The Galveston County Daily News

TEXAS CITY — Prosecutors will attempt to convict a man charged with murder based on witness testimony and security video, a defense attorney said Friday.

The state has no DNA evidence connecting William Edward Perry, 50, to the death of Gary Wayne Bell, who was 39 when he was beaten, asphyxiated and drowned at a Texas City hotel, Perry’s attorney Jeremy B. DuCote said.

“No DNA from William Perry was found within the hotel room or on Gary Bell,” DuCote said.

Bell was found hogtied in Galveston Bay near 81st Street north of Harborside Drive.

The homicide investigation spanned three counties and involved eight suspects, which led to murder charges against Perry and Brian O’Neal Richardson, 26.

Bell served a year on a cocaine-possession charge and was released from Gist State Jail in Beaumont on April 11, 2008, a prison official said. Bell arranged to have sex for money and went to the hotel room with a woman, police said.

Richardson, the woman’s boyfriend, confronted Bell once inside, police said. Bell died in the hotel room April 13, 2008, police said.

Bell’s body was wrapped in a shower curtain, and security cameras captured two people wheeling the body on a cart to his car, DuCote said. Perry wasn’t shown in the video footage, DuCote said.

Items collected during the investigation contained the DNA of Richardson, his girlfriend and Bell, DuCote said.

The state is expected to center its case on testimony from others charged and attempt to corroborate the testimony with security footage, DuCote said.

Prosecutors haven’t commented on the evidence.

Pretrial motions are expected to be heard this morning in Judge John Ellisor’s 122nd District Court in Galveston before a jury is selected, DuCote said.