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The Murder of Amber Lyn Smith · Gone Cold - Texas True Crime

0:01
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Alice. I'm a Girl Scout and I have plans.
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Speaker 1: and the Girl Scouts Gone Cold. Podcasts may contain violent
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Speaker 1: or graphics subject matter.
0:57
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised by two thousand and six. Sagein
1:03
Speaker 2: Texas in Guadalupe County wasn't trying to be like nearby
1:08
Speaker 2: San Antonio, Even considering the small city had seen its
1:13
Speaker 2: fair share of growth as the big one stretched beyond
1:16
Speaker 2: its own borders. Sageen was something steadier than that, a
1:20
Speaker 2: working class town that woke before daylight and clocked in
1:25
Speaker 2: before the sun burned the mist off the Guadalupe River.
1:29
Speaker 2: North and northwest of downtown. Modest brick and wood framed
1:34
Speaker 2: houses lined streets like Aldama carports, chain link fences, lawnmowers
1:41
Speaker 2: parked beside sheds, pickup trucks idling in driveways before sunrise,
1:47
Speaker 2: and just beyond those houses Interstate ten hums with consistent
1:52
Speaker 2: traffic near that corridor, manufacturing plants, including the Tyson Chicken
1:59
Speaker 2: processing facility, anchored routines and padded wallets. On that dead
2:05
Speaker 2: end stretch of Aldama Street. Next to the Tyson Plants,
2:09
Speaker 2: chain link fence sat a modest stucco home. Inside that
2:14
Speaker 2: house lived Amber Lynn Smith, her two boys, one four
2:19
Speaker 2: years old, the other just one month old, and her
2:22
Speaker 2: common law husband and one night in January two thousand
2:27
Speaker 2: and six, Amber seemingly vanished without a trace. On the
2:58
Speaker 2: night of Saturday, January twenty eighth, two thousand and six,
3:02
Speaker 2: twenty eight year old Amber Smith was at home on
3:05
Speaker 2: Aldama Street with her children. Her common law husband, twenty
3:10
Speaker 2: seven year old Ronnie Lynn James, said that he last
3:14
Speaker 2: saw her At around ten pm, James told police he
3:18
Speaker 2: was leaving to visit family in the Sweet Home area,
3:22
Speaker 2: about sixty miles east of Sageen to do some partying.
3:27
Speaker 2: Amber remained at the house. Sometime after midnight, Amber spoke
3:32
Speaker 2: on the phone with her sister, Alison Sheeffel. The call
3:37
Speaker 2: was normal. There was nothing in the conversation that raised concern,
3:42
Speaker 2: but by the time the sun came up the next morning, Sunday,
3:47
Speaker 2: January twenty ninth, something was terribly wrong. Ronnie James returned
3:53
Speaker 2: home shortly before seven am. He said he found the
3:57
Speaker 2: two children asleep in their beds Amber, however, was not there.
4:02
Speaker 2: He called nine to one one. The Sageene Police Department
4:07
Speaker 2: responded to the residents quickly. Investigators immediately noted something that
4:12
Speaker 2: would define the case from the beginning. The circumstances were unusual.
4:19
Speaker 2: Detective Sergeant Maureen Watson later said, everything kept leading them
4:24
Speaker 2: back to the fact that Amber would not leave her
4:26
Speaker 2: children alone. Family members and even neighbors had confirmed that
4:32
Speaker 2: her absence was not normal behavior. Amber worked at Child
4:37
Speaker 2: Unlimited daycare center and was on maternity leave after giving
4:42
Speaker 2: birth to her third child in December. Her daughter, her
4:46
Speaker 2: first born, lived with her grandmother. Amber's supervisor, Karen Anderson,
4:53
Speaker 2: told reporters that the staff had been expecting her to
4:56
Speaker 2: return by mid morning. On January twenty ninth, Police had
5:03
Speaker 2: begun organizing search efforts at about eleven a m. Officers
5:08
Speaker 2: and volunteers concentrated their search on a vacant field adjacent
5:13
Speaker 2: to Aldama Street behind the Tyson Foods Plant. Canine units
5:18
Speaker 2: from South Texas Search and Rescue joined in, along with
5:22
Speaker 2: volunteers from the sagin Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association. The
5:28
Speaker 2: field yielded no results. Officials from the Guadalupe County Sheriff's
5:34
Speaker 2: Office and the Sagine Fire Department deployed boats into the
5:38
Speaker 2: Guadalupe River. That search also turned up nothing. Amber's description
5:45
