GEORGETOWN — The capital murder trial of a man who police say robbed and killed a man who was giving two women a ride home from an Austin nightclub in April 2010 started this morning.

Bobby Burks Jr. has been charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery and could face the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors said he killed Raul Vizueth Torres, 18, after ambushing him on a dark road in Williamson County. Burks had conspired with his two sisters-in-law, Veronica Ortiz and Isabel Gonzales, to find two men to rob at La Rumba nightclub on Riverside Drive in Austin on April 17, 2010, said prosecutor Jane Starnes.

The women met Torres and his cousin, Jorge Castaneda, and asked them for a ride home to Taylor, said Starnes. On the ride home early in the morning, the car that Castaneda was driving passed a Mustang owned by Burks, Starnes said. Right after the car passed the Mustang, Ortiz said she was sick and asked Castaneda to stop the car, Starnes said.

When Castaneda stopped the car in the 16700 block of FM 1660 the two women jumped out and Burks ran up and demanded wallets from Castaneda and Torres, Starnes said. He also shot at the men, hitting Torres but missing Castaneda, the prosecutor said.

Castaneda did not know how badly injured Torres was so he drove him to a hospital instead of calling 911, Starnes said. Torres was pronounced dead at the hospital, she said.

Investigators have cell phone records that indicated Burks was in the area where the shooting took place, Starnes said. A woman who is the mother of Burks’ cousin’s children also told investigators that Burks asked her to hide a tub of clothing, shoes and a cell phone that he brought to her on April 19, 2010, Starnes said.

Defense Attorney Allan Williams said Burks was not the person who ambushed the two men. There were no fingerprints at the scene and police have never recovered a weapon, he said. Castaneda initially described the man who ambushed him and Torres as bald, thin and tall — a description that Burks does not fit, Williams said.

Castaneda did not get a clear look at who shot at him and his cousin because he was bending down to get money that had dropped out of this wallet when the shots were fired, Williams said.

An Austin man arrested this month on accusations he recorded on his computer the sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl and solicited teenage girls to send him naked pictures of them was once the band director at Burnet Middle School in Austin, according to district and state officials.

An FBI agent testified last week during a pretrial hearing for Robert J. Ramos, Jr., 32, that Ramos (at right) told him he had worked as an assistant band director at Dessau Middle School and had previously worked at Burnet Middle School.

Pflugerville school officials immediately confirmed that Ramos had worked at Dessau Middle as assistant band director from August 2011 to November 2011, when he resigned.

Austin district officials later confirmed that Ramos worked at Burnet Middle School at band director from 2005 to 2007, when he resigned. (That confirmation came too late to be included in a January 25 story.)

Debbie Ratliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, said today that Ramos has not held any other Texas public school jobs other than the teaching positions at Burnet and Dessau Middle Schools.

Ramos is being held in federal custody pending trial on child pornography charges that are punishable by decades in prison.

Read about the charges here and how federal authorities might have caught Ramos during a separate child pornography investigation in 2004 and 2005 here. Finally, read why U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis Green denied Ramos’ bid for release on bond pending trial here.

Travis County prosecutors believe that a 16-year-old accused of murder in the shooting death of an Akins High School student last month should be tried as an adult.

Assistant Travis County District Attorney LaRu Woody said prosecutors have asked that a juvenile court judge certify the teen charged with murder in Mark Brandon Dominguez’s death to be tried as an adult.

Woody said a judge would hold a future hearing on that request. She said she does not believe that a hearing has been scheduled. A judge must consider several factors in making the decision, including the nature of the crime, the sophistication and maturity of the child defendant and his previous record, Woody said.

Police and prosecutors have not identified the teen tried in the case, citing his age. Because he stands tried as a juvenile, court records in his case are not public.

Dominguez was fatally shot at about 12:45 a.m. on Jan. 8 near his home in the Canterbury Trails neighborhood of far South Austin. Police have said that he and two of his brothers heard suspicious noises outside their home and, thinking someone was trying to break into a car, went outside to investigate.

Dominguez was found in the 11100 block of Franklins Tale Loop and taken to University Medical Center Brackenridge, where he later died, police officials have said.

Police later found two boys in a taxi, one matching the description and wearing the same clothing as the boy involved in the shooting, a police spokeswoman has said. Both were carrying guns and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. One was also charged with murder, the spokeswoman said.

Dominguez was an aspiring firefighter who was an active member of an “Explorers” program in which at-risk and low-income teens learn the ropes on becoming firefighters. The high school junior was saving up money to enter a firefighting academy after turning 18, according to Lt. Eddie Dominguez, a Travis County firefighter who wasn’t related to the teen but had mentored him for the past two years.

