See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:23:37–16:25:40, 17:24:20–17:26:10 (noting that after the squad car with the suspect drove away, Stange and Gonzalez were “still held outside. The police car activity dies down. I don’t believe it was long after that most of the police actually left, the police cars”; recalling that only the two crime scene people were left, and they “were taking a number of pictures” and “doing fingerprints” and that Stange and Gonzalez “were not allowed in[side the store]”; “When the police car left with [the suspect], most of the other cars left. I think there was only one or two police cars in the parking lot, and that was the people [Detective Escobedo and Officer Infante] that kind of escorted us in.”).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500024, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (photo of front door of Sigmor station, showing opening time of 6 a.m.); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:27:50–15:29:10; Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:23:20–17:24:00:

As far as that evening, that day, I can remember leaving the location somewhere in mid to late afternoon. We had a display of Tootsie Rolls. Inside that there was a cardboard backing of a heart, and it was filled with Tootsie Rolls. It sold for ninety-nine or a dollar forty-nine. We joked about Valentine’s Day coming up, and she hadn’t gotten her Valentines present. So I handed her one of those and said, “Well, there you go.” That was pretty much my day at that point, I was done at that point, and I went on home. My day started pretty early . . . . I’m sure I was tired, because I know when I got the call I was already asleep.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:27:50–15:29:10; Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:23:20–17:24:00:

As far as that evening, that day, I can remember leaving the location somewhere in mid to late afternoon. We had a display of Tootsie Rolls. Inside that there was a cardboard backing of a heart, and it was filled with Tootsie Rolls. It sold for ninety-nine or a dollar forty-nine. We joked about Valentine’s Day coming up, and she hadn’t gotten her Valentines present. So I handed her one of those and said, “Well, there you go.” That was pretty much my day at that point, I was done at that point, and I went on home. My day started pretty early . . . . I’m sure I was tired, because I know when I got the call I was already asleep.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:29:10–15:29:50 (“I just remember it was dark when I got to the location. I remember the dispatcher calling me and telling me there had been an incident at the store, and I needed to come down and secure the location. They wouldn’t tell me what it was about. They wanted to know what direction I was coming from in case they could give me an escort. I knew that wasn’t good. I didn’t know what had happened, but I knew that wasn’t good.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:29:10–15:29:50 (“I just remember it was dark when I got to the location. I remember the dispatcher calling me and telling me there had been an incident at the store, and I needed to come down and secure the location. They wouldn’t tell me what it was about. They wanted to know what direction I was coming from in case they could give me an escort. I knew that wasn’t good. I didn’t know what had happened, but I knew that wasn’t good.”).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500024, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500029, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500035, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500003, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500004, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500012, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500014, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500021, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:54:30–16:55:40, 16:58:45–16:59:27 (“There was a considerable amount of blood, because I do recall having to clean it up and wipe everything that had blood on it.”; answering question about who cleaned up the station: “I did. Myself and another manager, Joyce Winkler, the store manager where I came from, number 126. . . . [It was a] high-visibility store right along the interstate, so anybody going by on a Friday night saw it. Somehow she was notified. She not only helped clean up, but she also helped do the physical inventory of the location later on.”); Steve Mills & Maurice Possley, The Secret that Wasn’t: Violent Felon Bragged that He Was Real Killer, Chi. Trib., June 27, 2006, available at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-06-27/news/0606270137_1_gas-station-stabbed-killing/3 (“Stange, who said he was never interviewed by police, prosecutors or defense lawyers, worked the day shift at the station before Lopez. In a recent interview, he said he was called back that night after the murder to clean up the blood and conduct the inventory.”). Archived at: http://perma.cc/V2UA-TUMH. see also Crime Scene Photograph 25500024, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing store hours and opening time of 6 a.m. on Saturday); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:59:27–17:01:30 (recalling that, as a result of cleaning and conducting and inventory, “it was a very short night. It was only about an hour’s worth of rest I got” before returning to open up the store at the usual time); Tamara Theiss’s Notes on Interview with Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases (Feb. 27, 2005) at 2 (“I remember coming into the gas station. Ms. Lopez was already being treated by the emergency response people. She couldn’t talk to anyone. She had been stabbed over and over again [sic—there was only one stab wound]. I remember that there was blood everywhere inside the gas station.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:16:34–15:18:12 (noting that Stange worked as manager at the SPID station from 1982 to 1991, then spent four to five years as a auditor for a number of stations, then worked several years as area manager for nine stores:

Q. [Take me] through the locations you worked at, giving the addresses. You say you started and Weber . . . . A. Weber and S.P.I.D. And we referred to the locations by store name. That was store number 146. That’s where I started. And then I was to go in and fill in at another location while a manager was on maternity leave, with the possibility of taking over if things went well. And that was number 47, and that was at Ayres and S.P.I.D., ultimately this particular location where Wanda Lopez was killed. I stayed there until ’91, and I got a transfer to a location in Portland, Texas, the store number was 979. It was a larger-volume store, so it was [a] promotion. I did that for 2 years. In ’93 I got promoted to an auditing job, where you travel around and you count each store. You go in and you do a store each day, and you take a physical inventory. We have in-house auditors, and I did that for them for 4 years, 5 years. And then ultimately became an area manager of nine locations, which didn’t include the location where she was killed. That was given to another area manager at the time.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:11:37–17:12:43 (describing how he thought the police were thinking after the identification: “We got a robbery, and now we got a death, so we got a capital case.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:11:37–17:12:43 (describing how he thought the police were thinking after the identification: “We got a robbery, and now we got a death, so we got a capital case.”).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:23:37–16:25:40, 17:24:20–17:26:10 (noting that after the squad car with the suspect drove away, Stange and Gonzalez were “still held outside. The police car activity dies down. I don’t believe it was long after that most of the police actually left, the police cars”; recalling that only the two crime scene people were left, and they “were taking a number of pictures” and “doing fingerprints” and that Stange and Gonzalez “were not allowed in[side the store]”; “When the police car left with [the suspect], most of the other cars left. I think there was only one or two police cars in the parking lot, and that was the people [Detective Escobedo and Officer Infante] that kind of escorted us in.”).

Tamara Theiss’s Notes on Interview with Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases (Feb. 27, 2005) at 2:

As the lead investigator, my first responsibility was to secure the crime scene. I think I responded around 7 p.m. [sic] to the scene, and it took me at least three hours [sic] to process everything. I had to do everything myself. Back then, we didn’t have any crime scene technicians or equipment. The responding investigator had to do everything on his or her own. I remember that all we had was a little kit we carried around in the trunks of our cars. We didn’t have any police tape to secure the scenes. We just had to yell at people to stay back and not step on our crime scenes. I think I had the help of a fingerprint technician, but no one else.

See supra Chapter 3, notes 39–46, 56, 129–130 and accompanying text (citing sources establishing that: Detective Escobedo and the photographer entered the store to begin their scene investigation after the ambulance left with Wanda Lopez, because prior to that point the victim and the emergency personnel were blocking the door; the ambulance left the gas station at 8:40; DeLuna was brought to the station in a squad car at about 9:05; and DeLuna was driven away five minutes later); see also Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Supplementary Report (Feb. 5, 1983) (reporting that Escobedo and her assistant, Joel Infante, bagged and tagged all the physical evidence confiscated at the scene between 9:25 P.M. and 9:55 P.M); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:24:20–17:26:10:

When the police car left with him [the suspect], most of the other cars left. I think there was only one or two police cars in the parking lot, and that was the people that kind of escorted us in. And we were asked to go behind the counter and look around and calculate, and we were asked to go back on the other side of the door. It was a very short period of time after that that we were by ourselves [waiting to go back in the store]. So it was relatively quick, the time that the suspect left. Our first entry into the store—I say our first entry, that was when we were escorted in to take a look behind the counter, and we were asked to step back again—that whole time period, from the time that the perpetrator left, or the suspect, that we actually got the keys, it had to be less than 30 minutes. It had to be. Somewhere, maybe around 20. It’s like, “we got the pictures, we got the guy, let’s just get out of here. We’re done.” Everybody’s gone, you stand around like, “Well, now what am I supposed to do?” I remember standing around saying, “Well, what do you want me to do now?”

Tamara Theiss’s Notes on Interview with Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases (Feb. 27, 2005) at 2:

As the lead investigator, my first responsibility was to secure the crime scene. I think I responded around 7 p.m. [sic] to the scene, and it took me at least three hours [sic] to process everything. I had to do everything myself. Back then, we didn’t have any crime scene technicians or equipment. The responding investigator had to do everything on his or her own. I remember that all we had was a little kit we carried around in the trunks of our cars. We didn’t have any police tape to secure the scenes. We just had to yell at people to stay back and not step on our crime scenes. I think I had the help of a fingerprint technician, but no one else.

Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing Detective Escobedo working inside the store in her overcoat).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:11:37–17:12:43:

The police had rounded up somebody who, through witnesses, through people who thought they saw somebody. They got somebody under an automobile. They were sure that this was the man. They had an identifier out in the parking lot, an eyewitness who said that this was the individual or who he believed to be. Pretty much from the time the police left, it was like, “Ok, we got the guy. It’s done. It’s over. We got a robbery, and now we got a death, so we got a capital case. We got the guy, and it’s done.”

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:37:05–17:38:00:

You know, I look back on it now. It was just . . . “Ok, we got this guy, we got one eyewitness that will identify him, that’s good enough.” . . . They found some guy hiding underneath a car. This is him. We got him, case is closed. As a detective, I am sure this is the guy. I’m not looking any further, I’m not looking into this. . . . I know I’ve got him. I know I’ve got my man, I don’t need to go anywhere else. That’s what it looks like. It looks like we just, we zeroed in on one path and everything that went this way, we never looked at it.