Speaker 2: crackled over the police band as a beyond the lookout
5:49
Speaker 2: was issued. She was five feet three inches tall, weighed
5:53
Speaker 2: about one hundred pounds, had brown hair with blonde highlights
5:57
Speaker 2: that she usually wore pulled back in a ponytail, and
6:01
Speaker 2: blue eyes. Meanwhile, her common law husband, Ronnie Lynn James,
6:07
Speaker 2: was arrested Sunday on unrelated charges, a motion to revoke
6:12
Speaker 2: probation for driving with a suspended license. He was ordered
6:17
Speaker 2: held without bond. James had previously been convicted of felony
6:22
Speaker 2: manufacturing or delivering of a controlled substance and had been
6:27
Speaker 2: sentenced to two years in state jail, for which he'd
6:31
Speaker 2: been paroled. Police stated publicly that James was not considered
6:36
Speaker 2: a suspect in Amber's disappearance at that time, but it
6:41
Speaker 2: was obvious he was a person of interest at the
6:44
Speaker 2: get go. He told reporters he had gone out and
6:48
Speaker 2: had fun, and when he returned home, he claimed Amber
6:52
Speaker 2: was gone. Investigators began retracing the movements of both Amber
6:59
Speaker 2: and James. On January thirtieth, search efforts expanded. Police searched
7:06
Speaker 2: grassy fields near the thirteen hundred block of Aldama Street.
7:11
Speaker 2: A German shepherd canine led officers along Kingsbury Street, through
7:16
Speaker 2: parking lots and around buildings. At one point, officers closely
7:21
Speaker 2: examined the area around the early bird Town homes less
7:26
Speaker 2: than half a mile from Amber's home. They entered one
7:30
Speaker 2: apartment with the dog, but no evidence was found. A neighbor,
7:36
Speaker 2: Isabel Rodriguez, told reporters she had seen police cars at
7:40
Speaker 2: the house at least twice in the past. She also
7:45
Speaker 2: described an argument she had witnessed months earlier Amber driving
7:49
Speaker 2: down the street while James walked beside the car, arguing
7:54
Speaker 2: with her through the window. Another neighbor, Rosa Contrerez, said
7:59
Speaker 2: she heard nothing unusual the night Amber disappeared. Police stated
8:04
Speaker 2: there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle
8:09
Speaker 2: inside the house. Amber's purse, identification, and vehicle were accounted for.
8:16
Speaker 2: A family member had been using the car over the weekend,
8:20
Speaker 2: and it was later processed by the Texas Department of
8:23
Speaker 2: Public Safety Crime Lab. On January thirty, first, investigators shifted
8:29
Speaker 2: their focus east of town. Search teams turned attention to
8:34
Speaker 2: FM for sixty seven, East of the Almost area. Officers
8:39
Speaker 2: and Texas Rangers searched Walker's Cafe near Sweet Home Road.
8:45
Speaker 2: They also searched a field at FM for sixty seven
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Speaker 2: and Gamecock Road. Lieutenant Mike Watts stated they were concentrating
8:54
Speaker 2: on areas Amber was familiar with and locations she and
8:58
Speaker 2: Ronnie James reportedly frequented, though they continually refused to name
9:05
Speaker 2: him as a suspect. East of Sageen was the same
9:08
Speaker 2: direction James had taken out of town the night Amber disappeared.
9:13
Speaker 2: He told police he had spent the evening with family
9:17
Speaker 2: in sweet Home and left that gathering at about two am.
9:22
Speaker 2: After that, he claimed to have driven around before returning
9:26
Speaker 2: home at about seven am. Five hours later. Police expanded
9:33
Speaker 2: searches to a vacant field behind the McDonald's at State
9:38
Speaker 2: Highway forty six and Interstate ten. They also examined areas
9:43
Speaker 2: along FM four sixty seven near Highway forty six. By
9:48
Speaker 2: February first, two thousand and six, investigators enlisted assistance from
9:53
Speaker 2: the Department of Public Safety Crime Lab out of Austin
9:57
Speaker 2: to assist with evidence collection. Search efforts widened to include
10:03
Speaker 2: the Rio Nagales power plant and railroad tracks along FM
10:07
Speaker 2: seventy eight between Sagein and Marion. Detective Sergeant Jerry Hernandez,
10:14
Speaker 2: who would later become the lead investigator in the case,
10:18
Speaker 2: worked alongside Detective Sergeant Maureene Watson and Lieutenant Mike Watts
10:24
Speaker 2: as officers pursued tips. Watson stated they were receiving numerous calls,
10:30
Speaker 2: but none that could be verified. She did not expound.