Former Austin police officer Leonardo Quintana was acquitted Wednesday by a Williamson County jury of multiple charges stemming from a 2009 argument with his ex-fiancee, a current Austin officer.

Quintana — who fatally shot Nathaniel Sanders II outside an East Austin apartment complex in May 2009 — was accused of pushing Lori Noriega into a wall after the two got into an argument and Noriega said Quintana refused to leave her home. Quintana was acquitted of assault-family violence and criminal trespass. He faced up to a year in jail if convicted.

“I’m very happy that the truth prevailed,” Quintana said. “I’m taking steps still to clear my name and I’m happy to be moving on with my life.”

The charges are two of three against Quintana of which he has been acquitted. In June, a Williamson County jury acquitted Quintana of another domestic assault charge related to a separate 2008 incident between Quintana and Noriega that led to Quintana’s firing from the Austin Police Department in 2010.

One charge remains — an allegation of criminal mischief related to the 2008 incident.

Dee Hobbs, chief of the Williamson County attorney’s criminal division, said the county will evaluate the remaining case in light of Wednesday’s acquittals.

Bristol Myers, Quintana’s attorney, said that the final charge should be dropped.

“I’m hoping after beating them twice at trial, the Williamson County attorney’s office will stop using Lenny Quintana as a political football,” Myers said.

Wednesday’s case surrounded an October 2009 fight that erupted when Quintana went to Noriega’s home after a high school football game, Myers said. He said the two watched a couple of movies and then got into an argument.

Quintana was accused of refusing to leave Noriega’s house and pushing Noriega, causing her to slip and hit her head so hard that it left a hole in the wall. Myers said he told the jury during the trial that Noriega punched a hole in the wall to set Quintana up.

Myers said at the June trial that Quintana was being targeted by the Austin Police Department partly because of an arbitrator’s decision that he be reinstated after he was fired over a drunken driving arrest.

In the 2008 case, Quintana had been accused of forcefully removing an engagement ring from Noriega’s hand.

Hobbs denied all claims that Quintana was being targeted or set up.

“We would not have brought a case to trial as the prosecutors if we believed it was in some manner or means a setup or if there was some benefit to be had by a victim,” Hobbs said. “We’re not a TV sitcom or a drama or anything else. It is what it is.” Updated with comments from Leonardo Quintana.

Corrected at 11:15 p.m. to fix sentencing information. Norwood is not eligible for life without parole.

A Williamson County grand jury today returned a capital murder indictment accusing Mark Alan Norwood of the 1986 beating death of Christine Morton.

If convicted, Norwood could face the death penalty or life in prison.

The indictment accused Norwood, a Bastrop dishwasher who was a carpet installer in the late 1980s, of repeatedly striking Morton in the head with an unknown blunt object while burglarizing her house in southwestern Williamson County.

Morton’s purse and a .45-caliber gun belonging to her husband, Michael Morton, were reported stolen in the crime.

The indictment was handed up shortly after 5 p.m.

Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office had taken over the Morton investigation at the request of Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, announced the indictment.

“An indictment in a cold case cannot bring back the life that was unnecessarily taken, but this is a big step toward answering long unresolved questions for the crime victim’s family,” Abbott said in a statement.

Michael Morton was originally convicted in the murder and sentenced to life in prison. He was freed last year after recent forensic tests found Norwood’s DNA on a bandanna that also contained Christine Morton’s blood and hair.

DNA tests have also linked Norwood to the 1988 death of an Austin woman, Debra Masters Baker, who like Christine Morton had been beaten to death while lying in bed. Norwood has not been charged in Baker’s death.

A Williamson County jury this afternoon found Bobby Burks Jr., 34, guilty of robbing and killing a man whose cousin was giving two women a ride home from a Southeast Austin nightclub in April 2010.

The jury found Burks guilty of capital murder and two counts of aggravated robbery. Burks could face life in prison without parole or the death penalty for the murder charge and five to 99 years or life in prison for each of the aggravated robbery charges. The sentencing phase of the trial begins Thursday morning.

Burks is guilty of killing Raul Vizueth Torres, 18, after ambushing him on a dark road south of Taylor.

During the trial, prosecutor Jane Starnes had said that Burks conspired with his two sisters-in-law, Veronica Ortiz and Isabel Gonzales, to find men to rob at La Rumba nightclub on East Riverside Drive on April 17, 2010.