Lead Detective Escobedo acknowledged later that she had used her police radio to follow events outside the store, including the manhunt and capture of DeLuna and his identification by eyewitnesses. See Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Supplementary Report (Feb. 5, 1983) at 3 (“While still at the [Sigmor station] scene, I learned from Lt. McConley that a suspect had been apprehended and he was brought back to the scene where he was viewed separately by several [sic—two] witnesses who were able to ID the subject. After positive ID was made, suspect who was identified as Carlos DeLuna, 3/15/62 . . . was then transported to City Jail.”); Tamara Theiss’s Notes on Interview with Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases (Feb. 27, 2005) at 2:

Because my responsibility was to process the crime scene, I remained in the store working while the rest of the police were outside looking for DeLuna. I remember that there were police cars everywhere, at the station and all around the neighborhood around the station, looking for DeLuna. I could hear their progress on my radio. The police were responding to calls saying that people had spotted someone hiding under a truck that was parked on the street a couple blocks behind the gas station. Then I heard on the radio when DeLuna was pulled out from under the truck. I think that the police brought DeLuna back to the gas station right away so the witnesses could look at him. DeLuna was sober when they found him. He did not have any blood on him. I did not take part in the identification of DeLuna by the witnesses because I was inside the station working on the crime scene.

See infra notes 35, 46, 82–85, 107–110 and accompanying text.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:22:06–15:22:45, 17:20:00–17:20:42, 17:22:12–17:22:35 (“Wanda, she was always happy. It was all about her daughter.”; “She was relatively new to me, but we got along very well and I liked her. She was good. She was good with the customers, she cared about what she did. Very conscientious.”; “[Wanda’s relationship with her daughter] was very good. It was the thing that drove her, that made her want to— She wanted a better life for her daughter than she’d gotten at that point. It was all about her daughter.”); see also Transcribed Videotape Interview with Becky Nesmith, Cousin of Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi, Texas (Dec. 8, 2004) at 05:07:01–05:07:50 (“A. Wanda, she was a very kind friend to me. Even though she was my cousin, she was very real, very down to earth. She had a very happy spirit. She was never mean. She wasn’t the type to cuss. She didn’t have a vulgar language. She was very loving, very friendly, very outgoing. Q. One of the things that we’ve heard about Wanda is that she was, as you say, very outgoing. Liked to be around people. Very vibrant and bright. Is that right? A. Yes.”).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:30:30–17:32:50:

Wanda had been given to me or transferred in because she had a run-in with . . . the manager of station number 143 over at Everhart and Holly. She was the assistant manager at that station at that time. [The manager of store 143] was ok, kind of known as a ladies’ man. He liked to play. His wife knew it, and wanted to keep track of him. Wanda had always told [that manager]—this is through her, through Wanda herself telling me this—that she wasn’t going to lie for him. And there was an incident where [the manger] had left the location with—it was some time in the afternoon—with a woman in her car. I don’t know if it was to go to the bank or whatever. But his wife . . . either called or came by the location, and Wanda told her that he wasn’t here. I don’t know if she told her that he left with somebody. . . . [T]he store manager, had asked that she lie or not tell the truth as to his whereabouts. And she didn’t do that for him. At that point, well, naturally [the manger] got in trouble by his wife. And at that point he talked to his supervisor and said, “I don’t want this person [Wanda Lopez] in my store.” And that’s how she came to my location.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:22:06–15:22:45, 17:20:00–17:20:42, 17:22:12–17:22:35, 17:32:15–17:32:50 (“Wanda, she was always happy. It was all about her daughter.”; “She was relatively new to me, but we got along very well and I liked her. She was good. She was good with the customers, she cared about what she did. Very conscientious.”; “[Wanda’s relationship with her daughter] was very good. It was the thing that drove her, that made her want to—She wanted a better life for her daughter than she’d gotten at that point. It was all about her daughter.”; “And that’s how she came to my location, was she wouldn’t lie for that particular manager as to his whereabouts or what he was doing. She wouldn’t do that for him. It kind of goes towards her character.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:19:45–15:20:27, 15:21:10–15:22:06 (explaining that Wanda was at the SPID location for about three months before she was killed; Stange made her his assistant manager some weeks after she came over from another store).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:26:00–15:26:47 (“I had other employees before, and certainly after, who would call me because they were concerned or there was somebody outside or they just didn’t feel right. And I would ultimately go up there and make sure they were ok. But Wanda never expressed that.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:40:34–16:41:28 (quoted infra note 25).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:36:15–16:37:50 (noting that, in a robbery, “You just ask for the money and get it.”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:40:34–16:42:22:

A robbery typically happens: somebody comes in, a knife, a gun. Generally they stand on the other side of the counter. They ask for the money. The employee opens the cash drawer and gives it to them. And they leave. They’re gone. . . . When someone comes in to rob you, they don’t want witnesses. They don’t want people seeing them. They want to be able to come in, get the money, get out. . . . So the idea is to get in, get out before anybody knows what happened, and go, and disappear. . . . [T]ypically a robber doesn’t want the roll change. They don’t want the physical weight, and they don’t want the wait of having to wait to get the money. They just want to get what’s quick, easy, on hand, so they can leave.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:21:05–17:22:08:

If someone was to come in and want to ask or tell her that “This is a robbery, I want your money,” she wouldn’t take that as a joke. She would just hand them the money, or she would just hand them the whole cash drawer, on top of the counter and say, “Take it, just take it, leave.” She wouldn’t try to struggle with anybody or put up a fight. She’s trying to raise her daughter. She wanted to do her job and go home. She would just give them the money. I’m sure of it, without a doubt. I’m sure we discussed it. In a joking manner, she said, “I’ll just give them the whole thing.” I hate to say it like this, but I know we joked about it. Just give it to them, whatever it is.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:20:42–17:21:05, 17:22:12–17:22:35 (“No doubt. She would have given . . . absolutely, she would have given them [the money]”; recalling that Wanda’s daughter “was the thing that drove her—She wanted a better life for her daughter than she’d gotten at that point. It was all about her daughter.”); see Defendant Diamond Shamrock’s Answers to Plaintiffs’ Second Set of Interrogatories, Vargas v. Diamond Shamrock, No. 84–4951-D, 86–5900-D (Nueces Cty., 105th Dist. Tex. Feb. 12, 1987) (Interrogatory 11) (stating that Shamrock employees, including Wanda Lopez, were “cautioned not to resist an armed robbery”); Dep. of Harry Caldwell at 39, 52–53, former Houston Police Chief and Witness in Civil Suit Against Shamrock, Vargas v. Diamond Shamrock, No. 84–4951-D, 86–5900-D (Tex. Dist. Ct., 105th Dist. Oct. 8, 1987), (“[Mr. Stange] stipulated that he had personally gone over her—gone over with [Wanda Lopez]—the robbery policy pointed out to her, and that they had personally gone over all of the factors that essentially covered the material that was found in the policy that is posted beside the cash register . . . .”; “[T]he best evidence is the evidence of the police, Corpus Christi Police Department, where unlike any other case that I’m familiar with, we know exactly what she said [because of the 911 tape]. She said, take whatever you want—or words to that effect—I won’t give you any problems. This is exactly and precisely what she had been trained to do and exactly and precisely what was recorded by the Corpus Christi Police Department as having been perhaps her last words before she was murdered by this individual.”).

Pl.’s Ex. 29, Vargas v. Diamond Shamrock, No. 84–4951-D, 86–5900-D (Nueces Cty. 105th Dist. Tex. 1988), at 1.

Pete Gonzales, Shamrock Gas Station Area Supervisor, Trial Test., Texas v. DeLuna, No. 83-CR–194-A (Nueces Cty., 28th Dist. Tex. July 15, 1983) at 170–73 (testifying that Wanda’s store had no actual cash register, so clerks had to count change by hand; that the store has three safes, one of which “is a change box”, with reserve change and a key in it most of the time that usually contains “between 20 and $30 worth of silver.”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:43:38–16:45:00, 16:45:19–16:45:58, 16:47:50–16:48:20 (“[T]here were times when you couldn’t make change because you just didn’t have anything. You weren’t allowed to keep twenties in your drawer. You weren’t supposed to do that. There was a key safe down below that you were allowed to keep change should somebody need to make it.”; “Large bills always were to go in the drop safe. You weren’t to have 20-dollar bills in the drawer. . . . [Y]ou didn’t want to be a target, ‘cause if you gave away a lot of money they were going to come back.”; “As the night goes on, you keep less and less cash. And if it was 8:30, she should have had around 60 dollars in the drawer. . . . The major portion of it would have been in the drop safe. What she needed to make change or to have extra ones, fives, tens on hand, would have been in the key safe below the actual safe.”); see Defendant Diamond Shamrock’s Answers to Plaintiffs’ Second Set of Interrogatories, Vargas v. Diamond Shamrock, No. 84–4951-D, 86–5900-D (Nueces Cty., 105th Dist. Tex. Feb. 12, 1987) (Interrogatory 11) (stating that Wanda Lopez and other Shamrock employees were “warned to keep minim[al] amounts of cash in register”).

See sources cited supra note 28.

See sources cited supra note 28.

