June 16
TEXAS:
Death Penalty Sought In Triple Murder Of Alba Family
The 3 adult suspects charged with murdering an Alba woman and her 2 sons
after her daughter was forbidden to date one of the killers pleaded not
guilty in a short hearing last month at the Rains County court annex.
The county attorney is seeking the death penalty in the murder trial of
Charles Allen Waid, 20, and 19-year-old Charlie James Wilkinson who was
forbidden to date 16-year-old Erin Caffey the night before her mother and
2 younger brothers were brutally killed.
The death penalty will not be sought in the case of Bobbi Gale Johnson,
18, who was described as an accomplice who didn't use a weapon in the
arrest affidavit. Or in the case of Erin Caffey, a minor who was also
charged with 3 counts of capital murder and is detained at the juvenile
detention center in Greenville.
The trials could begin as early as this winter and will likely require a
change of venue after a media storm descended upon this town of 1,500,
said Justice of the Peace Don Smith on Friday.
"Our town is too small for people not to know these folks personally," he
said.
Waid, Wilkinson and Johnson pled not guilty despite an arrest affidavit
obtained by the Tyler Paper 2 days after the March 1 murders that
described the 3 confessing to the murders.
"Wilkinson stated that he and Erin were in love and the only way they
could be together is to kill the parents," the affidavit stated.
Her father, Terry Caffey, 41, was shot 5 times but got out of his burning
house and reached a neighbor, still conscious enough to tell them he
recognized Wilkinson shooting him and his wife in their bed, sheriffs
officials said.
Family friends said Terry Caffey has recovered from his gunshot wounds and
is receiving immense support from his church and family. Penny Caffey, 37,
a church pianist, and sons Mathew, 13, and Tyler, 8, were shot and stabbed
to death. Their bodies were removed once firefighters doused the flames of
their home that burned to the ground, officials said.
Wilkinson, Waid and Johnson are being held on $50,000 bonds in the Rains
County jail.
(source: Tyler Morning Telegraph)