A Bad Day in Austin ////// 424 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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let's talk some true crime [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] May 18 1978 Austin Texas
it's just after midnight when 26 year old patrolman Ralph ablenado stopped a red 1966 Mustang on East Live
Oak Street near Travis Heights Boulevard the officer called in a code for routine
traffic violation check the officer approached the vehicle the driver was a young woman
Sheila Maynard sitting shotgun was a white male in his late 20s the officer obtained their names and
information and walked back to his patrol car officer ablenado wrote Maynard a ticket
for driving without a license and ran a radio check on the passenger David Lee Powell the check came back to Pal 27
years of age was a wanted man wanted for some minor infractions misdemeanor theft and two hot check
charges ablenado got out of his patrol car and once again he approached the vehicle the
officer was hit with automatic gunfire coming from the vehicle in front of him the shots knocked out the rear window of
the Mustang the officer was hit several times in the arm and chest his bulletproof vest that he was wearing
which was standard procedure for Austin patrolman in 78. was really no match for
the high-powered gunfire ablenado went down the Mustang drove off somehow ablenado was able to send out a
distress call Austin PD Officers rushed to the scene officer Joe Villegas spotted the 66
Mustang about two blocks away in the parking lot of the Travis Park Apartments pushed the pedal to the floor
approaching the park vehicle at a high rate of speed as he got closer shots were fired coming from the Mustang
villagas was able to avoid being hit he slammed on the brakes and returned fire then David Lee Powell still in the
passenger seat pulled the pin from a hand grenade and tossed it at villagas thankfully it
failed to explode then the woman Sheila Maynard jumped out of the vehicle with her hands raised High screaming at
the officer she surrendered pow flung open the passenger door and ran for the woods
by now it's 12 30 A.M officer Ralph ablanedo was rushed to the nearest hospital officer ablenado died shortly after
arrival about 25 police and at least two armed security officers surrounded the woods
which was estimated to be a mile long and half a mile wide they stopped dozens of cars and
pedestrians they waited and waited but David Powell never came out just after 6 a.m it was decided that six
police and two canine officers would enter the woods and go in there and get pow
the remaining police were to maintain the perimeter they wanted only a small amount of
police officers to enter the woods to minimize the risk they decided that no one else was to
enter they needed a set number of officers only that way if they saw any movement at all
they would know immediately it was not a fellow officer in other words they were prepared to
shoot on site the two dogs and six officers entered the woods with flak jackets and loaded
shotguns armed security guards who shifts ended hours ago but decided to stay and assist
the police in any way they could now decided it was time to call it a night and let the police do their jobs
guards Charles Howard Gary Nelson we're now near Travis High when they spotted movement
the two guards with pistols drawn move slowly towards something they saw moving in the bushes
it was a man crouched down trying to conceal himself at a distance of about three feet one of
the guards in a Stern voice instructed the man to come out before standing up the man said loudly
his voice shaking I'm not going to do anything and he slowly emerged from the bushes
the guards handcuffed him and called the police police searched the bushes and found a
light blue coat a knife and a 45 caliber pistol set in the cocked position the man in handcuffs was 27 year old
David Lee Powell the petty thief and hot check artist was now a cop killer police pushed David Powell into the
backseat of a police cruiser it was now 6 30 A.M the sun was just starting to rise
it was already a bad day in Austin [Music] the Sun is up in Austin and it's the start of a new day we go now to a
different side of the city where parents are waking their children and families are starting their morning routines
a family of six living in a nice part of the city on Rockledge Cove is preparing
to leave for the day and venture out to their duties and obligations the second youngest is John Christian
he is 13 years of age and in the eighth grade at Murchison Junior High School John was even taking a special class or
two classes for exceptional students deemed to be gifted and talented John's family is full of gifted and
talented people John's father is George Christian George served as the press secretary for the United States 36th
president Lyndon Johnson he then became a top advisor to Texas governor Dolph Briscoe
John's mother Joanne was a respected lawyer now the Christian home was near John's school so he would walk to school
but not on this day now on this day John did something he has never done before and would never do again
he hid in a closet and waited in silence as his parents and brothers left the house
George christerson as he drove off to work heard on the radio that there had been a shootout in the middle of the
night on the city's South Side resulting in the death of one Austin City's finest