See sources cited supra note 28.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:47:50–16:48:20, 16:51:39–16:52:05 (“As the night goes on, you keep less and less cash. And if it was 8:30, she should have had around 60 dollars in the drawer. . . . The major portion of it would have been in the drop safe. What she needed to make change or to have extra ones, fives, tens on hand, would have been in the key safe below the actual safe.”; noting that, at that time of night, Wanda “would have . . . between 40 to 60 [in the drawer], that’s why I stuck with 60 . . . At night, you don’t want to be a target; you don’t want people seeing that you have a lot of money, so you don’t keep much cash on hand.”).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:47:50–16:48:20, 16:51:39–16:52:05 (“As the night goes on, you keep less and less cash. And if it was 8:30, she should have had around 60 dollars in the drawer. . . . The major portion of it would have been in the drop safe. What she needed to make change or to have extra ones, fives, tens on hand, would have been in the key safe below the actual safe.”; noting that, at that time of night, Wanda “would have . . . between 40 to 60 [in the drawer], that’s why I stuck with 60 . . . At night, you don’t want to be a target; you don’t want people seeing that you have a lot of money, so you don’t keep much cash on hand.”).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500003, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500006, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500009, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500021, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983). Compare Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:27:50–15:29:10, 17:23:20–17:24:00 (“As far as that evening, that day, I can remember leaving the location somewhere in mid to late afternoon. We had a display of Tootsie Rolls. Inside that there was a cardboard backing of a heart, and it was filled with Tootsie Rolls”) with Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the Tootsie Roll Valentine’s Day display). Compare also Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:53:33–15:54:30 (recalling that “high-theft items like batteries and sparkplugs” were stored “behind the counter”) with Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) and Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (photographs of the area behind the counter where the victim and assailant struggled, including blood drops, with box of packages of spark plugs and flashlight batteries, some of them scattered on the ground from the struggle between the victim and the assailant).

In regard to Stange’s recollection of Baker’s demeanor before and during the show-up identification, see Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:44:55–15:45:56, 15:48:40–15:49:16, 16:11:48–16:12:00, 16:12:10–16:12:55 (“[W]hen [Baker] was summoned over to the car to identify the person that, he was extremely scared and he did not want—the witness did not want to go to the car to identify him . . . and be that close to that individual, and I believe the police had to do some coaxing to get him over to the car . . . .”; Baker “was terrified to go identify this person”; “But I remember [Baker] as being the witness. He was standing at the front of the car, and he didn’t want to get any closer. He was terrified, he just did not want to be involved.”); supra Chapter 3, notes 75–81, 84–85 and accompanying text (citing other sources confirming Stange’s recollections of Baker’s demeanor during the show-up identification). In regard to Stange’s recollection of the conditions in the parking lot that night, see Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:31:27–15:35:26, 15:37:15–15:38:09, 15:47:30–15:48:00 (describing the identification of a suspect in the back seat of a police car as police were illuminating his face with flashlights); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:56:00–15:56:35 (describing potholes); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:09:47–16:11:48 (describing poor lighting in parking lot). Also documenting the poor lighting conditions in the parking lot are the video images reproduced supra Chapter 2, Figure 2.2.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:24:20–17:26:10 (“It’s awful to say, we were curious to get into the store, to get back and be part of that again, just to get into the store and see it”); see Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:36:15–16:37:50, 17:32:50–17:36:35 (“To me, it just did not sound like a robbery. It sounded more along the lines of just an act of anger or violence.”; discussing his and others’ speculation about the motive for the killing, including a killing for hire and a jilted former boyfriend).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:23:37–16:28:14:

But it wasn’t too much longer, 10, 15, 20 minutes maybe at the most that they summoned [us to enter the store]. They wanted to know what we could identify as being stolen or damaged or what was out of place. Both Pete and myself did enter the location at that point. We were escorted by somebody, somebody investigating, or crime scene—We weren’t allowed to touch anything. The door was opened for us. We weren’t allowed to touch anything in relation to the counter or anything. But I believe that there was some blood near the door, we were asked to walk around that. We did walk through that door pass-through area to the back counter area. I remember both of us standing there looking, and they were asking us for information as to what was taken or what did we visually see, could anything be out of place. . . . [T]hey wanted an idea how much money was taken, because there was money on the floor. There was rolls of change, and actually money on the floor. If I’m not mistaken there was still money in the cash drawer. . . . They wanted to know the value of what was taken. Could we determine, that night, what was taken?

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:16:40–17:18:38 (“We were escorted in by a police officer, investigating officer, detective, crime scene investigator, somebody. It was either one or two individuals. . . . We were told not to touch anything. We didn’t touch the door handle, they did that for us. . . . We were asked to go around the blood and go behind the counter area. They wanted us to visually look and see if anything was missing or out of place. There was a lot out of place . . .”; “approximately 15 minutes” had “elapsed between the departure of the patrol car with the suspect in the back [seat] and [Stange’s] entry into the store”); Tamara Theiss’s Notes on Interview with Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases (Feb. 27, 2005) at 2:

As the lead investigator, my first responsibility was to secure the crime scene. I think I responded around 7 p.m. [sic] to the scene, and it took me at least three hours to process everything [sic]. I had to do everything myself. Back then, we didn’t have any crime scene technicians or equipment. The responding investigator had to do everything on his or her own. I remember that all we had was a little kit we carried around in the trunks of our cars. We didn’t have any police tape to secure the scenes. We just had to yell at people to stay back and not step on our crime scenes. I think I had the help of a fingerprint technician, but no one else.

Crime Scene Photograph 25500022, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the view from outside of store, including the glass front and partly brick west side of the store; Baker’s Cougar is in the foreground); Crime Scene Photograph 25500033, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (providing a close-up view of the glass front of the store with signs and merchandise obstructing the view in and out; the bloody doorway and sidewalk are in the foreground); Crime Scene Photograph 25500034, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (providing a wider angle view of the front of the store from beyond the gas pumps; in front of the store, Wanda Lopez is about to be placed on a gurney).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500014, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500021, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Supplementary Report (Feb. 5, 1983) (“The checkout counter is approximately 18” wide and approximately 71 in length, there is a lift top counter, and this is approximately 25” in width [length].”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:42:25–15:43:43 (“The counter was 4, 5 feet long . . . There was a flap door, or we had a counter door that closed.”).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500026, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500037, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Diagram, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (undated) (showing the storage room jutting out from the gas station) (reprinted infra as Figure 4.4); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:42:25–15:43:43 (“The counter was 4, 5 feet long, then there was a back room behind us [i.e., behind the store clerks, when they were facing the customers], directly opposite the window. There was a flap door, or we had a counter door that closed.”).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500014, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500021, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500003, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 255000021, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Supplementary Report (Feb. 5, 1983) at 2 (“I observed a roll-about stool, black and gray in color, the chair had roller casters on it, was pulled out in front of the check out counter, it was closer to the coolers, between the coolers and a baseball cap display. The victim’s multicolored sweater, was still hanging on the stool. I later learned that the chair is always supposed to be behind the counter.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:23:37–16:26:16; see Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:16:40–17:17:40, 17:24:20 (“We did walk through that door pass-through area to the back counter area. I remember both of us standing there looking, and they were asking us for information as to what was taken or what did we visually see, could anything be out of place.”; “[T]hey wanted an idea how much money was taken, because there was money on the floor . . . .”; “We were asked to go around the blood and go behind the counter area. They wanted us to visually look and see if anything was missing or out of place. There was a lot out of place . . . .”; “[W]e were escorted in to take a look behind the counter . . . .”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:23:37–16:26:16; see Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:16:40–17:17:40, 17:24:20 (“We did walk through that door pass-through area to the back counter area. I remember both of us standing there looking, and they were asking us for information as to what was taken or what did we visually see, could anything be out of place.”; “[T]hey wanted an idea how much money was taken, because there was money on the floor . . . .”; “We were asked to go around the blood and go behind the counter area. They wanted us to visually look and see if anything was missing or out of place. There was a lot out of place . . . .”; “[W]e were escorted in to take a look behind the counter . . . .”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:54:30–16:55:40, 16:56:10–16:58:45:

There was blood. . . . There was blood behind the counter, on the counter, by the windows, by the flap counter. There was droplets on the door frame, on the glass. I believe there were handprints on the glass above the cash area, like she was trying to get somebody’s attention, I believe. Not only drops. . . . There was a considerable amount of blood, because I do recall having to clean it up and wipe everything that had blood on it. . . .There was blood behind the counter. The area behind the counter, in particular, was in disarray as if a struggle had taken place. There were objects, there was something on the floor that was out of place, like it had been tossed there. . . . I know there was blood on the counter, behind the counter, on the cash drawer. I seem to remember a hand print or multiple hand prints on the glass that would have been right in front of her, right below the cash register where she would have looked out towards the pumps. There was a handprint or there was two handprints.

See Tamara Theiss’s Notes on Interview with Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases (Feb. 27, 2005) at 2 (“I remember coming into the gas station. Ms. Lopez was already being treated by the emergency response people. She couldn’t talk to anyone. She had been stabbed over and over again [sic—there was only one stab wound]. I remember that there was blood everywhere inside the gas station.”).

See, e.g., Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:42:25–15:43:43, 17:16:40–17:17:40, 16:39:50–16:40:30 (“The counter was 4, 5 feet long, then there was a back room behind us, directly opposite the window. There was a flap door, or we had a counter door that closed. It was to remain closed. The gentleman . . . jumped over the counter, the counter was closed, and he was in the back area with Wanda.”; “The scene . . . was in disarray. Behind the counter area . . ., there was certainly a struggle… the individual has come over the counter and the area behind the counter is in disarray. It’s not just disorganized; there’s been a good struggle behind the counter.”); see also Stange’s other descriptions of the scene, supra notes 8, 36, 45; infra notes 50, 56, 81–95, 114, 115. The description that follows is based partly on Stange’s account in his videotaped interview and partly on police photographs and reports describing the scene he surveyed when Detective Escobedo brought him into the store.

