Defense Calls No Witnesses & Rests in Gruesome Jennings Capital Murder Trial

SAN ANGELO, TX –– The fourth day of the trial against alleged murderer Stephen Jennings ended with a surprising twist after the defense announced they would not call witnesses to the stand.

During a nearly 10 hour day, the jury heard from several witnesses, including Kristen Dean, the defendant's ex-wife, and Tom Green County Sheriff Nick Hanna. While on the stand, Sheriff Hanna testified about his involvement in the investigation while he worked as a Texas Ranger back in 2017.

According to Hanna, the day after authorities executed the first search warrant on the house on Duckworth Rd on July 25th, a group of local law enforcement officials traveled to Red Oak, TX to interview the defendant's father, Gary Jennings.

Even though the specific details regarding Gary's statement to police were not released in court, Sheriff Hanna stated that during the four-hour interview, he provided details about the incident that prompted authorities to secure a second search warrant for the house on Duckworth Rd. for the following day. 

During the interview, Gary allowed law enforcement to conduct a voluntary search of the home and provided buccal swabs for DNA comparison. While searching the Red Oak home, investigators located multiple firearms, but none that could be connected to the victim's death.

The second search of Jenning's home on July 27th led officers to a variety of biological materials that appeared to indicate the victim, Eric Torrez, had been inside and suffered trauma.

After collecting blood stains and hair samples from the walls and floor, and other surfaces, the evidence was transported to the DPS Crime Lab where it underwent DNA testing. 

To provide some context, after comparing the collected samples to the victim's DNA, the test indicated that chances of the blood smear found inside a mop bucket belonging to the victim were 4.7 septillion or 4,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times greater 
than anybody else. According to the expert on the stand, similar high odds were identified when testing the blood smear on the wall and the strands of black hair found inside the home.

As the morning testimonies continued, the prosecution called a former girlfriend of Stephen Jennings to the stand. According to the woman, back in 2019, she received a disturbing letter from Jennings that prompted her to contact the sheriff's office.

The woman explained that after occasionally corresponding with Jennings via mail, she received a letter from a different inmate housed at the Tom Green County Jail. While the letter was not signed by the defendant, the woman recognized Jennings' handwriting and writing style.

In the letter, the defendant asked her to respond to the inmate listed on the envelope –– the said inmate was incarcerated for a sexual offense.

Jennings also asked her to conduct research on his behalf as he awaited trial for capital murder. The list of questions included background information on his attorneys, past death penalty cases prosecuted in this county, the effects of bleach on DNA, and the preception juries tended to have of jailhouse snitches. 

In the letter, he also asked her to research polygraph tests requirements and the pros and cons of having the media involved in the trial. San Angelo Live made the official court record after Jennings indicated he was banned from the Facebook page at one point.

Technology continued to play a major part in today's testimony as the jury heard from the Kristen Dean, formally known as Kristen Jennings. Dean also faces charges of capital murder and aggravated kidnapping like Jennings, and if convicted could face life in prison. 

After securing a deal with the state, the 32-year-old mother of three agreed to testify against her former husband in exchange for immunity and a plea bargain of 30 years for the kidnapping charge and 20 years for murder. The sentences would be served concurrently.

While on the stand, Dean provided some details of that fateful day, but often explained she did not remember much of plans, conversations, phone calls, and text messages she shared with her ex-husband that day.

Dean confirmed Gary, Stephen, and herself traveled to Abilene the day before the murder to meet with Torrez under false pretenses and then attempted to find his house, but failed. The next day she returned to the city with Gary and began searching for her daughter at different daycares.

According to Dean, the original plan consisted of using Gary's phone to contact Torrez about a potential bid for his concrete company and keep him occupied until she could retrieve her daughter. Jennings would lure Torrez to a random house and make sure he was distracted 90 miles away from his home. The plan would ultimately fail after the group couldn't determine where Torrez lived with his mother and daughter.

Text messages and phone calls placed by Jennings and Dean appeared to indicate a scramble to set up a meeting with the victim. The couple discussed asking Angella Wray for help, and records showed Jennings reached out to David Navarro multiple times.

While on the stand, prosecutor John Best instructed Dean to read to the jury the plethora of messages that she exchanged with Jennings.

The first set of messages sent after 8:00 a.m. showed the trio faced their first obstacle after Gary Jennings kept his phone with him as he and Dean traveled to Abilene. This became a problem when Torrez attempted to contact "Daryl" for the bid that they had previously discussed and they couldn't answer the phone.

"Eric is already calling, you should have kept the phone," stated Dean.

"Damn, already? I didn't think he'd call until after lunchtime," replied Jennings.

The messages showed Jennings and Dean went back and forth trying to decide how to handle the issue. They would ultimately tell the victim "Daryl" had a new phone and used Jennings' cellphone.

"Talked about the plan for four days and still unorganized," complained Dean in one of the messages.

For the rest of the morning and early afternoon, the couple maintained constant communication as they tried to locate the child and come up with the most effective way to lure Torrez to San Angelo.

At one point in the conversation, Jennings stated he "only had a couple of options." By the time Torrez arrived in San Angelo, Dean had not figured out where the child was located and they returned to Angella Wray's home.

After a couple of hours, Gary and Dean drove to Duckworth Rd. where Gary was given a paper with two addresses –– one for the daycare and one for the home in Abilene. Dean would then enter Torrez's home and extract her daughter. As she informed Jennings she had located the four-year-old, Jennings stated the victim, "was freaking out." A short time later, Jennings called to let her know Torrez was dead.

After returning to San Angelo and dropping Gary off at the house, Dean traveled to Angella Wray's house where she remained most of the evening.

Cellphone records show around 8:00 p.m. she would ask Jennings if "he was done" as Jennings replied he was looking for a UV light at Home Depot.

In the messages, Dean explained this was "not a good time" for the couple as she was really upset. Jennings just continued to reiterate his love for his wife.

"Everything will be alright, I love you with all my heart," texted Jennings.

Minutes before 4:00 a.m., Jennings's phone recorded he walked more than 14,000 steps. Previously introduced data showed his phone pinged near the dumpsite around that same time.

By 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, Jennings texted his Dean "he was about done."

Dean would confirm several items were burned after everything occurred, including a couch from their living room. She maintained she had no idea what was going to happen to the father of her two youngest children when they set up the plan.

For the last part of the state's case, the jury had the opportunity to see a detailed timeline constructed of phone calls, cellphone messages, and data of the day's events.

GPS coordinates showed Dean's phone traveled to Abilene multiple times that day, with the timestamps matching her conversations with Jennings.

The data also showed that until 7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 21st, all of Jennings' calls and messages were routed from the same AT&T tower located on Duckworth Rd. Records also indicated Jennings visited the area near Home Depot and placed calls to Lowes and Westlake Ace Hardware store in the evening. Earlier in the day, he searched for UV lights and forensic science on his phone.

Finally, the records showed the last few hours of Eric Torrez's life. At 1:21 p.m. he arrived in San Angelo, by 2:04 his phone pinged on the tower on Duckworth Rd. and would remain active in that area until 5:04 p.m. when the last data point was collected.

On Friday the jury will be hearing closing statements and then deliberate the jury instructions.