Testimony has resumed in the Texas capital murder trial of a man charged in the death of a Fort Worth police officer.
Timothy Huff is accused of being a part of a string of violent crimes.
Prosecutors said Officer Garrett Hull confronted Huff and two other men about several robberies in 2018.
Hull was shot and killed.
Thursday, experts started testifying about evidence, including wallets, cash, guns, and ski masks.
The trial was on hold for a couple of days as a juror was out on bereavement.
Huff’s trial was supposed to start last week, but it was delayed. Prosecutors said he swallowed razor blades in the courtroom and had to be taken to the hospital.
The first witness to testify on Monday was Hull’s wife, Sabrina Hull. She described how the two met in 2002 when she moved into the apartment complex where he lived. She had a toddler at the time and when she and Garrett Hull married two years later, they adopted a 3-year-old.
Days before her husband was shot, Sabrina Hull said, the couple first discussed the possibility that he might die on duty.
Sabrina Hull said her husband, who worked with the Fort Worth Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit, was tracking a group of robbery suspects. He told her, “These guys are really dangerous, baby.” He told her he was worried and even told her what song to play at his funeral if anything happened to him.
On September 13, 2018, the family celebrated the birthday of their eldest daughter. That night, Sabrina Hull knew her husband would be working late. She texted him goodnight at 10 p.m. and went to bed. In the middle of the night, she woke up to someone knocking on the door. Anthony White, another Fort Worth officer who lived near the Hulls, was at the door with his wife. He told her that something had happened to Garrett and that she needed to go to the hospital.
“I said, ‘Give me a few minutes. I have to go and pray,’” she testified on Monday.
Fort Worth Police Officer Dallas Connor – a 29-year police veteran – testified Monday after Sabrina Hull. She described her work on the criminal intelligence group alongside Hull, and how the unit was tracking a series of “very vicious” robberies in Fort Worth in 2018. The team identified several suspects and tracked the group’s Tahoe used in flights.
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On September 13, 2018, the team planned surveillance of the suspected thieves. The team did not yet have enough evidence to arrest the suspects, but suspected they might be trying to rob another business. If a theft occurred during the surveillance, Connor explained, the team would be faced with the difficult decision not to stop the theft. If the suspects were interrupted during a robbery, she said, they could take the customers hostage.
“Everything was strange that day,” Connor said.
As officers tracked down the suspected robbers — whom Connor identified as Huff, Mayfield and Steptoe — the robbers began circling a neighborhood on the south side of Fort Worth near the Los Vaqueros bar. The men were initially confronted by a landlord and drove away from the neighborhood, but returned around 9 p.m., Connor said.
“I thought, ‘Here we go,’” Connor said.
The men entered the Los Vaqueros bar on Biddison Street. Connor and the other officers – who were all in separate unmarked cars around the block – put on their body armor and prepared their weapons in their cars. They called for reinforcements and waited for the suspects to leave the bar.
Connor got out of her car and went to an alley behind the bar. She suddenly saw people running towards her in the dark and heard gunshots. After the first round of gunfire, she said, she heard someone on the radio shouting, “Officer down!
Fort Worth officer Mr. Putnam testified that he responded to the robbery when Hull’s unit called for backup. He saw one of the men – later identified as Steptoe – run from the bar area and scale a fence. He and Hull chased Steptoe and Putnam shouted that the suspect had a gun. He yelled at Steptoe to stop, but he didn’t listen.
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Steptoe continued running down the street and turning into a driveway, where Putnam lost sight of the suspect and Hull behind a pickup truck.
“The next thing I heard was gunshots,” Putnam said.
Putnam said he ran to Hull and saw Hull and Steptoe shoot each other. Putnam tried to get around the truck in the driveway to get a straight shot. More shots rang out, and Hull fell to the ground and blood began to flow around him, Putnam said. He went on the radio to say there was an officer down. Steptoe pointed his gun at Putnam and Putnam shot him. Steptoe still did not drop his gun, Putnam said, and Putnam and another officer who had come to his aid shot Steptoe again.
Officer Edwin Bounds was another officer in the Criminal Intelligence Group along with Hull and Connor. He also described the events of the night Hull was shot.
“Something about that night just wasn’t right,” Bounds said on the witness stand.
He described following and observing the group of men as they entered Los Vaqueros. When a man ran out the front door, Bounds knew it was another robbery. He ran south on Main Street and heard gunshots.
When Bounds reached a swarm of police cars, he saw someone lying on the ground. In the dark, Bounds couldn’t see the person’s face, but he could tell she was wearing blue jeans. His own unit was the only group wearing jeans, and he realized the person on the ground was Hull.
Huff fled the bar but was caught by police in the backyard of a nearby home, Whelchel said during opening statements. Mayfield was arrested about an hour later in a parking lot.
Numerous customers who were in Los Vaqueros the night of the robbery testified on Monday. The bar manager said she was working that night when she heard someone shouting, “Come down!” She turned to see her uncle walking towards her – while a man behind him pointed a gun at him. The person’s face was covered and she couldn’t see it clearly, but she saw part of his skin and described him as a black man.
Jason Vasquez was a customer at the bar that night. He said he realized something was up when the man sitting next to him raised his hands. One of the robbers punched him in the face with a gun, he said, and took his wallet and phone.
Another woman said she was playing Candy Crush on her phone in the bar when the men came in and told them all to get down. A 29-year-old man testified that the thieves – who were wearing ski masks – were in the bar for about 10 to 15 minutes. He said he wished he had never gone out that night.
If convicted, Huff could get the death penalty.
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