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500026, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the back of the cigarette case seen from inside the clerk’s area, with Winston, Marlboro and Camel packs visible); Crime Scene Photograph 25500009, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing view from inside the clerk’s area behind the counter of the Winston pack on the counter, sales tax chart, adding machine, and Tootsie Roll Valentine’s Day display); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (same); Crime Scene Photograph 25500021, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (same, but shot using a wider angle from the customer’s side of the counter); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (providing a view of the Winston pack and adding machine from inside the clerk’s area).

See Crime Scene Photograph 2550004, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the generic cigarettes inside the door near the window); Crime Scene Photograph 2550006, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the brand-name cigarette case); Crime Scene Photograph 25500021, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the Pepsi cases near the door, the rack of hats for sale, and the cigarette case); Crime Scene Photograph 25500024, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the Pepsi cases and generic cigarettes near the doorway); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the Pepsi cases and generic cigarettes near the doorway and the name-brand cigarette case on the clerk’s counter); Crime Scene Photograph 25500033, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the Pepsi cases and generic cigarettes near the door); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the rack of hats for sale, with the clerk’s chair on rollers pushed into it).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500006, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the black telephone below the counter, the white console to control the pumps, and the black metal cash drawer); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing a wider perspective of the black metal cash drawer and gas pump console); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the corner of the counter, with the black telephone underneath, the gas pump console above and to the right, and the cash drawer further to the right); Crime Scene Photograph 25500031, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing the area below the counter and below the shelf underneath the front window, including the telephone and metal cash drawer); see also supra Chapter 1, notes 7–10 and accompanying text; infra Figure 4.2.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:36:15–16:37:50, 16:39:50–16:40:30, 16:53:33–16:54:30, 16:56:10–16:58:45, 17:16:40–17:17:40 (“The scene . . . was in disarray. Behind the counter area . . . there was certainly a struggle . . . the individual has come over the counter and the area behind the counter is in disarray. It’s not just disorganized; there’s been a good struggle behind the counter.”; “The area behind the counter was like a struggle had taken place. . . . I believe there was stuff scattered behind the counter, like it had been thrown or rampaged through. It was just items in disarray.”; “The area behind the counter, in particular, was in disarray as if a struggle had taken place. There were objects, there was something on the floor that was out of place, like it had been tossed there.”; “We were asked to go around the blood and go behind the counter area. They wanted us to visually look and see if anything was missing or out of place. There was a lot out of place . . . .”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:42:25–15:43:43, 16:39:50–16:40:30, 17:34:32–17:36:23 (describing his reconstruction of events: “[T]the individual has come over the counter . . . .”; “The counter was 4, 5 feet long, then there was a back room behind us, directly opposite the window. There was a flap door, or we had a counter door that closed. It was to remain closed. The gentleman . . . jumped over the counter, the counter was closed, and he was in the back area with Wanda.”; “He hopped over the counter, a struggle, and he killed her, ultimately.”).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500009, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500006, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500016, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500031, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500006, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500031, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005), at 17:21:05–17:22:08:

If someone was to come in and want to ask or tell her that “This is a robbery, I want your money,” she wouldn’t take that as a joke. She would just hand them the money, or she would just hand them the whole cash drawer, on top of the counter and say, “Take it, just take it, leave.” She wouldn’t try to struggle with anybody or put up a fight. She’s trying to raise her daughter. She wanted to do her job and go home. She would just give them the money. I’m sure of it, without a doubt. I’m sure we discussed it. In a joking manner, she said, “I’ll just give them the whole thing.” I hate to say it like this, but I know we joked about it. “Just give it to them, whatever it is.”

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:20:42–17:21:05, 17:22:12–17:22:35 (“No doubt. She would have given . . . absolutely, she would have given them” the money; noting that Wanda’s daughter “was the thing that drove her—She wanted a better life for her daughter than she’d gotten at that point. It was all about her daughter.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:52:20–16:58:45:

After she’d been stabbed, there was handprints or there was blood handprints on the cash drawer, just as if, after she’d been stabbed—and that’s why I say it didn’t look like a robbery—because after she’d been stabbed it’s like she tried to give him the cash. It wasn’t about the cash . . . . I remember seeing money in the cash drawer . . . [and] some bills or change on the counter, like she tried to give this to him on the counter, and it was just totally passed over. There was bills on the floor like she’d taken it . . . . There was money everywhere like it wasn’t a robbery, like she tried to force the money on the perpetrator. But it wasn’t about money; it was about something else, because he didn’t take it. . . . [S]he had handprints . . . the cash drawer was open, or she had opened it later, after she had been stabbed. That’s why I still contend it wasn’t about a robbery.

The blood on the cash drawer (which could also, possibly, be a handprint) is visible in several photographs: Crime Scene Photograph 2550006, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500031, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983). See also Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Supplementary Report (Feb. 5, 1983) at 3 (“The cash register tray, which as mentioned before was pulled out, two five dollar bills laid across the area where the coins are deposited and kept separate from each other. I observed that the coins were still in their respective slots in the tray.”).

See supra note 56.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:54:30–16:58:45:

[T]here were handprints on the glass above the cash area, like she was trying to get somebody’s attention . . . [There was] a hand print or multiple hand prints on the glass that would have been right in front of her, right [above] the cash register where she would have looked out towards the pumps. There was a handprint or there was two handprints . . . There was blood. . . . There was blood behind the counter, on the counter, by the windows, by the flap counter. There was droplets on the door frame, on the glass. I believe there were handprints on the glass above the cash area, like she was trying to get somebody’s attention, I believe. Not only drops. . . . There was a considerable amount of blood, because I do recall having to clean it up and wipe everything that had blood on it. . . . There was blood behind the counter. The area behind the counter, in particular, was in disarray as if a struggle had taken place. There were objects, there was something on the floor that was out of place, like it had been tossed there. I seem to recall . . . I know there was blood on the counter, behind the counter, on the cash drawer. I seem to remember a hand print or multiple hand prints on the glass that would have been right in front of her, right below the cash register where she would have looked out towards the pumps. There was a handprint or there was two handprints.

Crime Scene Photograph 25500001, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500002, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500016, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500017, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500018, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500027, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500031, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Steven Fowler, Corpus Christi Police Sergeant, Supplementary Report (Feb. 4, 1983) at 1 (“I was notified by Sgt. Escobedo . . . that a weapon had been recovered inside the store itself. The weapon was also taken in by Sgt. Escobedo.”; filling in the box on the form for “weapon” with the words, “large folding knife”; attaching a diagram of the scene, which indicates that the knife was “found under cash drawer by Sgt. Escobedo” and locates the knife on the floor along the south wall of the cashier’s area); Joel Infante, Corpus Christi Police Identification Technician, Field Investigation Report (February 4, 1983) at 5–6 (documenting discovery of a stainless steel “Pakistan” lock-blade knife with “some type of congealed body tissue, fatty substance” on it: “A knife and a pack of Winstons cigarettes were first photographed where found. After the photos were taken the items were processed for latent prints.”); Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Supplementary Report (Feb. 5, 1983) (noting that “[a] stainless steel lockblade knife was also found on the floor, near the left hand side of the safe, near where the penny and penny wrapper were found. This knife was also processed for prints by Sgt. Infante, however with negative results. . . . [T]he knife did have some type of substance on it, it appeared to be some type of body tissue substance, it resembled some type of fatty type substance, it was clear in color and appeared to have congeled [sic] in areas”; including in list of evidence seized at the scene a “stainless steel lockblade knife, [b]rown wood handle with gold colored tips on either side of the wood handle, ‘Pakistan’ brand has some type of matter—possible body tissue substance on it. Found underneath the opened cash tray, knife was on the floor next to the side of the store safe.”); Joel Infante, Corpus Christi Police Identification Technician, Trial Test., Texas v. DeLuna, No. 83-CR–194-A (Nueces Cty., 28th Dist. Tex. July 18, 1983) at 204:

Q. Let me show you what’s marked as State’s Exhibit Number 30 . . . and ask you if you have ever seen a knife the same or similar to that one? A. Yes, sir, I did. Q. Is that similar to the knife that you examined out there at Sigmore Station that night? A. It’s very similar. Q. Is it similar to the one that you were unable to get prints off out there? A. Yes, sir. Q. Why were you unable to get prints off that knife, if you can tell us? A. The—the blade of the knife was—was very wet, it had some kind of substance on it, blood and some kind of pulp or something that came out from—the rest of it . . . .

See also Joel Infante, Corpus Christi Police Identification Technician, Trial Test., Texas v. DeLuna, No. 83-CR–194-A (Nueces Cty., 28th Dist. Tex. July 18, 1983) at 203–05 (describing the knife and the blood and flesh on it).

Allan Bayle, Draft Statement on Handling of Shamrock Gas Station Crime Scene (Nov. 8, 2004) (concluding that “the knife probably remained in [Wanda Lopez’s] body [when she was stabbed] and she possibly pulled the knife out herself,” with “fatal consequences” because “the blood started to flow more” and because the floor became slippery.”); see Allan Bayle—Training and Experience, Independent Fingerprint Expert Website, http://onin.com/ukridges/#Training (last visited May 12, 2012) (describing Bayle’s background in Forensic Science since joining the Metropolitan Police Service at New Scotland Yard in 1975 as a fingerprint officer; noting that Bayle has “successfully completed advanced fingerprint courses and [has] become a recognized expert since 1981” and has lectured at Scientific Support College for the Metropolitan Police Training Establishment; also noting that Bayle has been “employed as an independent consultant and adviser on all fingerprint and forensic scene examination matters”). Archived at: http://perma.cc/P8AR-7LHF.

Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500008, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

Bruno Mejia, Corpus Christi Police Officer, Supplementary Report (Feb. 4, 1983) at 1–2 (“Mr. Baker . . . advised me that, as he was getting ready to pump gas into his car, he saw the clerk inside the store struggling with a Hispanic male . . . . Mr. Baker advised me that he then observed the subject attempt to carry the clerk into the back room of the store. . . . As he [Baker] neared the [back room] door, Mr. Baker advised that the subject released the girl and walked out of the store.”); Kevan Baker, Eyewitness to Attack on Wanda Lopez, Trial Test., Texas v. DeLuna, No. 83-CR–194-A (Nueces Cty., 28th Dist. Tex. July 18, 1983) at 267–68:

Q. And what did you see? A. I saw a man and a woman fighting. Q. Now, when you saw them fighting, how were they fighting? Were they sitting there duking it out or what? A. No he was pulling her hair and I thought they were playing at first, that was my first impression, boyfriend/girlfriend. Q. And was there anything to change your mind about that? A. Yeah, the longer—longer I stood there, the more seconds I stood there, I realized they weren’t playing. Q. Did either one of them appear to be trying to accomplish some aim? A. Yes, the gentleman was trying to—definitely pulling the lady by the hair, trying to—apparently pull her through the door into the rear [room] of the store.

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500008, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500015, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500008, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Supplementary Report (Feb. 5, 1983):

I saw that there was a trail of blood, and foot prints in blood, leading from behind the counter, heading toward the door, this trail of blood was approximately 132½” from the door edge to the lower right hand corner of the counter, it varied in width from 14” to 19” in different locations along the way. The trail led back behind the check out counter where the whole area was in total disarray and more blood was found in the area.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:36:15–16:37:50, 16:39:50–16:40:30, 16:53:33–16:54:30, 16:56:10–16:58:45, 17:16:40–17:17:40 (“The scene . . . was in disarray. Behind the counter area . . . there was certainly a struggle”; “[T]he individual has come over the counter and the area behind the counter is in disarray. It’s not just disorganized; there’s been a good struggle behind the counter.”; “[T]he area behind the counter was like a struggle had taken place. . . . I believe there was stuff scattered behind the counter, like it had been thrown or rampaged through. It was just items in disarray”; “The area behind the counter, in particular, was in disarray as if a struggle had taken place. There were objects, there was something on the floor that was out of place, like it had been tossed there.”; “We were asked to go around the blood and go behind the counter area. They wanted us to visually look and see if anything was missing or out of place. There was a lot out of place . . . .”).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500037, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500008, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500015, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500037, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Tamara Theiss’s Notes on Interview with Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases (Feb. 27, 2005) at 2:

I remember coming into the gas station. Ms. Lopez was already being treated by the emergency response people. She couldn’t talk to anyone. She had been stabbed over and over again [sic—there was only one stab wound]. I remember that there was blood everywhere inside the gas station. You could tell from all the blood that DeLuna had grabbed Ms. Lopez and dragged her over from behind the counter to where the coolers were . . . .

Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Diagram, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (reproduced supra Chapter 3, Figure 3.1).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500008, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500037 Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500037, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500037, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500008, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500037, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500038, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500011, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500037, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500014, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500028, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500030, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); see also Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500008, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (showing partial second print behind the full print in the passageway).

See Crime Scene Photograph 25500003, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500004, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500012, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500014, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500020, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500021, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983).

See infra notes 81–90.

Crime Scene Photograph 25500005, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500006, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500007, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500013, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500016, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500019, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500031, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Kevan Baker, Eyewitness to Attack on Wanda Lopez, Trial Test., Texas v. DeLuna, No. 83-CR–194-A (Nueces Cty., 28th Dist. Tex. July 18, 1983) at 284:

Q. Okay. When you walked inside the [store to get something to stanch Wanda’s bleeding], did you notice anything? A. I noticed blood and money and stuff all over the place is the best way to put it. Q. Did you notice money all over the place? A. Yes, sir, that’s the best way to put it. Q. Was it on the floor or counter or— A. Well, I guess my impression of all over the place was on the floor, and blood. Q. So, when you’re talking about money, you’re talking about bills rather than change? A. Yes, sir, bills and paper towels and blood.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:25:40–16:28:14, 16:29:08–16:29:55, 16:34:50–16:35:49, 16:39:50–16:40:30, 16:52:20–16:53:24, 16:59:27–17:01:30, 17:34:32–17:36:23 (describing the scene behind the counter: “There was rolls of change, and actually money on the floor. If I’m not mistaken there was still money in the cash drawer”; “[T]here was some money on the counter—change or bills—there was money on the floor. I do recall there being bills on the floor”; “[T]here were certainly bills that had obviously come out of the cash drawer that were available and were not taken . . . .”; “[T]he money was not all taken. It was scattered around the store . . . .”; “[T]here’s money laying around in the area behind the counter . . . .”; “I remember seeing money in the cash drawer . . . [and] some bills or change on the counter, like she tried to give this to him on the counter, and it was just totally passed over. There was bills [sic] on the floor like she’d taken it and . . . There was money everywhere like it wasn’t a robbery, like she tried to force the money on the perpetrator. But it wasn’t about money; it was about something else, because he didn’t take it.”; “The cash was available. It was there.”; “And you could see that she tried to give it to him, and it just wasn’t a robbery.”; “[W]e couldn’t determine that anything cash-wise had been taken because [of] the money there on the floor, it was on the register, it was on the counter, it was everywhere.”).

See Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Trial Test., Texas v. DeLuna, No. 83-CR–194-A (Nueces Cty., 28th Dist. Tex. July 18, 1983) at 302–04 (describing the crime scene as the lead detective found it: “The keys to the safe are still in the door [to the safe].”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:29:08–16:29:55, 16:48:20–16:48:40 (referring to bills on the floor that “had obviously come out of the cash drawer that were available and were not taken” and noting that neither the key safe nor the drop safe were tampered with during the robbery); see also Crime Scene Photograph 25500010, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500031, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983); Crime Scene Photograph 25500036, Corpus Christi Police Dep’t (Feb. 4, 1983) (all showing the drop-slot and key safe, with no signs of entry or tampering).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:28:14–6:29:55:

Even when Pete and I evaluated the scene. I remember the district manager coming over, Jim Manning, I remember him coming over. He stopped by, and he said, “What happened? Was it a robbery?” Pete and I are looking around, we’re seeing money on the floor, very easily accessible. I believe there was money in the cash drawer. We couldn’t understand that it was a robbery, because it wasn’t, because the money was still there. There was still money there . . . . I remember being confused, because everybody—I say everybody, the police—before they left, said that it was a robbery. We were discussing it outside as a robbery and something going wrong. But when we actually got into the location, I remember there being change on the floor. And I don’t remember the denominations, but there were certainly bills that had obviously come out of the cash drawer that were available and were not taken. So the strange thing is, if it was only a robbery, why was the money left? At some point it became a violent act.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:34:50–16:35:49:

There was something else involved. It wasn’t only my opinion at the time. Pete and I had discussed this . . . . And I remember conversations we had with other people. It just didn’t appear to be a robbery. There was something else that had taken place. It was investigated as a robbery, and it was a death, so that put it in as a capital offense. We were awestruck in that it just didn’t appear to be a robbery in what we’re used to seeing. When we’re used to seeing a robbery, they take the money. And in this case, the money was not all taken. It was scattered around the store, and that’s not a robbery.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:36:15–16:37:50:

I didn’t understand the aspect of being a robbery, because there was still cash. That part just did not make any sense. It just looked—The scene, it was in disarray. Behind the counter area, if I remember it correctly, there was certainly a struggle, and that’s why I had said earlier that it looked like it was anger. Because it just appeared to be more violent that just a robbery. You just ask for the money and get it. In this particular case, if you look back at the witness [Baker], from what he saw, or what I remember him saying, there was a close encounter with the perpetrator. It looked like they were together at some point. To me, it just did not sound like a robbery. It sounded more along the lines of just an act of anger or violence. I didn’t know, and I still don’t know, what it was really all about.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:39:50–16:40:30, 16:53:24–16:54–30, 16:56:10–16:58–45:

When you enter the crime scene and the cash drawer is open and there’s money laying around in the area behind the counter[,] . . . the individual has come over the counter and the area behind the counter is in disarray. It’s not just disorganized; there’s been a good struggle behind the counter. It doesn’t have an appearance of just a robbery. . . . After she’d been stabbed, there was handprints or there was blood handprints on the cash drawer, just as if, after she’d been stabbed—and that’s why I say it didn’t look like a robbery—because after she’d been stabbed it’s like she tried to give him the cash. It wasn’t about the cash because of that. As I recall now, she had handprints . . . the cash drawer was open, or she had opened it later, after she had been stabbed. That’s why I still contend that it wasn’t about a robbery.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:12:43–17:13:19, 17:34:32–17:36:23, 17:38:00–end:

