BASTROP, Texas 一 Jimmy Fennell Jr., Stacey Stites' fiancé at the time of her murder in 1996, testified for hours Thursday on the fourth day of Rodney Reed's evidentiary hearing.
Reed was convicted of raping and murdering 19-year-old Stites in 1998, after DNA found in Stites' body was identified as a match to Reed's.
Reed received the death penalty for the crime, but has maintained his innocence since the original trial, saying that he and Stites had a consensual relationship.
Members of Stites' family, including Stites' sister Debra Oliver, dispute the claim that Stites and Reed had an affair, and say they firmly believe Reed is responsible for Stites' murder.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Reed a stay of execution in 2019, and sent the case back to Bastrop County for an evidentiary hearing, after Reed's defense argued the prosecution in the original trial withheld evidence and presented false evidence.
Reed's attorneys claim that Fennell, not Reed, is responsible for Stites' murder, and that Fennell killed her after discovering she was having an affair with Reed.
During the first four days of the hearing this week, the defense counsel called nearly 20 witnesses to the stand, many of whom testified that they had either seen Reed and Stites together or had been aware of a relationship between them.
A number of witnesses testified that they had seen aggressive and violent behavior from Fennell, with two saying that while in prison, Fennell confessed to murdering Stites.
In a highly anticipated move, the defense called Fennell to the stand on Thursday, where he denied all the claims made about him by the witnesses who testified earlier in the week, saying they were lying about his character and about Reed and Stites having a relationship.
He also said that the two expert forensic pathologists who testified that the original medical examiner's report inaccurately identified how long Stites had been dead when her body was found were lying as well.
The forensic pathologists testified that based on their expert analysis of photos and videos of the crime scene and autopsy that Stites had likely died hours earlier than the state claims.
The medical examiner's report was critical in establishing the state's timeline of the crime 一 that Reed abducted, assaulted and murdered Stites between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. on April 23, 1996 on her way to work.
Fennell testified that the night before Stites was reported missing she went to bed around 8 p.m., he went to sleep around 9 p.m., and he does not remember waking up when Stites left to make it to her early morning shift at H-E-B.
Fennell was called to testify in a separate hearing for Reed's case in 2017, but pleaded the Fifth and didn't take the stand.
On Thursday he waived his Fifth Amendment rights and testified without legal representation, saying he wanted to set the record straight.
In an extremely tense courtroom, the defense questioned him about his relationship with Stites and the timeline around her murder, at one point explicitly asking him whether he strangled and killed her, which he denied.
Fennell got noticeably emotional while recounting his memory of the day Stites' body was found.
"A piece of me was ripped out, my heart was ripped out of my chest at that moment," he said.
Both the prosecution and defense questioned Fennell about an unrelated sexual assault case that occurred after Stites' murder, in which Fennell sexually assaulted a woman in his custody during his time as a law enforcement officer.
Fennell pled guilty to kidnapping and improper sexual conduct with a person in custody and served 10 years in prison before being released in 2018.
On the stand Fennell said he knew what he did was wrong both back then and now, and that's why he wasn't afraid to plead guilty in that case.
Fennell maintained his belief Reed is responsible for Stites' murder.
"In the end the truth is what is going to prevail," he said
On Friday the state began calling their witnesses in the hearing, which is anticipated to last for another week.
At its conclusion, Judge J.D. Langley will have time to go over the new evidence, testimony, and arguments, before authoring an opinion on the case.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will go over the evidence, testimony and the judge's opinion before deciding whether Reed will be released as a free man, get a new trial or be sent back to death row.
