Murder of Heather Rich

On October 2, over an un-affordable US$300 (equivalent to $518.33 in 2021) long-distance phone bill, Rich's mother snapped at the teen, declaring "All you ever do is cost me money". Rich later wished her father good-night, ignoring her mother. Then, before midnight, Rich discreetly left via her bedroom window to meet Josh Bagwell for their first date.

In October 2016, Wood married Larissa Huia, an Auckland woman who first saw Wood on a television documentary in 2014. "Horrified" by Wood's lengthy sentence, Huia was driven to "write to him and tell him there's one person in the world that doesn't think he's a bad person." By August 2018, Wood's wife was lobbying to overturn state laws that allowed minors to be tried as an adult. She told Stuff, "Although my motivation is Randy [Wood], this is not about one person. This is about as many as 1700 inmates in Texas who were incarcerated as juveniles to prison terms NZ would never see, even for adults."

Rich's father, Lloyd Duane Rich, remarried in 2001 (to Connie Russi née Parker), and died on September 11, 2014, at age 63. Gail Rich (née Stauffer), remarried in 2000 (to Jim Fulton), and died of a brain tumor on January 10, 2015 at the age of 60. Tim Cole resigned from the district attorney's office in 2006, following his arrest for driving under the influence that incurred a one-year deferred sentence, three days of community service, and a fine of $1,148 (equivalent to $1,543 in 2021); as of February 2018, Cole was an assistant professor of law at the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law.

On April 14, 2006, Bagwell's lawyers elevated their appeal to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The following day, a United States magistrate judge acknowledged that though Bagwell was a "cretin", the petition had merit and would be considered by the federal court. In an interview with the Duncan Banner, and in his assurances to Montague County residents, the county district attorney said that "no matter what happens next, Mr. Bagwell is not going to be getting out of prison". To bolster his statement, the DA explained that he had never filed Bagwell's indictment for escaping custody in 2002, "which could be done if necessary".

In January 2002, Curtis Gambill and Josh Bagwell were transferred from state prison to the Montague County jail so that Gambill could be tried for conspiracy to commit murder. On January 16, Gambill was convicted and sentenced to a second, cumulative, life imprisonment.

In the late hours of January 28, 2002, Josh Bagwell, Curtis Gambill, and two other inmates (Charles Wilson Jordan and Chrystal Gale Soto) overpowered two jailers and escaped the uncertified Montague County, Texas jail in one jailer's 2001 Geo Chevrolet Tracker. The four killers eluded hundreds of Texan, Oklahoman, and federal law-enforcement officers for nine days before being caught at an Ardmore, Oklahoma filling station on February 7. Jordan and Soto were captured outside the store without incident. Bagwell and Gambill held officers at bay for six hours by holding the 70-year-old owner hostage with a stolen .22-caliber firearm. Both surrendered at 4:30 a.m. after negotiating with Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. After their capture, both men were held in the Carter County, Oklahoma jail. On August 15, Carter County prosecutors dismissed the charges against Bagwell and Gambill ("kidnapping, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, felonious possession of a firearm, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and being a fugitive from justice") without prejudice, citing the complicated process of extradition to Oklahoma for trial.

In February 2002, Bagwell's mother (Twana "Cherese" Smith) sought out Joshua Gambill's brother (Rick Gambill) to assist her in helping the two felons escape again. After the former Lawton, Oklahoma city attorney asked Rick Gambill for "firearms, cell phones and maps to help the two felons after their planned escape" from the Carter County jail, Rick Gambill went to and cooperated with the police to collect evidence. Police stymied Smith's attempt—in her capacity as Bagwell's attorney—to smuggle hacksaw blades, hidden inside two bibles, to Bagwell and Gambill. While still under police surveillance, Smith left the jail, bought more blades at a Wal-Mart, wrapped them in a balloon, and successfully snuck them past prison officers who believe she hid them inside "a body cavity". Smith was arrested in Terral, Oklahoma on February 27, 2002, and on February 28, she was charged with "conspiring to commit a felony and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony"; bail was set at $200,000 (equivalent to $301,314 in 2021). On August 16, Smith plead guilty to conspiracy to assist in an escape and conspiracy to commit a felony with a firearm; she was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with twelve deferred.