Ok, there’s money scattered around, but you can’t determine that anything was really taken, so how can that portion be a capital offense when you’re not sure it’s anything other than just a killing? . . . [W]e couldn’t determine that anything cash-wise had been taken because [of] the money there on the floor, it was on the register, it was on the counter, it was everywhere. But he should have taken it. He hopped over the counter, a struggle, and he killed her, ultimately. And what part of that was a robbery? . . . [I]t kind of looked like a robbery, only because the drawer was open, which she would have opened and tried to give him or something. It may have looked like a robbery, but I just don’t believe it was.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:39:50–16:40:30 (“When you enter the crime scene and the cash drawer is open and there’s money laying around and the area behind the counter[,] . . . the individual has come over the counter and the area behind the counter is in disarray. It’s not just disorganized; there’s been a good struggle behind the counter. It doesn’t have an appearance of just a robbery”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:56:10–17:01:30:

After she’d been stabbed, there was hand prints or there was blood handprints on the cash drawer, just as if, after she’d been stabbed—and that’s why I say it didn’t look like a robbery—because after she’d been stabbed it’s like she tried to give him the cash. It wasn’t about the cash. . . . But in the final end, when Pete and I were looking at it, “You’ve got to be kidding.” For 20 dollars, for the minimal amount of money that it was, it wasn’t a robbery. The cash was available. It was there. And you could see that she tried to give it to him, and it just wasn’t a robbery. And that’s why I [said] earlier that it’s not about a robbery.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:34:32–17:36:23, 17:38:00–end of tape (“[W]e couldn’t determine that anything cash-wise had been taken because [of] the money there on the floor, it was on the register, it was on the counter, it was everywhere. But he should have taken it. He hopped over the counter, a struggle, and he killed her, ultimately. And what part of that was a robbery?”; “[I]t kind of looked like a robbery, only because the drawer was open, which she would have opened and tried to give him or something”).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:52:20–16:58:45:

After she’d been stabbed, there was handprints or there was blood handprints on the cash drawer, just as if, after she’d been stabbed—and that’s why I say it didn’t look like a robbery—because after she’d been stabbed it’s like she tried to give him the cash. It wasn’t about the cash . . . . I remember seeing money in the cash drawer . . .[and] some bills or change on the counter, like she tried to give this to him on the counter, and it was just totally passed over. There was bills on the floor like she’d taken it and . . . There was money everywhere like it wasn’t a robbery, like she tried to force the money on the perpetrator. But it wasn’t about money; it was about something else, because he didn’t take it. . . . [S]he had handprints . . . [and] the cash drawer was open, or she had opened it later, after she had been stabbed. That’s why I still contend it wasn’t about a robbery.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:26:16–16:28:14, 16:29:08–16:29:55, 16:34:50–16:35:49 (“If you come in to rob somebody, you’re going to take all the money. At some point, that changed, because money was still there. It wasn’t about the money.”; “So the strange thing is, if it was only a robbery why was the money left? At some point it became a violent act.”; “There was something else involved. It wasn’t only my opinion at the time. Pete and I had discussed this . . . . And I remember conversations we had with other people. It just didn’t appear to be a robbery. There was something else that had taken place.”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:36:15–16:37:50:

It just looked—The scene, it was in disarray. Behind the counter area . . . there was certainly a struggle, and that’s why I had said earlier that it looked like it was anger. Because it just appeared to be more violent than just a robbery. [In a robbery], you just ask for the money and get it. In this particular case, if you look back at the witness [Baker], from what he saw, or what I remember him saying, there was a close encounter with the perpetrator. It looked like they were together at some point. To me, it just did not sound like a robbery. It sounded more along the lines of just an act of anger or violence.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:52:20–16:53:24 (“I remember seeing money in the cash drawer . . . [and] some bills or change on the counter, like she tried to give this to him on the counter, and it was just totally passed over. There was bills on the floor like she’d taken it and . . . There was money everywhere like it wasn’t a robbery, like she tried to force the money on the perpetrator. But it wasn’t about money; it was about something else, because he didn’t take it.”); see also Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:38:00–end (“[I]t kind of looked like a robbery, only because the drawer was open, which she would have opened and tried to give him or something. It may have looked like a robbery, but I just don’t believe it was.”).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:33:05–17:34:32) (“There was always speculation: through the neighborhood, rumor. Nothing really concrete.”).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:34:50–16:35:49 (“There was something else involved. It wasn’t only my opinion at the time. Pete and I had discussed this. . . . And I remember conversations he had with other people. It just didn’t appear to be a robbery. There was something else that had taken place.”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005), at 17:33:05–17:36:35:

There was always speculation: through the neighborhood, rumor. Nothing really concrete. Was it even investigated? I don’t believe it was. Her husband, or ex-husband, the same man who fathered the child, had spent either time in jail, county jail, prison, something. . . And he had supposedly made statements that he was going to get Wanda, that he would never let her go. And supposedly there was a connection with the Mexican mafia, in relation to the perpetrator and to her husband through a jail contact. And that the killing was revenge for her husband, or ex-husband . . . That’s what speculation was. And it was always in question whether the police ever even looked into that fact. . . . [W]e couldn’t determine that anything cash-wise had been taken . . . [b]ecause [of] the money there on the floor, it was on the register, it was on the counter, it was everywhere. But he should have taken it. He hopped over the counter, a struggle, and he killed her, ultimately. And what part of that was a robbery? . . . And we’re probably never going [to] know what that connection was, or if there was one.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:36:15–16:37:50 (“[T]hat’s why I had said earlier that it looked like it was anger. . . . It looked like they were together at some point. To me, it just did not sound like a robbery. It sounded more along the lines of just an act of anger or violence. I didn’t know, and I still don’t know, what it was really all about.”).

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:34:50–16:35:49:

There was something else involved. It wasn’t only my opinion at the time. Pete and I had discussed this . . . . And I remember conversations we had with other people. It just didn’t appear to be a robbery. There was something else that had taken place. . . . [W]e couldn’t determine that anything cash-wise had been taken because [of] the money there on the floor, it was on the register, it was on the counter, it was everywhere. But he should have taken it. He hopped over the counter, a struggle, and he killed her, ultimately. And what part of that was a robbery?

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:33:05–17:36:35:

There was always speculation: through the neighborhood, rumor. Nothing really concrete. Was it even investigated? I don’t believe it was. Her husband, or ex-husband, the same man who fathered the child, had spent either time in jail, county jail, prison, something. . . And he had supposedly made statements that he was going to get Wanda, that he would never let her go. And supposedly there was a connection with the Mexican mafia, in relation to the perpetrator and to her husband through a jail contact. And that the killing was revenge for her husband, or ex-husband . . . That’s what speculation was. And it was always in question whether the police ever even looked into that fact. . . . [W]e couldn’t determine that anything cash-wise had been taken . . . [b]ecause [of] the money there on the floor, it was on the register, it was on the counter, it was everywhere. But he should have taken it. He hopped over the counter, a struggle, and he killed her, ultimately. And what part of that was a robbery? . . . And we’re probably never going [to] know what that connection was, or if there was one.

See also Transcribed Videotape Interview with Becky Nesmith, Cousin of Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi, Texas (Dec. 8, 2004) at 04:56:27–04:59:12:

They [Becky’s parents] knew that we [she and Wanda] always went out together riding and things like that. . . . They didn’t want me to be spending so much time with her. She [Wanda] was older, and I was separated, and she had a lot of friends, and they didn’t want me to fall into that category, to have a bunch of friends, male friends like she did. So . . . they loved her, but they just didn’t want me to have many friends like she did. So I was discouraged at the time, right before her death, not to spend so much time together . . . . [S]he did have a lot of male friends. And she was single, so she’d come and go as she pleased, and my father and my brother didn’t want me to walk in those same shoes. . . . She . . . would go to nightclubs, but I wasn’t old enough at the time.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Becky Nesmith, Cousin of Wanda Lopez in Corpus Christi, Texas (Dec. 8, 2004) at 05:00:03–05:05:05:

It was rare that we [Wanda and Becky] went somewhere else, other than just our house, her house maybe, her parents’ house, or my house. There was an occasion where Wanda and I ended up at some friend of hers. I want to say it was maybe a mobile home. I don’t remember any houses next to it. It seemed like maybe it was on a piece of land by itself, maybe. And there was friends, I assume they were friends of hers, or friends of the male friend she was with. And they were older than I was. I was still a teenager, and I felt uncomfortable being there. So Wanda’s friend, I don’t know who he was, I don’t remember, but he took us out of there and we left. . . . [T]there were a lot of people . . . and drinking. I just didn’t feel comfortable with the older crowd and, although I did drink, it just didn’t feel right.

