Capital murder case goes to trial Monday
San Jacinto News Times - November 2007

COLDSPRING – The capital murder trial of Richard Winfrey Sr. is scheduled to begin Monday, Nov. 26 in San Jacinto County District Court.

About 500 jury summons have been sent to county residents with a jury of 12 and alternates expected to be picked from those.

Winfrey is charged with the capital murder of Coldspring resident Murray Burr. Burr was beaten and stabbed to death at his home outside of Coldspring in August of 2004.

A hearing to suppress evidence in the was denied last month when Winfrey’s defense attorney attempted to keep testimony out of court from Keith Pickett, a canine scent officer who assisted in identifying possible suspects in the case.

Through the use of scent pads and a K-9 dog to perform suspect selection, Pickett was able to identify and charge Winfrey Sr., along with his son, Richard Winfrey Jr. and daughter, Megan, with Burr’s murder.

San Jacinto County Criminal District Attorney Bill Burnett recently said he was not surprised that the judge allowed the evidence to come in since canine scent pads have already been accepted as valid scientific evidence in other jurisdictions.

“The dogs alerted on the scent pads that put all three suspects in the house touching Burr’s body,” Burnett said.

Burnett expects the trial will take a week to 10 days considering the number of witnesses and the amount of evidence to be presented.

Richard Winfrey Sr. is currently being held at a Texas Department of Criminal Justice unit.
His son and daughter are being held in different locations and will be tried separately. No date has been set for their trials.