Courtroom Roundup: Vail subpoena request quashed by judge
Published 5:19 am Thursday, June 13, 2013
A 14th Judicial District Court judge granted prosecutors’ motion to quash a subpoena that may not be necessary.
Judge Robert Wyatt on Wednesday quashed a defense subpoena for Mary Horton Vail’s autopsy records from the coroner’s office.
Andrew Casanave, who represents Vail’s former husband, Felix Vail, in the 50-year-old murder case, said he requested the subpoena to make sure he had all the records to date.
District Attorney John DeRosier said Casanave has all the coroner’s records that exist.
He said that although Coroner Terry Welke recently ruled the 1962 death a homicide, the coroner has not written a formal autopsy report.
“We’re at the very beginning of this case,” DeRosier said.
Mary’s body was pulled from the Calcasieu River in October 1962. Felix said she drowned.
Felix Vail, 73, was arrested in May and charged with second-degree murder.
In a 1962 autopsy, her death was ruled an accidental drowning, but police did arrest Vail and the case was brought before a grand jury, although it declined to make a decision.
“If Dr. (Avery) Cook’s report is the only coroner’s report, I will withdraw the subpoena,” Casanave said.
Casanave also filed a request for all the evidence the District Attorney’s Office has.
“Essentially we did it because, frankly, this is unlike any case I’ve ever seen and possibly unlike any case you’ve ever seen,” Casanave told Wyatt.
It was agreed that DeRosier’s office would provide Casanave with all the evidence he will need ahead of Tuesday’s preliminary examination, including the lone surviving police report from the time.
Wesley Turnage, a former Mississippi neighbor of Vail’s, is expected to testify Tuesday, as is Ike Abshire, who was on his father’s boat when Mary’s body was pulled from the river. Abshire also kept what is believed to be the only remaining copy of the original report.
Support for Mary
Several former friends and family of Mary Horton Vail were in court Tuesday wearing red “Justice for Mary” pins.
Cathy Robbins, Judy Turney and Cynthia Miller said they lived in a dorm at McNeese with Mary and were Chi Omega sorority sisters with her. “We’re happy to see justice be served in her honor,” said Miller, who was Mary’s roommate.
Robbins said the three were “stunned” when charges against Vail were not pursued in the 1960s. “(District Attorney) Frank Salter had a reputation back then, and it was not a good one,” Robbins said.
Not guilty verdict in cocaine case
A man accused of cocaine distribution was found not guilty by a jury in 14th Judicial District Court on Wednesday.
The jury found Glenn Ross, 51, not guilty of one count of cocaine distribution by a 10-2 verdict, defense attorney Angel Harris said.
Ross had been in jail for 505 days on $150,000 bond.
Harris said she did not believe the jury found a confidential informant to be a credible witness. She said the case “fell on the credibility of that witness.”
A jury was picked Tuesday, and the state called six witnesses in the one-day trial, she said — the confidential informant, two detectives, two analysts from the Southwest Louisiana Crime Lab and a member of the parish’s narcotics task force.
Harris said she did not call any witnesses.
Ross was arrested in September 2010. He was originally also charged with another count of drug possession.
“I’m glad that Mr. Ross can go home, and I’m happy that I was able to fight for him,” Harris said.
Fort Polk man pleads guilty to murder
Marcus Patterson Carey, 28, of Fort Polk pleaded guilty Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi to second-degree murder of one soldier and attempted murder of another on the military post.
Carey admitted that on June 19, 2010, he killed one victim at Fort Polk and severely injured another by striking them both with a hammer and stabbing them multiple times.
Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 19.
(American Press Archives)
