Posted 11:25 pm Saturday, January 05, 2013
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$1M Bond set for one of three men charged with murder of Longview man
BY PHILLIP WILLIAMS
Special Correspondent
Special Correspondent
GILMER — A state district judge set bond at $1 million Friday for one of three persons charged with capital murder of a Longview man.
Andrew Conrad Norwine, 21, of Arlington, was arraigned by 115th District Judge Lauren Parish one week after she set the same bond for the other suspects, 19-year-old Daniel Paul Jones and 20-year-old Sarah Haslam, both of Longview.
They are charged in the Dec. 5 death of 27-year-old Ronnie Joe Gammage, whose burned body was found Dec. 19 in a rural Upshur County pasture. In addition, Jones and Haslam are charged with the aggravated kidnapping of him in Gregg County.
Jones and Haslam remained in Upshur County Jail in Gilmer Friday under bonds totaling $1.3 million, including $300,000 each on the aggravated kidnapping charge, Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd said. Norwine, who also remained jailed after his four-minute arraignment, has not been charged with the kidnapping “at this time,” Byrd said.
Norwine was transferred to Gilmer on Friday from Vernon Parish, La., after Ft. Polk, La., military police arrested him at that base Dec. 24 shortly before midnight, Byrd said. Norwine, who has been in the process of being dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army, was absent without leave when Gammage was killed, Byrd has said.
Gammage was abducted Dec. 5, and Longview police arrested Jones and Ms. Haslam on the aggravated kidnapping charges Dec. 19 — the day Gammage’s body was found in a pasture on Martin Road near Diana, the district attorney said. The two suspects were charged with capital murder Dec. 20, he said.
Andrew Conrad Norwine, 21, of Arlington, was arraigned by 115th District Judge Lauren Parish one week after she set the same bond for the other suspects, 19-year-old Daniel Paul Jones and 20-year-old Sarah Haslam, both of Longview.
They are charged in the Dec. 5 death of 27-year-old Ronnie Joe Gammage, whose burned body was found Dec. 19 in a rural Upshur County pasture. In addition, Jones and Haslam are charged with the aggravated kidnapping of him in Gregg County.
Jones and Haslam remained in Upshur County Jail in Gilmer Friday under bonds totaling $1.3 million, including $300,000 each on the aggravated kidnapping charge, Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd said. Norwine, who also remained jailed after his four-minute arraignment, has not been charged with the kidnapping “at this time,” Byrd said.
Norwine was transferred to Gilmer on Friday from Vernon Parish, La., after Ft. Polk, La., military police arrested him at that base Dec. 24 shortly before midnight, Byrd said. Norwine, who has been in the process of being dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army, was absent without leave when Gammage was killed, Byrd has said.
Gammage was abducted Dec. 5, and Longview police arrested Jones and Ms. Haslam on the aggravated kidnapping charges Dec. 19 — the day Gammage’s body was found in a pasture on Martin Road near Diana, the district attorney said. The two suspects were charged with capital murder Dec. 20, he said.
Byrd said Friday he still could not discuss how Gammage was killed nor the motive for it. The body was sent to the Southwestern Institute for Forensic Science in Dallas for autopsy, and Byrd said he could not comment on whether he has received the results.
The district attorney said it was “too early to say” whether he will seek the death penalty as the investigation is ongoing, but said the defendants would be tried separately.
Capital murder in Texas is punishable only by death by lethal injection, or life imprisonment without parole.
The bespectacled, rail-thin Norwine appeared in court Friday shackled and clad in an orange jail-issue jumpsuit. He was accompanied by his attorney, Quitman/Dallas lawyer Doug Parks, who declined comment afterward on the case except to confirm that he has experience in death penalty cases.
The district attorney said it was “too early to say” whether he will seek the death penalty as the investigation is ongoing, but said the defendants would be tried separately.
Capital murder in Texas is punishable only by death by lethal injection, or life imprisonment without parole.
The bespectacled, rail-thin Norwine appeared in court Friday shackled and clad in an orange jail-issue jumpsuit. He was accompanied by his attorney, Quitman/Dallas lawyer Doug Parks, who declined comment afterward on the case except to confirm that he has experience in death penalty cases.