The women met Torres and his cousin, Jorge Castaneda, and asked them for a ride home to Taylor, Starnes said. During the drive, Castaneda passed a Ford Mustang owned by Burks, Starnes said. After Castaneda’s SUV passed the Mustang, Ortiz claimed to be sick and asked Castaneda to stop the car, Starnes said.

When Castaneda stopped the car in the 16700 block of FM 1660, the two women jumped out, and Burks ran up and demanded the men’s wallets, Starnes said. He also shot at the men, hitting Torres in the head but missing Castaneda, the prosecutor said.

Castaneda did not know how badly Torres was injured, so he drove him to a hospital after getting directions from his uncle, Starnes said. Torres was pronounced dead at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center.

Defense attorney Allan Williams had argued that Burks was not the person who ambushed the two men. There were no fingerprints at the scene, he said, adding that police never recovered a weapon. Castaneda initially described the man who ambushed him and Torres as bald and thin — a description that does not fit Burks, Williams said.

Detectives from the case embraced Castaneda and his uncle Jose Sanchez, who had also testified at the trial, after the guilty verdict was read Wednesday afternoon.

U.S District Judge Lee Yeakel said Wednesday that Austin’s future federal courthouse is now scheduled to open in November, about two months after originally estimated. When officials broke ground on the eight-story courthouse in September 2009, they estimated it would be completed in three years.

According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the federal government’s contract with White Construction Company set a Nov. 30, 2012, completion date. The contractor must pay $2,755 for every day of delay beyond that date, the contract states.

The $123 million project is being predominantly funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Yeakel said it remains on budget.

Workers have largely completed the exterior of the eight-story, 252,420-square-foot building that is bounded by Fourth, Fifth, San Antonio and Nueces streets downtown. Much of the remaining work, Yeakel said, will occur inside, which will feature eight courtrooms and chambers for 10 judges.

Officials have said that the current federal courthouse on West Eighth Street is too small to handle the growing federal docket.

Deciding that a 10-year prison sentence is tough enough for a homeless man accused of puncturing hundreds of vehicle tires in Central Austin’s Hyde Park neighborhood, prosecutors struck a plea deal with Tommy Joe Kelley this morning that calls for no additional prison time.

Kelley, 57, at right, was sentenced by a jury to the 10-year term in November after he was convicted of one count of unlawful use of a criminal instrument — a small metal rod. Today, in a plea bargain with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to an additional count of the crime in exchange for a five-year term that will run concurrent with his original sentence. Three additional counts were dismissed under the deal.

Outside court, prosecutor Jason English said that prosecutors had decided before his first trial that 10 years was a fair punishment. He said taking Kelley, also known as Tommy Joe Adams, to trial to pursue additional prison time would take up important resources in state District Judge Julie Kocurek’s court that could be applied to more serious cases. The case had been set for trial next week.

“The next case on the docket is an assault family violence enhanced,” English said, noting that Kocurek’s court also handles felonies such as murder, aggravated robbery and sexual assault, and generally has a jury trial every other week.

During Kelley’s November trial, prosecutors said police caught Kelley on Dec. 31, 2010, sharpening a piece of metal on a street curb to make a tool to puncture tires. Police said Kelley had been found on other occasions with a similar tool.

Kelley testified during that trial that he had been homeless and living in Hyde Park for about 30 years until he was arrested. He said he had lived in an alley between Guadalupe Street and Avenue A, near 40th Street.

While Kelley may appeal his November sentence, he waived an appeal on today’s five-year sentence.

After he was sentenced, Kocurek told Kelley that he should not return to Hyde Park after his release from prison.

“I understand exactly what you are saying,” said Kelley. He then said something to Kocurek that began with “I’m sorry.” The rest was inaudible from the courtroom gallery.

English said outside court that Kelley said, “he was getting disgusted with himself and he was getting older and he’s got to do something different.”

The final charge pending in Williamson County against former Austin police officer Leonardo Quintana was dropped Thursday.

Quintana— whose fatal shooting of Nathaniel Sanders II outside an apartment complex in 2009 resulted in community outrage and disciplinary and legal action against him — was previously acquitted by two separate Williamson juries of three other charges related to incidents with his ex-fiancee.

A charge of criminal mischief was dropped by the county Thursday.

Last week Quintana was acquitted of assault-family violence and criminal trespass. He had been accused of pushing ex-fiancee Lori Noriega, a current Austin police officer, into a wall in 2009 after the two got into an argument and she said Quintana refused to leave her home.

In June, a Williamson County jury acquitted Quintana of another domestic assault charge related to a separate 2008 incident between Quintana and Noriega that led to Quintana’s firing from the Austin Police Department in 2010.

