And now you have this thing where he was spending a lot of money on his friend, but he didnt spend near as much money on your birthday. They make honest, reasonable mistakes. Hephzibah Olivia Lord, distraught and sobbing, sat across from Detective Dwayne A. Thompson in the Dallas Police Departments interview room several hours after her boyfriend had died from a gunshot wound to the head. W.D. Lord was slumped over in a chair, still wearing her blood-stained clothes. Who do you think you are? When Shearin called Lord with the news, she thanked him for all he had done for her, but then she said something else. Lord explained again and again that while she was in the bathroom, her boyfriend shot himself (they had been fighting, he was drunk). Lord explained again and again that while she was in the bathroom, her boyfriend shot himself (they had been fighting, he was drunk). How are you going to explain that to his family? An officer came over to Thompsons cubicle and handed him Lords and Jaffes cellphones. For several seconds, the courtroom was quiet except for Lords muffled sobs. Whos that? Thompson asked, pointing to a man kneeling beside Lord in the front yard. Look at it! According to Lord, he became obnoxious and sarcastic, which often happened when he drank. I was picking at him all night long about that, she said. As he nodded sympathetically, she again talked about how hurt she had been on her birthday. You fing shot him! he bellowed, nearly coming out of his chair. But there was no corruption involved. Thompson misrepresented any facts or falsified any government documents. They also declared that there was no evidence that Det. Okay, fine. Thompson acknowledged that without the statement regarding Lords confession, I wouldnt have filed a case. Tittle asked Thompson a series of questions about when he had actually written his arrest affidavit, which described Rastegar as making a recorded interview to the police about Lords excited utterance. Thompson was eventually forced to admit that he had typed up the affidavit before Rastegar had come down to the homicide offices to make his statement. By that time, Lord was working as a loan officer, and although they were both romantically involved with other people, they were clearly attracted to each other. And thats hurtful. Raised in Ohio, Thompson spent five years in the Army, earning the rank of captain and commanding a military police unit in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm. Why the bottles of cleaning products and the bloody towels? In Lords case, while she was arrested by Dallas police it was soon shown that there was no murder; her boyfriend had committed suicide. Testimony continues Friday, during which Lord may take the witness stand. She added a detail about their relationship that she hadnt told Thompson, saying that she had been disappointed that Burnside hadnt proposed to her the previous Christmas. She said that he was a big drinker and that he could sometimes be reckless. Maybe he got dramatic and put the gun to his own head and said to Olivia, To hell with all this, Im just going to end it now. And then, accidentally, he pulled the trigger. Thompson studied Lord and Jaffe for a moment, then walked over to them. She said that she had phoned Jaffe because she initially thought Burnside had fallen and was hurt. Her voice shook when she spoke. Ive never seen anything like it, Sanders said. . There was something else that didnt seem right: drops of blood leading into another room. When Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson checks out a missing persons apartment and finds it covered in blood, he's launched into one of the strangest cases in his career--a case that he must s Read allWhen Dallas Detective Dwayne Thompson checks out a missing persons apartment and finds it covered in blood, he's launched into one of the strangest cases in his career--a case that he must solve without the victim's body. But she maintained her innocence and claimed Thompson was the one who should go to prison. She had started dating Burnside, the co-owner of a company that retrofitted homes to make them energy-efficient, about a year earlier. He took her to dinner, and the date lasted the entire weekend. Or maybe in the midst of the argument, Burnside had pulled the Beretta out of the kitchen drawer for a second time, handed it to Lord, and said, in an effort to be dramatic, If you hate me so much, then just shoot me. And she did. Thompson looked at his notebook, where he had written down the calls Lord had made on her cellphone. Olivia, youre not telling me the truth, Thompson told her. But after her arrest, Lord read The Count of Monte Cristo, the Alexandre Dumas novel about a wrongfully imprisoned man who seeks revenge against those responsible for his imprisonment, and she memorized one of the books famous lines: May the god of vengeance now permit me to punish the wicked! That was her goal, she said. I wasnt going to leave him. His blood must have dripped off her clothes. Shearin ordered Lords cellphone records and received more good news: there was no