the cop killer was arrested back at the Christian House John is still in the closet listening carefully
and after several minutes of silence he exited the day before he told a classmate that he was bringing a gun to
school now it was time to go and get that gun according to classmates of John the day
before in Mr Wilbur Grayson's class two things very much out of the norm took place first the teacher Wilbur Grayson
who went by Rod Grace into friends and of course Mr Grayson to the students was absent
Rod Grayson was the father of a young boy who was just about one year old both he and his wife Laura Grayson
worked Laura was a teacher at another school their child was not feeling well and it
was Rod's turn to stay home and take care of their boy Grayson's gifted and talented classes
would be conducted by a substitute teacher on this day during the first class conducted by The
Substitute John Christian and another student were scheduled to give a presentation John had the floor first
for some bizarre reason the normally quiet young man gave a loud and obnoxious presentation that was not only
hard to follow but was quite the performance John was making all kinds of commotion jumping up and down waving his
hands yelling and teasing the small crowd of students in the classroom several times the class erupted with
screams laughter and general excitement for John's wild man-like performance by the end of the class John had taken up
all of the time for that day the other student not getting to make his presentation
and the class was in such an uproar that he likely did not want to The Substitute quickly lost control of
the class and with John leading the way the classroom turned very chaotic when the bell rang at the end of the
class a fellow student said to John you know tomorrow when Mr Grayson returns he's going to kick our butts
John said it's okay because tomorrow I'm going to bring a gun the student thought John was joking John
was probably still high from his bizarre performance and so the student simply replied yeah I'll bring one too
now back to the morning of Thursday May 18th John retrieved his Browning 22 caliber rifle that his parents got him
for Christmas this was Texas and a teenage boy will learn to shoot and hunt later John would tell psychiatrists that
he spent several minutes contemplating killing himself but he didn't instead he made sure that
the gun was loaded and he marched off to school like a soldier in some kind of secret battle
but in many ways it was more like a Hunting Expedition as his enemies were unaware that there was a war Brewing
inside of John's head they didn't even know that they were targets the following is according to Texas
monthly who like all of their work did a phenomenal job with their story on this
case class had already started without John Christian and what transpired next is based on the
Recollections of eight eyewitnesses in the classroom as well as those of others at school that day
sitting as he always did not behind his desk but on his stool directly in front of the students Mr Grayson had begun by
asking his students what the hell had happened the previous day the students acknowledged their own
misbehavior but added Mr Grayson John was acting so weird the teacher waved them off he said you
just don't understand him the way I do then Mr Grayson said where is John anyway
class had begun John is absent there he is someone exclaimed directing their attention to a figure outside of the
classroom window who was heading down the grassy Hill beside the football field and someone else said he's got a gun
what occurred in the next two minutes would be remembered through trauma's kaleidoscope
John stepped into the doorway seeing him Mr Grayson may have smiled maybe he even laughed
Grayson said okay John the joke's over John held the gun at his hip pointed at his teacher and a classmate heard him
say the joke's on you yeah 13 year old John and Christian with his 22 caliber rifle shot his teacher
and the chest The Head and the arm the description given by the other students there that day say that Grayson was hit
three times just in the locations that you said and as he was hit he fell from his stool and collided with the
student's desk that was immediately in front of him they say his tall lean body thudded heavily to the floor blood was
pouring out of one of his ears his eyes were still wide open and they say that he looked terrified
now as John turned and walked out without a word the classroom exploded into screams
the students began to flee several ran to the principal's office and told the administrators at the front desk what
had just happened but of course there's no way for them to believe them you know there's there's no reaction
that that can really be warranted right here they're they're in disbelief one of the kids is yelling God damn it
he killed him God damn it he killed him the gym class was already underway this was going on outside of the school over
by the football field a few kids saw John toss the rifle against the bicycle rack and then run up
the slope he's running away from the school an Athletics coach witnessed John fleeing the scene
he decides he's going to jump in his truck follow the kid he caught up to John and
he jumped out of his truck and he grabbed the boy he says what did you do and John said I shot Mr Grayson
so John was taken to the principal's office and of course the police were called and
paramedics as well the police and really no one else could believe what had happened
