Published: August 28, 2009 04:43 pm      

Forcey receives life without parole for Alvarado murder

Jurors in the 249th District Court deliberated for about an hour Friday before returning a guilty verdict against Alvarado resident Scottie Forcey.

The finding of guilt on the charge requires Forcey to spend life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Forcey, 17, was charged with capital murder in the July 23, 2008 shooting death of an Alvarado store clerk.

Sixteen at the time of his arrest, Forcey was later certified to stand trial as an adult.

Forcey allegedly entered the Shell Travel Center on 1203 S. Parkway Drive in Alvarado at 1:35 a.m. on the date in question. Forcey allegedly shot the clerk, Karen Burke, 52, in the head then attempted unsuccessfully to open the cash register before leaving the scene.

Bill Mason, Forcey’s attorney, said there is no question that surveillance video captures someone wearing gloves and a dark hoodie enter the store, shoot Burke and attempt to open the register.

That the person in the video is not clearly identifiable as Forcey provides enough reasonable doubt for jurors to find Forcey not guilty, Mason argued.

“The single issue here is that if you are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt who was wearing the clothes that night, you know the killer,” Mason said. “If not, there is reasonable doubt.”

Clothes matching those seen in the video were later recovered in a bag under Forcey’s Alvarado home.

Kelly Belcher, a trace evidence analyst with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, testified earlier on Tuesday to the presence of gunshot residue found on the hoodie and gloves submitted for testing.

Several in Forcey’s house that night testified that he was gone during the time of the incident and later returned saying he shot the woman.

The shooter, Mason argued, could have been one of several men at Forcey’s home that night. Mason specifically targeted Jauron Houston, who was at Forcey’s home that night and testified against him during the trial.

Forcey was the victim of a perfect storm of injustice masterminded by his brother, Billy Forcey, who, through threats or cooperation, managed to, “get the other characters in that house to get their stories straight and sing the same tune,” Mason said.

Mason argued that Billy Forcey threw his brother “under the bus.”

Investigators also failed to pull credit card receipts to see who may have been in the store earlier that night or consider truck drivers in the station’s lot that night, Mason said.

“You eliminate suspects,” Mason said. “You don’t pick who you think did it and make it fit.”

Johnson County District Attorney Dale Hanna called the idea of Houston as the killer a “rabbit trail” offered to distract jurors and take the heat off Forcey.

“Jauron as the killer? Amazing,” said Assistant District Attorney Martin Strahan during closing arguments. “That Billy Forcey, Scottie’s own brother, protected Jauron at Scottie’s expense. Amazing. I can’t imagine a case with more evidence connecting one person to a killing.”

Strahan stressed physical and eyewitness testimony offered against Forcey during trial, adding that all present at Forcey’s house that night relayed the same story.

“In order to believe Scottie Forcey is not guilty, you have to believe the most amazing set of circumstances that ever occurred in the history of the universe happened in this case.”



Burke’s daughters speak

Burke’s two daughters, April Burke and Amber Burke, delivered victim impact statements after Forcey’s verdict.

“Karen Burke was my mom, my friend, a grandmother to my children and a sister,” April Burke said. “She was a great person, and you took that from me. I won’t be able to call my mom on Mother’s Day, or her birthday. I won’t be able to talk to her anymore except through prayer.”

Amber Burke called the loss of her mother senseless.

“I cannot imagine taking the life of anyone else,” Burke said. “There was no reason behind it. I just don’t understand.”