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Murder trial could begin without DNA evidence
By Chris Paschenko
The Daily News
Published October 13, 2009
TEXAS CITY — A murder trial involving a man found hogtied and floating in Galveston Bay could begin Monday without DNA evidence, officials said.
Gary Wayne Bell was 39 when he was beaten, asphyxiated and drowned at a Texas City hotel, authorities said.
His body was wrapped in a shower curtain and wheeled on a cart past surveillance cameras, where two people loaded him into his car, an attorney said.
William Perry, 50, who has five felony cases pending against him, is one of at least two people charged in Bell’s death but wasn’t among those captured on camera, his attorney Jeremy B. DuCote said.
Perry appeared Monday in a hearing before Judge John Ellisor in Galveston’s 122nd District Court.
In the hearing, Galveston County prosecutor Larry Drosnes told Ellisor he was not aware of any DNA evidence linking Perry to Bell’s death, and he was unaware of whether state forensic experts had completed DNA testing in the 18-month-old homicide.
The case was delayed when Hurricane Ike made landfall Sept. 13, 2008, and again when the original prosecutor assigned to the case left the District Attorney’s Office.
Perry also is charged with aggravated kidnapping in the case, but Ellisor on Monday granted the defense’s motion to sever the cases, which will be tried separately.
A Friday hearing could clarify the state’s position on DNA evidence.
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