that morning a 13 year old student shot and killed his teacher in front of 21 other eighth
grade students John was arrested and his classmates were bust off to the police station to
give statements and to answer any questions the police may have describing the event decades later
was a man Peyton Smith he was the student that was nearest to Mr Grayson when the shooting began
he said lives were shattered lives were changed every person in that room was a victim but what a heroic thing the phys
ed teacher did I mean because we know John is homicidal he did not he he saw the gun but he didn't know if John had
another gun on him yeah I mean he saw he may have seen the gun being tossed over
by the the bicycle rack who knows if he heard the shots because this teacher is outside
and of course by his own recollection he's saying as soon as I caught up to the boy and grabbed him I
asked him what he did so he may not have fully been aware of what went down although he was like you said heroic
enough and and smart enough to go apprehend the boy this part of the story is a little weird to me Captain because
I don't really know where this boy intended to go what what was his intentions after shooting his teacher he
didn't turn the gun on his fellow classmates he shot the teacher that seemed to be his only target he walks
out of the building throws the gun down and starts heading up the the hill who knows if he was heading back home or
where his what his intentions were I don't know because it's no mystery who committed this crime it's not like he's
fleeing the crime to so nobody knows that it was John that did it yeah I believe if he was suicidal before the
shooting that he was probably going to go back home and pop possibly decide to be suicidal at home and this case is
such a weird case in itself but then let's think about the whole situation for the Austin Police Department they
spent the whole night before in a six hour standoff against a guy that killed a cop in a what should have been a
routine pullover right they probably thought there's no way that this day can get any worse than
this we've done our work probably for the next several weeks you know we've had one of the hardest days most tragic
days that we will have maybe of the whole year we lost one of our own a young officer and then just hours later
a few hours later they're responding to a school shooting well as officers were going back home you know that there was
one officer after this long night saying all right boys you guys get some sleep and we'll take care of it from here and
it can't get any worse and then it did right and weirdly enough this is the same city
that experienced the Charles Whitman Rampage at the University of Texas at the tower just 12 years earlier right
there's something in the water buy bottled water don't drink that water right but if they weren't able to
get John alive they might not get as many answers to why this tragic event happened
speaking of answers there Captain George Christian John's successful father he was asked several questions that evening
by reporters that were positioning themselves on the front lawn at the Christian house
on the advice of his attorney he said very little he told the press that the gun used did come from the Christian
house he said he would say nothing else because he didn't want to run the risk that any of his statements would hurt
his boy who was still yet to face trial George did ask reporters about the 28 year old teacher that was killed and
George became very emotional when he was told that Rod Grayson had a wife and a small child
[Music] [Music] all right we're back cheers mates cheers to you Captain cheers to the
great state of Texas I do have a couple notes go for it on the first part first of all we we did Cover the Charles
Whitman case that's episode number 20. 229 that's episode number 229 and I believe that was with me and Justin from
Generation Y that's my favorite episode best episode of all time and also this case seems very familiar
different set of events but people probably remember the hit song Jeremy by a band Pearl Jam Jeremy
Del Deli it's d-e-l-l-e which that happened uh January 8th 1991 he shot himself in front of his
English class but it seems very familiar and oddly enough that happened in Richardson Texas in an English class
which shares some similarities to the case that we're discussing Captain I want to jump back and expand
on the story that we started in today's trailer David Lee Powell was born in Texas in
1951. David grew up on the Family Farm And he was raised Catholic and the pal family they were well known and
respected in their small Texas town David excelled in school by High School it was determined that David was an
exceptionally bright and gifted student he told his parents and teachers that he
wanted to become a doctor now David graduated high school at the age of 16 as valedictorian wow he
applied to the University of Texas this was their plan 2 program which was designed for only the best and brightest
young students one of several requirements for admission was to submit an essay David wrote an essay on how he wanted to
be a doctor so he could help people now I don't know the particulars of this next bit but several sources reported
that David I'm guessing maybe in this essay or something else that David did but he was
on record as correctly predicting the fall of the Soviet Union including the how why and when
and all of this with great accuracy David was accepted to the university with what is said to be the highest ever