Rich appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which concurred with the district court, affirming the lower court's summary judgment on May 3, 2000.

On November 22, 2000, an appeal was filed with the Second Court of Appeals of Texas on behalf of Joshua Luke Bagwell. The appeal (a petition for writ of habeas corpus) argued that because Heather Rich was unconscious when taken to Belknap Creek, she could not move, and if unable to move, she therefore had no movements to restrain, and restraint of the victim is an integral component of kidnapping. Therefore, because the Texas Penal Code defines capital murder as "a level of murder that requires a kidnapping component", Bagwell could not be guilty of the level of murder for which he was convicted. The appeal blamed Bagwell's 1998 lawyers for failing to demonstrate this incongruity before the court, and therefore the imprisonment was a rights violation. The appeal was rejected on January 31, 2001.

A week before Rich's murder, Goss—a good friend of Gambill's—died from apparent suicide by gun. In the early 2000s, the Jefferson County, Oklahoma then-sheriff, Stan Barnes, reopened the Goss case. Barnes' reasons included a mismatch of the found shell casing and wadding, as well as Goss having told his father in 1996 that "he feared for his life." Barnes and much of Waurika, Oklahoma believed that there was a connection between the two deaths, and that Rich may have been a witness. The Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later changed Goss' official cause of death from suicide to "unknown".

Denise Horner, a cousin of Randy Wood, began a campaign in the late 2000s for a commutation of his sentence. An unlikely goal at best, not least because as of March 2014, then-Texas Governor Rick Perry had only commuted one capital murder sentence in his over-thirteen years in office. Furthermore, before any commutation request could even be sent to Austin for consideration, two of three current elected officials in Montague County, Texas ("the sitting DA, the district judge, and the sheriff") would need to approve the effort, as would the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

In 1998, Rich's father filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Carolyn Beaver and the hardware store, alleging that she "negligently delivered and/or sold the ammunition to Bagwell and/or Gambill and that Beaver's negligence was the proximate cause of Heather Rich's death." The United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma denied Rich's motion for partial summary judgment on May 13, 1999, saying that Okla. Stat. tit. 21, § 1272 did not define the shotgun ammunition as an offensive weapon, and that Beaver therefore did not violate § 1273 by selling it to Bagwell. Eight days later, the same court granted Beaver's motion for summary judgment, finding that "that there was no evidence that Beaver should have foreseen that Bagwell and Gambill would use the ammunition to murder Heather Rich and that the criminal act of murder was the supervening cause of Heather Rich's death."

Wood filed an appeal with the Second Court of Appeals of Texas (Randy Lee WOOD, Appellant, v. The STATE of Texas, State), contending that his trial attorney was ineffective, both failing to "request an instruction on the lesser-included offense of murder", and failing to notice that "the trial court's application paragraph at the guilt-innocence phase of trial was erroneous". On October 14, 1999, the state overruled each of Wood's points and re-affirmed the trial's conclusion.

Bagwell's family wealth afforded him expensive, private criminal defense lawyers for his trial: Oklahoman attorneys John Zelbst and Barry Cousins, and a former Montague County district attorney, Jack McGaughey. A change of venue having been denied by District Judge Roger Towery, jury selection began on February 3, 1998, in the county courthouse in Montague, Texas (population 300). Bagwell's attorneys took the tack of highlighting Rich's own apparent failings so as to paint the picture that Bagwell 'couldn't rape the willing'. A one-time publisher of the Waurika News-Democrat described the defense as "[making] her look like the Whore of Babylon"; Gail Rich herself was cross-examined, requiring her to acknowledge her daughter's smoking, bulemia, and recreational cannabis use, summing it up by asking Mrs. Rich, "She was your perfect child, but she wasn't quite perfect, right?"

