Graham officer saw ‘four little feet’ inside a tarp

The police investigator who supervised the search for two young brothers whose bodies were found under a house in Graham three years ago could not bring himself to look at the bodies, the officer testified Wednesday.

“We saw four little feet inside the tarp,” police Lt. James Reeves said. “One of the feet had a shoe on it. It was a little camel tennis shoe and that’s how we knew. We never laid eyes on the bodies other than to see those feet.”

The bodies had been stuffed into a red pillow case, which was wrapped in a tarp and shoved inside a crawl space beneath what is known as the “little rock house” on Third Street.

The bodies were found shortly before dawn April 14, 2011.

Gabriel Armandariz, 32, the boys’ father, is on trial this week on a capital murder charge. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The trial was moved here from Young County because of extensive pretrial publicity.

Prosecutors said Armandariz tore a handle from a cloth grocery bag and used it to strangle his 8-month-old son, Luke, and his 2-year-old son, Gatlin. Then he sent their mother, Lauren Smith, who lived in Sudan, north of Lubbock and his relatives a picture of Luke hanging from a closet ceiling with a green cord around his neck.

To Smith, he also sent a photo showing the boys alive, lying beside Armandariz, accompanied by the text message “We love u, goodbye.”

Officers began searching for the boys soon after the photo of Luke began circulating among relatives in Graham, a town of about 9,000 residents about 90 miles northwest of Fort Worth.

“We were operating on the belief that Luke was dead,” Reeves said. “We didn’t know about the older son.”

Reeves testified that he walked around the little rock house at least a half-dozen times and did not see the missing wing nut on the entry to the crawl space until a Texas Ranger pointed it out. The Ranger crawled inside and felt the bundle inside the tarp and then crawled out, Reeves said.

The Ranger said he knew it was the children, Reeves said. It was about 4 a.m. on the morning after the boys were reported missing.

Reeves said he met with Smith two days later.

“She was a basket case,” Reeves said. “She was very emotional. She was in shock. She was acting like any mother who had just lost two babies would act.”

Officers also began searching for Armandariz. It didn’t take long.

One of the first things he did after the boys were dead was to call 911. Prosecutors Lisa Tanner and Tom Cloudt played an audiotape of the call for jurors that was accompanied by testimony — a running narrative — from Nina Richey, the 911 call-taker that night.

Man: “I am somewhere between Young and Stephens counties. I don’t know exactly where I’m at. My girlfriend asked me to kill my babies. What was I supposed to do? My girlfriend told me to kill both of them. What was I supposed to do? I hate her, I hate her, I hate her so much. I’m so scared now.”

Dispatcher: “Where are the kids?”

Man: “I don’t know. I don’t even know where I’m at.”

Richey testified that she transmitted Armandariz’s location to law officers and cross-checked the location with help from his cellphone service provider.

Officers were led to woods along Farm Road 209, about 2 miles outside of Graham, Richey said. A Texas game warden, Brent Isom, testified that he heard the alerts and got the cellphone coordinates from Graham dispatch and then tracked Armandariz down.

Before that, Armandariz had called his brother-in-law, Juan Jimenez, to pick him up to go get beer, Jimenez testified. Instead, Jimenez said, he drove Armandariz home with him because he was taking care of his children and believed that bringing home beer would be inappropriate.

Armandariz did not seem intoxicated or upset, Jimenez told the jury.

“He was acting normal,” Jimenez said.

Testimony is scheduled to continue today. State District Judge Stephen Bristow of Young County is presiding.

This story was originally published February 18, 2015 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Graham officer saw ‘four little feet’ inside a tarp."