Post by Charlene on Jun 2, 2005 11:23:55 GMT -5
After 25 years, family finds justice for slayings
BY MELODY MCDONALD
Knight Ridder Newspapers
FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - For more than two decades, the murders of Cecil and Geraldine Lancaster haunted him.
He could picture them dead on the bathroom floor, shot execution-style in the head. He recalled the electrical cords wrapped tightly around their necks and face.
But most of all, former detective Greg Miller remembered the Lancasters' five children.
"Those kids came home from school, or work, or wherever they were that night in November and, all of a sudden, they didn't have any parents," said Miller, who was a Fort Worth homicide detective at the time of the killings.
"I mean it's just really sad."
Miller left the Police Department in 1984 to attend law school. He was hired by the Tarrant County district attorney's office in 1987 and eventually rose to deputy chief prosecutor.
He never forgot about the Lancasters. Then, four years ago, he got an opportunity to rework the case.
On Tuesday, Miller personally prosecuted Robert Terry Hunt - a hit man hired in 1979 to kill the Lancasters.
Hunt, 54, a truck driver from Hobbs, N.M., pleaded guilty to two charges of murder and two charges of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 20 years on each case, with the sentences to run concurrently.
In exchange for the plea bargain, Hunt agreed to talk - and not just about the Lancasters' slayings.
He has also provided Miller and his investigator, Mike De La Flor, with information about other crimes, including an 11-year-old unsolved slaying in Montague County, northwest of Fort Worth.
Scott Lancaster was just 14 when, on Nov. 27, 1979, he came home from school and found his parents murdered inside their home.
"I think about it just about every day," Scott Lancaster said. "It has kept us living in fear for 25 years - not knowing who did it and if they were ever going to come back and hurt us."
Cecil "Sky" Lancaster, 56, had been shot in the stomach and left temple and beaten in the head with a wrench. His wife, Geraldine, 52, clad in a black nightgown, had also been shot in the head.
Cecil Lancaster's wallet was missing, along with the couple's gold Oldsmobile.
Several hundred dollars in cash was untouched, including money in a glass jar in plain sight. So was more than $150,000 in cash and a hundreds of prescription pills found under a trapdoor in the couple's living room.
At the time, police investigated several possible motives for the slayings, including drugs, robbery or revenge. Police soon became convinced that a Fort Worth man had hired someone to kill the couple because he feared that Cecil Lancaster was going to tell police about illegal activity the man was involved in.
Investigators didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest in 1979, and the case grew cold.
Miller left the Police Department several years later to fulfill his goal of becoming a prosecutor.
But he kept his personal case file on the Lancasters' slayings in his garage and, every now and again, pulled it out.
"You go back and relook at things to see if you missed something the first time," he said.
Then, in 2001, Miller received a tip that a man in jail in Las Cruces, N.M., had some details about the Lancasters' slayings.
Miller and De La Flor went to New Mexico, where they met with Texas Ranger Hank Whitman. They talked to the tipster, who Miller said "knew significant details about the case."
"I thought from the moment that I talked to this individual in Las Cruces that what we originally thought in 1979 and 1980 was, in fact, correct," Miller said. "Our analysis of the case, who was behind the case and why the Lancasters had been killed was, indeed, correct."
Afterward, based in part on that information, investigators began secretly recording conversations Hunt had with another person about the Lancasters' slayings.
In November 2003, De La Flor, investigator Danny McCormick and Whitman arrested Hunt in Seminole, a small Texas town just across the New Mexico border.
Later, when investigators spoke to Hunt, he admitted his involvement in the Lancasters' deaths.
"He just wanted to tell it because it was getting to him," De La Flor said. "Once we got him, he wanted to tell the whole deal."
During another conversation, Hunt gave them information about a killing in Montague County, another murder-for-hire case that was planned in Fort Worth.
"We developed information that Robert Hunt was also involved in the murder of J.T. Thompson in Bowie, Texas, on Sept. 4 of 1994," Miller said.
On Tuesday, Montague County District Attorney Tim Cole and two investigators traveled to Fort Worth to watch Hunt be sentenced for his Tarrant County crimes, including the conspiracy that took place in Fort Worth to commit murder in their county.
Soon, he will face prosecution there.
Hunt and Hernan Pelayo have been charged with capital murder in the death of J.T. Thompson, 53.
Thompson was fatally shot after he answered his front door. His wife was also shot but survived. She has since died.
Cole said he believes that the same man who hired Hunt to kill the Lancasters also hired him and Pelayo to kill Thompson.
"We believe these cases are related, not necessarily because of who the victims are but because of who the people involved are," Cole said. "We think this relates back to a large group of individuals who have been involved in this type of activity for a long time."
Cole said that he has not filed charges against the man believed to have hired Hunt and Pelayo to kill Thompson, but that the case is being "actively investigated."
"We hope to charge everyone involved at some point," he said.
All three of Geraldine and Cecil Lancasters' daughters are now dead.
Only their two sons - Scott and Cecil Lancaster Jr. - witnessed justice this week for their mother and father.
On Tuesday, they sat in the courtroom and quietly looked on as Hunt was sent to prison for their parents' murders.
"I've never seen him in my life until today," said Cecil Lancaster Jr., 44. "I just couldn't quit staring at him when I saw him. That's how mad I was.
"I feel better now. It's like a ton of lead being lifted off."
Scott Lancaster, 39, said he is relieved to finally have answers.
"I didn't think it would ever be solved," he said. "I thought one day, maybe, if there is a God, that when you die you would find out what happened."
After the sentencing, the brothers stood out in the hall and thanked Miller.
