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Thursday, January 26, 2007
Media Advisory: Larry Swearingen Scheduled For Execution
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about Larry Ray Swearingen, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 24, 2007.
On July 11, 2000, Swearingen was sentenced to die for the kidnaping, rape and strangulation of Melissa Trotter. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows.
FACTS OF THE CRIME
After meeting Trotter, a nineteen-year-old college student, in December 1998, Larry Swearingen told his co-workers and friends that he had met an attractive college girl and hinted that he wanted to have sex with her. In the early afternoon of December 8, Swearingen and Trotter were seen departing together from Montgomery College in Conroe after talking to each other in the school library.
Trotter’s friends and family never again saw the college student alive. Swearingen became the focus of an investigation into the woman’s disappearance, because he was the last person seen with her. On December 11, Swearingen was arrested on unrelated outstanding warrants.
On January 2, 1999, Trotter’s partially nude body was discovered in Sam Houston National Forest. She had been strangled, with a piece of torn hosiery found around her neck. Evidence showed she had been raped.
Fiber evidence showed that Trotter had been in Swearingen’s trailer, on the floor and perhaps the bed, and in the cab of his pickup truck. And evidence in the truck cab showed that some of her hair had been pulled forcibly from her head. Although neither Swearingen nor his wife smoked, a pack of cigarettes, Trotter’s brand, was found in Swearingen’s trailer. A piece of hosiery, the companion to that piece used to strangle Trotter, was found in a trash heap beside Swearingen’s trailer. Hair evidence linked the hosiery to Swearingen’s wife. Cell phone records showed that on the day that Trotter disappeared, Swearingen traveled from his trailer to the area where the body was found. After Trotter disappeared, Swearing told friends that he was in trouble and that the police would be after him.
While in jail awaiting trial, Swearingen, using a Spanish-English dictionary, composed a letter in crude Spanish, purportedly written by an individual named “Robin.” In the letter “Robin” identified Trotter’s killer as an individual named “R.D.” The prosecution alleged that Swearingen composed the letter, arranged for it to be hand-copied by a cellmate, and had the letter delivered to authorities, to deflect blame from himself.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Jan. 26, 1999 – A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Swearingen for kidnaping-related capital murder.
Nov. 2, 1999 – A Montgomery County grand jury reindicted Swearingen, with rape-related capital murder added.
June 28, 2000 – A jury found Swearingen guilty of capital murder.
July 11, 2000 – After a separate punishment hearing, the court sentenced Swearingen to death.
Mar. 11, 2002 – Swearingen filed a state application for writ of habeas corpus in the trial court.
Mar. 26, 2003 – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Swearingen’s conviction and sentence.
May 21, 2003 – The Court of Criminal Appeals denied habeas relief.
May 21, 2004 – Swearingen filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in a Houston U.S. district court.
Oct. 19, 2004 – Swearingen filed a motion in state district court for DNA testing.
April 7, 2005 – The trial court denied Swearingen’s motion requesting DNA testing.
Sept. 8, 2005 – The U.S. district court denied habeas relief but allowed Swearingen to appeal.
Sept. 9, 2005 – Swearingen filed a notice of appeal in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Feb. 1, 2006 – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed Swearingen’s appeal in connection with his request for DNA testing.
July 31, 2006– The 5th Circuit Court affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas corpus relief.
Nov. 22, 2006 – Swearingen filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court.
EVIDENCE RELATED TO PUNISHMENT
In the punishment phase of his trial, evidence was introduced that Swearingen had committed two unadjudicated rapes, one unadjudicated assault on his ex-wife, and that while awaiting trial, he had tried to escape.
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