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(Editor's Note: Updates are being provided during the day from the trial of Randall Wayne Mays, charged in the May 2007 killings of two Henderson County Sheriff deputies as they responded to a 911 call at his home. More recent updates will be posted at the bottom of this story throughout the day.)

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

ATHENS — The jury in the Randall Wayne Mays capital murder trial has been reseated after the lunch recess in day two of testimony.

Mays is on trial for the shooting death of Tony Price Ogburn, 61, a five-year veteran of the Henderson County Sheriff’s department from Log Cabin.

Jurors are expected to see the videotape from Deputy Billy Jack Valentine’s patrol vehicle and hear more testimony from the deputy in regards to the events of May 17, 2007.

Mays is also accused of killing deputy Paul Steven Habelt, 63, a 13-year-veteran from Eustace, and injuring deputy Kevin Harris when officers responded to shots fired.

During a gun battle, Mays was himself injured and now stands trial.

In the audio tape played for the court, Valentine casually strikes up a conversation with Mays asking him what is going on.

Mays is very cordial, but upset as he talks about his wife, Candace, being sexually assaulted by some person.

Mays tells Valentine that he is upset about the situation and says he is not armed, but admits to firing a 9 mm handgun toward the back of his property.

Neighbors who called 911 reported that Mays shot at his wife several times, and Valentine sends Deputy Dewayne Sanders to talk to the neighbors as he and Mays continue to talk.

Valentine tells Mrs. Mays he understands that she is upset, but emphasizes he has to investigate the 911 call, and that he will be as helpful as possible.

In the background, birds are heard chirping as Valentine waits for Sanders to conduct his interview with the Nicholsons, who reported the shots fired.

Valentine talks to Sanders over a cell phone and receives the information he needs to make an arrest.

“Do they want to file on him?” he asks Sanders. “Get your statement and all of your information and I’ll take care of this up here.”

Valentine then calls dispatch and asks to check for warrants on Mays.

“Randall, OK, before you talk to me anymore. Don’t make this any harder than it has to be. Come here." Valentine then yells and says, “He has a knife…. Get back he has a gun ... We’ve got a subject barricaded with a gun. The subject took off running with a gun. Put the gun down, Randall… He’s got a rifle. Get me some help out here,” he tells dispatch.

“Randall, put the gun down. Get me some more help. ... He’s fixing to shoot. Randall, listen to me put your gun down. I’ll put mine down. I don’t want this to end like this Randall. Put the gun down, Randall.”

“Stay behind the car,” Valentine yells at another deputy.

Valentine continues pleading with Mays. The latter can be heard yelling at Valentine,
“Haven’t I been honest with you Randall?”

“Yeah, but you’re going to take me to jail. You have a gun and I do too,” Mays said.
“I’m being honest with you, Randall, they are backing me up. They can’t leave me out here like this,” Valentine said.

“I didn’t start this,” Mays yells.

Mays is heard yelling at Valentine as the deputy attempts to restore the situation. Mays said he doesn’t want the deputies on his property and that he doesn’t want to go to jail or for his wife to go to jail. Valentine said he wanted to get them help if they needed it.

“I didn’t do anything,” Mays says, then saying something to the deputy.

“Only desire I have is to see everyone here safe,” Valentine says.

Other deputies can be heard over the radio talking about closing down the road and putting up a perimeter.

Valentine, who is pinned down, continues talking to Mays and his wife, asking the man to give up.

“He has several high-powered rifles in there,” Valentine says, but other deputies and dispatch cannot make out what he is reporting from the scene.

Johnny Cash’s “I walk the Line” is heard playing at times during the incident as Mays continues to yell at the deputies on scene.

“I want you to come out of that house Randall. Come and go with me,” Valentine pleads. “Mr. Mays, get your shoes and come on out.”

Another deputy can be heard urging Mays to come out of the house.

Mays is then heard asking deputies if they will support his wife, and Valentine keeps telling him that he only wants to help him and no one needs to get hurt.

“I am a military man ... I don’t understand why I am the bad guy,” Mays says as he stands in the front yard.

Mays walks outside the home and says he is not afraid.

“Come on out and talk to us Randall,” all of the deputies say.

He tells the deputies the guns are in the house, but he has a knife. He continues talking to deputies, telling them that Valentine attacked him. The deputies stay back.
Suddenly he runs back into the house and grabs a rifle. Deputies can be heard saying he has a gun at the window. Valentine is heard breathing hard and muttering as Mays screams in the background.

Minutes go by with just the sounds of Valentine breathing hard and birds chirping.
Suddenly a gunshot sounds.

“Officer down! Officer down! Come on out now! Officer down!” deputies yell.

“Oh My God,” one deputy says. Another two gunshots ring out and then there is a barrage of gunfire and screaming.

“He shot Paul! He shot Paul!” someone screams.

Another barrage of gunfire and Mays screams, “I’m hit! I’m hit!” He then screams and then more shots are fired. Mays comes out of the house saying he gives up.

“Get your hands up now! Hands in the air! Get … out here now!” a deputy yells.
As they get him to the ground, the deputies tell him one move and he’s dead.

A deputy asks, “How many officers have we got down?”

Someone is heard crying on the tape. At that point in the playing of the tape, multiple members of the families left the courtroom and burst out in tears. Others in their seats were crying as the deputies cried on the tape.

“Oh no! Oh no! Oh God!” Valentine cries on the tape.

The jurors, family members and even court personnel were all affected by the tape.
As Henderson County District Attorney Donna Bennett began questioning Valentine about the tape, he cried on the witness stand.