“I’m very relieved and pleased that two separate juries and the good people in Williamson County acquitted me from the assault allegations I was fired from APD for,” Quintana said. “There are a lot of other things I’d like to say, but for now, I’m just relieved and pleased. It’s been a long, drawn-out battle.”

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo did not return a call for comment late Thursday afternoon.

An Austin woman who admitted to conspiracy to file false claims for income tax refunds was sentenced this morning to three years and a month in federal prison, according to a spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigation division.

Audrey Moncada, 41, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, said the spokesman, Special Agent Michael Lemoine.

Moncada and her co-defendant in the case, Jennifer Ramos, worked for Cantu Professional Tax Services as a tax preparer, according to the criminal information charging her in the case. The business is located in Austin, Lemoine said.

Ramos, also of Austin, worked for Moncada as an office assistant, the information said.

In the first two months of 2007, the pair recruited people to file fraudulent federal income tax returns under their own names and Social Security numbers but listing fictitious employers and amounts of federal withholding, the information said.

The forms created and submitted by Moncada and Ramos — both of Austin — falsely claimed that the individuals were eligible for the earned income tax credit, the information said. The credit is for certain people who work and have low wages.

Lemoine said that scheme involved “up to 50 returns” and a loss of $165,000 to the government.

Ramos was sentenced last month to one year in prison.

Former Williamson County district attorney Ken Anderson should face a court of inquiry to examine allegations that he violated state law by withholding evidence that could have spared Michael Morton from a wrongful conviction and almost 25 years in prison, a district judge ruled today.

After a 75-minute hearing, District Judge Sid Harle ruled that there is probable cause to believe that Anderson may have broken state law in the Morton case.

Noting that the allegations to date have been spurred by Morton’s lawyers, Harle said a court of inquiry would give Anderson a chance to clear his name and Morton a chance to seek a greater measure of justice.

Harle will put his request in writing - he gave no timeline - to Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, who will determine whether to convene a court of inquiry to examine the allegations.

If Jefferson agrees, the Supreme Court would assign a state district judge to oversee the court of inquiry, which is a fact-finding body that would determine whether any state laws were violated. The court would not issue a punishment or criminal conviction.

After the hearing, Morton choked up briefly when facing reporters. “When you do the right thing, like the judge did today, everything falls into place,” said Morton, now sporting a gray goatee.

Anderson, now a district judge in Georgetown, was not in court. His lawyer, Mark Dietz, said Anderson looks forward to the court of inquiry. “It does give him the ability to clear his name,” Dietz said.

Morton, freed in October after DNA tests pointed to another man in the murder of his wife, Christine, has accused Anderson of hiding five pieces of evidence that could have spared him from a wrongful conviction.

One of those pieces of evidence, however, was revealed today to be innocuous. Morton’s lawyers had said a $20 check, made out to Christine Morton but cashed a week after her death, was apparently forged - perhaps by the real killer — but was not revealed to Morton’s trial lawyers.

It turns out that the check was one of two cashed by Michael Morton - a fact that he didn’t remember until he was recently shown several deposit slips and recognized his handwriting, Scheck said.

Anderson lawyer Eric Nichols said the incident showed that Morton’s lawyers had indulged in baseless accusations that besmirched Anderson’s name and reputation.

Other evidence that Morton’s lawyers allege was withheld included:

• Two transcripts of a police interview with Christine Morton’s mother, Rita Kirkpatrick, who revealed that the Mortons’ 3-year-old son witnessed the murder and said Michael Morton was not home at the time. One transcript was found in Anderson’s trial file last summer, and a longer version was discovered in the sheriff’s department files in 2008.

• A note to the lead sheriff’s investigator indicating that Christine Morton’s credit card might have been used in San Antonio two days after her death.

• A police report about suspicious behavior by an unidentified driver of a green van who, a neighbor said, on several occasions parked and walked into the wooded area behind the Morton house.

Longtime Austin prosecutor Mark Lane was selected today to be the next U.S. Magistrate judge in Austin.

Lane, 49, will take the spot vacated in October when former judge Robert Pitman became the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, which includes Austin.

Lane has worked as a federal prosecutor since 1995, most of that time in the Austin division of the Western District. Before that he worked a combined seven years as a prosecutor in the Travis County district and county attorney offices.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin said 62 people applied for the job. Those applications were whittled down to a short list by a merit selection committee comprised mostly of lawyers. That list was presented to the Western District’s judges, who selected Lane.

“He’s appeared in my court on numerous occasions,” Yeakel said. “I have total confidence in him and think he’ll make an outstanding Magistrate judge.”

Lane is a Crockett High School graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and a law degree from the University of Houston.