Sita Sovin & Lauren Eskenazi’s Notes on Interview with Becky Nesmith, Cousin of Wanda Lopez (Oct. 26, 2004) at 3 (“Once Becky went to Port L[o]vaca with Wanda and her boyfriend to a party. It was in a trailer and there were lots of people there ‘partying.’ It made Becky feel very uncomfortable. It was a tough crowd.”); Bruce Whitman’s Notes on Interview with Becky and Jesse Nesmith, Cousins of Wanda Lopez (Sept. 28, 2004) at 1–2:

In 1982 Becky and Wanda started “hanging out” together. Wanda was not married at the time and had a daughter about the same age as Becky’s daughter. Becky was born in 1964. Wanda was 7–8 years older than Becky but they both had children about the same age and both had a history of bad relationships with men. These shared characteristics brought them together and served as the foundation for their friendship. Becky and Wanda hung out together and shared their problems with one another. Becky’s father owned a duplex and lived in one side of it. Becky rented the other side of the duplex and Wanda often visited her there. Sometimes they bought liquor and mixer and drank while they “cruised Ayers [Street]” visiting and talking about their problems. . . . Soon Becky’s father and older brother took Becky aside and told her that she should stop hanging out with Wanda.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:26:24–17:27:44 (“You know, I believe I met [the man Wanda was dating]. I remember the funeral . . . . Somebody was standing, a male figure, and that might have been her boyfriend, but I don’t know.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005), at 17:33:05–17:36:35:

There was always speculation: through the neighborhood, rumor. Nothing really concrete. Was it even investigated? I don’t believe it was. Her husband, or ex-husband, the same man who fathered the child, had spent either time in jail, county jail, prison, something. . . And he had supposedly made statements that he was going to get Wanda, that he would never let her go. And supposedly there was a connection with the Mexican mafia, in relation to the perpetrator and to her husband through a jail contact. And that the killing was revenge for her husband, or ex-husband . . . That’s what speculation was. And it was always in question whether the police ever even looked into that fact. . . . But he spent some time across the street watching her and waiting for an opportunity to come in. All that, plus the fact that we couldn’t determine that anything cash-wise had been taken . . . [b]ecause [of] the money there on the floor, it was on the register, it was on the counter, it was everywhere. But he should have taken it. He hopped over the counter, a struggle, and he killed her, ultimately. And what part of that was a robbery? . . . And we’re probably never going [to] know what that connection was, or if there was one.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:33:05–17:36:35.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:23:37–16:25:40, 16:25:40–16:26:16, 16:26:16–16:28:14, 17:34:32–17:36:23 (“Before they totally finished, they wanted an idea how much money was taken, because there was money on the floor. There was rolls of change, and actually money on the floor. If I’m not mistaken there was still money in the cash drawer.”; “They wanted to know the value of what was taken. Could we determine, that night, what was taken? And I don’t believe we could determine what was taken, not while the police were there. We had to perform an inventory of the store to determine how much cash, merchandise was actually missing.”; “[W]e couldn’t determine that anything cash-wise had been taken because [of] the money there on the floor, it was on the register, it was on the counter, it was everywhere.”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:24:20–17:26:10 (discussing the “very short period of time after” Stange and Gonzalez were asked to view the inside of the store to see what was missing and before the police turned the store back over to them for good while they waited “by ourselves” outside).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:59:27–17:01:30 (“From the time the robbery happened and the police arrived . . . the store was closed. We remained closed all night. Inventory was done that evening.”).

Shamrock Inventory “Re-check” Photo P2170097, Vargas v. Diamond Shamrock, No. 84–4951-D, 86–5900-D (Nueces Cty., 105th Dist. Tex. Feb. 5, 1983); Diamond Shamrock Station Sigmor #47, Consolidated Operating Report (Feb. 4–5, 1983) (reporting total cash at end of that day as $1,655.27; total credit cards as $1,095.30; total receipts paid out as $292.76; total inside business of day as $449.96; regular gas sales as $1,066.86; unleaded gas sales as $10,001.95); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:30:12–16:32:14 (“Everything [in an inventory] was done by a physical count. It was a time when there wasn’t a thousand items in the store. It [the list of items] was 14 pages. And everything was done line by line: Miller Light, Coors, 6-packs. You tallied it up, you took in what you received, and then you got a quantity of each item. That included candy bars, spark plugs, oil filters, bags of ice, everything.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:30:12–16:32:14:

We did inventory that location. The police have gone, the police have left. They left us in charge of the location at that point. They’ve released the location back to us. I remember Jim Manning showing up at that time. He was the district manager, and he’s trying to ascertain what had happened. We know Wanda’s not there, and we have to ascertain how much money was taken. There was blood on the counter, the floor, the rug, the windows, it was everywhere. But the overriding thought was Wanda, so Pete and Jim left for the hospital. They each had a car but they took one vehicle. I was asked to ascertain how much money was taken. It was difficult to tell, because at the time we didn’t use cash registers, we just used a cash drawer. We used a calculator and a tax chart to figure up what people bought. We knew what the [gas] pumps were. . . . After they came back from the hospital and said that she didn’t make it, and that they needed to go back to the office and do paperwork and make contacts, they needed to know the amount of loss. . . . Pump readings were taken . . . . Everything was done by a physical count. It was a time when there wasn’t a thousand items in the store. It [the list of items in the store] was 14 pages. And everything was done line by line: Miller Light, Coors, 6-packs. You tallied it up, you took in what you received, and then you got a quantity of each item. That included candy bars, spark plugs, oil filters, bags of ice, everything.

See Diamond Shamrock Station Sigmor #47, Consolidated Operating Report (Feb. 4–5, 1983) at 4.

See Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:30:12.

See Sita Sovin & Lauren Eskenazi’s Notes on Interview with Joe Hinajosa, Former Assistant Manager at the Sigmor Station (Oct. 25, 2004) at 2 (stating that he was the assistant manager whom Wanda Lopez replaced when he left and explaining why the inventory so often indicated that there was less merchandise and money than expected):

The cash register was constantly short. This was either because of gas drive offs; employees who took cokes etc.; employees who took cash (or credit cards). There was no machine which kept count of credit. Therefore, the purchases paid for with a credit card were tallied with an adding machine—not the cash register. Sometimes there were mistakes related to counting the money. For example, you might just ‘miss a bundle of 20s.’ Employees did not keep a drop sheet to record the amount of cash in the drop box on the floor. If the cash register was off more than $100—employees had to take a polygraph test.

Sita Sovin & Lauren Eskenazi’s Notes on Interview with Carmen Taylor, Former Employee of Shamrock Gas Station (Oct. 24, 2004) at 1, 2 (“People from Wolfy’s came into the station store to buy beer. Carmen had a couple of incidents where a couple of guys stole beer. . . . Carmen had a lot of ‘run offs’—where people did not pay.”); James S. Liebman’s Notes on Sita Sovin & Lauren Eskenazi’s Interview with Carmen Taylor, Former Employee of Shamrock Gas Station (Nov. 7, 2004) at 1 (noting that, at the Sigmor store on SPID, there was “always money taken by EEs [employees]” from the cash drawer).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 15:27:50–15:29:10, 16:32:14–end; see Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:33:10–16:34:20 (explaining the inventory process repeated once a week, “Everything was done by a physical count. It was a time when there wasn’t a thousand items in the store. It [the inventory sheet] was 14 pages. And everything was done line by line: Miller Light, Coors, 6-packs. You tallied it up, you took in what you received, and then you got a quantity of each item. That included candy bars, spark plugs, oil filters, bags of ice, everything.”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:33:10–16:34:20, 16:43:38–16:45:00:

We couldn’t determine a significant loss of cash at that point. So when it was all said done, we couldn’t determine that a substantial amount for a robbery—that is, a true robbery, when somebody takes all the money and runs. We couldn’t determine that there was an actual, physical robbery. There was some loss, but whether that was just accumulations of mistakes through clerks or whether merchandise didn’t actually come into the store from vendors was unknown]. There’s a certain percentage of that. We just could not come up with a true loss figure. . . . Discrepancies are not uncommon. People drive off with gas. The pumps, they register, and you know how much is missing. 10 dollars, 20 dollars, it’s not unusual. One drive off, or drive-away, they fill up. They don’t come in for five dollars. They fill up. And so [if] a 20 dollar [is] missing, it doesn’t constitute a robbery.

See Sita Sovin & Lauren Eskenazi’s Notes on Interview with Joe Hinajosa, Former Assistant Manager at the Sigmor Station (Oct. 25, 2004) at 2:

There was no machine [at the Sigmor station] that kept count of credit. Therefore, the purchases paid for with a credit card were tallied with an adding machine—not the cash register. Sometimes there were mistakes related to counting the money. For example, you might just “miss a bundle of 20s.” Employees did not keep a drop sheet to record the amount of cash in the drop box on the floor. If the cash register was off more than $100—employees had to take a polygraph test.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:30:12–16:32:14, 16:33:10–16:34:20 (“It was difficult to tell, because at the time we didn’t use cash registers, we just used a cash drawer. We used a calculator and a tax chart to figure up what people bought.”; “There was some loss, but whether that was just accumulations of mistakes through clerks or whether merchandise didn’t actually come into the store from vendors [was unknown]. There’s a certain percentage of that.”).

Steve Mills & Maurice Possley, The Secret that Wasn’t: Violent Felon Bragged that He Was Real Killer, Chi. Trib. June 27, 2006, available at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-06-27/news/0606270137_1_gas-station-stabbed-killing/3 (“At the request of the Tribune, Kevin Stevens, a DePaul University accounting professor, examined the inventory report prosecutors used at trial. Stevens, who coincidentally worked at a gas station while in college, concluded that the Sigmor’s bookkeeping system was too haphazard to be accurate. ‘They can’t know how much cash was missing,’ Stevens said, ‘because they can’t know how much cash was there.’”). Archived at: http://perma.cc/V2UA-TUMH.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:33:10–16:34:20, 7:06:48–17:07:40 (“There was some loss, but whether that was just accumulations of mistakes through clerks or whether merchandise didn’t actually come into the store from vendors [was unknown]. There’s a certain percentage of that. We just could not come up with a true loss figure . . . .”; “Was that an acceptable loss? Very easily.”).

