Death penalty sought in murder trial
Staff report
For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Hays County District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty; the case is nearly 40 years old. In 1975, someone murdered Sheryl Ann Norris, a 20-year-old secretary at the Crime Prevention Institute of Texas in San Marcos.
For years, Norris’ killer went unknown.
The capital murder trial against Willie Jenkins, 59, began at a Hays County courtroom with 12 jurors and two alternates last week. Testimony started Tuesday. Jenkins was charged with capital murder in 2010 and extradited to Texas. He was under a civil commitment order at the Coalinga State Hospital in California at the time of his arrest. Jenkins was convicted of four rapes in California and Texas, according to a report in the Austin American Statesman.
During the testimony last week, the prosecutor said Hays County investigators placed Jenkins in Texas on the day Norris died. He was an active-duty Marine stationed in California at the time, but was on leave to visit his sick wife in San Antonio, according to newspaper reports. Assistant Attorney General Lisa Tanner told jurors the date of Norris’ killing falls within the dates of his leave.
The case against Willie Jenkins wasn’t made until 2010 when the science of forensic evidence, including DNA and semen, finally caught up with him. At the time of Norris’ murder, technology was not sophisticated enough to point to Jenkins.
Norris’ boyfriend in 1975, Wayne Andrus, found her in the bathtub on Nov. 24 in her apartment off Aquarena Springs Drive in San Marcos. According to police reports, she was raped, strangled and drowned – an expert testified last week that Norris fought her attacker, kicking a hole in the wall as she struggled.
Andrus was considered a suspect, but was later excluded through DNA evidence. He testified that he sold marijuana in the weeks prior to Norris’ murder.
“I was haunted for 30 years thinking it was related to something I had done,” he told jurors.
Andrus recalled in his testimony how he came inside the apartment and heard music blasting at a deafening level. When he saw Norris in the bathtub, he initially thought she slipped, then quickly realized what happened was not an accident and called police.
Norris’ family was present in the courtroom Tuesday for the opening statements. Austin news station KVUE reported her family members were sobbing as jurors viewed grisly images of the crime scene.
In 2010, Texas Department of Public Safety technicians extracted a more complete DNA profile and submitted it to a national database. That’s when they hit upon Jenkins.
By the end of the week, defense attorneys for Jenkins had not yet presented opening statements. Judge Gary Steel said he will consider a defense motion to suppress DNA evidence this week.
Correction: an earlier version of this story indicated the Hays County District Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty for the first time in nearly 40 years. It should have read 20 years. We apologize for the error.
