A photo of Wendy Adams, embedded on her headstone, preserves what she looked like the year she was killed.
Jurek is shown at age 22, when he was arrested.
February 27, 2016
Convicted killer maintains innocence 4 decades later
By Sara Sneath
The Victoria Advocate
Jerry Jurek's hair went gray in prison.
But he still combs it back in the Elvis Presley-esque style popular 40 years ago when he was arrested. Once a slender man, he now has a round face and swollen fingers. His hands and arms are tattooed with the faded names of loved ones.
Jurek has spent most of his life behind bars for murdering Wendy Adams, the 10-year-old daughter of a Cuero police officer.
In 1974, Jurek was sentenced to death in the electric chair. He was 22 at the time. He's now 65.
Questions over the fairness of Jurek's confessions ultimately won him a retrial. The 1982 trial ended early when the victim's family asked for a plea deal. Jurek was sentenced to life with parole.
During the 1st trial and throughout the appeals process, Jurek's low IQ level was a topic of concern. Expert witnesses testified that he could not make change for a dollar or list the days of the week.
His dimness made it difficult to comprehend the weight of his decision to not have an attorney present for his confessions and the consequences of his admissions, according to court documents.
After the U.S. Supreme Court suspended capital punishment in 1972, the Texas Legislature passed a new death penalty law two months before Wendy's murder. And Jurek's would be the test case.
Asked whether he was scared when given the death penalty, Jurek replied:
"When they gave it to me, I just laughed in the judge's face, said how you all going to give me something that there ain't?"
His reaction, a mixture of blissful ignorance and far-fetched bravado, was consistent throughout his interview with the Advocate.
The Advocate interviewed Jurek at the Coffield Unit, a maximum security prison in Anderson County that houses more than 4,000 inmates. Jurek has spent most of his sentence there, accompanied by a handful of men who were on death row at the same time as him and also got reduced sentences.
In a visitation wing near the entrance of the prison, a plexiglass window sandwiched between 2 panels of black metal mesh made it possible to see Jurek's blue eyes clearly. Jurek sat with his arms resting on a small table jutting out below the plexiglass. His hands clasped, the words "LOVE LIL SIS" tattooed on his knuckles.
Jurek spoke with a twang that reflected his Louisiana birthplace. When asked a direct question, he often launched into wild stories about his childhood and perceived injustices done against him.
He got the tattoo on his knuckles "on the streets" when he was 13 in honor of his 1st girlfriend, he said.
"Her hair was that color," he said, pulling at the collar of his white prison uniform. She had pink eyes and, while she had poor eyesight in the daylight, she was an expert marksman at night.
"You give her a .30-30 Winchester at night time, she'd strike matches with it. I used to laugh at her about that," he said, chuckling.
Jurek's childhood love left him when she turned 13. But his luck turned around years later when a blind date's mother signed over the title for a Mustang Cobra to him.
"She hands me the f --- title for this Mustang Cobra. I'm thinking she's playing with me," Jurek said. "She says, 'It's yours. You said you like it, don't you?' ... I said, 'No, you ain't giving me a $119,000 car without some kind of deal behind it.' She said, 'You took my baby out. It's yours.'"
Unfortunately, the car was taken back by the woman's ex-husband, a Texas Ranger on the run for murder, he said.
Jurek's detachment from reality also was noticeable in his confusion over names. When asked about Wendy Adams' family, he started talking about his wife's family.
This was also a problem during his 2nd trial, when Jurek told the judge he did not want to be represented by Douglas Tinker, who was instrumental in getting Jurek the new trial.
Tinker - a high-profile defense attorney who would later represent Selena's killer, Yolanda Saldivar - was reappointed to Jurek's defense after it was discovered Jurek had confused Tinker with another attorney.
Jurek became less animated when talking about the day of the crime for which he's in prison. His blue eyes fixed straight ahead. His head tilted to the side in attentiveness.
Jurek pled guilty in turn for his life sentence. But he said he's innocent.
He was with Wendy Adams on Aug. 16, 1973, the day she was murdered. But when the truck they were driving broke down, he said, his attention was directed toward fixing it. During this time, Wendy disappeared with his friend, Ricky Phillips, he said.
"I didn't know they had disappeared 'til he came back saying, 'Oh, I killed her.' I said, 'You done what? And I'm thinking he's playing with me. Cause he always doing that to me," Jurek said. "I said, 'Go get the kid. Get her up here. We got to get her back to her parents.' 'No, I killed her.' Said, 'How'd you do it?' He said, 'I drowned her, I drowned her.' Come to find out he actually did do it."
Phillips, who still lives in Cuero, said he had no part in the crime. He was brought in for questioning when it was discovered Wendy was missing, but he was never formally charged.
Phillips said Jurek dropped him off at a pool hall before he abducted Wendy from the Cuero municipal swimming pool.
"Well, it wasn't me, or I'd be in prison. I ain't a damn fool to kill a little girl like that. ... I got more sense than that," Phillips said. "He didn't like her daddy a lot. Her daddy used to stop him driving a lot. Try to stop him from speeding and all that stuff. He used to get in trouble all the time."
Jurek has been up for parole 17 times. Each time he's been denied.
"They want you to work like a slave in here, but still set you off," he said.
Despite his frustration with the parole process, Jurek believes that someday he'll get out.
If he does, he wants to move back to Louisiana, where his family lived before his dad lost his job and they moved to Cuero.
"First thing I'm going to buy me is a Rolls-Royce. I've fell in love with that," he said. "I want the one they call the Rolls-Royce Drophead. That's a beautiful automobile."
https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/new...4-decades-lat/
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