When the ‘guilty’ verdict was read, Amber Halford, 21, collapsed onto the table in a fit of sobs, unable to stand and face her sentencing of Life Without Parole.
After the seven-day trial, jury began deliberations around 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 2016 and presented their verdict several hours later. The jury chose to convict Halford of Capital Murder.
As the State was not seeking the Death Penalty in this case, Halford was automatically sentenced to Life without Parole.
“This is a great day of justice, a day I have been waiting to see for the past 18 months,” states Joy Hurst, wife of the late Douglas Carr Hurst, as she gave her Victim’s Impact Statement following the ‘guilty’ verdict and sentencing.
“We visited you and your mother to check on and spend time with her, and all the while you are plotting and planning to come into our home, where my babies live, to take things we worked so hard to obtain,” she continues. “Never once did you ask your Uncle Doug for help or for a job in the candle shop. He would have helped you. What you’ve done can never be undone!”
“I’m glad you will be spending life in prison, suffering like we will without Doug in our lives,” Joy concludes. “We get to go on spending time with our loved ones while you sit in a cage for the rest of your life thinking about what you’ve done!”
During the Victim Impact Statement, given by Doug’s brother Curtis Hurst, Halford was rocking back and forth with her hands over her ears saying, “Stop. No more. Please no more.”
This case was presided over by District 87 Judge Deborah Oakes Evans. District Attorney, Chris Martin, represented the State of Texas and the Hurst family, and defense attorney, David E. Moore, represented Halford.
“My client was of course disappointed with the outcome of the trial,” explains David Moore. “She has maintained her innocence in the second burglary since day one. We respect the decision of the Jury. I send my sympathy to both families, especially to that of Mr. Douglas Carr Hurst.”
“I am thankful to the jury for the verdict they returned, and the message they sent to others that want to follow the path this defendant took,” states Chris Martin. “Although this verdict can never heal the wound of a niece being involved in the murder of her uncle, with prayers, the Hurst family can begin to move forward knowing justice has been served.”
The events, as per testimonies given
Doug and Joy Hurst married on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 and planned to celebrate with family that weekend in Galveston.
Joy explains that on Friday, March 6th, she and her younger children drove down to their rented beach house; Doug staying behind until he got off work in the early hours of Saturday morning, March 7th, before joining them in Galveston.
Joy’s oldest daughter, Katie Handsome, stayed behind, agreeing to visit the home twice a day to take care of the family dog.
When Katie arrived Sunday morning, March 8th, she found the family dog cowered under the front porch.
Katie testifies that as she entered the home from the front door, she realized the back door was busted open, as were all the bedroom doors down the hallway. Drawers, dressers, and closets had also been riffled through.
Four guns were missing: 1-Glock 357 Sig (later recovered), 1-AR 22 Long Rifle (also recovered), and two other guns (one pistol and one rifle) that have yet to be recovered; as were two laptop computers.
Law enforcement was called and a statement taken by Reserve Deputy Larry Jones of the Freestone County Sheriff’s Office.
Doug was an avid gun collector and had roughly 100 or more guns, explains Joy. Thinking the persons responsible for the break-in might come back to get the remainder, he returned home to Teague.
“He wanted to go back and secure the house before he had to go back to work,” says Joy. “He would not have felt safe leaving me and the kids at home while he was at work if he didn’t feel the house was secure.”
That night at the Hurst home, Doug rigged the back door with a barstool and glass mason jars so he would be alerted if someone should enter the back door, according to Joy, who was on the phone with Doug throughout the evening.
Sometime after midnight, in the early hours of Monday, March 9th, Doug was awakened by those sounds.
According to Texas Ranger Jake Burson, who was lead investigator of this case, evidence collected from the crime scene indicate that there was a shootout inside the home between two persons; most likely homeowner Doug Hurst and JD Mulkey, who was also involved in the burglary the night before.
Ranger Burson explains that two guns were recovered on the scene; a Smith & Wesson .40 Cal (found in the master bedroom on the bed), and the Glock 357 Sig taken from the home the night before (found next to Mulkey’s body).
Six shots were fired from each of the two guns; the first shot from each is believed to have struck Doug and Mulkey. The additional five shots fired were erratic in nature as they both began to retreat; Doug to the back bedroom, and JD outside where he collapsed and died on the scene.
Doug was able to call 911, and was later found collapsed, but still coherent, when first responders arrived. He was transferred to Hillcrest Hospital in Waco, where he later died on Friday, March 13, 2015 due to complications from the gunshot wound, according to Medical Examiner Steven Lenfest, who performed the autopsy.
Evidence against Halford
Evidence leading to the guilty verdict consisted of two video interviews of Halford by Freestone County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Clayton Aldrich, and countless text messages between Halford and JD Mulkey taken from both of their cell phones.
