been interested in talking to Ms. Coleman as a possible witness against Pugh if she had not disappeared.
San Augustine Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Gary Cunningham said Friday that at this point, law enforcement cannot connect Pugh to Ms. Coleman's disappearance and death, but officials are not ruling out any potential suspects.
He said an active investigation is being continued by the San Augustine County Sheriff's Office, the Texas Rangers and the FBI.
The San Augustine County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the Angelina County Sheriff's Office, the Texas Rangers and the FBI, recovered the remains, which were examined by a forensic anthropologist at Sam Houston State University and then delivered to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where DNA extracted from the remains were entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), officials said.
On Thursday, the San Augustine County Sheriff's Office and the Jacksonville Police Department were notified that the remains belonged to Ms. Coleman.
The woman who won the civil lawsuit against Pugh in 2007 testified in federal court that she was walking one night in March 2005 when Pugh offered her a courtesy ride in his police car. Instead of taking her where she wanted to go, he took her to a dark, empty trailer house.
"He raped me," she said crying. "I was too scared to do anything."
She said Pugh drove her back to the neighborhood and dropped her off.
In August 2006, after Pugh had been indicted on federal charges, the woman was again walking at night when a man in a van who was wearing sunglasses approached and offered her a ride. She said she recognized Pugh's voice and declined.
As she walked away, Pugh got out of the vehicle and took his belt off. The two struggled and the victim tried to fight him, but he put his belt around her neck, she said. Pugh began dragging her toward his van and "by the grace of God," the belt snapped and she escaped.
The woman admitted she had a criminal record and was fighting a crack addiction, she said.
Pugh pleaded guilty to the charges but denied ever having sex with her or any of the other women.
Joe Evans, an investigator for the Cherokee County District Attorney's Office, testified at the time that the plaintiff was the first of many women who made outcries claiming they were sexually assaulted by Pugh.
Evans said he talked to 25 to 30 witnesses, including women who claimed they had been raped by Pugh and people they had told, including ministers and police officers, who substantiated their claims. He said the witnesses were from Athens, Tyler and other areas.
Evans said Pugh preyed on vulnerable women who lived on the street and had drug or legal problems. One-third of them had pending charges, one-third of them were on parole or probation and one-third of them had no criminal charges, he said.
(Courtesy KLTV)
Questions still loom for the grandmother of a woman's remains found in E Texas
June 21, 2014
Tyler, TX:
The grandmother of an East Texas woman whose body was identified Friday says she always feared the worst had happened to her granddaughter. Shunte Coleman went missing in July of 2006. In March, skeletal remains found in San Augustine County were confirmed to be Shunte Coleman.
Shunte’s grandmother says almost eight years later, the family's questions still haven't been answered. Pictures of Shunte fill the walls of Margaret Anderson’s home.
"She was a very charming person, a good-hearted person. Most of all, Shunte loved to discuss the bible,” said Anderson.
Just two days before Anderson learned Shunte was missing, she says Shunte called her.
"She wanted to go to put some flowers on her mother's grave. [She asked if I would] go with her and I told her yes. I never heard from her since,” she said.
Anderson says she always knew something bad had happened to her beloved granddaughter.
"I didn't have hope. I knew after a few months. I felt like she was gone. I felt like I would have heard from Shunte, one way or another, if she was alive,” said Anderson.
When she heard that remains found in March had been identified as Shunte, she says she felt her prayers had been answered.
"Wednesday, that was the last thing I asked of God, to reveal what had happened to Shunte,” she said.
Although she finally knows Shunte is gone, Anderson says she still has so many questions.
"Of course I don't know how she died, what she went through with this death. I don't know that, but I know now she is really gone and there is no coming back," she said.
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