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“I checked Garcia for vital signs. He was dead. I went to the woman to calm her down. They, especially the boy, were hysterical. It took me a while, but I got them to walk out with me, back to my vehicle.”
“Why didn’t you radio out for help?”
“Didn’t have my walkie. It was being repaired, and I thought, well, one day won’t matter. Jesus.”
“In your report you said there was a cell phone in the glove compartment of Garcia’s truck.”
“Yeah, I tried it. Couldn’t get out from where we were. All the readout said was, No Signal.”
“So you tried every means possible to contact someone?”
“Yeah.”
“And what happened then?”
“We walked out, and used the car radio. Everybody started showing up after an hour or so, except for the Sheriff.”
“He was in the area, is that right?”
“Yeah, Wayne said he’d been checking on a cattle rustler when he got the call. He was there ten minutes after I radioed in.”
“And he took charge, is that right?”
“Yeah, took the woman and boy to a relative’s house, secured the area until the FBI could arrive. He personally led the search in the canyon for the pistol, having them bring in metal detectors, the works.”
“This isn’t in your report, but what about the family’s claim that you mutilated Julian Garcia’s body after you killed him?”
“I didn’t do that. You know how it is in this country. We had to walk out two miles, then Wayne and I had to drive back to the scene to secure it. It must’ve taken two hours at least, and the buzzards had gotten to him, to his face.”
“Did you secure the area right away?”
“Well, I waited a bit, while the Sheriff went first. I got out of the vehicle a little later and helped.”
“What did the Sheriff do?”
“I couldn’t see, exactly. We parked where the Ford - Garcia’s pick-up - blocked my view of the body. Wayne thought it might be easier on me. When I got out and went around it, he’d scared off the buzzards and was kneeling by the body, covering it with a small blanket that was in the Ford.”
“And you didn’t originally take Garcia’s pick-up because…”
“It was part of the crime scene.”
“The wife’s saying you forced them at gunpoint to march out on foot.”
“Nope. I would have taken it if Julian Garcia had been alive and we needed to transport him to a doctor, or I would have taken it if either the woman or boy were hurt. But, beyond that, I felt it was evidence and was not going to touch it.”
“What about the cell phone in the glove box?”
“I used my handkerchief to open the box and hold the phone. I pushed the On button with my ballpoint pen.”
“Did you open the door?”
“Nope. Reached through the open window.”
“Okay,” Truman scribbled some more notes, then said, “I need to ask you a couple things.”
“Go ahead.”
“I don’t know if it’ll come up or not, but I need to know, in case it does. Were you and Sheriff Rockman a couple at the time of the shooting?”