recorded SAT score submitted to UT's prestigious program Austin Texas and college life was very
very different from the farm and Country Life that David was accustomed to at school David was swept up with the
changing world he became a True Believer in the Society of youthful thinkers and
activists but David was seduced by something else while away at school The Nightlife the
wild parties and more specifically for David the drugs Captain this led to the old turn on tune
in and drop out gold LSD there you go David dropped out of school and spent the next several
years traveling this Great Big Country Now by 1978 David was addicted to methamphetamine Not only was he using on
The Daily but he was manufacturing and he was a street Pusher as well in the 70s it was widely believed that
methamphetamine was non-addictive but of course we know that that is completely false
it's the old hey try this drug it's recreational you can have fun with it and whenever you want to you can just
stop well no you can't because you're addicted at one point David was so desperate to stop using now we got to
keep in mind this was the mid to late 70s so rehab was not so readily available like it would be today the
resources were just not there in the way that they are now yeah I mean if you wanted to get help today he could
check himself into a rehab clinic but since that wasn't available he went to his doctor and said hey I'm taking drugs
and I'd like to stop yeah so the doctor trying to help David out prescribed something called Siler now I've not
heard of this drug and that makes sense because this drug has since been banned the side effects for this stuff are
terrible some patients taking this drug experience psychosis during all of this mess this is when
David asked a former girlfriend Sheila Maynard to drive him out of town this out of town trip was for the
purpose of David selling about four to five thousand dollars worth of Meth I could not determine if Sheila was
fully aware what the trip was for and we know how that ended that trip with David in a shootout and cuffed and
thrown in a Cell both David and Sheila were initially charged with capital murder
Sheila turned witness for the state's case against David Powell she testified for the prosecution against David
the charges against Sheila were then reduced she was sentenced to 15 years but got out on good behavior this was
after four officer ablenado was a good cop and a decorated officer he was married with two small children
he was only 26 years old when he was shot and killed David was convicted of capital murder in
September of 1978 and he got a death sentence he went off to Texas's death row and
then off to Rusk state hospital for the criminally insane after several months there he was
returned to death row now most of his years in prison he had a good amount of privileges he worked
frequented the library he taught many of his fellow prisoners how to read he became an advocate for the mentally
and physically disabled David was even featured in a film documentary about the Texas death row
because of how bright David was he could better articulate life on death row than
the others that were interviewed he became the main interview for the documentary because of his compelling
descriptions of Life on death row over the years David went through several trials and of course the appeals
process there was the argument that information was not presented at David Powell's trial that could have affected
his sentencing this was the argument that David was not the only shooter the thought here Captain was both of
these individuals David and Sheila were in the vehicle so David's defense is trying to make the argument that Sheila
was shooting as well and there were some statements that said that Sheila could have possibly been the
one that threw the grenade officer villagas people argue this and say you know what if this had come out and if it
in fact it is true because we have for every one person that said Sheila was involved in the shooting and may have
thrown the hand grenade there's a person that says no that Powell was the only one to be shooting at the cops and
trying to take people out that day so the people against the death penalty have always argued if this information
would have been presented at David's first trial then maybe once found guilty he would not have been sentenced to
death where I wonder something else captain and first off I actually don't believe
that it's true that Sheila was shooting at police or throwing hand grenades or any of that I believe it was all David
that night but I wonder the opposite had this information been presented at his first trial maybe it doesn't spare
David's life but maybe both end up receiving a death sentence because we have a cop that was killed on duty as
well as several other attempts on lives of officers that came to help that officer that night right I think that's
a pretty good point there were plenty of attempts to commute David's death sentence there was the ongoing argument
about what kind of prisoner David was so again the people that are against the death penalty come running to the front
line and they say David was a model prisoner once he got off the drugs once he was
behind bars he never heard anybody he was the perfect prisoner and he even helped people he taught people how to
read and he was an advocate for people that had disabilities do we know if he was medicated and or not once he was in
