February 4, 2003

HUNTSVILLE, Tex. - The one thing brutally clear is that someone used a motorcycle chain to savagely beat a young woman to death underneath a bridge in East Austin more than 17 years ago.

The woman's name was Joyce Munguia, 19. She was killed by at least 24 blows from the chain. And, when a woman is lashed to death with a chain in these parts, someone is going to the execution gurney and getting stuck with a broken home, impoverished childhood, drug addiction, or not. Make no mistake about that.

So, it was one of these four men who murdered her: John "Jackie" Elliott, Daniel Hanson, Ricky Elizondo or Peter Ramirez. hich one of these potential lady killers did it? It all depends on who you talk to and who you believe.

Elliott Gets Death Prosecutors said the victim was raped before she was killed. And, the man who prosecutors charged with actually swinging the chain was Elliott, a 42-year-old British citizen with a criminal record that included convictions of burglary and intentional murder. That's why he is on Death Row and one day away from execution. He is scheduled to die Tuesday, after a judge refused to DNA testing on blood and semen evidence.

The murder of Munguia followed an ugly bout of heavy drinking and cocaine snorting, degenerating into either Munguia agreeing, in a drunken stupor, to have sex in the weeds with at least three of these men one after the other or being raped in succession by three or all four. Then, she was beaten to death.

When the four men involved were rounded-up by police, Elizondo and Hanson testified, pointing their fingers at Elliott. A jury convicted Elliott and sentenced him to death - based mostly on the testimony of the duo. Elliot's lawyers and international anti-death penalty groups are saying that Elliott did not rape or murder Munguia, alleging the real killer was Elizondo.

Two Testified Against Elliott

At Elliott's trial, Hanson testified that he had tried to prevent his friends from taking turns raping the victim and he refused to have sex with Munguia. Hanson said Elliott told him they had to get rid of Munguia, fearing she would call the police, report the rape send them all into the Texas prison system for decades.

Hanson was never prosecuted. And Elizondo, in return for a 10-year prison sentence, testified that he saw Elliott beating the young woman with the chain. Elizondo testified that Elliott borrowed his personal motorcycle chain, which was in Elizondo's house, to do the job. (More about this chain, later) Elizondo also testified that Elliott had told him, beforehand, that they would have to kill both Munguia and Hanson, since Hanson would not take his turn raping the victim.

What did Elizondo do after watching the woman being beaten to death by Elliott? He went home, washed his clothes and went to sleep. Finally, blood was found on the blue jean shorts Elliott was wearing at the time of the murder. Prosecutors said the blood was Munguia's and tests showed it was splattered on Elliott as he was lashing her with the chain. Defense lawyers now are disputing that finding.

Victims' Family: Want Him Dead

Elliott is now measuring his life in hours, not weeks or years. Barring clemency or a stay by the courts, Elliott, citizen of the British Empire or not, is scheduled to be strapped to the well-used execution gurney here just after 6 p.m. Tuesday KVUE News in Austin reported that Elliott wrote the family of Munguia a letter last Christmas telling of the pain his mother is going through and the pain Munguia's family must have. But, Joyce Munguia's sister said she wants Elliott executed and looks forward to watching him die. "The letter means nothing," Lillian Munguia told the a KVUE reporter. "He's being selfish again, talking about himself, how he sees the pain in his mother's eyes."

The Elliott case has drawn widespread interest in England, where British newspaper reporters and the BBC have been covering the case. British lawmakers and religious leaders are urging Texas to give Elliott clemency. They are also hoping British Prime Minister Tony Blair will get involved and personally ask President George Bush to intervene.

Elliott's appeals lawyers and many international groups against the death penalty believe Elliott is innocent. Sure, he was there, but anytime snitches are used, or in this case, testimony from co-defendants who become state's witnesses, the alarm goes off - especially when good lawyers are involved. It seems to make them wonder if the co-defendents are telling the truth or lying to save their own skins.

And this alarm, at least in Elliott's lawyers' view, is ringing in the clemency petition sent to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole. Elliott's defense lawyers have pointed their fingers at Elizondo as the real killer and claim the men had consensual sex with the victim before she was mashed to death with the chain.

Lawyers Want DNA Testing

Defense lawyers and David K. Sergi accuse prosecutors of withholding evidence; charge that the testimony of Hanson and Elizondo was inconsistent and that the two buddies lied to protect one another; that the blood splatter evidence linking Elliott to the murder is unreliable; that blood found on Hanson's shoes was never tested; and that Elliott had appointed by the court. Stafford Smith also said that his investigators have uncovered a new witness who is ready to say that Elizondo had told him he killed Munguia.