"He never gave up," Cecil Lancaster said.
BY MELODY MCDONALD
Knight Ridder Newspapers
FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - For more than two decades, the murders of Cecil and Geraldine Lancaster haunted him.
He could picture them dead on the bathroom floor, shot execution-style in the head. He recalled the electrical cords wrapped tightly around their necks and face.
But most of all, former detective Greg Miller remembered the Lancasters' five children.
"Those kids came home from school, or work, or wherever they were that night in November and, all of a sudden, they didn't have any parents," said Miller, who was a Fort Worth homicide detective at the time of the killings.
"I mean it's just really sad."
Miller left the Police Department in 1984 to attend law school. He was hired by the Tarrant County district attorney's office in 1987 and eventually rose to deputy chief prosecutor.
He never forgot about the Lancasters. Then, four years ago, he got an opportunity to rework the case.
On Tuesday, Miller personally prosecuted Robert Terry Hunt - a hit man hired in 1979 to kill the Lancasters.
Hunt, 54, a truck driver from Hobbs, N.M., pleaded guilty to two charges of murder and two charges of conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 20 years on each case, with the sentences to run concurrently.
In exchange for the plea bargain, Hunt agreed to talk - and not just about the Lancasters' slayings.
He has also provided Miller and his investigator, Mike De La Flor, with information about other crimes, including an 11-year-old unsolved slaying in Montague County, northwest of Fort Worth.
Scott Lancaster was just 14 when, on Nov. 27, 1979, he came home from school and found his parents murdered inside their home.
"I think about it just about every day," Scott Lancaster said. "It has kept us living in fear for 25 years - not knowing who did it and if they were ever going to come back and hurt us."
Cecil "Sky" Lancaster, 56, had been shot in the stomach and left temple and beaten in the head with a wrench. His wife, Geraldine, 52, clad in a black nightgown, had also been shot in the head.
Cecil Lancaster's wallet was missing, along with the couple's gold Oldsmobile.
Several hundred dollars in cash was untouched, including money in a glass jar in plain sight. So was more than $150,000 in cash and a hundreds of prescription pills found under a trapdoor in the couple's living room.
At the time, police investigated several possible motives for the slayings, including drugs, robbery or revenge. Police soon became convinced that a Fort Worth man had hired someone to kill the couple because he feared that Cecil Lancaster was going to tell police about illegal activity the man was involved in.
Investigators didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest in 1979, and the case grew cold.
Miller left the Police Department several years later to fulfill his goal of becoming a prosecutor.
But he kept his personal case file on the Lancasters' slayings in his garage and, every now and again, pulled it out.
"You go back and relook at things to see if you missed something the first time," he said.
Then, in 2001, Miller received a tip that a man in jail in Las Cruces, N.M., had some details about the Lancasters' slayings.
Miller and De La Flor went to New Mexico, where they met with Texas Ranger Hank Whitman. They talked to the tipster, who Miller said "knew significant details about the case."
"I thought from the moment that I talked to this individual in Las Cruces that what we originally thought in 1979 and 1980 was, in fact, correct," Miller said. "Our analysis of the case, who was behind the case and why the Lancasters had been killed was, indeed, correct."
Afterward, based in part on that information, investigators began secretly recording conversations Hunt had with another person about the Lancasters' slayings.
In November 2003, De La Flor, investigator Danny McCormick and Whitman arrested Hunt in Seminole, a small Texas town just across the New Mexico border.
Later, when investigators spoke to Hunt, he admitted his involvement in the Lancasters' deaths.
"He just wanted to tell it because it was getting to him," De La Flor said. "Once we got him, he wanted to tell the whole deal."
During another conversation, Hunt gave them information about a killing in Montague County, another murder-for-hire case that was planned in Fort Worth.
"We developed information that Robert Hunt was also involved in the murder of J.T. Thompson in Bowie, Texas, on Sept. 4 of 1994," Miller said.
On Tuesday, Montague County District Attorney Tim Cole and two investigators traveled to Fort Worth to watch Hunt be sentenced for his Tarrant County crimes, including the conspiracy that took place in Fort Worth to commit murder in their county.
Soon, he will face prosecution there.
Hunt and Hernan Pelayo have been charged with capital murder in the death of J.T. Thompson, 53.
Thompson was fatally shot after he answered his front door. His wife was also shot but survived. She has since died.
Cole said he believes that the same man who hired Hunt to kill the Lancasters also hired him and Pelayo to kill Thompson.
"We believe these cases are related, not necessarily because of who the victims are but because of who the people involved are," Cole said. "We think this relates back to a large group of individuals who have been involved in this type of activity for a long time."
Cole said that he has not filed charges against the man believed to have hired Hunt and Pelayo to kill Thompson, but that the case is being "actively investigated."
"We hope to charge everyone involved at some point," he said.
All three of Geraldine and Cecil Lancasters' daughters are now dead.
Only their two sons - Scott and Cecil Lancaster Jr. - witnessed justice this week for their mother and father.
On Tuesday, they sat in the courtroom and quietly looked on as Hunt was sent to prison for their parents' murders.
"I've never seen him in my life until today," said Cecil Lancaster Jr., 44. "I just couldn't quit staring at him when I saw him. That's how mad I was.
"I feel better now. It's like a ton of lead being lifted off."
Scott Lancaster, 39, said he is relieved to finally have answers.
"I didn't think it would ever be solved," he said. "I thought one day, maybe, if there is a God, that when you die you would find out what happened."
After the sentencing, the brothers stood out in the hall and thanked Miller.
"He never gave up," Cecil Lancaster said.