HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Ex-con Anthony Bartee, released from prison after spending more than a decade locked up for two rapes, admired the cherry red Harley Davidson motorcycle that belonged to a friend and neighbor in San Antonio. So much so, he killed the neighbor and stole the bike, evidence showed at his trial.
Bartee, 55, is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for the killing of 37-year-old David Cook more than 15 years ago.
Defense attorneys were working Tuesday to try to block the lethal injection, arguing Bartee may be innocent, that he had poor legal help at his trial and that prosecutors have cigarette butts and drinking glasses from the crime scene that still need testing. Bartee had won a reprieve in February when his lawyers won additional DNA testing on two strands of hair found in Cook's hands, but the tests using more showed the hair was Cook's.
Bartee had served nearly 12 years for two counts of aggravated rape before he was released on mandatory supervision in May 1995.
Evidence presented at his murder trial showed a neighbor heard gunshots from Cook's home the night of August 16, 1996, then heard Cook's motorcycle fire up. Relatives concerned when Cook failed to show up for work went to his house and found his body. He'd been stabbed in the back, his throat was cut and he had two gunshot wounds to the back of his head from what investigators determined was his own 9 mm pistol. Both the gun and his bike were missing.
Investigators determined that the night before the shooting, Bartee tried to hire someone to kill a man he identified as David. The day after the killing, he was seen with the red motorcycle and told people it was his, according to court records.
"I remember it just being a cold and senseless killing," said Jill Mata, who prosecuted the case. "David had something he wanted and he took it."
When police questioned Bartee after receiving a report about the motorcycle, he initially said he was unaware of Cook's death. When confronted about having the bike, Bartee said he had been working on it in Cook's garage and took off after hearing gunshots because he feared for his own safety. At his trial, defense attorneys tried to pin the slaying on two gang members Bartee identified only as "Snake" and "Throw Down."
"It defies credibility to suggest that, the day after Bartee solicited help in robbing and killing Cook, two random gang members happened to shoot and kill Cook while Bartee sat unsuspectingly in the garage," state attorneys said in 2009, responding to an appeal where Bartee claimed actual innocence. "Instead of reporting the incident to police, or checking back with Cook to see whether he was OK, Bartee rode around on his motorcycle claiming it as his own."
Prosecutors believed Bartee stabbed Cook and that he was shot in a struggle over the gun, which Cook kept at home for protection. Evidence showed Cook already was dead when his throat was cut.
"There was just too much damning evidence," said Joel Perez, one of Bartee's trial attorneys.
Bartee declined to speak from death row with reporters as his execution date neared. At least four other Texas inmates have executions scheduled in the coming months, including another in two weeks.