Bail for Mayhew kept at $500,000
Posted on 08/01/2002 3:05:21 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Bail for Mayhew kept at $500,000
Attorney to appeal judge's rejection of reduction request
08/01/2002
A state district court judge refused a request Wednesday to lower bail for Charles "Chuck" Mayhew Jr., who is charged with murder in the 1998 shotgun slaying of his father.
Mr. Mayhew's attorney, Peter Lesser, had requested that the bail be lowered from $500,000 to $25,000.
Judge Lana McDaniel did not explain her decision to deny the request. Mr. Lesser said he would appeal the ruling.
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During the hearing, prosecutors said witnesses one of whom placed Mr. Mayhew near the crime scene about the time of the slaying feared retribution.
"They indicated that they were in fear for their lives," Dallas County Sheriff's Detective Howard Sparks said, answering a question from lead prosecutor Heath Hyde.
Detective Sparks also testified about a tape recording made in 1995 or 1996 in which Mr. Mayhew threatened to cut off the genitals of his father, former Sunnyvale Mayor Charles "Charlie" Mayhew Sr.
Mr. Lesser tried to show there was no physical evidence linking Mr. Mayhew to the slaying. Fingerprints on the shotgun that Detective Sparks said could be the murder weapon were determined not to belong to Mr. Mayhew. Blood found on the tip of the shotgun four years ago has not been analyzed, possibly because there is not enough of a sample to test, the detective said.
Mr. Mayhew, 50, was arrested July 15 and accused of killing his 81-year-old father after new evidence surfaced during a civil trial in a wrongful death suit by his sister, Amanda Dealey.
In April, a civil jury found Mr. Mayhew responsible for his father's death and ordered Mr. Mayhew to pay $26 million to Ms. Dealey.
The evidence presented in the civil case led prosecutors to file criminal charges against Mr. Mayhew. There is no statute of limitations for murder charges.
Detective Sparks acknowledged that it was unusual for the department to trade information with litigants in a civil case.
After the hearing Wednesday, Sheriff's Department spokesman Don Peritz said the department's decision not to file criminal charges before the civil trial was a "tactical decision."
"We concede it's certainly a circumstantial case, but we believe in the totality of the circumstances," he said, adding that investigative evidence coupled with civil trial testimony could make a compelling case.
Mr. Lesser argued repeatedly throughout the hearing that bail should be reduced without physical evidence. He said the tapes aren't relevant because they were recorded about three years before the slaying.
He also said that from 1995 to 1998, Mr. Mayhew was an on-again, off-again resident in his father's house. Mr. Lesser tried to discredit the witness who saw Mr. Mayhew in the neighborhood on March 1, 1998, about the time of the slaying, by saying that the witness was a convicted drug offender.
E-mail cfrates@dallasnews.com
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