District Attorney Cole was already worried about the Bagwell trial when both Gambill and Wood reneged on their plea bargains. However, while Gambill was returning to his original claims of Wood being Rich's murderer, Wood was forfeiting only the benefits of his plea deal so as to make assurances that his testimony against Bagwell would not be seen as reciprocation. On February 10, 1998, against counsel's recommendation, Wood incriminated himself, setting aside a guaranteed 40-year imprisonment (with the possibility of parole after 30) in exchange for the possibility of capital punishment, all to strengthen his testimony against Bagwell; Wood said, "I wanted everyone to know I was telling the truth, […] I owed that to Heather and her family." Testifying for the prosecution, Wood said that not only was Bagwell fully aware of the plan to murder Rich, he also carried her to the bridge, weighed down her body, and helped toss it into the creek.

After more than seven hours of jury deliberation on February 17, 1998, Bagwell was found guilty of capital murder and conspiracy to commit capital murder. Capital murder earned Bagwell an automatic sentence of life imprisonment; for the conspiracy charge, his jury deliberated for three hours before recommending a concurrent 99-year sentence because of the crime's brutality. A fine of $10,000 (equivalent to $16,625 in 2021) was also imposed with the conspiracy conviction. Bagwell's mother believed Wood had received a "secret deal", furiously accused DA Cole of prosecutorial misconduct, and blamed the jury for "not following the judge's instructions." Zelbst said he would appeal the jury's decision and request a new trial.

As reported in The Victoria Advocate, Wood's original trial was scheduled to begin in May 1998, but because his trial drew significant national media attention, it was postponed until that autumn. Among the media to descend upon Waurika, Oklahoma and nearby Montague, Texas were numerous television personalities and interviewers, Mike Cochran with the Associated Press, and ABC's Primetime Live. Bagwell's mother joined her son at his jail for a televised interview—now alleging that her 19-year-old was the victim of a frameup; Randy Wood reiterated his previous testimony on national television; and Gail Rich forewent paid interview offers after "Primetime Live […] producers convinced her they would not sensationalize the story."

Wood declined another plea deal, refusing to say that he had murdered Rich. District Attorney Cole prosecuted Wood for, and secured a conviction of, capital murder. Found guilty on August 25, 1998, Wood was automatically sentenced to life imprisonment on August 27; he will become eligible for parole on November 20, 2036. Wood intended to appeal his conviction, telling the Times Record News that "You can look it up in the dictionary, and 'murder' says to take someone's life, and I didn't do that". Cole and Rich's mother both regret that Wood received such a long sentence, describing him as "the teenager who, late in the game, found the strength of character to own up to his crime and paid for it dearly."

After already failing to escape jail once, Gambill told Cynthia McFadden in a 1998 interview that he would continue to try until he escaped: "Yes, this is nothing … because I'm mentally strong, know what I'm saying? […] Can't keep me here forever."

Regretful that he hadn't instead tried Wood for the lesser charge of conspiracy to commit capital murder in 1998, Tim Cole agreed to help Horner. An acquaintance of the new Montague County district attorney, Jack McGaughey, when Cole approached the man in 2010, he was reluctant to consider the proposal. McGaughey expressed the same feelings to Horner in 2011, and followed up with her lawyer, writing, "I am unwilling to recommend this, […] After consultation with the Sheriff and District Judge, it is my understanding from them that they are also unwilling to recommend a reduction of sentence."

Represented by Wichita Falls, Texas attorney Bruce Martin, Gambill's trial began on October 2, 1997, in Fort Worth, Texas, after a 67-mile (108 km) change of venue from Montague County, Texas. The first to be tried for the murder of Heather Rich, Gambill benefited from the courtroom tactics of the Montague County district attorney, Tim Cole. Seeing Gambill's conviction as a surer gamble than Bagwell's, and with the approval of Rich's family, Cole offered to eschew capital punishment for Gambill in exchange for a guilty plea and testimony against Josh Bagwell. The deal was struck, and Gambill plead guilty to murder. During the trial, Gambill had to be restrained by nine men when the teen overpowered a court bailiff. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Gambill was convicted on October 15, 1997, sentenced to life imprisonment, and will become eligible for parole on October 31, 2026.