On Friday, the lawyers were in an Austin courtroom trying to get a judge to stay the execution so DNA testing cold be done on the blood and semen samples. Stafford Smith said DNA was not perfected back when Elliott stood trial in 1987. The lawyers were successful in having Judge Jon Wisser remove himself from the case because the jurist had sent a letter to the pardons and parole panel saying Elliott should be executed.

However on Monday, a new judge in the 299th District Court, where Elliott was originally tried, denied further DNA testing. Judge Charles Campbell, in making the ruling, said that because the testing does not have to do with Elliott - but rather others- he would not permit it. Elliott was sentenced to death in 1987 after a jury found that he had committed murder during the course of aggravated rape. However, Stafford Smith argues that new information developed by defense investigators show that Elliott is "innocent of capital murder."

New Statement By Ramirez

According to a clemency petition filed the lawyers:

In a new statement given to defense investigators, Ramirez now says the victim had consensual sex with Elliott and himself before she was murdered. He said he saw Hanson holding her shoulders and Elliott taking off her cloths. Ramirez said Elliott and Hanson did not appear to be restraining Munguia. Ramirez did not testify during the trial and received 15 years in prison for sexual assault. However, he claims he told police investigating the murder that the sex between the men and Munguia was consensual.

If Ramirez is telling the truth, this would negate the aggravated rape charge that Elliott received the death sentence for. This also is in direct conflict with the testimony of Hanson, who said the victim was raped and claimed to have tried to help her get away from the men. And, if he did give police such a statement, why wasn't it turned over to defense lawyers at Elliott's trial?

Stafford Smith said the investigation also showed that Elizondo, before the slaying, was a member of a gang that called itself the "Chain Gang." Apparently, Elizondo had started wearing the chain around his waist - and had used it to lash people, according to the clemency petition. Elizondo had allegedly used the chain to beat at least one other person before the woman was murdered. Elliott supposedly retrieved the chain from Elizondo's home and went back and beat Munguia to death with it, according to prosecutors. Elizondo was also a boxer.

The victim had refused to have further sex with Elizondo. Ramirez claims in his new statement that Elizondo had earlier forced Munguia to have sex with him in the bathroom of his house. Ramirez said that Munguia told him she did not want to have more sex with him because of the earlier attack. The victim, while lying on the ground preparing for sex with Elliott, saw Elizondo come "out of the bushes" nearby and announced that she would have sex with Ramirez next, but would have nothing to do with Elizondo. This, the defense theory goes, was a reason for Elizondo to become angry and kill her. It all goes to show, the clemency petition argues, a "tapestry of new evidence that demonstrates that Ricky Elizondo is the true killer."

Blood On Shoes Untested

Why the DNA testing? If, for example, Hanson's sperm was found inside the victim, that would bring his testimony as the "White Knight" trying to save her into question, Stafford Smith said. Stafford Smith also said there was blood found on Hanson's shoes - blood that was never tested. While Hanson had said the blood was from an old stab wound suffered months before, Stafford Smith isn't buying it.

How about the fact that Munguia's blood was found on Elliott's shorts? The British born lawyer says he has a new expert who will testify that the blood splatter evidence found on Elliott's shorts was not consistent with him being the one swinging the chain at the victim.

What's Elliott's Story?

But the one thing lacking in the clemency petition is what Elliott says happened under the bridge. Was he passed out? Did he watch as someone else beat the woman to death? Was he gone by that time? What did he see? Stafford Smith said Elliott has never given a statement to the police. The lawyer said while Elliott has told him what happened, he could not reveal it. So, what does Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle or his spokesman say about all this? Earle's office and spokesman did not return three telephone calls for comment.

However, in an interview with the Huntsville Item, Brian Case, who handles appeals for the Travis County DA's office, said there is no "conspiracy" against Elliott. "Really, their best bet would be to say he didn't act alone, and therefore he shouldn't have gotten the death penalty," Case told the newspaper. "But that doesn't prove his innocence...really, there is nothing in his favor here." Case also told the newspaper that the blue jean shorts Elliott was wearing at the time of the Munguia slaying had her blood on them.