Among the notable cases he’s handled is the recent prosecution of Kurt Barton, the former Triton Financial chief executive who was convicted last year in what prosecutors said was a $75 million Ponzi scheme that victimized hundreds of investors, including professional football players, members of his church and retirees. Barton was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Lane will begin the job once he passes an FBI background check, Yeakel said. As Magistrate judge, he will preside over some civil trials and handle pretrial criminal tasks, such as deciding whether to release defendants on bond.

“I am humbled, I am honored and I am looking forward to the challenge,” Lane said.

Jerry Epps said he was returning from lunch with a colleague one day last year when he heard screaming and screeching in the parking garage of his downtown office building.

“It sounded like an animal or something getting caught in a fan,” Epps told prosecutor Geoffrey Puryear before a Travis County jury today.

Moments later a woman came around a corner and toward him with blood on her face and hands.

“She was, you know, compressing a wound on her head,” said Epps, who works as a lawyer, “and appeared to me at least to be in shock as she was coming toward me.”

Epps said he and his colleague, Tini Nguyen, saw another person flee into a different part of the garage.

That person, prosecutors say, was Billy Faircloth, 45, who went on trial today in state District Judge Mike Lynch’s court on a count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The trial is expected to last at least two days.

Faircloth is accused of striking Kathy McWilliams in the head with a rock on Feb. 15, 2011, according to the indictment against him.

Assistant District Attorney Amy Meredith told the jury during opening statements that McWilliams worked at the office building at 100 Congress Ave., which is on the northwest corner of Congress Avenue and Cesar Chavez Street.

McWilliams worked in the building for a law firm and was attacked about 12:50 p.m. on the fifth subfloor of the building’s underground parking garage as she returned to work from her lunch break, Meredith said.

“This defendant came up from behind and started hitting Ms. McWilliams over the head with a rock.

“You are going to hear Ms. McWilliams tell you that she turned around and the one thing she remembered seeing is angry blue eyes.”

Meredith said that after workers in the building called 911, Faircloth was found about 20 minutes after the attack hiding between two vehicles in the garage.

Meredith told the jury that there was “sloppy police work” during the investigation of the case but that does not mean the defendant isn’t guilty.

She said that the two witnesses who first encountered McWilliams after the attack — Epps and Nguyen — offered to give information to police after the attack but were told that their information was not needed.

She noted that the evidence against Faircloth includes surveillance video that shows him lingering in the garage for hours before the attack.

Defense lawyer Keith Lauerman told the jury during a brief opening statement that, “this is going to turn out to be more than just sloppy police work; it is going to be a rush to judgment.”

Lauerman then asked the jury: “Hold them to that burden of beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s all I ask.”

Clearing up some unfinished business after last week’s hearing on the Michael Morton matter:

Here is the affidavit signed by District Judge Sid Harle after he agreed Friday to seek a court of inquiry to examine whether former Williamson County district attorney Ken Anderson broke any state laws when he prosecuted Morton for murder in 1987.

Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson is reviewing the affidavit and had not acted on the request as of Tuesday afternoon.

The affidavit, written by Morton’s lawyers and accepted without change or revision by Harle, concludes that there is probable cause to believe:

• Anderson failed to submit a complete set of investigative documents to Morton’s trial judge, William Lott, despite being ordered to do so by the judge.

• During Morton’s trial and in appeals after his conviction, Anderson failed to correct the mistaken impression that he had complied with Lott’s order.

• Anderson failed to honor his legal obligation to disclose favorable evidence to Morton’s lawyers before the trial began and “falsely represented to the defense and the district court on the eve of trial that the state had no favorable evidence to disclose.”

“The record contains evidence that a public official may have committed serious misconduct, and this misconduct may have contributed to the wrongful conviction and lengthy incarceration of … Michael Morton, now known to be factually innocent,” Harle’s affidavit said.

Anderson, in statements and through his lawyers, has denied all of the accusations, saying he fully complied with Lott’s order, which he described as far more limited in scope than construed by Morton’s legal team.

Jefferson has no time limit to decide whether to accept Harle’s request for a court of inquiry. If he agrees, Jefferson would appoint a district court judge to run the ad hoc court, collect information about the case and issue a finding about whether Anderson broke any state laws. Designed to be a fact-finding process, a court of inquiry could not punish Anderson or find him guilty of a crime.

Updated, 6 p.m., to correct that Allan Williams is Burks’ attorney, not a prosecutor:

A man convicted of capital murder in a 2010 roadside ambush was sentenced by a Williamson County jury this afternoon to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Bobby Burks Jr., 34, could have been given the death penalty.