10:35
Speaker 2: The next day, police announced they were suspending large scale
10:40
Speaker 2: local ground searches in order to narrow the investigation. Instead
10:45
Speaker 2: of broad sweeps, investigators would conduct in depth interviews with
10:50
Speaker 2: friends and family members, which they hoped would lead to
10:54
Speaker 2: directed searches of specific areas. Sergeant Hernandez said surround agencies
11:00
Speaker 2: in bear, Comel and Hayes Counties were being asked to
11:04
Speaker 2: assist in searching fringe areas along county borders. Texas ECUSEARCH
11:12
Speaker 2: Mounted Search and Recovery Team entered the case on February seventh.
11:17
Speaker 2: Founder Tim Miller arrived in Sageen after being contacted by
11:22
Speaker 2: Amber's family. Miller explained his motivation stemmed from his own
11:27
Speaker 2: daughter's nineteen eighty four murder after she was initially written
11:31
Speaker 2: off as a runaway. By two thousand and six, Texas ECUSEARCH,
11:36
Speaker 2: founded in two thousand, had conducted more than five hundred
11:41
Speaker 2: searches nationwide and worked with more than four hundred law
11:45
Speaker 2: enforcement agencies. The organization brought infrared, sonar, night vision equipment,
11:52
Speaker 2: search teams, drones, and helicopters. Police Chief Louis Cayazzo described
11:59
Speaker 2: miller arrival as a blessing. Using drone aircraft equipped with
12:05
Speaker 2: digital photography equipment, teams scanned areas along FM for sixty
12:11
Speaker 2: seven and captured more than five hundred aerial photographs for
12:15
Speaker 2: analysis searches expanded westward into Guadalupe County. Officers searched McKnight
12:24
Speaker 2: Road south of FM for sixty six Zuel Road near
12:29
Speaker 2: the Baar Guadalupe County line, and along Interstate ten between
12:34
Speaker 2: Sigeen and San Antonio. Helicopters covered miles of terrain. Search
12:40
Speaker 2: teams returned to the Guadalupe River near Red Mill Dam.
12:45
Speaker 2: Boats equipped with sonar scanned portions of Lake Placid. Volunteers
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Speaker 2: searched ranch land along dead Man Creek on FM seven.
12:56
Speaker 2: Twenty five. Participants formed lines and combed brushy fields, emerging
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Speaker 2: covered in burrs. At one briefing, Detective Watts warned volunteers
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Speaker 2: about hybrid wolf dogs reported on one property and instructed
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Speaker 2: them not to run if confronted. On February ninth, Texas
13:20
Speaker 2: ECU Search announced it had covered as much ground as possible.
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Speaker 2: Tim Miller offered a five thousand dollars reward for information
13:29
Speaker 2: leading to Amber's whereabouts. Singing Police Lieutenant Mike Watts described
13:35
Speaker 2: the effort as the largest search in Guadalupe County history,
13:40
Speaker 2: despite days of foot searches, drone flights, helicopter sweeps, sonar scans,
13:47
Speaker 2: and river patrols. No sign of Amber was found. On
14:03
Speaker 2: February tenth, two thousand and six, investigators publicly acknowledged that
14:09
Speaker 2: resources had been exhausted. For the time being, the searches
14:14
Speaker 2: for twenty eight year old amberlyn Smith would have to
14:17
Speaker 2: pause until further information could lead them to more targeted efforts.
14:23
Speaker 2: Detective Sergeant Marien Watson said they would regroup and refocus
14:28
Speaker 2: unless new leads emerged. For nearly three weeks, Amber remained missing. Then,
14:36
Speaker 2: on Thursday, February sixteenth, two thousand and six, at approximately
14:41
Speaker 2: four pm, a Texas Department of Transportation worker conducting bridge
14:46
Speaker 2: inspections discovered a badly decomposed body lying face down in
14:52
Speaker 2: a dry creek bed under a small bridge along FM
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Speaker 2: seven twenty five near Grove Lane south of New Bronfuls.
15:01
Speaker 2: The site was approximately eight miles northwest from ambers home.
