The long-delayed capital murder trial of a Rockwall High School graduate accused of killing his parents is scheduled to begin this week.
Brandon Woodruff, 22, was arrested in October 2005 six days after a family friend found Dennis and Norma Woodruff dead in the home they were moving into near Royse City. He has been in the Hunt County Jail, with bail set at $1 million, ever since.
A pretrial hearing is set for today. Barring a surprise there, jury selection will begin Tuesday.
State District Judge Richard Beacom has issued a gag order that precludes attorneys and witnesses from commenting on the case.
Lawyers battled for months over tapes of jailhouse phone calls between Woodruff and his legal team. Prosecutors wanted to use them in court, but Beacom ruled that the tapes were not properly obtained and that they violated Woodruff's constitutional rights.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors argued in motions and hearings over how much evidence - the tapes themselves, notes based on the tapes, testimony from witnesses who heard the tapes - should be excluded at trial.
The Hunt County district attorney's office asked to be recused from the case in October 2007, and Adrienne McFarland and Ralph Guerrero of the state attorney general's office were named as special prosecutors.
Dennis Woodruff, 43, and Norma Woodruff, 42, lived in Heath before moving to the home on County Road 2648. Brandon Woodruff graduated from Rockwall High in May 2005 and was enrolled at Abilene Christian University at the time of the killings.
The couple died of bullet and stab wounds in their necks and faces in the living room of their new home. There was no forced entry into the locked home. Valuables were left in plain sight, and a blood trail indicated that the killer washed up in a bathroom before leaving, according to Texas Ranger Jeffery Collins' affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Collins said investigators found discrepancies in Woodruff's account of his whereabouts during the weekend of his parents' death.
Prosecutors have waived the death penalty, so a conviction would mean a life sentence.
