Eyewitness testifies 14 years later

CLOVIS — More than 14 years after the fact, Telia Vancleave took the stand Wednesday to tell a jury what she saw, as a teenager, on the day Jessie Clyde "J.C." Tucker was gunned down in his office.

For prosecutors in the cold-case murder trial this week of 69-year-old William Hadix, Vancleave's testimony places the accused in Tucker's office on the day of his killing in 2003, pointing a gun at him and demanding money. For Hadix's defense, the account is clouded by more than a decade of silence from Vancleave.

"I was scared I was going to get accessory to the act of murder," she said, addressing questions from defense attorney Gary Mitchell on her extended silence. "And I was deathly afraid of (Hadix)."

Recounting her story Wednesday, Vancleave, now 29, brought a large sketch pad to the stand and doodled on it during her testimony. It was an activity that helps her to stay calm and deal with anxiety, said Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover.

Questioned by Mitchell on her history of mental illness and incarceration, Vancleave did not split hairs. She admitted serving prison time on a drug conviction in Louisiana (where she now resides) and has struggled with borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. When asked about the latter by Stover, she agreed it relates to her time with Hadix.

Vancleave said on repeated questioning she was receiving no special compensation or deals from prosecutors in exchange for testimony.

"The benefit of testifying today is closure for me," she said, "to move forward with my life."

Sept. 4, 2003, started as a normal enough weekday for Vancleave. Then 15 years old, she was dropped off and picked up at school as usual by the man she knew as her godfather and with whom she, her mother and two brothers lived in a mobile home park west of Clovis, she said in court.

But things just "didn't feel right" that afternoon when Hadix came for her that afternoon. They went directly to Tucker's place of business — an auto sales, salvage and storage yard west of Clovis. Hadix worked various jobs for Tucker, whom Vancleave and her siblings had come to know and respect as a kind of grandfather, she said Wednesday. Going there after school was not uncommon.

Seeing a photograph of the front entrance to Tucker's business this week brought Vancleave to tears and a request for a court recess, the first of several such moments during testimony that occupied the first half of the day of trial.

"I don't want nothing to do with that building anymore," she said. "It's where (Tucker) was murdered."

Vancleave said Hadix seemed nervous when he left the car to enter the business and told her to wait for him there.

"I stayed in the car for a second, until I felt like something told me to go. I had a bad feeling," she said. It was on approach to the building, standing just outside the entrance and peering through the ajar door that she saw Hadix standing with a black pistol in his hand in front of Tucker.

"Just give me the money, do as I say and nothing will happen," she recalled hearing from Hadix.

Vancleave then said something startled Hadix. It may have been a noise from her or a motion from Tucker, but what she recalled next was a loud bang.

"I ran back to the front seat and lay down like nothing happened," she said, stating she couldn't remember much of what happened next. "I tried to block everything out."

Hadix came back to the car "sweating really bad," and drove them both straight home, where she went to her room "and lay in a daze," she testified.

Vancleave stayed silent on the matter for years, telling Curry County Sheriff Investigator Sandy Loomis in 2010 that she stayed in the car when Hadix entered Tucker's business but hadn't heard any gunshots.

"I didn't let everything out because I was scared," she said Wednesday.

"Even when you were in Louisiana, married, and well over 1,000 miles from where Mr. Hadix was?" asked Mitchell.

"Yes sir," she replied. "I was frightened for my family's life and my life if I said anything about anything."

Vancleave said she finally gave her complete story in 2016, after Hadix's arrest and following prodding from one of her brother's "about coming forward with the truth."

Other highlights from Wednesday in the trial scheduled to last through Friday:

• Renee Offutt, Vancleave's mother, said she and Hadix were strictly friends and lived together to offset expenses.

"(Hadix) was like a big kid with (Vancleave and her siblings), playing with them, basketball and all," she said. She worked 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at her job so it worked better for Hadix to give Vancleave rides to and from school.

• Loomis said particulars of Tucker's injuries, such as the number of gunshots and their locations, were never released to the "common public" prior to Vancleave coming forward with her story.

He said he spoke to Vancleave's brother, Cory, while the latter was incarcerated in Muleshoe in 2010, after investigators "received information that he was talking in jail about the homicide."

Subsequently attempting to interview Telia Vancleave that same year, Loomis said "it was an immediate, not shutdown but very emotional response from her."

Loomis said he also traced the origin of a black rose sent to Tucker's funeral and found that the individual who sent the sinister flower was not in town at the time of the killing.

• Speaking with Judge Fred Van Soelen after the jury took its evening recess Wednesday, Stover said the state would dismiss Hadix's tampering with evidence charge.

During the same conference, Mitchell requested Hadix's robbery charge be dismissed, as there was "not a shred of evidence" to indicate Tucker was in possession of his characteristic wad of cash before the killing. Van Soelen said he would take it under advisement.