Steve Mills & Maurice Possley, The Secret that Wasn’t: Violent Felon Bragged that He Was Real Killer, Chi. Trib., June 27, 2006, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-06-27/news/0606270137_1_gas-station-stabbed-killing/3:

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:52:05–16:52:20, 17:06:48–17:07:40, 17:08:04–17:09:10 (reporting Stange’s conclusion that little or “no money was taken because he compared the money in the drawer to receipts from that shift” and “that at most 20 dollars was missing, if that.”; “You know, I believe that the numbers through the inventory, even though I say there was no cash taken, for some reason, 134 dollars stands out in my mind [as the loss shown by the inventory; actually, the loss was $166.86]. Was that an acceptable loss? Very easily. But I say there was no money taken. . . . I did thousands of inventories during my ten years. I just don’t believe that the cash value that was taken at that time was over 40 or 44 dollars. That’s the best of my recollection, that’s what I believe.”; “I fully believe it [the amount taken by the perpetrator] was less than 20 dollars. Because there was just too much money around the location. . . . It was a large enough quantity that—why would this be left? . . . I don’t believe he left with more than a 20-dollar bill or two tens. I just don’t believe he ever actually took any cash. Was that ever asked of me by anybody in law enforcement? No.”). See also Steve Mills & Maurice Possley, The Secret that Wasn’t: Violent Felon Bragged that He Was Real Killer, Chi. Trib., June 27, 2006, available at http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-06-27/news/0606270137_1_gas-station-stabbed-killing/3. Archived at: http://perma.cc/V2UA-TUMH.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:26:16 (“They [the police officers] wanted to know the value of what was taken. Could we determine, that night, what was taken? And I don’t believe we could determine what was taken, not while the police were there. We had to perform an inventory of the store to determine how much cash, merchandise was actually missing.”); Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:24:20:

[W]e were asked to go behind the counter and look around and calculate, and we were asked to go back on the other side of the door. It was a very short period of time after that that we were by ourselves [waiting to go back in the store]. So it was relatively quick, [from] the time that the suspect left. Our first entry into the store—I say our first entry, that was when we were escorted in to take a look behind the counter, and we were asked to step back again—that whole time period, from the time that the perpetrator left, or the suspect, [until] we actually got the keys, it had to be less than 30 minutes. It had to be. Somewhere, maybe around 20.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:59:27–17:01:30, 17:08:04–17:09:10 (“But in the final end, when Pete and I were looking at it, ‘You’ve got to be kidding.’ For 20 dollars, for the minimal amount of money that it was, it wasn’t a robbery. The cash was available. It was there. And you could see that she tried to give it to him, and it just wasn’t a robbery. And that’s why I [said] earlier that it’s not about a robbery.”; “I just don’t believe he ever actually took any cash. Was that ever asked of me by anybody in law enforcement? No.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:28:14, 6:56:10–16:58:45 (“Even when Pete and I evaluated the scene. I remember the district manager coming over, Jim Manning, I remember him coming over. He stopped by, and he said, ‘What happened? Was it a robbery?’ Pete and I are looking around, we’re seeing money on the floor, very easily accessible. I believe there was money in the cash drawer. We couldn’t understand that it was a robbery, because it wasn’t, because the money was still there. There was still money there.”; “[I]t did not look like a robbery. Because when we described it to Jim Manning, the division manager—He had just come in to it and he was in overload. But we were telling him it just didn’t look right. It was scattered around, the money on the floor, and it just didn’t look like a robbery.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interviewwith Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:59:27–17:01:30, 17:08:94–17:09:10:

But in the final end, when Pete and I were looking at it, “You’ve got to be kidding.” For 20 dollars, for the minimal amount of money that it was, it wasn’t a robbery. The cash was available. It was there. And you could see that she tried to give it to him, and it just wasn’t a robbery. And that’s why I [said] earlier that it’s not about a robbery. . . . I just don’t believe he ever actually took any cash. Was that ever asked of me by anybody in law enforcement? No.

See also Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:09:10–17:11:08 (“Q. Tell me who came to after the events occurred as part of an investigation of this, from police, prosecutors, defense lawyers, investigators. Who came and talked to you? A. Absolutely no one . . . . To my knowledge, I had no statement ever taken. . . . I never spoke to an attorney, to a police investigator, to a prosecutor, not even a defense attorney, and I couldn’t even tell you who that was. I never spoke to anybody in regard to the criminal case.”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:24:20–17:26:10:

They wanted to know the value of what was taken. Could we determine, that night, what was taken? And I don’t believe we could determine what was taken, not while the police were there. We had to perform an inventory of the store to determine how much cash, merchandise was actually missing. . . . [W]e were asked to go behind the counter and look around and calculate, and we were asked to go back on the other side of the door. It was a very short period of time after that that we were by ourselves [waiting to go back in the store]. So it was relatively quick, [from] the time that the suspect left. Our first entry into the store—I say our first entry, that was when we were escorted in to take a look behind the counter, and we were asked to step back again—that whole time period, from the time that the perpetrator left, or the suspect, [until] we actually got the keys, it had to be less than 30 minutes. It had to be. Somewhere, maybe around 20.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:11:37–17:12:43.

Wanda was stabbed around 8:11 p.m. See Wanda Lopez State of Texas Death Certificate for Wanda Lopez (Feb. 4, 1983) (listing “Hour of Injury” for Wanda Lopez as “8:11”); Escobedo and Infante entered the store after the ambulance left the gas station, which was at 8:40 p.m. See supra note 14. The last entry in Escobedo’s report reflecting events inside the store was at 9:55 p.m. See Olivia Escobedo, Corpus Christi Police Detective in Wanda Lopez and Dahlia Sauceda Cases, Supplementary Report (Feb. 5, 1983); see Steve Mills & Maurice Possley, ‘I Didn’t Do It But I Know Who Did,’ New Evidence Suggests a 1989 Execution in Texas Was a Case of Mistaken Identity, Chi. Trib., June 25, 2006, available at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tx-1-story,0,653915.story?page=4 (“After Lopez was taken to the hospital, evidence technician Joel Infante and Detective Olivia Escobedo began processing the crime scene, a task that was completed in about an hour”). Archived at: http://perma.cc/8RXT-AM68.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 16:54:30–16:55:40, 16:58:45–16:59:27, 16:59:27–17:01:30; 17:01:30–17:01:40:

A. There was a considerable amount of blood, because I do recall having to clean it up and wipe everything that had blood on it. . . . Q. Who cleaned up? A. I did. Myself and another manager, Joyce Winkler, the store manager where I came from, number 126. Somehow she had been told. Other store employees—[the store where the crime occurred was a] high-visibility store right along the interstate, so anybody going by on a Friday night saw it. Somehow she was notified. She not only helped clean up, but she also helped do the physical inventory of the location later on—That night. From the time the robbery happened and the police arrived, were on the scene, the store was closed. We remained closed all night. Inventory was done that evening. It was finished somewhere around—We got in to evaluate the cash 9, 9:30, and the two of us were able to do a physical inventory and do the numbers by 2:30 or 2:45, ‘cause I remember it was a very short night. It was only about an hour’s worth of rest I got. So the inventory and the numbers were all accumulated.

Steve Mills & Maurice Possley, ‘I Didn’t Do It But I Know Who Did,’ New Evidence Suggests a 1989 Execution in Texas Was a Case of Mistaken Identity, Chi. Trib., June 25, 2006, at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tx-1-story,0,653915.story?page=4 (“Stange, who said he was never interviewed by police, prosecutors or defense lawyers, worked the day shift at the station before Lopez. In a recent interview, he said he was called back that night after the murder to clean up the blood and conduct the inventory.”). Archived at: http://perma.cc/8RXT-AM68.

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:24:20–17:26:10:

And we were asked to go behind the counter and look around and calculate, and we were asked to go back on the other side of the door. It was a very short period of time after that that we were by ourselves [waiting to go back in the store]. So it was relatively quick, the time that the suspect left. Our first entry into the store—I say our first entry, that was when we were escorted in to take a look behind the counter, and we were asked to step back again—that whole time period, from the time that the perpetrator left, or the suspect, that we actually got the keys, it had to be less than 30 minutes. It had to be. Somewhere, maybe around 20. It’s like, “we got the pictures, we got the guy, let’s just get out of here. We’re done.”

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:37:050–17:38:00:

You know, I look back on it now. It was just—“Ok, we got this guy, we got one eyewitness that will identify him, that’s good enough. We got some fingerprints,” . . . . I don’t even know if it matched up. They found some guy hiding underneath a car. This is him. We got him, case is closed. As a detective, “I am sure this is the guy. I’m not looking any further, I’m not looking into this. . . . I know I’ve got him. I know I’ve got my man, I don’t need to go anywhere else.” That’s what it looks like. It looks like we just, we zeroed in on one path and everything that went this [other] way, we never looked at it.

See also Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:12:43–17:13:19 (“It just never seemed like it was investigated from there what actually happened in the store. That was just a dead issue. No real cash was taken. You call it a capital offense. Ok, there’s money scattered around, but you can’t determine that anything was really taken, so how can that portion be a capital offense when you’re not sure it’s anything other than just a killing?”).

Transcribed Videotape Interview with Robert Stange, Shamrock Gas Station Manager, in Fredericksburg, Texas (Feb. 24, 2005) at 17:24:20–17:26:10, 17:38:00–end (“It’s like, ‘we got the pictures, we got the guy, let’s just get out of here. We’re done.’ Everybody’s gone, you stand around like, “Well, now what am I supposed to do?” I remember standing around saying, “Well, what do you want me to do now?”; “Ultimately, did he get a fair trial in that sense? I couldn’t say. But I wouldn’t want that, not the way that one was done.”). Lead Detective Escobedo acknowledged later that she was using her police radio to follow events occurring outside the store, including the manhunt, capture of DeLuna, and the eyewitness identifications. See sources cited supra, note 16.