prison I don't know that he was medicated I do believe he would have been medicated when he was at the
hospital for the criminally insane right and the way he ended up their Captain was once he was in prison he refused to
eat for several days so it it looked like he was trying to end his own life they transfer him there he kind of gets
right after several months and then they send him back to death row I commend David for helping all of these
other prisoners for teaching them to read and for being an advocate and standing up for people with disabilities
I think that is phenomenal stuff that he was attempting to do after he was a complete horrible person right [ __ ] well
and see David's David's whole thing is a very difficult situation for me it's something something that I struggle with
because when we talk about the death sentence it's it's a crazy thing I mean here's this guy where without the drugs
and without this possible psychosis brought on by the prescribed medication right maybe he isn't a killer maybe he
isn't a violent man but I did a little digging he was not a perfect prisoner he didn't spend all of those years in
prison without any infractions at all he had several minor infractions but he was
not the perfect prisoner that the people against the death penalty would would scream and yell to the presses right we
always find no matter if you're for the person or against the person nobody really likes the truth right but it's
like again if this psychosis State plus the drugs this is why mental health is so important to be
talked about and to be open about and to again you can't just prescribe pills and
just go let's see what happens because then this happens now who's responsible well is this guy responsible or it's the
doctor responsible in in the defense of the doctor David's also still doing methamphetamine daily right at that time
and one thing that I recently learned about meth that I that I was unaware of because I'm like man these these meth
heads are always killing people and of course you think hey they're going to do anything to get this drug some may even
steal or become violent but one thing I learned is that meth also will create paranoia
in in the addicted yeah and they start thinking things that are not real this person's after me this family's trying
to kill me so in some of these instances when they when they go out and they kill
somebody they actually think that they're defending themselves well see I I kind of wonder if you even take a
couple steps back here's an individual that graduates high school at 16 valedictorian it maybe this whole Tune
In Tune on whatever it is this LSD experiments that he was going on maybe this was some kind of self-medication
for maybe our early onset schizophrenia it's a possibility and that's why I wondered you know is he doing fine is he
um a good member of the the prison population because he's medicated and and then if so is is all these cause
and effect not because he was a druggie but because he was self-medicating because he had schizophrenia it's
impossible to tell really and that's the thing if we could look at somebody and dissect them 100 and fully understand
what was going on with them then it would make the sentencing process a lot easier for the jury and all involved I'm
gonna ask a weird question but do we know if he got any scholarships that is a good question he may because of his
SAT score was so high let's open up the doors and let this guy in but you also talked about this weird
thing about him predicting the future yeah see this is why I wonder maybe he got like the merit scholarship which
like the merit scholarship was known um it's connected to a bunch of different people but in Harvard uh Henry
Murray would do tests a lot of people that got them the merit scholarship he would do tests on famously uh one of his
people that he did a lot of tests on was uh Ted Kaczynski so that's just why I wondered if there was some kind of
connection normally when you have these very young bright students that go to universities
early that sometimes they're offered these kind of alternative testing but especially during the late 60s early 70s
I don't know what the Tim Larry quote I just threw that in there it's something that popped in my head when I thought of
this young man who gets all caught up in the the subculture of that lifestyle once he
went off to college the war activist is going on or anti-war movement he's going heavily
into drugs yeah but Timothy Larry was doing these tours where he was going from different universities and doing
these yeah I'm not saying then tune out whatever I'm not saying that it's not possible I'm just saying that that was
just a slogan that popped into my mind that I just kind of randomly threw out there I I was there's never been
presented to me or that I could find any connection between the two David Lee Powell was executed by the
state of Texas on Tuesday June 15 2010 he spent 32 years on death row for the 1978 murder of Austin Police Officer
Ralph ablanedo his attorneys had argued that he did not pose a future threat to society as
determined by the juries that had sentenced him to death three decades earlier at the time he was the longest
serving inmate executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out executions in 1982. according to murder
pedia his last meal was four eggs four chicken drumsticks salsa four jalapeno peppers lettuce tortillas hash browns