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Speaker 2: Though areas very close by had been looked over during
15:10
Speaker 2: the initial efforts, the exact site had not been searched
15:14
Speaker 2: during the extensive ground efforts earlier in the investigation. The
15:19
Speaker 2: partially clothed body was badly decomposed and could not be
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Speaker 2: identified on the scene. Sagein Police contacted their missing person's
15:30
Speaker 2: family that evening and advised them to prepare for the
15:34
Speaker 2: possibility that it was her. The Texas Department of Public
15:39
Speaker 2: Safety mobile crime lab arrived at approximately eight PM. Investigators
15:45
Speaker 2: did not disturb the remains until crime lab personnel processed
15:49
Speaker 2: the scene. Preliminary identification was made based on distinctive tattoos,
15:56
Speaker 2: including one on the right ankle bearing the name Ronnie.
16:01
Speaker 2: The body was transported to the Travis County Medical Examiner's
16:05
Speaker 2: Office for autopsy. Autopsy results, which included fingerprinting and tattoo identification,
16:13
Speaker 2: confirmed the remains were Amberlin Smith. Because of the state
16:18
Speaker 2: of decomposition, authorities could find no obvious signs of trauma.
16:24
Speaker 2: The preliminary cause of death was listed as undetermined pending
16:29
Speaker 2: toxicology and autopsy reports. Sageen Police Detective Aaron Seidenberger stated
16:37
Speaker 2: investigators were treating the case as a homicide investigation. Seidenberger
16:43
Speaker 2: stated unequivocally she was placed there. Amber's funeral service was
16:50
Speaker 2: held at Get's Memorial Chapel on February twenty second, two
16:54
Speaker 2: thousand and six. A memorial fund titled the Amberln Smith
17:00
Speaker 2: Ldren's Account was established at Broadway National Bank to assist
17:04
Speaker 2: with the care of her two sons. Her obituary described
17:09
Speaker 2: her as a loving mother who found her greatest joy
17:12
Speaker 2: in working with children. Toxicology tests took weeks, and the
17:18
Speaker 2: results were never publicly released. No arrests were made. The
17:25
Speaker 2: search had ended, but the investigation had not. On March ninth,
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Speaker 2: two thousand and six, Precinct for Justice of the Piece
17:34
Speaker 2: Larry Morowitz officially ruled Amberln Smith's death a homicide. Morowitz
17:41
Speaker 2: said he ruled it that way based on information received
17:44
Speaker 2: from the Medical Examiner's office and evidence obtained during the investigation.
17:51
Speaker 2: There is enough evidence to rule out natural causes, rule
17:54
Speaker 2: out suicide, and rule out accidental, he stated. Reiterated that
18:01
Speaker 2: Amber did not arrive at that location on her own.
18:06
Speaker 2: Detective Seidenberg stated that police had not narrowed in on
18:10
Speaker 2: any suspects. Ronnie Lynn James was identified as a person
18:15
Speaker 2: of interest as he was the last person known to
18:19
Speaker 2: have seen Amber alive. He had been jailed on unrelated
18:23
Speaker 2: charges the day Amber was reported missing, and was later
18:27
Speaker 2: arrested again on unrelated forgery charges from May two thousand
18:32
Speaker 2: and five. His bond was set at one hundred and
18:35
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars. Police said James had cooperated with investigators
18:41
Speaker 2: and emphasized that he had not been charged in connection
18:44
Speaker 2: with Amber's death. They believed James would cooperate during subsequent questioning.
18:52
Speaker 2: In late February, Seidenberger said the department would be conducting
18:56
Speaker 2: re interviews with friends and family members. By late March,
19:01
Speaker 2: police acknowledged that they still did not know what caused
19:05
Speaker 2: Amber's death. Investigators were still waiting on the final autopsy
19:10
Speaker 2: report from the Travis County Medical Examiner's office. When it
19:15
Speaker 2: finally came, the police kept it close to the chest.
19:20
Speaker 2: Then came the case of Vicente Garcia. Later in two
19:26
Speaker 2: thousand and six. Another disappearance shook Guadalupe County. On December
19:32
Speaker 2: twenty second, two thousand and six, Vicente Vincent Garcia was
19:37
Speaker 2: in the Meadow Lake subdivision just south of Sageen. Christmas
19:43
Speaker 2: was only days away. Vicente was twenty nine years old,
19:47
Speaker 2: six foot two, around two hundred pounds. He worked construction.
19:53
Speaker 2: He had three children of his own and four step children.
19:58
Speaker 2: To most people, that's what he was, a working man
20:02
Speaker 2: with a large family. To a much smaller circle, he
20:06
Speaker 2: was something else, something that wasn't public knowledge. That evening.