The murder of Heather Rich was the 1996 child murder of a Waurika, Oklahoma 16-year-old by three local teenagers. After Rich's body was found, an investigation led to the trials and convictions of the three perpetrators. The murder and trials left a legacy of related events through 2011, and the imprisonment of the guilty through 2026 at the earliest.

Saddled with a recent series of negative events in her life, high-school student Heather Rich began acting out by drinking alcohol at school, using illegal drugs, and inflicting self-harm. After a family argument, Rich left home before midnight on October 2, 1996, to meet local teen Joshua Bagwell for a first date. The undisciplined 17-year-old Bagwell came from a wealthy Waurikan family, and enjoyed the social status his affluence afforded him. He was accompanied that night by Curtis Gambill, a 19-year-old high-school dropout, and 17-year-old Randy Wood, a future homecoming king. The three boys plied Rich with alcohol until she was intoxicated; then, after raping the insensate girl, drove her to a Montague County, Texas bridge, shot her nine times, and dumped her body into the creek below.

In 1996, Wood was regarded as a "big, dumb kid", "a little slow", and adored around town. Rich's mother opined that it was Wood's "underdog" status that drew her teenager to the other. Rich and Wood were a couple for five months, during which time they attended church and would simply "talk for hours on end". Wood would drive Rich around in his grandmother's Cadillac Fleetwood, once allowing Rich to take the wheel while taking her to an orthodontics appointment in Duncan, Oklahoma. Though in an intimate relationship, the two never had sexual intercourse, and were frequently mistaken as just friends. Wood resented Rich flirting with others, and later admitted that "I knew her but not like I wanted to, […] not like I should have." The night after Rich's body was found, Wood was crowned homecoming king by Waurika High School. Prior to his involvement in the killing of Heather Rich, Wood had no history of trouble with the law.

In the autumn of 1996, Rich began acting increasingly abnormal. A few weeks into the 1996–1997 academic year, Rich's boyfriend, eventual perpetrator Randy Wood, ended their relationship due to the rumor of Rich skinny-dipping at a co-ed party; Pamela Colloff with Texas Monthly described this dissolution as having "deeply rattled" Rich. Soon thereafter, Rich began using methamphetamine. Then, less than a week after her breakup, an acquaintance of Rich, Wood, Bagwell, and Gambill—twenty-year-old Dennis Wayne Goss—committed suicide by gun. Rich's mother described her daughter during this time as having "a brightness, a glitteryness, about her eyes". At the Friday, September 27 football game, Rich led school cheers while drunk, and received a three-day school suspension and consideration for being dropped from the school cheerleading program.  Concerned for their daughter, Rich's parents scheduled her for an October 3 therapy appointment, later saying, "We wanted to get her help and figure out why she wanted to hurt herself."

The evening of October 9, 1996, a Texas rancher and his granddaughter came across Rich's body floating in Belknap Creek, a Texas-side, backwater stream of the Red River of the South. Without his glasses, the rancher assumed they had come across a drowned calf from upstream, so he shot the body twice with his .22-caliber rifle to sink it. He realized his mistake the next morning when Rich's body was still afloat in the creek. Law-enforcement determined she was thrown from a nearby concrete bridge, where dirt had been used to obscure her blood. Rich's face was unrecognizable due to the gunshot wound to the back of her head; she was identified within a few hours only by her gold-and-diamond signet ring—a gift for her sixteenth birthday. The teenager had been shot nine times (once to the head, eight times to the back) with a shotgun; her body was so disfigured that her family wasn't allowed to see it, and photos of the autopsy "would later make jurors recoil."

Bagwell, Gambill, and Wood were arrested in the late hours of October 24, 1996, and formally charged with first-degree murder in Montague County, Texas on October 25.

Bagwell climbed the witness stand on February 11. Described as seemingly reading from a script, Bagwell refuted Wood's testimony. According to Bagwell, it was Wood who unexpectedly killed Rich, yet while Bagwell was recalling the early hours of October 3, 1996 in the first-person present-tense, a speech error (his only) slipped in: "I see Curtis—or, I mean, excuse me—I see Randy lowering the gun."

The final witness for February 10 was a military policeman who guarded Gambill during the teen's 1992 tenure in an Oklahoman youth detention center. In the prosecution's effort to refute Bagwell's claim that Wood was the shooter, testimony was heard that during his time so incarcerated, Gambill allegedly claimed "that his 'ultimate fantasy' was to commit a crime that would shock the nation. His fantasy, the witness said, was to kidnap and rape a beautiful young girl, then 'blow her head off.'"

Born on January 19, 1980, Heather Rose Rich was the third child of Gail and Duane Rich, who moved to Waurika, Oklahoma in 1974. The Riches chose Waurika for its insulating nature; it reminded them of their hometown of Elgin, Oklahoma—a "place where kids couldn't get into too much trouble because there wasn't much trouble to get into." Heather Rich however, pushed back against the monotony of Waurika, a town of 1,988 in 2000.

Born on July 7, 1979, Randy Lee Wood and his mother spent his childhood relocating throughout Oklahoma; in his fifth-grade year, Wood attended three different schools. In 1996, Wood lived with his single-parent mother as one of the poorest families in Waurika; their poverty was evident to other Waurikans as their frame house was dotted with broken windows. Wood began smoking cannabis in the third grade, stealing the psychotropic from his mother. Despite these disadvantages, Wood endeavored to better. In the community, other Waurikans liked him as the "soft-spoken, well-mannered teenager" who wore Oxford shirts and khakis, and walked the one mile (1.6 km) to school. There, he was respected by his players as captain of the Waurika High football team.

Joshua Luke Bagwell was born on December 21, 1978, in Wichita County, Texas, to Twana Cherese Anderson and Rodney Joseph Schneider. At the time of Rich's murder, he lived with his wealthy grandparents in Waurika. The recipient of six new cars, Bagwell was variously described as "a snob" and pampered. Undisciplined at home, the teen was unreceptive to any discipline outside his home: once arrested for driving under the influence, Bagwell demanded his lawyer and resisted arrest. Both Wood and Rich were impressed by Bagwell's means, the latter such that she flirted with him until securing a spot in his white Dodge Stealth for the Waurika homecoming parade. In October 1996, Bagwell was a senior at Waurika High. In early 2002, he was described as blonde, 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, and weighing 160 pounds (73 kg).

On February 24, 1977, Curtis Allen Gambill was born in Montague County, Texas to Shirley Gean Matthew and Valton Ellis Gambill Jr. At the time of Rich's murder, the high-school-dropout was living with his 64-year-old grandmother Reda Robbins in Terral, Oklahoma—20 miles (32 km) downriver from Waurika. The great-grandson of Kate Rich (murdered locally in 1982 by Henry Lee Lucas), Gambill was described as having "a mean streak […] He was always raising Cain, and everyone knew to steer clear of him." In 2002, Gambill was described by law-enforcement as "the most violent person I’ve ever known, […] When you’re around him, you literally feel like you’re in the presence of evil." At school, Gambill forced other boys to fight each other; in the community, it was believed that he killed livestock "for sport". Gambill escaped every youth detention center in which he was incarcerated, was briefly committed to a psychiatric hospital at seventeen, and was convicted of "feloniously carrying a firearm" on February 13, 1996 (receiving a five-year suspended sentence). In early 2002, he was described as blonde, 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall, and weighing 160 pounds (73 kg).