garlic bread two pork chops white and yellow grated cheese sliced onions and tomatoes a pitcher of milk and a vanilla
shake Jesus well how many calories this is that 10 000 calories it doesn't really matter at that point now does it
yeah and according to everywhere he had no final last words he simply stared at the witnesses as he died
before their eyes well that's because he's probably already dead from that meal now we don't know for sure we don't know
if he was medicated in prison or not so we don't know if he had some kind of form of schizophrenia but they believed
that John Christian possibly had some sort of schizophrenia yeah in the other story of the 13 year
old who shot his teacher during court proceedings it was two psychiatrists that testified that John was acutely
depressed and suffered from latent schizophrenia and it was decided that psychiatric
treatment for John was much needed John was sent to Timberlawn Psychiatric Hospital a private facility in Dallas
until his 18th birthday or until he recovered John's family would be paying the bills
for this treatment not the taxpayers per the judge's ruling after 20 months at Timberlawn John was
upgraded to outpatient care this was kind of a weird scenario here Captain because what they did was he was
sent home but not to his home he was sent to the home of a doctor who would then be John's guardian and John would
continue to receive some form of Outpatient Care from this psychiatric facility and we mentioned that his
family was required to pay the bills for this treatment I did the math on this and figured it up
kind of conservatively but for 20 months in this treatment facility his family spent near one
hundred thousand dollars to treat this young man John Christian did go on to college and
law school to this day he is currently practicing law in the Greater Austin area wow Wilbur Rod Grayson was the
English teacher at an independent Austin School District in Austin Texas Grayson was a graduate
of the University of Texas at Arlington and was in his first year of teaching when he was killed on the job
and Grayson's free time he was an amateur actor news reports revealed that American
Educators have been losing their lives and school tragedies since 1764. members of the national teachers Hall of
Fame believe that it is time to recognize and honor these Brave Educators for their dedication to their
jobs and to their students Emporia State University in Kansas in partnership with the national teachers
Hall of Fame created a monument and Memorial area that will be a permanent tribute to Educators who
literally gave their all for their profession this site is called the memorial to
Fallen Educators which was designated as a National Memorial in 2018. the names engraved on two granite slabs
include teachers from Sandy Hook Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Santa Fe and yes Wilbur Rod Grayson from Murchison
Junior High yeah and one of the things I think 2020 has taught a lot of us is how
appreciative we should be towards a lot of our teachers I know personally friends of mine that are
having to homeschool some of their kids and just the difficulty of one trying to
get them excited to learn it but also to understand the information themselves and to give it back so so big shout out
to all the teachers out there and I think a shout out to all of the police officers on the Austin city
PD as well as all the Educators and students that were at mercheson junior high on that very tragic day Thursday
May 18 1978 a day that started with tragedy and ended with tragedy [Music] for everything True Crime Check out true
crime garage.com and there you'll find our recommended reading page do we have any recommended reading for this week
yes sir Captain this week we are recommending one of my favorites check out Texas monthly magazine Texas monthly
does several absolutely brilliant long-form true crime stories each year Robert Draper did one on the Grayson
case that we covered today back in April that's Texas monthly find that and many
more great recommendations at truecrime garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't let her
[Music] thank you

A Bad Day in Austin ////// 424

Part 1 of 1 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

May 18th, 1978 was a bad day in Austin, Texas. Tune in, crack open a beer and join the guys in the Garage to find out why! Beer of the Week - Peacemaker by Austin Beer WorksGarage Grade - 3 and 3 Quarter Bottle Caps

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Brief Summary

This episode details the 1978 murder of Officer Ablanedo and the school shooting by John Christian in Austin, Texas.

Key points

A Routine Traffic Stop Turns Deadly. Officer Ralph Ablenado stops a car, only to be ambushed by gunfire.
A School Shooting Unfolds. Thirteen-year-old John Christian shoots his teacher in front of classmates.
The Aftermath of Tragedy. The community grapples with the shock of a school shooting and its implications.
David's Descent into Addiction. By 1978, David was addicted to methamphetamine, manufacturing and pushing drugs.
The Shootout and Arrest. David's trip with Sheila ended in a shootout, leading to serious charges.
Death Sentence. David was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1978.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I'm not going to do anything.

David Lee Powell's surrender statement

8:22WatchNov 11, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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