20:12
Speaker 2: Vicent's family last spoke to him at approximately six pm.
20:17
Speaker 2: He was wearing a gray thermal shirt, blue work pants,
20:21
Speaker 2: and red wing work boots, practical clothing the kind worn
20:26
Speaker 2: by someone who might go from a job site straight
20:29
Speaker 2: to a friend's house without changing. Later that night, after
20:34
Speaker 2: being seen at home, he was seen at another house
20:38
Speaker 2: in Meadow Lake. Sheriff's investigator Sergeant Craig Jones would later
20:43
Speaker 2: document that Ronnie Lynn James, Amber Lynn Smith's common law husband,
20:49
Speaker 2: was there for several hours, coming and going to buy
20:52
Speaker 2: cocaine for Vicente, Garcia and others at the house. Before
20:58
Speaker 2: dawn on December twenty third, witnesses saw Vicente leave the
21:02
Speaker 2: gathering with James in a borrowed pickup truck. That was
21:07
Speaker 2: the last confirmed sighting. Vicente did not come home. He
21:13
Speaker 2: did not return for Christmas. His family told Singing police
21:18
Speaker 2: there was no scenario in which he would willingly miss
21:22
Speaker 2: the holiday with his children. On December thirtieth, two thousand
21:27
Speaker 2: and six, the San Antonio Express News reported that the
21:31
Speaker 2: police department was asking for the public's help in finding
21:35
Speaker 2: the missing man. By then, investigators had already begun intensive efforts,
21:42
Speaker 2: including searching along the Guadalupe River, but they were looking
21:47
Speaker 2: in the wrong water. On the evening of January seventh,
21:51
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, more than two weeks after he vanished,
21:56
Speaker 2: Vicente Garcia's body was found floating in Sabolo Creek at
22:00
Speaker 2: Skull Crossing near New Berlin. The stream forms a boundary
22:06
Speaker 2: line separating Guadalupe County from Wilson and Bear Counties. The
22:12
Speaker 2: body was discovered on the Wilson County side. It had
22:16
Speaker 2: been weighted down in the water. Vicente had been shot
22:21
Speaker 2: multiple times. Authorities would later describe him as bullet riddled.
22:27
Speaker 2: Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwick assumed control of the investigation.
22:34
Speaker 2: Though the body was found across the county line, Zwick
22:38
Speaker 2: believed the killing itself had likely occurred within Guadalupe County,
22:43
Speaker 2: possibly as retribution for Garcia's cooperation with law enforcement in
22:49
Speaker 2: local drug investigations. Vicente had served as a confidential informant.
22:56
Speaker 2: According to Sergeant Craig Jones's case documents, his assistance led
23:01
Speaker 2: to the successful indictment and or prosecution of over fifteen
23:05
Speaker 2: narcotics offenders. One of those offenders was Beatrice Veronica Giles
23:11
Speaker 2: of Marion. Court documents stated that Giles knew Vicente Garcia
23:17
Speaker 2: had informed on her. According to Sergeant Jones's report, she
23:22
Speaker 2: told others she would pay to have him killed, that
23:26
Speaker 2: she knew he was the snitch on her criminal cases,
23:30
Speaker 2: and that she was actively looking for someone to kill him.
23:34
Speaker 2: In two thousand and five, Giles had been arrested on
23:38
Speaker 2: federal charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Vicente,
23:44
Speaker 2: who assisted in the arrest, was to testify against her
23:48
Speaker 2: at trial. Investigators would later allege that the plan was
23:53
Speaker 2: simple in design and deliberate in execution. Under the guise
23:59
Speaker 2: of arranging a drug deal, Vicente was lured out. Ronnie
24:04
Speaker 2: Lynn James, Giles's cousin, drove him to a roadside meeting
24:09
Speaker 2: at a location investigators have never publicly disclosed. Charles B. Harris,
24:15
Speaker 2: Giles's spouse at the time, was waiting. James would later
24:21
Speaker 2: acknowledge his role, telling investigators he drove Vicente to what
24:26
Speaker 2: was supposed to be a drug buy. At that roadside meeting,
24:30
Speaker 2: Harris shop Vicente Garcia, or Ronnie James did. Each claimed
24:37
Speaker 2: the other pulled the trigger after the shooting. According to
24:41
Speaker 2: James's statement, he drove the borrowed pickup truck to property
24:46
Speaker 2: owned by Maurice Singletary, Giles's father. There, they attempted to
24:52
Speaker 2: clean up evidence, including Vicente's blood. Tests conducted by the
24:58
Speaker 2: Department of Public Safety Crime Lab confirmed Vicente Garcia's blood
25:03
Speaker 2: was found inside the vehicle. The investigation stretched on for years.