The prosecution called a state forensic scientist who tests alcohol blood levels. James Burris told prosecutors that the test he performed on Mays’ blood showed no drugs or alcohol. After a short afternoon break, the state called Henderson County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Ward, who was one of the first officers on the scene the day of the shooting.

Ward said he was in Seven Points with several other deputies when Valentine was dispatched to the Mays home in reference to a shooting.

Ward said as Sanders and Valentine talked to the Mayses, he stood watch from outside the couple’s property.

Ward said Mrs. Mays was aggravated, but Mays seemed to be having a cordial conversation. Eventually Ward went over the fence and helped Sanders calm Mrs. Mays down, and then she stayed talking to the woman while Sanders went to interview the Nicholsons, who had called 911.

Ward said when Valentine went to read Mays his rights, the situation changed.

“At that point Randall took off running toward the back of the house,” he said. “Valentine told me to get back and take cover because he said he had guns in the house.”

Ward said as he ran toward cover, he saw deputy Ogburn.

“That was the last time I saw him,” he said.

Ward said Valentine then told him to get Mrs. Mays out of the line of fire, and he grabbed her and took her behind a shed, where he handcuffed her because she was fighting him.

“We stayed there the whole rest of the time,” he said. “I handcuffed her because she seemed like she was losing it.”

Ward said though he did not have a good line of sight, he heard Valentine and Mays, but he could not understand what they were saying.

“Randall was screaming, but I couldn’t tell what he was saying,” he said.

Ward said a short time later, Deputy Kevin Harris ran back toward him, saying he went back in the house. Ward said he yelled at other deputies to get their rifles if they had them.

“It seems like Kevin went around the corner and the first gunshot went off,” he said.

Ward said he could not tell where the shot came from, but then he saw what he believed to be Ogburn’s hand and arm on the ground.

He added that after that first shot, it was quiet and peaceful for a second.

Bennett asked if there was any more gunfire.

“There were lots of gunshots after that first shot,” he said.

Ward said Kevin Harris ran around toward where Mays was in the home and fired off several rounds. About 45 seconds later Harris came around the corner saying "I’ve been shot. I’ve been shot."

Ward said he then fired five or six shots through the building.

Bennett asked him what happened next.

“It wasn’t long after that that (Mays) surrendered,” he said.

Ward said Deputy David Harris was yelling instructions to Mays as Mays’ wife and an injured Kevin Harris stayed behind the shed.

It was only after everything had calmed down and Mays was in custody that Ward knew Habelt had been fatally wounded.

On cross examination by defense attorney Bobby Mims, Ward testified he never saw the knife that Valentine said Mays had.

The state then called Kevin Haines, a Henderson County Sheriff’s investigator, who was on the scene.

Haines said he was at the sheriff’s department in Athens when he heard the call and decided to head toward the location on Crawfish Ranch Road.

“As I parked and got out of my truck, I could see Deputy Kevin Harris talking to a white male,” he said.

Haines said he witnessed Mays pull up his shirt and turn around to show he had no weapons. Haines said he was on the scene about 30 seconds when things changed.

“I seen Mr. Mays look back over his shoulder and he must’ve seen Deputy Valentine, and he broke off running and dove head first back into the home through the window,” he said.

Haines said he then witnessed Valentine run and trip as Mays grabbed a rifle and sat down in the home.

“I started backing up saying, “He’s got a rifle! He’s got a rifle!’ I then hollered for anyone that had a rifle to get a rifle.”

Haines said he tossed his keys to Habelt, who was going to get Haines’ rifle. He said he then went to the passenger side of his pickup and got the rifle and his raid gear and got a helping hand from Habelt in putting on the gear.

Haines said he then went around the rear of his truck and headed to a truck-tractor, where he took cover and had a clear shot at the residence.

Haines said, as he looked over at Ogburn, he saw the deputy take a gunshot to the head.

“I immediately jumped down and got in a prone position and trained my attention to the house,” he said.

Haines, after a few more shots, fired several rounds from his rifle into the house.
Haines said he fired several more shots and knew he hit Mays.

“It seemed like several minutes, but it wasn’t long before Mr. Mays started saying he had been shot and then he comes out of the house,” he said.

Haines said he saw a leather strap on Mays’s left arm, and even though the man was down on the ground, he believed the suspect could still be armed, because the strap looked like it could be attached to a rifle.

Haines said as he got closer, he could see a pistol in Mays' back pocket, and after him being handcuffed, he rolled over the man and learned the strap was being used as a tourniquet.

Haines said the hammer on the handgun pulled out of Mays’ back pocket was pulled back in the firing position.

Bennett showed Haines photos of Ogburn, Habelt and several others before the shooting and then pictures of Ogburn and Habelt during their autopsies. Haines said he did not know Habelt or Deputy Kevin Harris had been shot. During testimony, Haines told jurors that Ogburn and he went to the police academy together.

Mims began the cross examination with Haines with a dialogue about the sheriff department’s policies and procedures.

Mims questioned about the tactical team and the negotiators, and asked if they would be called out in a situation such as the Mays shooting. Haines said they would. Mims asked if Valentine had special training, and Haines said he did not believe he did.

“Do you know if anyone within Henderson County has come up with what when wrong?” Mims asked.

“I know it’s been looked at and talked about on several instances,” Haines answered.

Mims asked what went wrong.

“In my opinion, as far as the law enforcement side of it, I don’t see anything that law enforcement did wrong,” Haines said.

Bennett on re-direct asked if the tactical team and negotiators had been called, and Haines answered they had.

Mims then asked if Valentine should have remained still instead of trying to keep him from going back into the house. Haines said no, they did the right thing, because they did not want Mays getting back into the home where the weapons were.

Judge Carter Tarrance has recessed the trial until 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Updated Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 5:12 p.m. CDT