Burks was found guilty last week of killing 18-year-old Raul Vizueth Torres after Burks’ sisters-in-law helped lure the victim and his cousin into a trap along a county road near Taylor in April 2010.

The jury deliberated about four hours this afternoon before returning to with its sentence. The judge imposed the sentence immediately and ordered Burks to be transferred to prison, District Attorney John Bradley said in a news release, adding that Burks will never be eligible for any type of early release.

As Burks was leaving the courtroom, Burks placed his hand over his heart and smiled at family members sitting in the courtroom.

Outside court, defense attorney Allan Williams said he was pleased with the sentence.

“It was the right thing to do under the evidence,” he said.

Prosecutor Jane Starnes declined to comment.

Earlier:

A Williamson County jury is deliberating whether to sentence a man convicted of capital murder to death or life without parole.

Bobby Burks Jr. was convicted last week of the robbery and fatal shooting of 18-year-old Raul Vizueth Torres, whom he ambushed on a Williamson County road in April 2010.

To impose the death penalty, the jury must decide that Burks is a future danger to society and that there are no mitigating circumstances in his case. One of the prosecutors, Jane Starnes, said this morning in closing arguments that Burks’ criminal history showed he would be a future threat.

Burks is a “bully” who did a drive-by shooting as a teenager, dealt drugs as a gang member, was convicted of assaulting his wife and also punched somebody in jail after he was arrested in connection with the death of Torres, Starnes said.

Defense attorney Steve Brittain argued that Burks would not be a threat in the future in prison because he had already spent thousands of days in the penitentiary on previous charges and had not gotten into trouble. Burks punched another inmate once after the inmate charged at him with what appeared to be a weapon, Brittain said.

Two sisters-in-law of Burks’ lured Torres and his cousin, Jorge Castaneda, away from an Austin nightclub on April 17, 2010, officials have said. The sisters, Veronica Ortiz and Isabel Gonzales, testified earlier in the trial that they and Burks planned to rob Castaneda after they discovered he was carrying $300 in cash.

The women asked Castaneda and Torres for a ride to Taylor and promised to “party” with them, Ortiz testified. Ortiz got Castaneda to pull over on FM 1660 after pretending to be sick, and Burks, who was parked nearby, walked up to Castaneda’s Chevrolet Tahoe, robbed the men and shot Torres in the head, police said.

Castaneda drove Torres to St. David’s South Austin Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The women fled with Burks in his Ford Mustang.

Ortiz and Gonzales testified against Burks in exchange for having capital murder dropped from their charges. They are both charged with two counts of aggravated assault, and each faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.

Another defense attorney, Allan Williams, said during closing arguments this morning that there were mitigating circumstances in Burks’ case. The killing of Torres wasn’t premeditated because Burks got scared when he saw Castaneda reach under a car seat and thought he was reaching for a weapon, Williams said.

“There was no plan to kill,” he said.

Williams also said that the “vast majority” of people convicted of capital murder in Texas had received life sentences. He said there were more than 2,000 people in jail for capital murder, while only about 300 people are on death row for capital murder convictions.

Burks’ criminal history consisted mostly of misdemeanors and does not merit the death sentence, Williams said.

“There was another side of Bobby,” Williams said. “His mother and his brother and his children loved him, and he loved them.”

Another prosecutor, Lindsey Roberts, wound up closing arguments this morning. He said Burks not only shot at Torres during the robbery but also shot at Castaneda but missed and tried to hide evidence. Roberts said Williams understated Burks’ criminal history, including the drive-by shooting.

“He calls it a bad situation,” Roberts said. “Really? Bobby shot into a house.”

Roberts also said that Burks probably behaved well in jail before because there was always the possibility of parole for his past convictions. There are no mitigating circumstances in Burks’ life, Roberts argued, even though witnesses testified that he loved his nine children.

“He consistently abandoned his children over the years,” Roberts said. His mother now has custody of six of his children, but the children were visiting Burks and his wife the night before Torres died, Roberts said. Instead of spending time with his children and his wife, Burks planned the robbery and had sex with his girlfriend, said Roberts.

“Bobby has always done what he wanted to do and consistently gotten into trouble even though people tried to intervene like his mother,” said Roberts. “He was continuing to deal drugs and carry guns even until the day he got caught.”

Police have never found the gun used in Torres’ shooting.

This post has been updated since initially filed with comments from the Charlie Baird campaign.

Charlie Baird is trying to seize on Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg’s admonishment that he “just hush.”