During the first video interview taken Monday morning, March 9th at the Teague Police Department, Halford is seen denying any prior knowledge of the second night’s burglary in which Doug and Mulkey were shot. She tells that she knew Mulkey and his friend, Dustin Sanoja, who also happens to be her cousin and Doug’s nephew, went to the Hurst home on the first night and took away two pistols, two rifles, and two laptops because that’s what Mulkey told her.
Halford also asks Aldrich, “Can ya’ll leave me out of this? I’m not trying to get involved in this or get anyone else in trouble.”
She claims that she has the two laptops, one in the trunk of her car, the other under the bed in her room at her mom’s house. Her plans, according to this interview, were to charge and reset the computers in order to sell them for money. She was also considering keeping one of them for herself.
“I know this looks bad because both my boyfriend and uncle died, but I didn’t have nothing to do with this,” Halford states. “I had no bad blood with Doug; and I was trying to keep JD out of trouble.”
At the end of this interview, Aldrich confiscates the laptop from Halford’s trunk and allows her to go back to work with the promise that when she is off the clock later that afternoon, she will return with the other laptop hidden at her mother’s home.
The next day, Aldrich interviews Halford again. This time she admits to having shown Mulkey where her family members live in the Teague area; that he was impressed by the nice homes and assumed they had nice things. Halford says that they “used to play around about it.”
On the night of Saturday, March 7, 2015, Halford drove Mulkey and Sanoja to a house near the Hurst home and dropped them off. She explains that she drove around and waited for Mulkey to call her to pick them up.
At the conclusion of this interview, Halford was arrested for Burglary of a Habitation, as Doug Hurst had not yet died.
Though Halford was not physically involved in the events that took place that second night, she was found to be guilty by promoting, directing, and encouraging events that lead to that terrible incident.
There were messages on Facebook between Halford and a Michael Hargraves, a man Halford contacted about buying guns because she knew he was a hunter. He ended up not purchasing any guns because they didn’t have the type he was interested in.
According to Hargrave’s testimony, he did not know they were stolen guns. “I probably should have figured it out since they were selling them so cheap, but no, I didn’t know,” he says. “I told Amber to let me know if they had anything else they wanted to sell and I would see what she had.”
More than 400 text messages recovered from Mulkey’s cell phone by Digital Forensic Investigator Erin Maslon of the DPS Crime Lab in Austin show conversations between Halford and Mulkey discussing plans to get more guns, possible persons who might want to buy the guns and laptops, amounts of cash that could be obtained from said persons, and getting more guns for a potential buyer who didn’t want the guns taken from the first night’s haul.
Some of the text messages are paraphrased as follows:
Halford to Mulkey…
–We could have got $250 from Michael instead of $150 (which is what they sold one rifle for to Joel Wells).
–Michael might want one of the laptops, but there is no charger and Mom’s doesn’t work with it.
–Michael wants your pistol (the Glock 357 taken from the Hurst home the first night) and he wants us to get more guns.
–I don’t know if they are back. Go by there tonight and see if the lights are on and all that.
–Just be careful and take someone who won’t hit licks on them.
Mulkey to Halford…
–I don’t want to sell my gun (the Glock 357).
–But if they are not home, I can go back and get more.
–Did you find out if they came back?
Halford to Mulkey before she knew for sure that he had died…
–If that man hurt you, I’m gonna’ hurt him.
–You aren’t gonna’ go down for this by yourself.
Halford to Mulkey after she knew for sure that he had died…
–JD this has all got to be a bad dream. I need you back. I need you down here. It’s too soon. We were supposed to be old in our rocking chairs smoking blunts and telling our grandchildren the crazy things we did while we was young. We always said til death do us part, but I didn’t want it this early. JD, I’m not gonna love anyone else again or let anyone else love me. You took my heart with you. I love you. Fly high baby boy. Rest easy, baby. Til we meet again.
In addition to these messages, there were many others showing the couple to have been arguing about Mulkey’s apparent cheating on Halford and how she was tired of being hurt by him.
Halford took the stand in her own defense, during which she told her side of the story.
She claims that Mulkey needed money because he was a wanted felon on the run and that she was worried about him running around town with the gun.
Halford states that she didn’t know they were going back the second night and didn’t find out about it until the next morning when someone called her to tell her Mulkey had died.
“It was supposed to be a one-time thing,” she says. “I felt responsible because I shouldn’t have taken them the first night, but I didn’t know anything about the second night or the shootings.”
During closing arguments, Martin states “Douglas Carr Hurst’s fate was sealed the minute Amber told Michael Hargraves that they could get more guns. Amber knew JD had that gun and was going back to the house. But for her, JD, OJ, and Lawson would not have gone to that house the second night. Do not feel sorry for her. Let justice prevail.”
In response, Moore explains “Amber knew nothing of the second night’s events. She takes full responsibility in her involvement in the first night’s burglary. The state wants you to send her to prison for life based on a few handpicked text messages. Don’t hold her liable for Mr. Hurst’s death.”
After everyone left the courtroom, she was allowed to say her goodbyes to family before being escorted back to Freestone County Jail.
