The sentencing process began on Tuesday for Jerry Don Elders, convicted of murdering 61-year-old Robin Waddell while on the run from police back in 2021.
A Johnson County jury found Elders guilty of capital murder last week. They now decide if he should be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole.
The court recessed Wednesday morning and will reconvene Thursday at 8:30 a.m.
Jerry Don Elders was arrested in Gainesville on April 14, 2021, after an hours-long manhunt that began with the shooting of Burleson police officer Joshua Lott and the kidnapping and murder of 61-year-old Robin Waddell.
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Burleson police said in 2021 that Elders was with a group of people when he shot Lott during a traffic stop before dawn. Police said the trio later abandoned that vehicle and then carjacked Waddell outside a home on the 8000 block of County Road 802.
At 8:44 a.m., Waddell showed up at the Joshua Police Department suffering from gunshot wounds. She was taken to Huguley Hospital South in Burleson, where she later died.
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A good portion of Tuesday was spent hearing from prosecution witness Timothy Ryan Fitzpatrick, director of classification and records at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Prosecutors wanted Fitzpatrick to describe to the jury what life would be like for Elders in prison without parole versus on death row.
Inmates facing life behind bars are placed in a general population, he said, living in a cell block or dorm and allowed to mingle with others during recreation and outside time.
“Converse, play board games, watch television, there are blue phones in the day room…they can call family," Fitzpatrick described.
Elders' attorneys argued those privileges are management tools designed to keep prisoners in line.
"If they’re on their tablets watching a movie, they’re not doing some of the other things that you don’t like them to do, right?" one of the defense attorneys said.
"That’s correct," Fitzpatrick responded.
Death row inmates, on the other hand, live in isolation and generally are not allowed to socialize with others.
“Always two officers for every one death row inmate. They are fully strip-searched before they go anywhere, they are fully restrained before they go anywhere, and they are escorted by two officers no matter where they’re going," he said.
Jurors also heard recorded jail calls in which Elders asked people for money.
“I love you, I will always love you, but you’ve taken this way too far," said someone on the other end of the phone line recording.
The judge cautioned jurors that any voice heard besides Elders' was allowed to be admitted into evidence to prove that the phone call happened, and it does not mean that what that person said is necessarily true.
Prosecutors called Waddell's two children to testify, as well.
Her daughter, Patricia Cook, said she was not on good terms with Robin when she was killed.
“It sucks," she said. “It’s frozen in time that way.”
She felt the opportunity to have a good mother-daughter relationship was taken from her.
Cook, a Johnson County attorney, said she and her kids are traumatized.
“Nothing feels safe anymore," she said, adding that her three kids think someone is going to hurt them or take them away.
Phillip Waddell described his mom as a loving mother and grandmother to his kids.
“They would rather be at grandma’s house than at my house," he said. "Sugar them up, send them home."
His youngest, he said, was born shortly after Robin died and is named after her.
He also said she was a veterinary technician for a time and loved animals. He said she had dozens of cows.
Phillip said he lived right about 100 yards from his mom.
“My dad’s last words were, ‘Take care of your mom,’ and there’s days I blame myself this happened, because I lived next door. That eats at me everyday," he said.
The jury is scheduled to reassemble Wednesday morning when the defense will call witnesses to the stand.
