Satterfield defense rests

Robert Allen Satterfield, after calling five witnesses to the stand Tuesday morning and two after lunch, told the court at 1:20 p.m. he had no further witnesses to call and that the defense rested.

The prosecution rested as well, ending 16 days of testimony in the capital murder trial State of Texas vs. Robert Allen Satterfield. When the jury returned Wednesday morning, 329th District Court Judge Randy Clapp read them a charge and both the prosecution and the defense will give closing arguments.

The jury will then return to the jury room to begin deliberating the defendant’s guilt or innocence. Satterfield, having dismissed his defense team the day before, sat alone at the defense table Tuesday morning in the Wharton County Courthouse district courtroom.

Access to the first three benches behind the defense table were chained off, putting the nearest courtroom visitor some 20 feet behind him. Sheriff’s deputies, assigned to courtroom security and keeping an eye on Satterfield, normally stay near the back of the courtroom.

On Tuesday a couple positioned themselves closer to Satterfield, and Sheriff Shannon Srubar sat next to District Clerk Kendra Charbula or stood beside the witness box when Satterfield asked to approach witnesses to show them pictures. Charbula is positioned next to the judge.

When Satterfield had a defense team there were three trial attorneys seated at the table with him, and they had a mostly non-lawyer support team of anywhere from four to seven sitting behind them in the first two rows behind the defense table.

Tuesday, representing himself, Satterfield, on trial for the murder of Ray Shawn “Baby Ray” Hudson Jr., 4, on June 10, 2018, sat alone.

Before the trial began and with the jury not in the courtroom, Wharton County District Attorney Dawn Allison informed the judge that she had provided Satterfield with law manuals and Texas Ranger David Chauvin’s report for review. She said the defendant had also reviewed a video of his interview in the Fort Bend County Jail and an audio recorded by Chauvin.

He was also provided a Texas DPS Crime Lab report on luminal testing of the trunk of Baby Ray’s mother’s car where his and her bodies were allegedly transported to a burn pit. Clapp signed an order allowing the defense team to withdraw from the case, and Satterfield called his first witness, former Wharton County sheriff’s deputy Taylor Brown.

The defendant asked Brown to recall June 16, 2018, the day Henry Floyd finally told Chauvin that bodies were in a burn pit on his property near Burr, and that he’d seen a body in the burn pit, that of Ray Shawn Hudson, and two bodies lying on the ground near his late brother Elliott’s house – those of Baby Ray and his mother Maya Rivera.

Satterfield asked Brown to recall his duties that day and who told him what to do. He said he was acting under the authority of Ranger Chauvin, and once Chauvin learned bodies were on the property, Brown was asked by Chauvin to “hold the scene.”

The next witness was Texas Ranger James Wilkins. Satterfield also asked him what his role in the investigation was, but he focused on the area near Elliott Floyd’s house where the bodies were supposedly seen by Henry Floyd.

He asked Wilkins what he would typically find at a murder scene. The Ranger said shell casings, blood, brain matter, skin cells… Wilkins admitted that near that house all the evidence found was a couple of shell casings. The third witness was sheriff’s investigator Sgt. Matt Machart. He was asked similar questions as were posed to Wilkins.

Satterfield again focused on the fact that pictures only showed the presence of two shell casings and no other evidence. Satterfield asked if that area looked like a typical crime scene. He asked if the sergeant had seen blood, brain matter, car tire tracks or evidence of animal activity.

Sgt. Machart said “no.” The defendant also called to the stand Colton Frankum, a neighbor of Henry Floyd’s, who witnessed a fire in the burn pit the evening of June 10; Kajuanique Glass, a cousin of Ray Shawn’s; detective Jonathan White of the Angleton Police Department; and finally Johana Bonilla, Ray Shawn Sr.’s mother.