GRANBURY -- Friends of a 32-year-old Granbury woman had warned her that it was dangerous to string along a man she considered "a disgusting nerd," but she continued to date him because she needed his money, Hood County prosecutors said.
Robyn Deanna Richter and her friend, Shawna Rachelle Ferris, 35, were both shot in the head in June 2008 after meeting Fred Earl Ingerson III for dinner at a Granbury restaurant. Ingerson is on trial for the killings.Ingerson's attorney argued that the case is built on circumstantial evidence and that there are other, more likely suspects in the killings.Assistant District Attorney Patrick Berry painted an unflattering picture of the victims as the trial opened Monday in the 355th District Court in Granbury.Richter had a motherly affection for a young girl she wanted to foster, but thought she needed to improve her financial situation to qualify, Berry said.Less than two months before her death, she began a relationship with Ingerson, an employee of a Plano company that sells car audio equipment.The two dated numerous times, and Ingerson told Richter that he loved her, Berry said."She thought he was a disgusting nerd, but didn't want to break off [the relationship] because she thought he was going to loan her money," he said.Richter was in a "real" relationship with another man, and co-workers warned Richter that she was "playing with fire" by stringing Ingerson along, Berry said. She even let Ingerson believe that their relationship could advance to a physical level and might include her friend, Ferris, Berry said.The night of the slaying, Richter asked Ingerson to meet them at a restaurant in Granbury, and Ingerson thought the woman had agreed to a ménage a trois."She never told Fred no," Berry said. "He suggested a threesome with Shawna and he thought that maybe he would get his wish that night."But when he got to the restaurant, he saw through her scheme, Berry said."He went to the bar expecting a date," he said. "When he got there, he realized he was being used."That was the motive for the women's slaying, Berry said in laying out the prosecution's case against Ingerson, accused of capital murder. The women were found dead in Richter's SUV about 8 a.m. June 28, 2008. Both had been shot in the head.Defense attorney Shay Isham labeled the case against Ingerson "the little miracle."The first piece of state's evidence is a video taken from surveillance cameras at Little Miracle Creative Learning Center, which Ingerson passed on his way home that night.Berry said the video shows Ingerson speeding home after killing the women, but Isham said it proves that Ingerson could not have killed them."The little miracle for Fred is that these cameras did catch him," Isham said.The difference between the two points of view is timing.Berry said that call logs on Richter's cellphone helped place the time of the slayings at between 11:52 p.m. June 27 and shortly after midnight. There were no witnesses to the slayings, but witnesses saw Ingerson standing next to Richter's SUV, parked near the Miyako Japanese Restaurant, at about 11:50 p.m., Berry said."Within minutes, the defendant pulled a weapon and shot the women," Berry declared.After he left the parking lot, Ingerson didn't take the most direct route home, Berry said. Instead, he took a back way that carried him past Little Miracle.Surveillance cameras there recorded Ingerson driving at such a high rate of speed that he was unable to negotiate a turn and had to stop and back up to make it.Isham said that he will introduce two witnesses who were within a couple of hundred yards of the restaurant and will swear that they heard three gunshots no earlier than 12:30 a.m.Because of the video, "We know precisely at 12:02 and 30 seconds that Fred was long gone from the Miyako parking lot," he said.Isham alluded to others who could have killed the women.He said that employees at another restaurant the women visited later that night saw them get into an altercation with a Hispanic man.Also, a security guard on his way home after midnight from the evening shift at Comanche Peak said he saw a beige SUV parked a couple of spaces from the victims' SUV, Isham said.The man with whom Richter had a serious relationship had recently registered a beige Escalade with the state, Isham said."Everything the state opened with, none of it directly connects Fred with the crime, other than he was at the scene," he said.Berry acknowledged that the case against Ingerson is circumstantial, because nobody saw the slayings, and the gun that killed them hasn't been found.Two of what Berry said will be about 40 witnesses testified Monday in State District Judge Ralph Walton's courtroom.Hood County District Attorney Rob Christian is not seeking the death penalty against Ingerson. If convicted, Ingerson will automatically be sentenced to life in prison without parole.This report includes material from Star-Telegram archives.
Hood County prosecutors describe evidence in 2008 murder
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