Jury finds man guilty of capital murder for killing North Texas woman after shooting cop
After deliberating for about two hours Thursday morning, a North Texas jury has found Jerry Don Elders, 31, guilty of capital murder in the April 2021 killing of Robin Waddell. Elders, who also was accused of shooting a cop during a traffic stop, now faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Elders should have been found guilty of murder, not capital murder, his defense attorneys argued to the jury in their closing statements Thursday morning.
The prosecution asked the 12 Johnson County residents to find Elders guilty of capital murder. In the upcoming punishment phase of the trial, prosecutors are expected to ask for a death sentence.
Elders was indicted on a capital murder charge after authorities said he shot Burleson police Officer Joshua Lott three times during a traffic stop in 2021, fled and then kidnapped a woman at her home, stole her truck, killed her and pushed her out of her truck outside the Joshua Police Department.
Jurors were instructed that they could consider the lesser charges of murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping. Murder carries a penalty of 20 years to 99 years or life in prison, with the possibility of parole.
The jury was given its final instructions and sent to deliberate around 10 a.m., about an hour and a half after court resumed Monday. At around 10:20 a.m., they sent a note requesting copies of photographs presented in the trail, along with a video of Elders confessing to killing Waddell in an interrogation by the Texas Rangers.
Defense attorney Bob Gill told the jury that Elders is guilty of murder. He doesn’t deny shooting and killing 60-year-old Robin Waddell, but does deny that he had the intention to kill her when he shot her.
Elders panicked, Gill said, and fired two shots without thinking of the consequences. He didn’t intend to kill her, and the prosecution didn’t prove the intent to kill her.
Waddell was killed after authorities said Elders hid in her truck from authorities then kidnapped her at gunpoint when she discovered him. In closing arguments, the prosecution said Elders made her drive, telling her to get him out of Johnson County. But when she slammed the truck through the security gate at the back of the Joshua Police Department, both the prosecution and defense agree that he shot and killed her.
“I’m not going to stand up here and tell you that something didn’t happen,” Gill told jurors in his closing statements. “That Jerry Don Elders didn’t cause the death of Ms. Waddell. He did that.”
It would be difficult for the defense to argue that Elders didn’t kill Waddell. When the first witness testified in the trial April 15, jurors were presented with a video of Elders confessing.
They just disagree on whether he had the intent to kill required for the capital murder conviction.
“He panicked when she drove through that fence,” Gill said. “He didn’t intent for that to happen.”
The prosecution argued he was panicked, but he was also angry and had intent.
Prosecutors said told the jury that Waddell “took him to the people he hates the most: cops.” That’s why he shot her, they told the jury. It was panic, but also rage. The prosecution said Waddell was shot in the vehicle, pushed out of the driver’s door, then shot again when she stood up.
The prosecution said Elders was aware of his actions, clear minded and had intent based on the knowledge he had about what he’d done and that law enforcement had identified him.
