Monday's Internet Edition, October 06, 2008.
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| John Swart |
Leader-Press correspondent -
GATESVILLE – There’s no doubt the State proved Neva Swart was murdered, but there simply wasn’t any proof as to who did it, said the foreperson of his jury.
John Frederick Swart, 53, of 835 Michelle in Copperas Cove, was acquitted of murdering his wife late Monday after a six-day trial.
“The prosecution did a wonderful job of proving murder and arson, they just forgot to prove (Swart) did it,” said Nicole O’Dell, the foreperson of the jury that found him not guilty last Monday. “There was simply not enough evidence to say 100 percent that he did it.
“I’d like to say, and I think I speak for everyone in that (jury) room, we believe that man did kill her, but there simply is no proof.”
Swart, who is the Coryell County assistant appraiser, was charged with the August, 1988, arson-murder of his wife, Neva Ann, who was then 30. Her body was found in her burned out car about five miles north of Copperas Cove on Farm-to-Market Road 116.
At the time of Neva Swart’s death, Coryell County Justice of the Peace Norma Storm ruled the death a homi-
cide and investigators turned their sights on Swart and no one else … something the defense attorney would use against the prosecutor in final arguments on an issue that apparently ran true with the jury.
After 15 years the Texas Department of Public Safety assisted the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office in making a case against Swart based upon newly recovered evidence and Swart was arrested and indicted. Following a delay due to District Attorney Riley Simpson’s illness, the trial began April 12. Simpson was lead prosecutor but Assistant District Attorney David Castillo conducted the trial examination of witnesses and did the summation.
Swart was represented by Russ Hunt Sr. of Waco, said by some jurists to be among the best criminal defense lawyers in Central Texas.
The eight-woman, four-man jury took their charge extremely seriously, O’Dell said, and the matter was not settled on the first vote.
“The initial vote was 11 to 1 for not guilty. I was the only guilty vote,” O’Dell said in an exclusive telephone interview with the Leader-Press on Tuesday. “We started talking and arguing back and forth. I got two more to join me and vote guilty on the second vote. We took about four votes throughout the day.”
Each jury has its own dynamic, studied court watchers know, and O’Dell said this jury was extremely dynamic at times.
“We had a very active debate, but no one got ugly and we all got along very well,” she said.
As to weight of witness testimony O’Dell said the jury placed most of its attention on the offerings of the neighbors.
“Their (the State’s) witnesses were not very credible,” O’Dell said. “There was too much variation between their stories. It was truly a mess. There were just too many inconsistencies. There was no way to prove that the man did it based upon the evidence we were presented.”
O’Dell said the arson evidence was important and that it seemed to tie up some loose ends but the blood and DNA evidence was “meaningless.”
Other theories of the crime came into play, as well.
“The police entered this investigation with their minds made up. They never look at any suspect other than John Swart.” Hunt said in summation on Monday. He then laid out a scenario that could have seen Mrs. Swart’s sister, Laura Hodges Faubion, do the killing.
“Laura and Neva didn’t get along,” Hunt said. “Laura is mean as a snake and tough as a boot. She had been known in the past to run people off the road with her car and she was seen that night leaving her house with a gasoline can.
“We already know Neva was drunk,” Hunt said. “We know she left her house and went to Laura’s house that night. Then we know from several witnesses that Laura was seen driving around her neighborhood at 3 a.m. on her Moped. Also we know that Laura called one of her friends the next morning and she tells her friend she knows of Neva’s death. Investigators wouldn’t have talked about that with her. How did she know?”
“That did come into play, it definitely did,” O’Dell said. “We considered the testimony about her riding her Moped, or whatever, around town at 3 in the morning. It was brought up but discounted because we couldn’t see how she could have gotten from North (FM) 116 to South (FM) 116 on a Moped.”
The theory did, however, pose enough “reasonable doubt” that it had to be considered. But O’Dell said at the end of the day, the jury didn’t place too much weight on the final arguments of either side.
O’Dell didn’t lay all the blame on prosecutors. She said they only used what they had and “the police work was sloppy. They didn’t even take a statement from (Mrs. Swart’s) sister.”
She had kind words to say for the visiting judge, retired Senior Dirstrict Judge Don Leonard, now of Kingsland, who sat on the case after 52nd District Judge Phillip Zeigler recused himself due to prior knowledge of the case. He was the Coryell County District Attorney in 1988. Most court observers agreed the judge was somewhat of a character.
“He made it somewhat enjoyable,” O’Dell said. “We all had to be there and it was tough. He was fantastic and very pleasant.”
All in all, she said, the evidence was lacking.
“We used everything they gave us,” O’Dell said. “We fought about this all day long. We tried to find him guilty but we couldn’t. We had no choice.
“We were devastated about that. I felt so sorry for that poor family. I really feel we did what we had to do but it broke our hearts to know we let a murder go (unpunished),” O’Dell said.
Swart could not be reached for comment. His office said he is on vacation.
No other jury members could be reached for comment, either.