British Protest

The scheduled execution of Elliott has already caused a commotion in Britian. The British foreign minister has asked the United States to stop the execution. In addition, at least 100 members of Parliament have signed a letter asking for clemency, calling the death penalty a "barbaric use of rule of law." The Bishop of London and the head of the Catholic Church of England also have pleaded for Elliott's life. But, those pleas are unlikley to stop Texas from executing Elliott. Britian has abolished the death penalty and been on an anti-death penalty bandwagon for some time. To be a member of the European Union, members must abolish the death penalty and promise not to hang, shoot, electrocute or behead anyone.

Second Brit Executed? Elliott would become the second British citizen executed in America in recent years. Tracy Housel, 42, born in Bermuda, was executed in Georgia in 2002. He had been convicted of rape and murder. Not even a plea to the President by Prime Minister Tony Blair could save him. Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), is also urgiing lieniency for Elliott.

The U.S. deputy chief of that mission, Douglas Davidson, lectured the OSCE that in Democratic countries like the United States, each state decides who they want to kill, not the British. It's a matter of "free expression," he said. "...in a democratic society, the criminal justice system, including the punishments prescribed for the most serious crimes, should reflect the will of the people, freely expressed and appropriately implemented," Davidson said. "In the United States, the use of the death penalty is a decision left to democratically elected governments at the federal level and at the level of each individual state, which in this case is the State of Texas."

Britian To Death Row So, how did this British citizen end up in Austin and find himself in the middle of a chain lashing murder and on Death row? Actually, Elliott spent little of his life in the country. Elliott was born in Suffolk, England but left the country when he was a child. His father was an American airman stationed there, and his mother, Hispanic, from Austin.

The family returned to Rhode Island in 1966, where his mother and father separated. His mother took Elliott and her other children back to Texas, where they were raised in the Santa Ritz Cruz housing project, which Stafford Smith said was rife with drugs and violence. It was at this project that Elliott first met and befriended Ramirez, who Stafford Smith says introduced Elliott to drugs and alcohol. Elliott was expelled from school in the ninth grade. From there he was sent to a boy's farm in Laredo, as his mother was trying to straighten him out, according to the clemency petition.

In the petition, Elliott is portrayed as a child "raised by a dedicated but overwhelmed single mother in the nightmarish environment of the East Austin projects." The petition calls Elliott an outsider in a "violent and frightening neighborhood, drawn to a negative peer group for his own protection." Then, there is the matter of Elliott being convicted of something called "Intentional Murder" years before the Munguia slaying. This certainly must have raised jurors' eyebrows when Travis County prosecutors starting reminding the panel of that as they were trying to convince them that Elliott should be sent to Death Row.

Hanging Out With The Boys

Stafford Smith calls it a "bullshit" charge. Well, bullshit or not, somebody was killed and Elliott was sentenced to eight years in prison, serving only four months before being released. The case involved Elliott and another group of men who fired a bullet from a car and killed someone. But it is unknown who fired. Stafford Smith says the four men took group responsibility for the slaying.

According to Stafford Smith, Elliott was with four men, one of whom had earlier been picked on at a bar. Elliott and the other men later drove back to the bar, where they saw a group of young men who they believed to have picked on their friend. Someone fired from the car, with the bullet hitting and killing one of the men standing outside. Elliott later pleaded guilty to intentional murder, was sentenced to eight years in prison, but served just four months.

Again, he never gave police a statement when he was arrested in connection with that shooting. Travis County prosecutors might have a different story to tell about this incident, but they did not return telephone calls to The Death House.com for comment.

After being released from prison in 1982, Elliott got a job through his old friend, Peter Ramirez. Ramirez and Laly Elizondo, the brother of chain-carrying Ricky, had started a construction framing business and employed Elliott.

During this time, Elliott also met a woman. He has two children, one of whom was born after he was arrested for murder. He was also said to be addicted to amphetamines at the time of the Munguia murder. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records also stated that Elliott was convicted of a burglary in 1984 and received 10 years probation.

The Murder

The murder of Munguia occurred on June 13, 1986. According to prosecutors, Munguia was on her way to a bus stop when she was approached by Daniel Hanson, who asked her to join him and three other men drinking from the tailgate of a pick up truck parked in Elizondo's driveway.

Munguia joined them, drinking beer, vodka and ingesting a small amount of cocaine. Stafford Smith said her blood alcohol level at the time of her death was high. Later, Elizondo took Munguia inside his house to use the bathroom, where he raped, attempted to rape or had consensual sex with her.

