2004-06-28

Ronnie Duane Mason
No 50,138-A
47th district court
Hal Miner
Capital Murder

victim: Ivyeonna Durley (under 6)

Found Guilty on 8/28/2007

On June 28, 2004, the Amarillo Police Department and Emergency Medical Services responded to a 911 call concerning a baby not breathing. When Officer Kenneth Jester arrived, there were three adults present: Anthony Richards, Kresha Ryan, and Appellant. The baby the subject of the emergency call was eight-month old Iveyonna Durley. Immediately following first care response, the baby was transported by ambulance to the hospital where she was declared dead on arrival. An autopsy determined the child’s death to be the result of multiple blunt force injuries.

During the initial investigation, Richards indicated to the officers that, while he was alone with the baby in his care, she had rolled off a bed and struck her head on a baby walker.

Richards further indicated that Appellant and Ryan subsequently arrived and noticed the baby was not breathing, at which time Ryan called 911. Jester permitted Appellant and Ryan to leave the scene in order to locate the infant’s mother at her place of work, while he turned Richards over to members of the Special Crimes Unit for further questioning. Richards was subsequently placed under arrest.

During the investigation, Richards gave two oral statements and two written statements to police indicating that, while the infant was in his care, she had fallen from the bed and struck her head on the walker. He also told police that, after Ryan arrived, he picked the infant up, shook her a little and hit her in the face while trying to awake her.

Following his arrest, Richards’s mother called Sergeant Kevin Dockery, Lead Investigator for the Special Crimes Unit, and told him that Richards had lied to investigators in order to protect his cousin, the Appellant. She also told him to look at a mop handle found in the apartment. Tashana Smith, Richards’s cousin, told Sergeant Dockery that Richards told her that Appellant assaulted the infant with the mop handle, kicked the infant from behind, and hit the infant in the head with his fist. Sergeant Dockery subsequently discovered Appellant’s fingerprints on the mop handle and began to consider him as a suspect.

In a series of interviews with Sergeant Dockery, Appellant indicated that, on June 27th, he had disciplined the baby by spanking her bare buttocks. He also indicated that, while he was cleaning the apartment on June 28th, he accidently hit the baby in the head twice with a mop handle–once when he threw the mop across the room and a second time when he was attempting to frighten the infant into behaving. Based upon these conversations memorialized by written statements, Sergeant Dockery obtained a warrant and placed Appellant under arrest. Thereafter, Sergeant Dockery neither spoke with Appellant nor Richards until the Grand Jury met to determine whether to indict Appellant.