Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Testimony Continues In Trial Of Joe Dansby; Juror Dropped (cont)

"I deny I said he told me he rode the bike. The only way that's my signature is if I was tricked into signing it."

On cross examination by Bramblett, he went over when he had first seen the Marlin .22 rifle and how it had come into the home.

He was vehement in saying his brother had told him the rifle had been stolen two or three weeks before the murders, adding his father also told him of the missing weapon.

The court was informed Joe Dansby is on disability for the pinched nerve in his leg and the two disks removed from his back. Jackie Dansby said his father stayed home and cleaned the house, and would take his brother and him fishing after school.

He said his father wasn't able to wrestle around with him or Joe Jr., but did shoot baskets with them now and then, normally playing 21 or Out.

When questioned about the statements, he said he had written neither one, but agreed most of the contents were accurate. He said it was possible he signed both, but wasn't shown the part he disputed, which stated his father told him he had ridden the bicycle to High Meadows.

On Sept. 2, 1993, he was interviewed while an inmate at the Nevada County Jail by Ursery, but couldn't remember why. He said he was told if he would testify against his father he would be released from jail.

The younger Dansby said he had shown officers where he and the family had lived in Whelen Springs and where they shot guns.

Morman, he said, asked if he would try to find evidence Joe was the murderer, telling Jackie he would "make it worth my while," if I did, "and get me a job."

According to Jackie Dansby, Morman asked him to go to the Upchurch home and look for .22 casings, but he didn't.

On redirect, he said his mother had shot the .22 once or twice as far as he knew.

He told the jury there were six living children in the family, himself, his brother Joseph Jr., and three sisters, Angel, Trina and Princess. The other children, he said were living with the parents on May 16, 1992 as far as he knew.

"I'm not lying," he said when Rodgers shouted, calling him a liar. "I wouldn't lie for him or anyone else. My dad never talked to me about it (the rifle). He never said he buried the gun or threw it in a creek. I'll deny I said that to Morman."

Bramblett asked Jackie Dansby if anyone had been murdered in the area when the gun was stolen. He said there was no reason for his father and brother to lie about it before the murders because no crime had been committed.

Rodgers again asked if the rifle had ever been reported stolen, and was told no.

Sgt. Mike Loe, a criminal investigator with the ASP was next on the stand. He told the court he had been sent to Nevada County by the former head of the ASP, Col. Bailey.

"I got the case file, reviewed it, met with the officers working on it and got started," he said.

He said he had to get information from the FBI on DNA, the shell casings and bullet fragments, so he gathered the needed materials and sent them in for testing.

The .22 shells and casings were sent to Kathy Lundy of the FBI for testing. These were sent July 1994, with others sent in July 1995.

Four .22 Winchester Super X casings were sent, as were Federal cartridges supposedly found on the seat cover by Gary Lawrence of the crime lab. In addition, the 18 PMC shells from the rifle were sent, as were other shells and casings, along with boxes of shells found at the second location and in Lewis' truck.

The FBI, he said, was asked to do metal testing on the ammunition sent in. Along with these shells and casings, Loe said 28 test bullets and nine other test bullets were sent to the FBI.

On cross exam, Loe said he could not identify the source of the shells or casings, or who the supplier may have been. A number of these, he said, came from one of the investigators, possibly from Morman himself.

Dansby's wife, Betty Jean, was then called to testify. The defense invoked the husband-wife privilege, and she was not allowed to testify to anything which may have been said when they were alone together. She could only tell the court what her husband had said when they were with others, or what she had seen herself.

Rodgers asked about the Dansby family, getting Betty to tell about the children.

She said she lived in Prescott at this time, but lived in the country before coming to town. But, she said, this was not the Upchurch community, but somewhere near Caney. She said she lived with Joe in the Upchurch area in 1992.

Betty also identified the transaction receipt for the sale of the Marlin .22 rifle bought at Wal-Mart in Arkadelphia in 1987, telling the court Joe had sent her to get it.

"I had to go to Arkadelphia that day and he asked me to go to Wal-Mart and pick it up," she said. "He gave me a sales paper showing which one."

She said the rifle was purchased in his name because he wanted it. The salesman, she said, told her it was all right for her to sign his name to the slip.

Once the sale was completed and paperwork filled out, she went home and gave the rifle to Joe, she said.

She told the court the rifle was in their home until the weekend of the murders, saying she hasn't seen it since then.

On May 16, 1992, she said, Joe had left in the early evening to get water from the overflowing well near Reader. She told the court he put the rifle in his car.

The home, she added, had no running water, but did have electricity. They had to go to this well to get water for household use.

Though Joe returned later with the water, she told the court she didn't see him take the rifle out of the car, nor did she ever see it again.

She and Joe watched "Columbo" on television later in the night and went to bed shortly after it ended, which would have been around 10 p.m.

She said she woke up later in the night, but didn't know the time, and Joe was gone. She got up, but didn't go looking for him. This was not unusual behavior for him, she said.

When she woke up May 17, 1992, Joe was in bed with her.

Later in the day, she said, the family went to Whelen Springs, but picked up Charles Jones along the way.

Betty said she learned of the murders from the radio, or possibly had heard it from someone else, but didn't know where they had been killed.

She was unable to find the crime scenes on a map, but did say, after it had been explained where they were, she and Joe had been there before and gotten stuck turning around.

Shortly after the murders, she said, Joe went to California to visit a sister. She was unable to tell how long he was gone, when he left or when he returned.

She talked of other rifles in the home, the Savage .22, but couldn't tell its make, and the .243.

Betty said it was not unusual for Joe to wander around at night, but she didn't bother looking for him.

She also said he owned a bicycle, but didn't know what