Again, Elliott's lawyers believe Elizondo forced her to have sex. However, it is unclear which occurred. Elizondo testified that Munguia offered him sex on the bathroom floor. However, Hanson later testified that he looked inside the bathroom door -which was open - and saw Elizondo zipping his pants and Munguia on her knees in front of him.

Hanson also testified that Munguia later told him Elizondo wouldn't leave her alone. Hanson believed that Elizondo may have forced her to have sex, according to the clemency petition.

Later during this murderous romp of drinking and drugs, Munguia was taken to an area underneath a bridge where Elliott, Ramirez and Elizondo had sex with her without her consent, Hanson testified. Another words, they raped her.

Hanson, in his testimony, portrayed himself as someone who was constantly trying, during this time, to save Munguia from being sexually assaulted by Elliott, Ramirez and Elizondo. Hanson testified that in one incident, he started to walk home with Munguia, attempting to get her away from the men. Elliott, he said, tried to stop him and later carried the victim back under the bridge, where all this rape/consensual sex was occurring - and where Munguia would be found lashed to death.

There, Elliott laid Munguia in the grass and had sex with her. Hanson said he walked away, wanting to call the police, but changed his mind. He returned to try to help Munguia. He said Ramirez and Elizondo had sex with the victim, even preventing her from putting her cloths back on. But later it was Hanson and his sister who called police. The call to the cops was made after Hanson said he went back to the bridge area and saw Munguia's body.

Elizondo Points Finger At Elliott

Meanwhile, Elizondo testified that Elliott told him to keep the victim under the bridge while he got a gun. He did this by refusing to allow Munguia to get her cloths. Elliott did not get a gun. Instead, he apparently went back to Elizondo's nearby house to retrieve the motorcycle chain. Elizondo testified that he ran away when Elliott hit Munguia with the belt. He said he turned around and saw Elliott hit the woman three times. He ran home, washed his cloths and went to bed - until the cops knocked on his door.

Defense Lawyers Version

Defense lawyers have there own theory of what happened. They say that Elizondo and Hanson were "good friends," wanted to protect each other and lied. After drinking beer, vodka and snorting a bit of cocaine with the men for several hours,

Elizondo took Munguia to his bathroom, where he tried to force her to have sex with him, the defense lawyers claim. Later, she walked down to the bridge with Elliott and Hanson, and was later joined by Ramirez. There, she had consensual sex with Elliott and Ramirez. Then, Elizondo arrived.

The young woman did not want Elizondo to touch her. Angry, Elizondo then beat Munguia to death. Elizondo then left, went home and washed his cloths of the blood. Later, to get a better prison deal, Elizondo "tailored his testimony' to remove any reference to Hanson having sex with the victim before she was killed, the lawyers charge.

Blood Evidence Question

At Elliott's trial, an Austin police sergeant, identified as an expert on blood splatter evidence, testified that the blood splatter evidence backed up Elizondo's story that Elliott had been swinging the chain. But since that time, the clemency petition says, the expert's methods of making that determination have found to be unscientific. In another case, the expert in question,

Sgt. Dusty Hesskew, testified in a case in which a woman was accused and later convicted of killing her husband for insurance money. At the first trial, Hesskew testified that he found blood stains, invisible on the suspect's clothing, indicating that the cause of death was probably murder.

Meanwhile, another expert brought in from Oklahoma testified that this blood splatter was consistent with suicide. The woman was convicted, sent to prison for life, appealed and was given a new trial. At a subsequent hearing, Hasskew admitted that his test were unscientific because he assumed the invisible stains were human blood. They weren't. The woman was later acquitted of murder. Her husband's death was ruled a suicide. He had previously attempted suicide twice.

Stafford Smith also is wondering if it is true Hanson was not present when the murder was committed, then why was there blood on his shoes? Hanson testified that the blood was there from an incident, months earlier, in which he was "stabbed in the back."

Stafford Smith said that if he gets permission from the courts to do DNA testing on those bloody shoes, then Hanson might have some explaining to do. The lawyers, according to the clemency petition, will accept just about anything to save Elliott from the gurney. A 120 day reprieve for DNA testing; a pardon; an agreement for life in prison without parole; a conditional pardon so Elliott can be retried. Stafford Smith also says that he has received the backing of all 12 jurors in the case, who all say that if they had heard all these claims at Elliott's trial, they might not have found Elliott guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death.

So, there you have it. Who's telling the truth, who isn't? Welcome to a scheduled execution of John Jackie Elliott, where the only thing sure is that a young woman was beaten to death with a chain.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty