Jennifer Jeffley claimed to have two accomplices: did the police look for them?
This article was written during Bob Ruff’s coverage of the murder of Catalina Palomino and the possible wrongful conviction of Jennifer Jeffley. It specifically discusses the claim that the police did not adequately investigate Jeffley’s alleged accomplices, Ernest Swatson and “Slow” Tim.
On October 29th 1996 Maria Catalina Palomino was murdered in her apartment in Houston, Texas. Known as Catalina, she was a deeply religious woman who spent her days volunteering at her local church. Her only relative was her nephew Juan, who lived nearby and spoke to his aunt on the phone every morning.
Catalina didn’t have much money, or anything in the way of material goods – she just had her car, a late model Honda. Her apartment in the Green Arbor complex, at 10601 Sabo Road, was rent controlled and affordable: she had insisted on moving out of her nephew’s house a few months before her death, as she wanted to give him and his wife some privacy. Catalina would write cheques for small sums of money rather than carrying cash, for both safety and ease. One of her proudest possessions was a letter from the Vatican thanking her for her work for the church.
Jennifer Jeffley, a 15-year-old girl staying in the apartment above Catalalina’s, confessed to carrying out the crime with two male accomplices. The alleged accomplices were never found, and Jennifer was convicted of capital murder. She now maintains her innocence.
Bob Ruff covered this murder and the potential wrongful conviction of Jennifer Jeffley in Season 10 of his Truth and Justice podcast.
The key players in this case included, of course, Ms Palomino and Jennifer Jeffley. There was also Eva Mondragon, a Green Arbor resident whose apartment was directly above Catalina’s, and with whom Jennifer had been staying for at least a few days. Two of her friends, Farrell “Youngster” Smith and his brother Kenneth “KD” Driver. Member’s of Jennifer’s family also feature, including her sisters Kim and Karen nd hr mother Jacquie, as well as family friends Craig Peters and Janet Dorsey. Two key witnesses were also present that morning, Howson Ramm and his friend “Redrock”.
A common talking point during Bob Ruff’s coverage of the case was “why didn’t the police look for Jennifer’s accomplices?”. Bob described their actions in looking for them as “going through the motions” – I don’t know if that’s still his view, but I don’t think it’s a fair description.
Reading the case file makes it clear that the police did look for them. A close read of the Defense Attorney’s file makes it even clearer.
In Jennifer’s confession(s) she gives a clear description of two males, “Ernest Swatson”, aka “E”, and Tim, aka “Slow”. She says where they live/hang out: “THEY BOTH HANG OUT IN THE SOUTH WEST SIDE IN THE VICINITY OF THE SANDPIPER APARTMENTS.”, and further that she met Ernest “AT THE REGENCY WALK APARTMENTS ACROSS FROM THE SANDPIPER APARTMENTS”. Checking Google Maps confirms that the Sandpiper Apartments (now Brays Villas) were opposite Regency Walk Apartments (now Vista Arbor). They are on the ”south west side”.
She also states what car they drove to the scene: “ERNEST HAS A LATE MODEL 2 DOOR WHITE NISSAN SENTRA. THIS IS THE CAR THE TWO OF THEM WERE IN TUESDAY MORNING.”, how to contact one of them: “ERNEST HAS A PAGER NUMBER 759-8052.”, and where one of their mothers lived: “ERNEST’S MOTHER LIVES SOMEWHERE ON CULLEN.”
One of the first things Officers Allen and Swainson did, even before Jennifer was remanded in custody, was “attempted to reach the suspect Ernest via the pager number Jennifer provided. There was no call back.”
Swainson tried this again, and this time they did get a call. It wasn’t answered, so “it is unknown if the caller was responding to this page”. The caller ID said the subscriber was Deborah Darrett, who lived on Truxillo Drive.
Jennifer herself then agreed to page the number, but got no response. For this call a tape recorder was set up.
The officers state that “THE INVESTIGATIORS (sic) WILL CONTINUE THEIR EFFORTS TO IDENTIFY THE POSSIBLE CO-DEFENDANTS IN THIS CASE”.
At trial Swainson testified that “the first step” he took to locate Ernest and Tim was to run their names through the system. This isn’t mentioned in the case file as far as I can see, but it would be surprising if it had not been done.
On November 2nd, Swainson and Allen interviewed Deborah Darrett, owner of the number that had phoned the homicide office after they paged “Ernest”’s number. Neither of the residents could explain why they had phoned the number. This is strange and suspicious to me, but I looked up criminal records and there’s nothing to suggest Deborah or her daughter Dorothy would ever have been involved in something like this. I wish the police had followed up with them more, but the pager number wasn’t linked to them and all they had was a possibly coincidental phone call, so I can understand why they didn’t.
The officer stated in one update they had “followed up several leads”, but they did not say what these were. They also stated that “there is no credible evidence” that Jennifer had two accomplices – but despite this, they said they would continue to look into this claim.
Three of the four tasks the officers said they needed to carry out related to finding Jennifer’s alleged accomplices – check the pager information, check the number of the possible return phone call, and continue to try to identify the suspects using the names given by Jennifer.
Swainson went to the southwest and visited three police stations responsible for the area in and around which Jen said Ernest and Tim “hung out”. They met with officers at all three stations. None of them recognised the names given. Swainson confirms this at trial, and estimates that he spoke with “at least” 50 officers who were familiar with the area.
They also tracked down where the pager which Jen gave as Ernest’s number was bought from – the “King Flea Market”. The owner of the pager was Hazara Vaughns, who was registered as living on Faircroft.
Allen went to Vaughns’ address on Faircroft, was told that she had moved, and went to her new address on Roark. Hazara gave a brief interview in which she said that she had lost the pager at her friends in South Park, which is near Faircroft (and to MLK Boulevard – the Jeffleys’ and “family friend” Craig Peters’ former address). She said she didn’t know anyone involved. The police seem to give up on this line of enquiry at this point – they didn’t interview the friends who Vaughhns names. I’ve checked criminal records and there’s no charges against anyone with those names, and there is nothing to suggest they could be linked.
In the DA file it says that Hazara testified at the Grand Jury. Unfortunately we don’t know what she said, but we know that she testified.
On November 1st, Swainson spoke to “Youngster” again, a boy who spent the night before and the morning of the murder with Jennifer, and he helped the police investigation, using the “cool phone” to dial the pager number given by Jennifer for “Ernest”. They received no response.
When Allen wanted to speak to Eva again the day after Jennifer was arrested, it wasn’t to find out more about Jennifer – it was to get her “knowledge of Jeffley’s male friends”. They asked her about them, and she said she didn’t know them.
When they spoke to Terrell, they asked about Ernest and Tim and he said he didn’t know them.
When police spoke to Green Arbor resident Janet Dorsey they also asked her about Ernest and “Slow” Tim. They also gave two other possible names for Slow – Slick or Slim. Janet didn’t recognise the names but when asked about Ernest’s four-door white car, she mentioned Kim’s boyfriend Richard. Richard is described as a “BLACK MALE, CHUBBY, FADE HAIRCUT, MEDIUM COMPLEXION AND HAS THREE GOLDS IN HIS MOUTH”. Ring any bells?
Jennifer said Ernest was a “BLACK MALE ABOUT 19 YEARS OLD, ERNEST HAS BRIGHT SKIN, LIGHT BROWN EYES, LOW CUT FADE HAIRCUT, MUSTACHE, GOATEE AND IS KIND OF CHUBBY, ERNEST IS ABOUT THE SAME HEIGHT AS SERGEANT ALLEN , 5”10″, and that Tim was “A BLACK MALE ABOUT 18 YEARS OLD. TIM IS DARK COMPLECTED, TALL AND HAS A SLIM BUILD.TIM’S HAIR IS A LOW CUT FADE, MUSTACHE,GOATEE AND HAS FOUR GOLDS ACROSS THE TOP FRONT FOUR TEETH.THERE SOME KIND IF (sic) INITIALS IN THEM BUT I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE.” To me Richard sounds like a mix of “Ernest” – fade, chubby – and “Tim” – fade, gold teeth. He also drove a similar car to Ernest. With that said, there are many men who would fit the descriptions Jennifer gave.
Police asked Youngster about Ernest and Tim, and about Richard. Youngster confirms Richard’s full name, the police search his name and find that he has a juvenile record for assault. The police don’t appear to have interviewed Richard despite the connection with Jennifer. I wish they had, but they didn’t. Richard has an extensive criminal record, including felonies, but nothing that would suggest involvement in a crime like Catalina’s murder. I don’t think we can rule out that Richard was involved in the crime, but there’s no real evidence that he was.
Jennifer’s lawyer, J. Mike Monks, contacted the ADA at some point before December 19th and said Jen “HAD TOLD HIM THAT SHE WOULD BE ABLE TO POINT OUT WHERE THE CO DEFENDANTS LIVED”. Allen confirmed at trial that Monks made contact offering this information, rather than HPD or the DA asking for it.
Allen appeared to be more familiar with the suspects’ names than Jennifer’s attorney, as he had to correct him on them. This seems to indicate that Allen had been quite invested in finding them, while Brian Coyne didn’t care enough to even remember the names of the alleged “real killer”.
Allen, Jennifer and Monks met, Monks briefly reviewed her statement – presumably only briefly because he already knew roughly what it said. Jennifer then confesses again: “ALLEN ASKED JEFFLEY IN THE PRESENCE OF HER ATTORNEY IF THE STATEMENT SHE HAD GIVEN TO SERGEANT ALLEN AND SIGNED BEFORE A MAGISTRATE WAS HER STATEMENT AND WAS IT THE TRUTH. JEFFLEY STATED THAT IT WAS.”
They then went on a drive around an area pointed out by Jennifer. She did not engage with the process: “JEFFLEY APPEARED TO STARE OUT THE WINDOW AND IT APPEARED, UNINTERESTED”. The police were looking for the suspects and Jennifer didn’t help. She said she had only been there once and her sister might know more. Allen and Monks then agreed that “JENNIFER WAS NOT GOING TO POINT OUT A LOCATION” and moved on to look in a different area. A few things stand out here: firstly, Jennifer directs them near the address in which she formerly lived, and where Craig Peters lived. This is around 14 miles from the Sandpiper Apartments which is where she said she met Ernest and Tim. She did say Ernest’s mother lived on Cullen, which is one of the streets they drove down. I’m not sure why Allen didn’t also say they should drive to Sandpiper.
Secondly, Jennifer told the officers that her sister might be able to point out the location as she had been there with her “on one of the occasions” – but there is no record of the officers ever speaking to Kim Jeffley (or Karen, but it seems pretty clear that Jennifer was talking about Kim). This is frustrating – Jennifer linked Kim to Ernest and Tim, and yet the police never ask her if she knows anyone by those names, let alone if she can point out a house they hung out at. The only explanation I can think of for this is that they thought Jennifer was lying about meeting Ernest and Tim in that area, so they didn’t want to waste time interviewing Kim about a lie.
The fact that Allen and Monks agreed that she wasn’t going to point anywhere out backs this up. I can only assume they reached this conclusion because it was very obvious that Jennifer was not co-operating, despite saying she could point out where her accomplices lived. And they were probably frustrated that she was seemingly taking them on a wild goose chase. We know Jennifer told a lot of lies, so it would have been very reasonable for them to conclude she was lying again.
I still think they should have asked Kim if she knew anyone by those names, even if just to rule out any connection. This is particularly relevant as we know Kim was dating another criminal who matches some of the description of Ernest and Tim. If, as I suspect she would, she said she didn’t know those names, it would be another example of Jennifer’s lies.
Allen confirms at trial that this incident happened, and that Jennifer did not seem interested.
Allen then drove Jennifer past 10811 Faircroft, where Hazara Vaughns lived. Things finally get interesting: “JEFFLEY POINTED OUT THE HOUSE AND STATED SHE THOUGHT SHE HAD BEEN TO THIS HOUSE BEFORE WITH A FRIEND. JEFFLEY COULD NOT RECALL WHO LIVED THERE.” To me, this raises a red flag. Jennifer previously lived nearby (maps screenshot for reference – Hazara no longer lives at the address hence not redacting), and has a connection to Hazara via the pager number she gave. Neither the police nor the attorney appear to have followed this up. With that said, Hazara did testify at the Grand Jury so presumably was ruled out as a suspect, and she has no criminal record. Allen also testified at trial that although Jennifer recognised the house, she did not associate it with Ernest or Tim.
Swainson confirmed at trial that they went looking for Ernest and Tim with Jennifer, and that they looked without her as well, for “quite a few hours”. Not very specific – but Coyne didn’t press him any further.
Jennifer was then convicted at trial, but in 2004 the DNA was retested. I can’t find the report from the retesting, but there is nothing anywhere in the files to indicate that it was matched to anyone.
In April 2009 Jacquie Jeffley (Jennifer’s mother) walked into the homicide office claiming that she had new information about the case. This “new evidence” appears to be non-existent. Despite this, the officer reviewed the case, even contacting Sergeant Allen who had retired 5 years earlier. Allen confirmed that the officers had been unable to find Jen’s accomplices. He then searched for Ernest Swatson and Tim a.k.a “Slow” using the HPD records and found nothing for Ernest, and all results for Slow did not match the person described by Eva due to their age.
Five years later in 2014 Jacquie contacted them again, not claiming to have new information or even that Jennifer was innocent. She said “it was unfair that Jennifer was the only person convicted of this offense … there were two other male suspects who participated in this offense who were more culpable than her daughter”. She also said that she heard testimony at trial that the DNA showed a male suspect: this contradicts what she said to Bob Ruff about not being allowed into the trial, and also appears to be incorrect as I can’t find anything about male suspects’ DNA in the trial transcript. The officer could not find any mention of this either. Unsurprisingly the officer did not reopen the case.
So, to recap the facts: Allen and Swainson ran Ernest and Tim’s names and found nothing, asked several witnesses and associates of Jennifer if they knew the names and none of them did, and asked at least 50 officers across three police stations for information and heard nothing. They dialled the pager number Jennifer gave on a number of occasions – including having both Jennifer and Youngster make the call, presumably to increase the chances of hearing an incriminating statement – and received one possibly unrelated return call, which they followed up and did not lead anywhere. They tracked down the owner of the pager and interviewed her, then presumably ruled her out as she testified for the state at the Grand Jury. They drove Jennifer around after her lawyer said she could identify where Ernest and Tim lived, and she stared out of the window looking bored. 12 years after the trial another officer again tried unsuccessfully to locate Ernest and Tim at Jacqie’s request, despite her falsely claiming to have new information about the case. 17 years after the trial another officer again confirms that there are no leads on Ernest or Tim.
There are some leads I think the police should probably have followed up further. Jennifer recognised Hazara Vaughns’ house, despite not linking it to Ernest and Tim, so a further interview with Hazara to check any link between her and Jennifer would have been good. Possibly the police should also have interviewed Kim Wesley and Patrick Woods, at whose house Hazara said she may have lost the pager. They also should have interviewed Kim Jeffley, particularly to ask if she knew Ernest and Tim.
The similarities between both Ernest and Tim and Richard Smith, combined with his criminal record and links to Jennifer, are enough for me to think he should have been interviewed.
Despite not having mentioned him much throughout this document, I also think Craig Peters should have been interviewed, at least to check that he had an alibi. His concerning connection with Jennifer – specifically, allegations of sexual abuse made by Jennifer – his behaviour on the day of the murder and his criminal record are all reasons to look into him further. The police probably did not know that he also introduced Jennifer to her first attorney (Monks), but we do and this is another concerning factor.
While I do think the above leads should have been looked into further, I believe it is very unlikely that any of the above-named people are connected to the crime. If Jennifer was genuinely just “the lookout”, and she knew the real names or any more information about the two accomplices, I’m sure she would have named them before the trial. We know she was happy to try and “snitch”, both in her police interviews and when she said she could point out where Ernest and Tim lived. Had she successfully identified them she would almost definitely have been offered a plea deal, in exchange for testifying against them.
The two boys who spent the night and the morning of the murder at Eva’s apartment with Jennifer, KD and Youngster, were also both interviewed at length and ruled out. For them to be involved, we have to believe that Eva lied to protect the two of them and implicate Jennifer, and that Jennifer never named the three of them in response. The same is true if witnesses “Redrock” and Howsen were involved.
I think one, largely overlooked, explanation is that Ernest and Tim never existed, and that Jennifer had no accomplices: she committed the murder alone, and confessed to a lesser role believing she would be given a lesser punishment. This explains why no-one saw two men leaving the scene, why Jennifer was unable to name them and why the information she gave about them was seemingly irrelevant. The descriptions she gives appear to be based on people she knows, such as Richard Smith and KD, and even on the officers interviewing her: she tells SWAINson that her accomplice is named SWATson, and that he is about the same height as Allen. Jennifer being the sole killer also explains the cuts on her hand, the red marks on her arms described by Eva, and Eva telling police that she believed “the voice” she heard in Catalina’s apartment was Jennifer.
Whether you agree with this theory or not, it should be clear to everyone that the police did, in fact, look for Jennifer’s accomplices, despite finding no evidence at all of their existence. Their investigation may not have been perfect, but it simply isn’t true to say “the police never looked for the real killers”.