The Galveston County Daily News

TEXAS CITY — Cries for help from a man in a hotel bathtub were ignored by a now rehabilitated crack cocaine addict, who testified Wednesday in the murder trial of William Henry Perry.

Arnoldo L. Garza, 37, of Galveston, testified that when Perry, 50, left the hotel room, Gary Wayne Bell was in the tub and still was alive.

Perry and Brian Richardson, 28, are charged with murder in Bell’s death.

Bell, 39, was beaten, choked and drowned April 12, 2008, at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Texas City.

Bell’s mostly nude body was found the following day, hogtied and bobbing in the Galveston Bay surf near an 81st Street bulkhead in Galveston.

Soliciting Sex

Garza told a jury in Judge John Ellisor’s 122nd District Court in Galveston that he was inside the hotel room with Mary Jowers, a prostitute, Richardson, Perry and Bell.

Jowers had just told her boyfriend, Richardson, that Bell had refused to pay her for the previous night. The dollar amounts ranged from $150 to $250 in court testimony. Bell solicited Jowers after he was released from prison.

Inside the hotel room, Richardson was upset, and Perry pulled a wooden-handled knife. Perry held the knife at his side with one hand as he held Bell to the floor with the other. Bell’s head was against a floor-model air-conditioning unit, Garza testified.

“Perry told me to go get a $20 crack rock,” Garza testified. He said that, as he left the room, he heard a ruckus behind him.

Perry soon joined Garza outside the hotel.

“He said: ‘Brian couldn’t do s--t. I had to knock him out,’” Garza testified. “He told me he put him in the bathtub and started talking about going to get plastic and a chain saw ... He said he didn’t stab Mr. Bell, because it would have been too messy.”

‘Thumping Sounds’

Jeremy B. DuCote, Perry’s attorney, reminded Garza he forgot to mention the plastic, chain saw and “too messy” testimony in his statements to Texas City police. Garza said he gave that information only to prosecutors. Garza’s only charge in the case stems from the theft of Bell’s PT Cruiser.

Garza and Perry bought drugs and returned to the hotel room without plastic or a chain saw. They remained there for about 20 minutes, Garza testified.

Garza put the drugs on the table, packed clothing to leave the room and heard “thumping sounds” coming from the bathroom. It sounded like a foot kicking the tub, he said.

Perry left with acquaintances Joshua Coleman and April Mowers, and the three didn’t return, according to testimony.

Richardson then asked Garza to come into the bathroom, Garza testified.

“He was trying to justify to me what happened,” Garza said. “Telling me he (Bell) raped Mary. I told him I didn’t want to see it.”

Asking For Help

While in the bathroom, Garza heard Bell asking for help, but instead of calling police, Garza packed his belongings and walked 2 to 3 miles to a crack house because he was scared, he testified.

“I didn’t want to know more than I already knew,” Garza said.

Prosecutor Larry Drosnes asked, “Do you feel good about that, Mr. Garza?”

“If I had it to do over again what I did when I left there, I probably would have made a phone call to police or someone to help,” Garza said.

Garza, who said he was addicted to crack for 10 years, testified he decided to return to the hotel room April 12, 2008, with Richardson and Jowers. He would have been homeless otherwise, he said.

Although Bell’s body possibly was wrapped in a shower curtain and stuffed in the hotel closet, Garza didn’t once inquire about Bell, according to testimony.

“Over four or five hours, it’s don’t ask, don’t tell?” DuCote asked Garza.

Returning Wet

Garza said he stayed at the hotel room as Richardson and Jowers left for about 45 minutes and returned wet, holding their clothes and wearing only their underwear.

“They said they went swimming,” Garza said.

Drosnes asked Garza whether he believed them.

Garza answered, “No.”

When Garza was booked into the county jail, he had cuts to his knuckles, inner arm and side. He couldn’t explain the cuts to his side, but said the cuts to his arm and hands occurred in Tomball after Bell’s body was found. He suffered the injuries while breaking into soda machines, he said.

Bloody Shirt

Jurors also heard testimony from Coleman and his then-girlfriend, Mowers. Both claimed to have seen blood on Perry’s shirt before they left the hotel.

Coleman said the blood was on Perry’s upper chest, but Mowers saw it on the lower part of his shirt.

Perry changed his shirt, but what happened to it is in dispute, as DuCote pointed out to the jury inconsistencies in witnesses’ testimony.

If the shirt was among the items collected in Gonzales, where Coleman, Mowers and Perry were arrested, it didn’t contain Perry’s DNA.

Perry’s DNA wasn’t recovered from items found in Bell’s car or the hotel room, testimony revealed.

Testimony was expected to continue today with statements from police and Bell’s mother.