25:10
Speaker 2: The case slipped by quietly and without much media ado,
25:15
Speaker 2: and for a time, remained unsolved. In January two thousand
25:31
Speaker 2: and seven, the month the body of Vicente Garcia was found,
25:36
Speaker 2: and one year after Amber Lynn Smith was reported missing,
25:41
Speaker 2: her sister, Alison Sheffel, lived in what had been Ambers townhouse.
25:47
Speaker 2: She was raising Amber's sons, Logan and RJ, alongside her
25:52
Speaker 2: own two children. Down the street. On the Tyson Plant's
25:57
Speaker 2: chain link fence that faced Aldama Street, Allison and her mother,
26:02
Speaker 2: Cindy Scheffel created a sign using blue plastic cups that
26:07
Speaker 2: read we miss you Amber. In late January two thousand
26:12
Speaker 2: and seven, the family organized a memorial walk beginning at
26:16
Speaker 2: six pm, from the townhouse to the Tyson Plant. They
26:21
Speaker 2: asked participants to bring candles. Cindy Sheeffel said she believed
26:26
Speaker 2: her daughter died somewhere between her home and the plant.
26:31
Speaker 2: Ronnie Lynn James had reportedly left the area. Segeen Police
26:37
Speaker 2: Detective Lieutenant Mike Watts stated closing the case remained a
26:42
Speaker 2: high priority. Detective Jerry Hernandez and other investigators, he said,
26:49
Speaker 2: were still pursuing leads. The local Secret Witness program offered
26:55
Speaker 2: a five hundred dollars reward for information leading to an
26:58
Speaker 2: arrest and grand jury indictment. Amber's mother thanked Singing police
27:04
Speaker 2: for their efforts and urged anyone with information to come forward.
27:09
Speaker 2: Detective Hernandez said he hoped to bring the family closure,
27:14
Speaker 2: but the investigation continued to stall. Another year passed by
27:20
Speaker 2: January two thousand and eight, two years after Amber disappeared,
27:25
Speaker 2: Detective Lieutenant Johnny San Miguel brought few outside visitors into
27:30
Speaker 2: his Criminal Investigations Division office. Instead, he met them at
27:36
Speaker 2: an empty desk in a separate room inside his office,
27:41
Speaker 2: one wall was dominated by a whiteboard. Written across it
27:46
Speaker 2: in dry erase marker was the blueprint of Amber Lynn
27:49
Speaker 2: Smith's homicide. Investigation timelines interview lists persons of interest, but
27:57
Speaker 2: if investigators had an actual susse, they refused to publicly
28:02
Speaker 2: name them. Ronnie Lynn James remained the only person ever
28:07
Speaker 2: identified as a person of interest. He had never been
28:11
Speaker 2: charged in connection with Amber's death, but it seemed he
28:15
Speaker 2: was only a piece of information away from it. Detective
28:19
Speaker 2: San Miguel said investigators needed help. Someone, he said, knew something,
28:26
Speaker 2: but the years were stacking up. In January twenty ten,
28:33
Speaker 2: four years after Amber was reported missing, Alison Sheffel said
28:37
Speaker 2: she still sometimes hoped when the phone rang that it
28:40
Speaker 2: might be her sister. She knew better Amber was dead.
28:46
Speaker 2: Investigators from the Segeen Police Department and the Guadaloupe County
28:50
Speaker 2: Sheriff's Office were working the case jointly because Amber had
28:55
Speaker 2: been reported missing in Segeen but her body was found
28:59
Speaker 2: in the county. Both departments insisted they would never give up.
29:04
Speaker 2: The homicide remained unsolved, and the cops said open it
29:10
Speaker 2: was fairly clear it had gone cold. Later that year,
29:15
Speaker 2: a development in another case would have implications for Ambers.
29:20
Speaker 2: The other unsolved case from two thousand and six. On
29:25
Speaker 2: December twenty eighth, twenty ten, four years after Vicente Garcia
29:30
Speaker 2: was murdered, Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwick announced at a
29:34
Speaker 2: press conference that not one, but four individuals had been
29:39
Speaker 2: charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Charles Harris,
29:44
Speaker 2: Beatrice Veronica Giles, Maurice Singletary, and Ronnie Lynn James all
29:51
Speaker 2: were booked on murder and conspiracy charges in connection with
29:55
Speaker 2: Vicente's killing. Precinct one Justice of the Peace Darryl Hunter
30:01
Speaker 2: set bail at one point five million dollars for each defendant.
