An oil executive found slain in a burning vehicle last month in Godley had smoked marijuana at a house in Burleson with the two men accused of killing him shortly before he was robbed, hogtied and strangled with an electrical cord, according to court documents.
Dean Allen Walden confessed to investigators that he and Joseph "Joey" Dodson loaded the body of 44-year-old Robert "Dodd" Dodson into the victim's own Dodge Nitro and later burned the vehicle and body at a remote gas well site, according to arrest warrant affidavits obtained by the Star-Telegram.Godley firefighters responding to the vehicle fire on Oct. 28 extinguished the blaze to find Robert Dodson's body in the back of the burned SUV.The affidavits state that the victim's arms and legs had been bound with a metal cable.Joseph Dodson, 31, and Walden, 47, were later arrested in the case, accused of capital murder.The affidavits do not clarify how Robert Dodson knew the suspects.Joseph Dodson, the affidavits state, is an Aryan Brotherhood member who goes by the street name of "Short Sight." He is not related to Robert Dodson.Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show that Joseph Dodson was paroled in January. He had been serving 10 years for possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver and one year for forgery.He remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Wednesday in connection with the capital murder case, a parole violation. He also has a new charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon by a felon after sheriff's deputies said they saw him pull an asp baton from his back pocket and throw it into a ditch just before his Nov. 7 arrest in the capital murder case.He is being held without bail because of the parole violation.Walden, who served time for convictions of theft of a vehicle, remained in the Johnson County Jail on Wednesday with bail set at $250,000.Strangled with cordThe affidavits state that Joseph Dodson and his girlfriend were visiting Walden and his girlfriend at his Fort Worth home on Oct. 28 when Joseph Dodson said he needed to go to his Burleson house because Robert Dodson was there, the affidavits state.Witnesses say Walden put a gun into his waistband before the two men left for the house.When questioned by investigators, Walden said he and Joseph Dodson had planned to rob an unidentified person when they went to Joseph Dodson's house in the 100 block of Syble Jean that day, according to the affidavits.Walden's statement to investigators, as included in the affidavits, details what happened next:The three men went upstairs, talked, and smoked a marijuana cigarette.Robert Dodson was preparing to leave and was shaking Walden's hand when Joseph Dodson grabbed him from behind and threw him to the ground. Joseph Dodson then restrained Robert Dodson's arms behind his back and asked Walden to restrain his feet.The men hogtied Robert Dodson with a red belt and other restraints before Joseph Dodson sat on the victim's back and strangled him with a brown extension cord. After Robert Dodson died, Joseph Dodson took the victim's phone, wallet and removed credit cards from the wallet, Walden told investigators.Joseph Dodson then covered Robert Dodson with a blanket and the two men carried his body downstairs. Joseph Dodson backed Robert Dodson's SUV up to the fence behind his house and Walden removed a fence panel."Joseph Dodson and Walden were attempting to temporarily hide the vehicle from sight while they loaded the remains of Robert E. Dodson II into the rear of the vehicle," the affidavits state.Joseph Dodson then drove away in the SUV, calling Walden soon afterward and telling him to meet at a nearby gas station. There, Joseph Dodson instructed Walden to get some gasoline so they could burn the vehicle and body.Walden drove back to his house, calling his girlfriend on the way and asking her to meet him outside with a can of fuel from the garage.After getting the gas can, Walden met back up with Joseph Dodson. The two men then drove separately to the gas well site off County Road 915, where Walden waited in a pickup while Joseph Dodson burned the SUV.The two men fled in the pickup, the affidavits state.Police later seized the gas can, the revolver that Walden had with him that day, and the clothing that he wore that day from the Fort Worth house where Walden and his girlfriend lived, the affidavits state.Burned notebookInvestigators' first clue that the victim was Robert Dodson came from a partially burned notebook found in the vehicle that included contact information for Fort Worth homicide detective W.D. Paine.Paine was the lead investigator in the slaying of Claudia Hidic, a 17-year-old woman fatally shot in June during a robbery of Robert Dodson's Tanglewood home.Though Robert Dodson was not present when the robbery occurred, he found Hidic's body upon arriving home and later helped Fort Worth police identify several witnesses who had fled after Hidic was killed.Police say Hidic orchestrated the robbery after Dodson refused to lend her money.She was shot in the head, they say, when shots were fired in the robbery.The two men who police say Hidic recruited to help her in the robbery have been charged with capital murder.From the information found in the notebook, Paine told Johnson County investigators that he believed the body might be that of Robert Dodson. Investigators confirmed that the burned SUV was registered to Robert Dodson and the Tarrant County medical examiner's office positively identified the remains as his.Sheriff's officials have said they do not believe Dodson's slaying is related to the Hidic case.Robert Dodson, the father of three children, was a vice president at Buckley Oil Co., a family-owned business in Dallas.A person familiar with Robert Dodson has previously told the Star-Telegram that the man had been concerned that someone was after him following his arrest on Oct. 4 for allegedly possessing methamphetamine.Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655Twitter: @deannaboydHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
