Trial of Arlington 'bathtub slayings' to begin
Posted on 01/06/2003 11:06:29 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Trial of Arlington 'bathtub slayings' to begin
01/06/2003
Opening statements are set to begin Monday in the capital murder trial involving one of the two 1996 so-called Arlington bathtub slayings.
Dale Devon Scheanette, 29, of Arlington is facing the death penalty in connection with the deaths of two Arlington women who were killed in the same apartment complex.
Wendie Prescott, a 22-year-old teacher's aide at Erma Nash Elementary School in Mansfield, and Christine Vu, a 25-year-old third-grade teacher at Morton Elementary School in Arlington, were killed within months of each other in 1996.
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Mr. Scheanette is also accused of the sexual assaults of five other women.
The trial was postponed in November when one of Mr. Scheanette's two court-appointed attorneys, became ill with pneumonia.
Mr. Scheanette, who was arrested Sept. 5, 2000, has denied involvement in the crime.
Family members found the body of Ms. Prescott in her Arlington apartment just after midnight on Christmas Day 1996. Police say that she was found nude, beaten and strangled, her hands and feet bound with duct tape, laying face down in her bathtub in a few inches of water.
Three months earlier, Ms. Vu was found dead in her apartment in an almost identical fashion. The two educators lived about 150 feet apart at the Peartree Apartments in the 2400 block of Henderson Drive in East Arlington.
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Mr. Scheanette lived at Peartree at the time of Ms. Vu's death but moved out before Ms. Prescott was killed, police said.
Evidence in question
Defense attorneys filed motions this year to throw out the DNA evidence, which police say links Mr. Scheanette to the two slayings and five sexual assaults, as well as fingerprint evidence. They also say police improperly obtained search warrants. Arlington police have said their procedures were proper and legal.
For years, Arlington investigators had sought without success a match for prints taken from the two crime scenes. The break in the slayings came on Sept. 5, 2000, when the FBI called the head of Arlington's crime scene unit to inform him that a latent dust print - found on a television stand in Ms. Prescott's
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apartment - matched Mr. Scheanette's left thumb print, according to warrants in the case. Arlington police also determined Mr. Scheanette's left index fingerprint matched one found on an interior dead bolt lock in Ms. Vu's apartment, the warrants state. Mr. Scheanette was arrested that day.
The matches were possible, authorities said, because Mr. Scheanette's fingerprints only were entered into the national fingerprint database after he was arrested in the burglary of a car audio shop in DeSoto in 1999. Before that, his fingerprints were not in the system.
Mr. Scheanette also faces indictments in connection with five sexual assaults in Lancaster, at the University of Texas at Arlington and in Grand Prairie.
Lancaster police accuse Mr. Scheanette of three rapes in October 1998.
UTA attack
In February 1999, a UTA student was attacked and raped at gunpoint after a man entered a sorority house in the 1000 block of Fourth Street. After Mr. Scheanette was arrested in the Vu-Prescott slayings, investigators found a handgun in his duplex in the 2700 block of Parkchester Drive. They also took pictures of his nude body in order to determine whether he has a groin injury consistent with that reported by the UTA student. She told police she had bitten her attacker.
Grand Prairie police say that Mr. Scheanette sexually assaulted a woman in October 1999, at an apartment in the 2700 block of Heather Hill Court.
The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.
For years, Arlington investigators had sought without success a match for prints taken from the two crime scenes. The break in the slayings came on Sept. 5, 2000, when the FBI called the head of Arlington's crime scene unit to inform him that a latent dust print - found on a television stand in Ms. Prescott's apartment - matched Mr. Scheanette's left thumb print, according to warrants in the case. Arlington police also determined Mr. Scheanette's left index fingerprint matched one found on an interior dead bolt lock in Ms. Vu's apartment, the warrants state. Mr. Scheanette was arrested that day.
The matches were possible, authorities said, because Mr. Scheanette's fingerprints only were entered into the national fingerprint database after he was arrested in the burglary of a car audio shop in DeSoto in 1999. Before that, his fingerprints were not in the system.
Good deal. Crime doesn't pay ! You do the crime, you do the time.
I remember when I went to UTA that there seemed to be rapes every year. I'm glad they caught this guy.
I see it is noted in the story and I missed that. Thanks !
I'm glad to hear it...
I hope this is a euphomism for "She bit off a good chunk of 'it'". Although if she had, he'd probably have had to seek medical attention or bleed to death. Maybe she just got a chunk of his scrotum. Either way, good for her!
Good. Since this is taking place in Texas, there''s a good chance he will be executed. Granted of course he's found guilty and sentenced to death.
This trial would have been over last fall if the defense attorney had not had a mysterious one-day bout with pneumonia.
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