30:06
Speaker 2: The charges varied in degree. James and Harris faced capital
30:12
Speaker 2: murder and conspiracy to commit capital murder charges, offenses carrying
30:18
Speaker 2: only two possible outcomes if convicted, life in prison without
30:23
Speaker 2: parole or death by lethal injection. Giles and Singletary faced
30:29
Speaker 2: first degree felony charges of criminal conspiracy to commit capital murder.
30:35
Speaker 2: Guadalupe County District Attorney Heather McMahon stated in August twenty
30:40
Speaker 2: eleven that the possibility of capital punishment remained in play
30:45
Speaker 2: for James and Harris. All four defendants remained either in
30:50
Speaker 2: custody or already imprisoned on other cases. James appeared in
30:55
Speaker 2: twenty fifth Judicial District Judge W. C. Kirkandaal's corps room
31:00
Speaker 2: for pre trial hearings. Harris was scheduled for subsequent court
31:05
Speaker 2: appearances as the case progressed. Plea agreements reshaped the landscape.
31:12
Speaker 2: Beatrice Giles accepted a deal for a fifteen year prison
31:16
Speaker 2: sentence in exchange for her testimony. Maurice Singletary received a
31:22
Speaker 2: plea agreement for a two year prison sentence for tampering
31:25
Speaker 2: with physical evidence. Ronnie Lynn James's trial began in August
31:31
Speaker 2: twenty twelve. On August, six, jurors and Sageine deliberated for
31:37
Speaker 2: approximately forty minutes before returning a unanimous verdict. Judge Kirkandahl
31:44
Speaker 2: had read the court's charge to the jury that morning,
31:48
Speaker 2: explaining that James could be convicted under one of two theories,
31:53
Speaker 2: either as the primary shooter or as a party to
31:56
Speaker 2: the shooting carried out by Charles Harris. District Attorney Heather
32:01
Speaker 2: McMahon had argued that it ultimately did not matter who
32:04
Speaker 2: physically pulled the trigger. The evidence is clear, she told jurors,
32:10
Speaker 2: the state has shown you that Ronnie James and Charles
32:13
Speaker 2: Harris executed Vicente Garcia. We're not sure if it was
32:18
Speaker 2: Charles or Ronnie, but when it comes down to it,
32:21
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter. She explained that even if six jurors
32:25
Speaker 2: believed James was the shooter and six believed Harris fired
32:30
Speaker 2: the shots. All twelve could still convict James of capital murder.
32:35
Speaker 2: Assistant District Attorney Heather Hines revisited James's own words during
32:41
Speaker 2: a June fifteenth, two thousand and nine interview conducted by
32:45
Speaker 2: Sergeant Craig Jones. The interview lasted more than three hours.
32:51
Speaker 2: The jury had seen and edited forty nine minute version.
32:55
Speaker 2: In one portion replayed during closing arguments, James stated, I
33:00
Speaker 2: did my part. McMahon emphasized that statement, arguing that by
33:05
Speaker 2: his own admission, James had participated in the conspiracy and
33:10
Speaker 2: was therefore legally responsible. Assistant da Hines also referenced James's
33:17
Speaker 2: claim that Vicente Garcia never saw it coming. She questioned
33:22
Speaker 2: how James could know that detail if, as he claimed,
33:26
Speaker 2: he was not inside the Ford Ranger pickup when the
33:30
Speaker 2: shooting occurred. Defense attorney William Maynard the Third argued there
33:36
Speaker 2: was no evidence that James had fired the weapon. He's
33:40
Speaker 2: not on trial for being a drug dealer. He's not
33:43
Speaker 2: on trial for helping dispose of a body. He is
33:46
Speaker 2: on trial for capital murder, Maynard told the jury. He
33:51
Speaker 2: also attacked the credibility of cooperating witnesses, noting that Giles's
33:56
Speaker 2: federal drug trafficking case, built in part on Vicente's informant work,
34:02
Speaker 2: resulted in her fifteen year deal. But after deliberating just
34:07
Speaker 2: over half an hour, the jury returned guilty verdicts on
34:11
Speaker 2: both capital murder and conspiracy to commit capital murder. Judge
34:17
Speaker 2: Kirkandall sentenced James accordingly, life in prison without the possibility
34:23
Speaker 2: of parole. Before deputies removed him from the courtroom, members
34:28
Speaker 2: of Vicente Garcia's family addressed him. District Attorney McMahon read
34:34
Speaker 2: a written statement from Garcia's brother Javier. Another step brother,
34:39
Speaker 2: carne Zambrano, spoke directly to James. I hope our Lord
34:45
Speaker 2: has mercy on you, he said. The conviction of James,
34:50
Speaker 2: along with the plea agreements of Giles and Singletary, left
34:54
Speaker 2: only one defendant pending trial at that time, Charles Harris.
