Published: August 27, 2009 01:39 pm      

Friend testifies about Forcey’s role in Alvarado shooting death

Scottie Forcey arrived home “kind of sweating and nervous” in the early morning hours of July 23, 2008, and said he shot a woman, a friend of the Forcey family testified in the 249th District Court on Wednesday.

“I said, “What did you do at the store?’ He said, ‘I shot that lady,’ ” said Jauron Houston. “I said, ‘What do you mean you shot that lady?’ and [Forcey] said, ‘I shot her.’

“I was like OK. I really didn’t believe him at first, didn’t think he would do something like that. About one or two weeks earlier he said something about it. We talked him out of it. Said that was not something bright to do. [Forcey] just said, ‘Going to rob that lady, rob that store.’ ”

Forcey, 17, is accused of the July 23, 2008, shooting death of Karen Burke, 52, a clerk at the Shell Travel Station at 1203 S. Parkway Drive in Alvarado.

Forcey, 16 at the time, was later certified to stand trial as an adult on the charge.

Forcey allegedly entered the station at about 1:35 a.m. and shot Burke in the head as she was mopping the floor before walking around the counter, where he unsuccessfully attempted to open the cash register before leaving the scene.

Surveillance video of the incident shows a person wearing a hoodie and gloves enter the store, draw a gun and begin shooting.

The video also captures the person attempting to open the register and leaving the store.

Police later recovered clothes matching those worn by the person in the video under Forcey’s house and two guns from under a vacant home near Forcey’s house.

Houston said he had been friends with the Forcey family all his life and frequently visited the Alvarado home where Forcey and his brother, Billy Forcey lived.

“We pretty much chilled, did our thing,” Houston said.

Houston said he was at the house the night of July 22, 2008, and Forcey left the home about midnight, returning sometime between 2-3 a.m. in an agitated state.

Forcey was sweating, nervous and pacing back and forth, Houston said.

Asked what was wrong he admitted to having shot Burke, Houston said.

Forcey, at Billy Forcey’s suggestion, took a bath soon after, washing his hands with bleach and Pine-Sol in an attempt to remove gunshot residue, Houston said.

Forcey later hid the hoodie, gloves and other clothes he wore that night under his house, Houston said.

Houston said he patronized the Shell station often, and he was somewhat familiar with who Burke was.

“We all shopped at the Shell quite a bit,” Houston said. “I’d talked to [Burke] a couple of times. She was pretty cool, even gave me free drinks a couple of times.”



Hidden guns

Judge Wayne Bridewell appointed Cleburne attorney Shelly Fowler to represent Houston and apprise him of his rights against self-incrimination shortly after Johnson County Assistant District Attorney Martin Strahan began questioning Houston about guns in Forcey’s home.

After talking to Fowler, Houston decided to continue with his testimony.

Houston said he did not see Forcey with a gun on the night in question, but he knew there were two or three pistols in Forcey’s house.

Houston then identified a picture of two guns recovered by police from under a vacant house as guns from Forcey’s house.

Bill Mason, Forcey’s attorney, three times asked Houston when the last time he saw those guns was.

Houston twice said two or three days before the shooting.

On the third time Houston said when he went with Billy Forcey to hide the guns under the abandoned house.

Houston said Billy Forcey asked him to walk to the vacant house a few days after the shooting. He said Billy Forcey carried the guns and hid them under the house.

Houston said he did not call the police at the time because he did not initially believe Forcey had shot Burke until he later saw the story on the news.

“Well, necessarily, I have no idea why I didn’t.” Houston said about his reasons for not contacting police at that point.



One minute, eight seconds

Surveillance video played in court on Tuesday shows that the person wearing the hoodie who shot Burke and attempted to open the register was only in the store for one minute and eight seconds.

Johnson County Assistant District Attorney Kory Nelson played the video while questioning Jennifer Aboytes, manager of the Shell station at the time.

The person in the hoodie entered the store through the south side door and was not caught on film by any of the store’s outside cameras, Aboyte said.

She said the parking lot on that side of the store was not well lit.

Outside cameras picked up no other people or vehicles during the time of the incident, Aboyte said.

She said she was unsure if anyone asked about or investigated whether anyone was present or sleeping in any tractor trailers parked in the service station’s lot that night.