Texas Car Wash Slay Trial Begins

D A L L A S, Sept. 25, 2000 -- A car wash worker told a jury today that hearrived at work last March to find six co-workers lying in bloodypuddles in a lobby and an office, with Robert Wayne Harris standingnearby.

Five of those co-workers were dead or dying.

“They were all lying, face down I believe, in a pool ofblood,” said Jason Shields, 21, of the scene when he entered thecar wash lobby. “They were still trying to breathe.”

Shields, who broke down in sobs at the sight of crime scenephotos, was a key witness prosecutors called in Harris’ capitalmurder trial. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the28-year-old defendant, who had been fired from the car wash a fewdays before the killings.

Bad VibesWith three bloody bodies in thelobby of the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash in Irving on March 20, Shields said he looked atHarris, who told him he thought the business had been robbed.

Shields told the state district court jury that Harris directedhim to three more bodies in the office. Harris then reached for aknife on a bookshelf, Shields said.

“I got a vibe, ‘I’d better get out of here before somethinghappens to me,’ “ Shields said.

Harris, 28, has been charged in the five deaths at the Mi-T-FineCar Wash in Irving and the unrelated slaying of an Irving womanseveral months earlier. However, prosecutors are trying Harris onlyin the slayings of cashier Rhoda Wheeler, 45, and assistant managerAugustin Villasenor, 36.

Killing more than one person in the same crime allows capitalmurder charges, and prosecutors said they will seek the deathpenalty.

Lost ‘Sense of Being’ or Greed?Harris, who has confessed to police, his brother and at leastone television reporter, pleaded innocent at the start of the trialtoday.

Detective Jeff Spivey testified that Harris gave two statementsto police when he was arrested the day after the slayings. In thefirst, he said he walked into the car wash and found the carnage.He later gave another statement saying he killed the six after hewas assaulted by Villasenor.

“I lost all sense of being,” he wrote in the statement. “Ipulled out my gun and started firing.”

Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis said “greed and hatredwere the reasons for that shooting that morning.”

“The evidence will show that six good innocent people weregunned down at the Mi-T-Fine Car Wash,” he said during openingstatements.

Defense attorneys declined to give an opening statement.

Fired Days BeforeHarris was fired March 17 after he was arrested for exposinghimself in a car wash restroom with the door open. Davis toldjurors that Harris returned before the car wash opened three dayslater to confront manager Dennis Lee, 48, and try to gethis job back.

At gunpoint, he forced Wheeler to remove $4,000 in weekendreceipts from the safe. Afterward, he made Wheeler, Lee andVillasenor lie on the floor in the office, and he shot them each inthe back of the head, Davis said.

Three more employees walked into the lobby—Villasenor’sbrother, Benjamin Villasenor, 32; Roberto Jimenez Jr., 15, andOctavio Ramos, 36. Harris made them lie on the floor in the lobbyand he shot them each in the back of the head as well, Davis said.

After shooting the employees, Harris went to his car, retrieveda knife and slit Lee’s throat, Davis said.

Ramos was critically wounded. Harris has been indicted in hisattempted capital murder in his shooting.

911 Tape Awaits JurorsShields told of running to a nearby doughnut shop and callingpolice.

In a 911 recording not heard by jurors today, Shields tells adispatcher, “My dad just dropped me off, and everybody in therehas been cut up and is dead.”

Moments later, in a chilling portion of the five-minute tape,Shields tells the operator that Harris is coming into the doughnutshop.

“Oh … here he is, right here,” Shields is heard sayingbefore asking someone in the shop: “Could you lock the door? Lockthe door. Hurry up and lock the door.”

A stuttering Harris picks up the telephone several seconds laterand identifies himself by name to the dispatcher.

“The only thing I know is … I just lost my job and I went totalk to my manager, and instead I walked in and there’s bloodeverywhere,” Harris said.

Harris fled the scene and was captured the next day at afriend’s house in Dallas. The next day, he directed authorities tothe body of Sandra Estes Scott, a 37-year-old Irving woman who haddisappeared Nov. 29. He later admitted shooting her after anargument, according to court records.

Handgun Link

Another prosecution witness, Deon Bell, testified today that hegave a 9mm handgun to his stepfather, Billy Brooks, and Harris thenight before the slayings.

He said he didn’t see them again until the next morning, when hecame home and saw them with a duffle bag and stacks of cash. Belltestified he and the other two got in a car and drove to a SouthDallas park, where Harris and Brooks left contents of the bag.

Bell testified that, en route, he heard Harris tell Brooks heshot three people, then shot three more when they walked in on thescene.

Bell did not say what was in the bag, but prosecutors have saidit contained such items as a knife, a crowbar, and a cellulartelephone that had belonged to one of the car wash victims.

Bell said Harris returned the handgun, which he then sold.