34:59
Speaker 2: The following November, he was also convicted and sentenced to
35:04
Speaker 2: life no parole, more than five and a half years
35:08
Speaker 2: after the fact Vicente Garcia's murder was solved. Amberlin Smith's, however,
35:15
Speaker 2: was not. The arrest and conviction left many questions on
35:20
Speaker 2: the table concerning amber'st case and also showed that Ronnie
35:24
Speaker 2: James was absolutely capable of violence. He was the last
35:30
Speaker 2: person to see Amber alive. He reported her missing. His
35:34
Speaker 2: account of that night that his common law wife had
35:38
Speaker 2: disappeared while he was gone seeing family, and then he
35:42
Speaker 2: claimed driving around for five hours after left much to
35:47
Speaker 2: be desired. Amber had vanished, leaving no trace behind, no
35:53
Speaker 2: signs that a stranger had been in her house, no
35:56
Speaker 2: forced entry or ransacking. On February twenty third, twenty twenty,
36:02
Speaker 2: a post appeared on Websleuth's dot com from a person
36:06
Speaker 2: identifying herself as Amber's daughter. Her name was Justine. She
36:12
Speaker 2: was twenty three years old. She explained that she had
36:16
Speaker 2: not been mentioned in early news coverage because at the
36:20
Speaker 2: time of her mother's death, she had been living with
36:23
Speaker 2: her grandmother. She is Amber's first child. When the case unfolded,
36:29
Speaker 2: she was only eight or nine years old, she said.
36:33
Speaker 2: She wrote about the trauma of that period, the memory
36:37
Speaker 2: of learning her mother was missing, then later receiving the
36:40
Speaker 2: call that her body had been found. Those moments, she said,
36:45
Speaker 2: stayed with her. Now older, she was searching for answers.
36:50
Speaker 2: She had turned to the Internet, combing through archived articles,
36:54
Speaker 2: court records, and discussion threads, trying to understand details she
36:59
Speaker 2: might not have known as a child. That search led
37:03
Speaker 2: her to the web Sleuth's forum. She said, in her view,
37:08
Speaker 2: everything pointed toward Ronnie Lynn James. She referenced her young brother, Logan,
37:14
Speaker 2: who had been four years old at the time. According
37:18
Speaker 2: to her, Logan told counselors that Ronnie had said, Mommy
37:22
Speaker 2: is going away and never coming back, along with other
37:26
Speaker 2: troubling statements. Even acknowledging that he was serving a life
37:31
Speaker 2: sentence for capital murder did not bring her peace. She
37:35
Speaker 2: wrote that she still wanted justice for her mother. James's
37:40
Speaker 2: prison sentence was justice for Vicente Garcia, but not Amber
37:45
Speaker 2: Lynn Smith. She wanted someone charged for her murder. She
37:50
Speaker 2: said her mother's life mattered and still matters, and that
37:54
Speaker 2: she would never fully have peace until justice was served.
37:59
Speaker 2: She expressed the feeling that some family members had stopped
38:03
Speaker 2: fighting or had lost hope. She also shared that her grandmother,
38:08
Speaker 2: Amber's mother had died the previous year from breast cancer.
38:14
Speaker 2: With her grandmother gone, she wrote that she still felt
38:17
Speaker 2: like she might be the only one still holding on.
38:23
Speaker 2: If you have any information about the murder of Amber
38:27
Speaker 2: Lynn Smith. Please contact Texas Crime Stoppers at eight hundred
38:32
Speaker 2: two five two eight four seven seven if you'd like
38:38
Speaker 2: to join gon Cold's mission to shine a light on
38:40
Speaker 2: unsolved homicides and missing persons cases. Get the show at
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Speaker 2: support the show by leaving a five star rating and
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Speaker 2: written review on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you listen.
39:01
Speaker 2: However you choose to support Gone Cold, we appreciate you.
39:05
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, y'all,