Dean Corll - Trial, Conviction and Incarceration

Trial, Conviction and Incarceration

Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks were tried separately for their roles in the murders. Henley was brought to trial in San Antonio on July 1, 1974, charged with six murders committed between March 1972 and July 1973. The prosecution called dozens of witnesses, including Tim Kerley and a youth named Billy Ridinger, who had been lured to Corll's Schuler Street address by Henley, Brooks and Corll in 1972. Ridinger testified that at Corll's home he was tied to Corll's torture board and assaulted repeatedly by Corll before he was released.

Other incriminating testimony came from police officers who read from Henley's written statements. In one part of his confession, Henley had described his luring of two of the victims for whose murder he had been brought to trial, Charles Cobble and Marty Jones, to Corll's Pasadena house. Henley had confessed that after their initial abuse and torture at Corll's home, Cobble and Jones each had one wrist and ankle bound to the same side of Corll's torture board. The youths were then forced by Corll to fight each other with the promise that the youth who beat the other to death would be allowed to live. After several hours of each youth beating the other, Jones was tied to a board and forced to watch Charles Cobble again be assaulted, tortured and shot to death before he himself was again raped, tortured and strangled with a venetian blind cord. The two youths were killed on July 27, 1973, two days after they had been reported missing. Several victims' parents had to leave the courtroom to regain their composure as police and medical examiners described how their relatives were tortured and murdered.

Throughout the trial, the State introduced a total of eighty-two pieces of evidence, including Corll's torture board and one of the boxes used to transport the victims. Inside the box, police had found hair which examiners had concluded came from Charles Cobble. Upon advice from his defense counsel, Henley did not take the stand to testify. His defense attorney, Will Gray, did cross examine several witnesses but did not call any witnesses or experts for the defense. On July 16, 1974, Henley was sentenced to six consecutive 99-year terms — a total of 594 years — for each of the murders for which he was charged.

Henley appealed against his sentence and conviction, contending the jury in his initial trial had not been sequestered; his attorneys' objections to news media being present in the courtroom had been overruled and citing that his defense team's attempts to present evidence contending that the initial trial should not have been held in San Antonio had also been overruled by the judge. Henley's appeal was upheld and he was awarded a retrial in December 1978. He was tried again in June 1979 and was again convicted of six murders on June 27, 1979, and again sentenced to six consecutive 99-year terms.

David Brooks was brought to trial on February 27, 1975. Brooks had been indicted for four murders committed between December 1970 and June 1973, but was brought to trial charged only with the June 1973 murder of 15-year-old William Ray Lawrence. Brooks' defense attorney, Jim Skelton, argued that his client had not committed any murders and attempted to portray Corll and, to a lesser degree, Henley as being the active participants in the actual killings. Assistant District Attorney Tommy Dunn dismissed the defenses contention outright, at one point telling the jury: "this defendant was in on this murderous rampage from the very beginning. He attempts to inform you he was a cheerleader if nothing else. That's what he is telling you about his presence. You know he was in on it."

David Brooks' trial lasted less than one week. The jury deliberated for just 90 minutes before they reached a verdict. He was found guilty of Lawrence's murder on March 4, 1975, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He showed no emotion as the sentence was passed, although his wife burst into tears.

Brooks also appealed against his sentence, contending that the signed confessions used against him were taken without his being informed of his legal rights, but his appeal was dismissed in May 1979.

Both Henley and Brooks are serving life sentences.