Murdered Innocents (9 page)

 

Porfirio Saavedra and Alberto Cortez stood before Federal Magistrate Francisco Nieto Gonzalez in the tiny courthouse. Gonzalez charged the two men with drug trafficking, kidnapping, and rape in the Cavity Club case. Since Mexico did not allow its citizens to be extradited to the United States, the men would face criminal charges in a Mexican courtroom. The penalties were potentially substantial: the drug charges could net them anywhere from ten to twenty-five years, while the kidnapping and rape charges would carry a sentence of twelve to twenty-one years.

More important for APD officials, it would keep the men in custody, while they determined whether their confessions were legitimate or not.

Mexico’s attorney general spokesman George Natanson said, “These guys are in the slammer and they cannot get out on bail.” By placing them on trial, Natanson informed the press, Judge Gonzalez assured all interested parties involved that Saavedra and Cortez were not going anywhere for at least one year.

The yogurt shop task force made sure they were ready for anything. They already had representatives down in Mexico City from the FBI, the ATF, the AFD, and the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. They were ready to pick Saavedra’s and Cortez’s brains for the “tremendous amount of information” concerning the murder of four innocent girls.

 

 

Three weeks after the announcement of charges against Saavedra and Cortez, police met with Mexican prosecutors to garner more details of their possible involvement in the murders. No information was given about the meeting. The Mexican prosecutors did state that they needed more evidence to bring charges against the two gang members.

Word on the Texas side of the border was not any more forthcoming. Austin police lieutenant David Parkinson claimed to have struck an agreement with the Mexican attorney general not to discuss the case through the press.

One week later, confusion set in. George Natanson, spokesman for the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, reported that Saavedra and Cortez “are now officially suspects.”

Sergeant John Jones, however, had a different story.

“I don’t know what they’re talking about. Nothing has changed as far as their status.”

When asked why there seemed to be differing opinions as to Saavedra and Cortez’s suspect status, Natanson responded, “That’s what Austin police told us.” The distinction was important for Mexico because if the men were declared suspects, it would allow the Mexican public ministry the opportunity to conduct an official investigation into the murders. They were prevented from doing so, since the murders did not occur in Mexico.

The international goodwill seemed to be fading. Sergeant Jones reiterated, “It’s our investigation and we’re still investigating to our standards of justice.”

Sergeant Jones may have had another reason to be less than forthcoming about the alleged torture of Porfirio Saavedra and Alberto Cortez. Just a few weeks earlier, on October 30, a new bombshell detonated, which involved former task force supervisor Sergeant Hector Polanco.

ADA Robert Smith informed state district judge Bob Jones of a serious problem with one of his cases. Smith discovered that another man confessed to a murder other than the defendant, Alva Eziel Curry, who was found guilty of capital murder two weeks earlier. A jury decided that Curry shot and killed a convenience store clerk named David Vela.

Smith found out about the confession from Bruce Bowser the night before Curry was to be sentenced. The discovery was relevant because Texas law, as well as federal law, states that all information that is or could be beneficial to a defendant must be turned over before or during the trial phase. Smith had not been told by anyone in the APD that there was another confession.

The kicker for Sergeant John Jones was, once again, that a questionable confession involved Hector Polanco. Bowser, twenty-two, was interrogated by six Austin police officers, including Polanco, over a six-hour period that stretched over two days. Bowser claimed that Polanco threatened him. Polanco also allegedly threatened Bowser’s family members by saying that one of Bowser’s previous robbery victims would kill his mother and grandmother if he did not confess. Bowser stated that he relented to the pressure and decided to “tell them what they wanted to hear.” He gave a statement that implicated himself in Vela’s murder.

Bowser refused, however, to put the confession in writing.

He told police everything he said was a lie.

After the interrogation ended, another police officer approached Bowser.

“Why did you confess?” the officer wanted to know.

“I was scared,” Bowser quickly replied. He described the alleged threats from Polanco. “I think they just wanted me to confess to it because they didn’t have any evidence at all, but he wanted me to have something to do with it.”

The Austin Police Association, a labor organization that represents Austin police officers, agreed to look into the matter and determine why no police officers informed the district attorney’s office about the confession. District Attorney Ronnie Earle said he would look into the matter. He also stated that Curry’s status would not change.

 

 

Earle was joined by the new police chief Elizabeth Watson, who had been appointed in August and had become the first woman in the city’s history to obtain the position, and Mayor Bruce Todd for a Monday-morning press conference. (According to Barbara Suraci, Watson had not expressed much concern for her daughters’ case, as she told the mother that the “crime didn’t happen on her watch.”) Earle had an announcement to make in regard to the practices and procedures of the Austin Police Department.

“There are a number of serious cases in which past convictions and pending prosecutions may be jeopardized because of possible police misconduct,” Earle told the media. “Specifically, the police misconduct involves using improper methods to obtain confessions and statements, obtaining false and incorrect statements and confessions, and concealing evidence possibly favorable to the accused in violation of state and federal law.”

Mayor Todd chimed in with “there are some very difficult problems that need immediate attention. We need to make sure it doesn’t occur again.”

Earle wanted to make it clear that “unfortunately, this behavior is not the result of the work of just one person.... It appears to arise from attitudes among some criminal investigators of ‘anything goes,’ and ‘the end justifies the means.’”

This public criticism of Austin police tactics by the district attorney was quite shocking. Earle had never chastised the police department in public. District attorneys and police officers often work in concert. It is the tendency for both sides to support one another. Apparently, the egregiousness of the officers’ actions was far too great to ignore.

Earle lamented the current state of police methods. “This is especially sad for those of us who have for years admired the way that APD has reflected the standards of its community.”

The Austin Police Association quickly jumped to the defense of the police officers. Sam Cox, senior sergeant, head of the organization, protested that officers were overworked. “Maybe there was not enough time to do as thorough an investigation as they should.”

Earle understood the pressures placed on law enforcement, but “that sometimes leads people to want to cut corners and fudge on the rules.”

A task force comprising police officials and prosecutors was created to look into at least ninety homicide cases for questions of potential police misconduct. “Ninety cases is a very conservative estimate,” stated first ADA Steve McCleery, who alluded that the task force might also add cases of manslaughter, attempted murder, robbery, and more. “Our interest is to reexamine these cases and make sure they are what they are supposed to be. Our interest is not to conduct an investigation of the police department.”

Several of the cases that would be reexamined involved defendants questioned by Sergeant Hector Polanco. Attorneys for several defendants had already made noise about taking their cases back in front of a judge.

Earle closed out the press conference with a telling quote: “Police misconduct directly jeopardizes public safety because [the] cases are unprosecutable and criminals go free.”

 

Opening the December 6, 1992,
Austin American-Statesman
to page A24 led to many tears. Inside were letters from the parents of Sarah, Jennifer, Eliza, and Amy on the one-year anniversary of their untimely deaths. Skip Suraci, stepfather to Jennifer and Sarah Harbison, recalled the horror of being notified of his daughters’ deaths at 3:15 in the morning. He described the unbelievable feeling that immediately came over him upon hearing the news.

The need to contact any and all family members immediately.

The numbness that quickly settled over him.

Having to call the girls’ biological father, Mike Harbison, and break the news to him.

“Michael?”

“Uh?” he mumbled through his haze of sleep.

“Is Debbie there?” Debbie Harbison, Mike’s wife. Skip Suraci wanted to be sure that Mike was not alone when he told him.

“Uh,” Mike mumbled again.

Suraci blurted it out: “Mike, Jennifer and Sarah were killed in a fire. Mike, did you understand what I said?”

“Yes,” came the lone reply. He hung up the phone.

Seconds later, the phone rang at the Suraci household. It was Debbie Harbison.

“What did you say to Michael?” she asked. “He’s babbling incoherently.”

Skip Suraci could only think,
Please don’t ask me to say it again. I don’t believe it myself.

Suraci wrote about the support they received from friends and family. “We may never have their killers; but, one and all, we do have each other.”

Bob and Pam Ayers reminisced about their youngest child, Amy.

“The murder of our little girl, Amy, has altered our lives forever and actually causes our hearts to ache,” their article started off. “Each sunrise begins with thoughts of Amy as does each waking hour of every day. ‘We Will Not Forget’ is not only a slogan for the public, but a reality we must face.”

The parents spoke of the things they missed about their daughter—the laughter and the smiles. “We have learned not to take anything, especially life, for granted. Our wish and dream is that no parent would ever have to experience the pain that the murder of a child brings, but, unfortunately, we know that others will have to bear the same grief.”

The Ayers also thanked their friends and family, as well as the entire community, for their continuous support. They closed with these thoughts: “Please don’t take life for granted. Cherish each moment you have as it might be the last. Love your children, hug them, appreciate them to the very fullest and please always remember to tell them you love them.”

Norma Thomas, Eliza’s mother, addressed her letter to her daughter. It started off:

Maria Thomas’s despair was clearly evident when she wrote, “All my hopes and dreams are gone. And, my sweet, beautiful daughter, what about all your hopes and dreams?” She lamented the fact that she did not get to help Eliza prepare for the prom, graduation day, or her first day of college. Or her wedding day or the birth of her grandchildren.

“Eliza, the pain of losing you has been so intense. But I would go through it a million times if I knew that was the only way I’d been able to have you for my kid.”

She also thanked the members of the community for their caring and support. “I am so very sorry you did not have the pleasure of meeting Eliza. She was, is, a daughter, sister, relative, neighbor, friend you would have had the pleasure of getting to meet and know.”

James Thomas and Norma Fowler, Eliza’s father and stepmother, thanked everyone in the community as well and asked that people contribute to several local grief-support services such as Parents of Murdered Children, Compassionate Friends, and For The Love of Christi. They also expressed their gratitude for the Austin Police Department and the task force. The couple wrote that they “have been extraordinarily kind to us. Their professionalism and dedication are impressive. They are truly Austin’s finest.”

The members of the task force had to deal with a certain grief of their own: the one-year anniversary of not having caught the killer or killers. Detective Mike Huckabay came home every day to the same question from his youngest son: “Daddy, did you solve the yogurt case?”

Sergeant John Jones was stressed about several factors that surrounded the case: “Black Thursday,” which is what he called the Mexican confessions that turned out to be false, the Polanco problems, and the December 6 anniversary. He chose to sleep most of the day.

Assistant Police Chief George Phifer, a forty-year veteran, described the pressure as the most intense of any case in Austin’s history. Not even the Charles Whitman UT Tower massacre held a candle to the yogurt shop case.

“We didn’t use near the resources [on the Whitman case] because he was killed at the scene,” the veteran recalled. “There was a tremendous amount of paperwork afterward, but we closed up the books after a month.”

Phifer described the pressure on the detectives, however, as minimal compared to others. “It’s tough, but no matter how tough it is, it’s nothing compared to what the families are going through. We owe it to them to solve the case.”

Detective Huckabay summed up the dichotomous feelings of most officers when he said, “I wish I could just get my hands on these creeps. Look what they’ve put everyone through. But, if someone came forward, I’d almost want to hug them for ending all this.”