Baird, a former judge, (at right) is challenging Lehmberg in April’s Democratic primary for the county’s top prosecutor position and had a testy exchange during a community forum Monday night in East Austin held to discuss the fatal police shooting of 20-year-old Byron Carter Jr.

A Travis County grand jury is investigating the actions of Austin Police Officer Nathan Wagner, who shot Carter downtown in May. The grand jury is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether Wagner will face criminal charges.

American-Statesman reporter Patrick George reported in today’s Statesman that after expressing sympathy to Carter’s family, Lehmberg told the crowd: “I do not dictate to a grand jury what decision they are to make.”

“He has perverted that. He does not know what happened with Tom DeLay,” said Lehmberg (at right).

This led to the testy exchange during which Lehmberg pointed at Baird and said, “Why don’t you just hush.”

In an email to supporters today with a subject line of “Hush!” Baird, now working as a criminal defense lawyer, said he has received emails and voice mails from people asking him about the comment.

“They cannot believe that a public servant — who answers to the voters— would actually try and ‘hush’ debate about her job performance,” Baird wrote. “I could not agree more — and I’ll tell you something else: I will not ‘hush.’

In a phone interview this afternoon, Lehmberg said that she had been trying to explain something to someone in the crowd and told Baird to “hush” after he continued to interject.

“He has engaged all along in a series of disrespectful … I mean, he has called me mean and petty and ignorant,” she said. “I just think he has to maybe learn some manners. That’s all that was.”

Lehmberg said she has been very willing to engage in discussions about her office.

“That’s all I’ve been doing for the past eight months and that was certainly my intent to hear those people last night,” she said. “I was listening and trying to answer their questions because they have a right to ask them.”

Vince Leibowitz, a spokesman for Baird’s campaign, said Baird has never called Lehmberg petty or ignorant. He said Baird has characterized past prosecutions by Lehmberg’s office as “mean-spirited.”

Update 6:15 p.m. A Travis County jury has sentenced Billy Gene Faircloth to 60 years in the midday attack on a downtown office worker in Congress Avenue parking garage last year.

Prosecutor Amy Meredith had asked for a life sentence. Defense lawyer Keith Lauerman asked for the jury to show mercy with a 25-year sentence.

Meredith noted that Faircloth has been sentenced to prison three times — in 1988, 1989, and 1993, when he was sentenced to 35 years. He was released on parole in October 2008, she said.

“The defendant has proven time and time and time again he does not need to be on our streets,” she said during closing arguments in the punishment phase of the trial. “He does not need to be in our community where he can hurt anyone else.”

Update 1:59 p.m.: A Travis County jury has found Billy Gene Faircloth guilty of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for attacking a woman with a rock inside a Congress Avenue office building parking garage while she returned to work from her lunch break last year.

The sentencing phase of the trial begins this afternoon. Because of prior convictions for burglary of a habitation, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and theft, Faircloth, 45, faces up to life in prison. Faircloth will be sentenced by the same jury that has found him guilty.

No possible motive for the attack emerged during two days of testimony in state District Judge Mike Lynch’s court.

Earlier: Kathy McWilliams told a Travis County jury today that the first sign of trouble she saw the afternoon she was attacked last year was a shadow on the parking garage wall that looked like someone running toward her with a brick.

McWilliams, 62, had been walking been to the elevator in the underground garage of her Congress Avenue office building, returning from her lunch break.

“The next thing I knew I was being hit in the back of the head,” said McWilliams, a clerical worker for Jackson Walker LLP, a law firm.

“I turned around and I got hit on the forehead,” she said. “It blinded me and it knocked my glasses off, it knocked me off my shoes and it knocked me down.

“His eyes were angry,” McWilliams said. “He just wanted to kill me and I didn’t know why because I hadn’t done anything to him.”

McWilliams testified during the second day of the aggravated assault trial of Billy Gene Faircloth, 45, who prosecutors say attacked her a year ago today at about 12:50 p.m. in the parking garage of the building at 100 Congress Ave.

McWilliams did not identify Faircloth as her attacker, but witnesses say he was captured on surveillance video entering the garage hours before the attack and in the area of the attack shortly after McWilliams was injured.

Because of Faircloth’s previous convictions for offenses including burglary and theft, he could receive up to life in prison if convicted.

The jury in state District Judge Mike Lynch’s court is expected to begin deliberating this afternoon.

Updated at 2:30 p.m. with response from Anderson’s lawyer.

Updated at 12:05 with information about Judge Sturns, reaction from Morton lawyer.

Former Williamson County District Attorney Ken Anderson will face a court of inquiry in the Michael Morton matter.

