Prosecutor: clear case of capital murder

By Matt Smith/msmith@trcle.com

The evidence to be presented against Scottie Forcey will clearly prove he committed capital murder, Johnson County Assistant District Attorney Martin Strahan told jurors in the 249th District Court during Tuesdays opening arguments in Forcey’s case.

Forcey, 17, is accused of the July 23, 2008, shooting death of an Alvarado store clerk. Forcey, 16 at the time, was later certified to stand trial as an adult on the charge.

Capital murder, Strahan told jurors, involves an intentional murder committed while during the commission of another felony.

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

Evidence to be presented will show that Forcey lived in Alvarado near the Shell station and had been there many times, Strahan said. It will further show that Forcey left his house around midnight on July 22, 2008, on his bicycle, wearing a hoodie and carrying gloves and a gun, riding to the Shell station, Strahan said.

Burke, working the night shift, was mopping the floor inside the store when Forcey entered, Strahan said.

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

Strahan said the gun Forcey used was an, “old, nasty, dirty 22 caliber revolver in disrepair,” and that Forcey had to squeeze the trigger three times before the gun fired into Burke’s head. At which time Burke fell on the floor right where seconds before she had been mopping.

“While she lays in her own blood and vomit, Forcey calmly steps over her and walks over to try and get the register open,” Strahan said.

Witness testimony scheduled to be heard will show that Forcey then rode his bicycle back home in a panic over what he had done and told several there what had just occurred, Strahan said.

Testimony will show that Forcey immediately took a bath, washing his hands in bleach, Strahan said.

Forcey and his brother, Billy Forcey, then hid clothes, guns and shell casings, Strahan said, which police later recovered.

Later the same night, Forcey went to Dallas to stay with his girlfriend, Strahan said. A witness will testify that Forcey and the girl stayed up all night and, over the next days, checked the Internet for news stories of the incident, Strahan said. Another person will testify that he was in jail with Forcey while both were being held, Strahan said. That man will testify that Forcey said, “That’s me in the video” while both watched a news story about the murder, which played the surveillance video, Strahan said.

Strahan said evidence of gunpowder residue in the left pocket of Forcey’s pants will be introduced. Important because the person in the surveillance video sticks his hand and gun in that pocket while attempting to open the store’s cash register with his right hand.

Strahan said a ballistics expert will testify that the bullet removed from Burke cannot specifically be matched to one of the two guns police uncovered hidden under a vacant house near Forcey’s home, Strahan said. The ballistics expert will testify that casings found in a trash bag in Forcey’s home are consistent with the bullet from Burke, and that one of the recovered guns fired those casings, Strahan said.

Other witnesses, Strahan said, will testify that Forcey discussed and planned robbing the Shell Station in the weeks before the incident.

Bill Mason, Forcey’s attorney, characterized the scheduled witnesses as a web of personalities and individuals that have their own reasons for testifying.

“It’s a complex web of people who have been threatened to come in here and say what they are going to say,” Mason said.

Mason did not elaborate further other than to say the evidence will show no conclusive scientific proof that Forcey was the person in the surveillance video, or to tie the clothes and guns recovered back to him.

“The evidence at the conclusion of this case is going to be inconclusive to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Scottie Forcey committed this crime,” Mason said.

Burke’s daughter, Amber Burke, was the first witness called. Amber Burke, at the time, worked at the Grandy’s Restaurant inside the Shell Station where Burke worked. Amber Burke said her shift ended several hours before her mother’s began. She said she saw her mother at the home they shared and that her mother said she was tired and feeling sick. Amber Burke said she told he mother to stay home from work if she felt bad. Burke said she fell asleep soon after only to be awoken by a phone call regarding her mother later that night. Burke said she drove to the hospital thinking her mother had been hit on the head only to be told by doctors when she arrived that her mother had been shot.