seven-minute gap in her calls. Your email address will not be published. Why did you let my son bleed to death on his own kitchen floor? The officer pointed to a woman sitting on a chair in the front yard, her face in her hands. You think they are going to accept this bullshit you are giving me?, For the next hour, Thompson continued to berate Lord, trying to get her to crack. By then, a couple of those friends had talked to Thompson, and he had made it clear to them just what he thought of Lord: he said he would stake his career on his belief that she had killed him. "When I work my cases, I don't have a dog in the fight," said Thompson, a homicide detective since 2006. She grew up in the Dallas area and after graduating from high school, she went straight to work, leasing apartments for a large real estate company and later selling cosmetics at Neiman Marcus in NorthPark Center. At Christmas, you thought you were going to get a ring. And even if he took a shortcut or two, he adds, he didnt hide or invent evidence. Individuals have a right to counsel when they are being questioned, this is part of the Miranda warning. The idea that she would put a gun to his head and pull the trigger is just unfathomable.. For someone to say Dwayne maliciously would go after Miss Lord and try to set her up, I would say, You have the wrong guy, said Andrea Handley, one of the offices senior prosecutors. Theres no way my son shot himself,John said. He asked Thompson if he had told one of Burnsides friends that this was the case of a lifetimethe kind of case that could make him famous. But, he added, his friend wasnt the type to get married at any point.. Thompson also had not told the Burnsides that he had misread a crucial piece of evidence. I know that he could get dramatic and a little crazy when he drank. Patricia Sharpe writes a regular restaurant column, Pats Pick, for Texas Monthly. He then asked them to ride down to Dallas police headquarters in separate squad cars to give their statements. Jaffe was sitting in a plastic chair next to a small table pushed against a wall. He had been a good-looking young man, with a magnificent, wide grin. Dwayne Thompson and Kim Sanders are both grizzled veterans of the Dallas police homicide unit. She was on an airplaneon her way to California. Skip Hollandsworth specializes in long-form narratives. In a typical suicide, he said, when someone shoots himself in the temple, he points the gun straight at his head and the bullet travels through the brain and exits in a line roughly parallel to the floor. Shearin then asked if she was included in Burnsides will or his life insurance policy. I wasnt going to leave him., She then told me something she had not mentioned before. Had she washed up with towels before the paramedics and police arrived? All prosecutors know that almost every murder case contains inconsistent and sometimes contradictory evidence. She had desperately run from room to room trying to get better reception. On the floor was a pool of blood along with bloody towels. I dont work cases for the sexiness of them, Thompson snapped. I had to cover my mouth I was so appalled, Judy Durbin, an accountant who was the foreman of the jury, would later recall. It was Lord. There were too many unanswered questions, he said. Required fields are marked *. When she flew back to Dallas, she went straight to Shearins office. But what did you actually tell Michael during the argument? After The First 48. It was a very overwhelming issue., Thompson leaned back in his chair and stared at Lord. Every time she tried to answer a question, she said, he cut her off and called her a liar. Im trying to figure out how to move on with my life, she said recently, sitting at a back table at an Italian restaurant in North Dallas. He noticed that there was a chemical odorit smelled like bleach, he would later sayon her clothes. Another detective, Dwayne Thompson, charged into the interrogation room. He asked her about some of the puzzling physical evidence that had been found at Burnsides home the night of the shooting. Tired of fighting, she stopped talking to Burnside and went into the bathroom to take off her makeup. One of the few black detectives in the unit, Thompson quickly made his mark. Thompson and Lundberg started talking. Lord continued to deny involvement in the death during questioning, saying she was in the bathroom when she heard the shot and called 911. A retired Dallas police officer acting as an expert witness for Lord told the jury there was no evidence that Lord shot Burnside. Thompson told Rastegar to go to the station and make an official recorded statement, which Thompson later used to obtain an arrest warrant charging Lord with murder. She certainly had not used them to wash herself off, she said. As for the question of blood spatter on Lords clothes, however, Quinton did have a definite opinion. She had loved dogs and painting. He actually turned to Lord and said, I know you didnt do it. He turned back to the jury and continued, But thats not the issue in this trial. 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