With a two-page order released around 11:30 a.m., Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson convened the court of inquiry to examine allegations that Anderson hid evidence that could have spared Morton from spending almost 25 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Jefferson appointed District Judge Louis Sturns of Fort Worth to conduct the court of inquiry.

Sturns, 62, is a Republican who made history as the first black Texan to serve on the state’s highest criminal court when then-Gov. Bill Clements appointed him to fill a vacancy on the Court of Criminal Appeals in 1990. He left the court in 1991 after failing to win election.

He has served on the Fort Worth district court since 2007 and also served as a judge on Tarrant County Criminal District Court from 1987-90.

At the urging of Morton and his lawyers, District Judge Sid Harle last week requested that the court of inquiry be convened after finding probable cause to believe that:

• Anderson failed to submit a complete set of investigative documents to Morton’s trial judge, William Lott, despite being ordered to do so by the judge.

• During Morton’s trial and in appeals after his conviction, Anderson failed to correct the mistaken impression that he had complied with Lott’s order.

• Anderson failed to honor his legal obligation to disclose favorable evidence to Morton’s lawyers before the trial began and “falsely represented to the defense and the district court on the eve of trial that the state had no favorable evidence to disclose.”

During Friday’s hearing in Georgetown, Harle emphasized that he agreed to request a court of inquiry to give Anderson an opportunity to clear his name and Morton a chance to seek a greater measure of justice.

Anderson, now a district court judge in Georgetown, has denied all allegations of misconduct.

Morton was freed from prison in October after DNA tests pointed to another man in the murder of his wife, Christine, who was beaten to death in 1986 while lying in bed in their Williamson County home.

Morton lawyer John Raley of Houston welcomed the appointment. “This is a historic moment for Texas justice. We are confident that Judge Sturns will handle this important case with the seriousness and probity demonstrated by Judge Harle and Justice Jefferson,” Raley said.

Eric Nichols, Anderson’s lawyer, said his client “looks forward to the opportunity to participate, for the first time, in a proceeding that will not be one-sided.”

“To date, Judge Anderson has not been a party to the fact finding related to these unfounded allegations,” Nichols said. “We look forward to the opportunity to do whatever can be done at this point to attempt to clear Judge Anderson’s good name.”

A hearing to determine whether a former Travis County corrections officer will face trial on a charge of murder was rescheduled today, a prosecutor said.

Chad Lum, 36, was arrested in 2010 following a shooting at his Briarcliff house. Police say Lum fatally shot 46-year-old Michael Rendon, but his lawyer says the shooting was in self-defense.

Prosecutors say they can’t go forward with a trial against Lum without the ability to call his former wife, who has disappeared.

Lum’s lawyer has filed a motion claiming that his right to a speedy trial has been violated. The motion requests that state District Judge Mike Lynch dismiss the case against Lum with prejudice, meaning it could not be refiled.

Prosecutors want to dismiss the case while preserving their ability to file charges against Lum again if they find his ex-wife.

Prosecutor Steven Brand said today that the hearing was rescheduled for March 6.

Read the full story about Lum here.

Williamson County District Judge Burt Carnes said at a pretrial hearing today that he will consider a motion for a gag order requested by prosecutors in the case against Mark Norwood.

Prosecutor Lisa Tanner also today gave Norwood’s attorney, Russell Hunt Jr., copies of evidence that the prosecution has against Norwood, including interviews with witnesses and crime scene photos.

Another pretrial hearing has been set for March 27. If a gag order is issued in the case, it means that attorneys, witnesses and law enforcement officers involved cannot talk about it outside of courtroom proceedings.

Norwood has been charged with capital murder in connection with the 1986 beating death of Christine Morton. Her husband, Michael Morton, was wrongfully accused in the case and spent 25 years in jail before being released in the fall.

Hunt said outside the courtroom today that he would support a gag order in the case. He said his previous comments to the media were based upon newspaper reports about the evidence.

Norwood, who appeared briefly at the hearing today, is “frustrated” and wants to know the evidence against him, Hunt said. He said that he had received none of the prosecution’s evidence until today.

A bandanna found about 100 yards from the Mortons’ house in southwestern Williamson County had DNA on it that matched Norwood’s and blood and hair on it belonging to Christine Morton, according to an arrest warrant for Norwood.

Hunt said he had questions about how the bandanna was preserved as forensic evidence in the crime. He said the bandanna could have gotten bloody if it had been stored with other items that had Morton’s blood on them.

It could be months before a trial is scheduled, Hunt said today. He said he might be seeking a change of venue because the case is so well known in Central Texas. Lawyers have told him that the jurors they talk to in connection with other cases mention the Morton case frequently, Hunt said.