Armed robbery of 7-eleven
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JUDGE VANCE: Okay, Bill Glaspy.
MR. GLASPY: A few of us — and I’ve always practiced law — if the defendant can tell me a story his mama can believe, I may can sell it to the jury. If he can tell me a story that his mama can’t believe, we hadn’t got a chance. And the first case that — there was a little armed robbery that hi 7-Eleven stores at one of their central depositories at about 25 or $30,000. I get the call, the guy is in jail. I go to the Dallas police station. I don’t know whether we can get him out on bond or not. He’s kind of like Clayton Fowler said, “He looked like he had a little rabbit in him; he might be gone.” I talked to him a little bit. And I said, “What’s — what happened?” He says, “Well, I was going to Houston to get a job. And I got lost and ended up in a bar in Waco. I went to the men’s room, and they didn’t have toilet paper and there was a sack. And I tore off a piece of the sack and $25,000 fell out in my hands. And so I went in and bought drinks for the bar, whole bunch of drinks for the bar. ” And then the police came and arrested him and had the recycling corporation bands around the money, and that was the deal. I said, “Boy, this is going to be a tough, tough case to try to sell.”
So I had an examining trial, and I send the other lawyer down to do the examining trial. And he came back and said, “You’ve got a winner.” I said, “That’s going to be hard. What happened?” Well, Charles McClure who was handling the examining trial put on the sole witness and he says, “Do you recognize this man?” “No, sire, I don’t.” “Your Honor, can they have the defendant stand up?” The defendant stood up. “Now, do you recognize this man?” “No, sire I don’t.” “Your Honor, may the defendant come down and get closer to the witness — or the witness get closer to the defendant? Now do you recognize the man?” “No, sir, I don’t.” “Your Honor, he’s got his collar turned up a little bit. Could you have him turn his collar down where he can see his face? Now do you recognize the man?” “No, sir I don’t.” McClure said, “You mean to tell me you don’t know who this man is?” He says, “Of course I know who this man is.” “Tell the court who he is.” “That’s the man for two weeks you’ve been saying robbed me, and that’s the man for two weeks I’ve been telling you didn’t do it.” We got that one no-billed.