FORT COLLINS — On the second day of a hearing on whether convicted killer Tim Masters should be retried, Masters’ former defense attorney continued to claim that police and prosecutors covered up evidence that could have cleared his client.
Erik Fischer testified he was never given a transcript or videotape of Masters’ discussion with his father, Clyde, while the suspect was at police headquarters being interrogated in the 1987 death of Peggy Hettrick. Masters, 15 at the time of the murder, was tried and convicted in 1999 for her death, including charges that he sexually mutilated the woman.
During the exchange, Clyde Masters tried to get his son to tell police what he knew about the murder. Tim Masters repeatedly told his father he was innocent. The father appears to have been told by authorities that he could not secure a public defender without some sort of admission by his son, according to Fischer.
“I don’t know how to get you any help!” Clyde told his son, according to the transcript. “See, I can’t go to the Public Defender or nothing else until after you tell me something.”
A few minutes later, Tim Masters said, “If I would have done it, I would have told ’em already.”
Attorney David Wymore, who is now representing Masters, asked Fischer if Masters’ repeated denials would have been useful at trial. Clyde Masters died before his son was tried.
“I can’t think of any portion (of the transcript) that would not be relevant,” Fischer said. “Obviously we could have used this in a number of ways.”
Wymore believes another man was responsible for Hettrick’s murder: Richard Hammond, an eye surgeon who lived across from the crime scene. Hammond killed himself in 1995 after police learned he had been videotaping women’s genitalia in his bathroom.
Prosecutors in 1999 argued that Masters was guilty because he lived near where the body was found and did not report finding the body. Authorities also focused their investigation on Masters because of numerous graphic drawings of violence and drugs. In one drawing, he portrays someone dragging a body, in the same way that prosecutors claimed Masters did after he killed Hettrick.
Another concern for defense attorneys is the fact that Masters and his father were recorded in the first place. The two were in an interrogation room with lead detective Jim Broderick, who left the room but didn’t shut off the recorder.
Also Tuesday, more doubts were cast about footprints from the crime scene. Defense attorneys argued there were numerous footprints at the scene that were never pursued by police. Photocopies of the footprints used at trial were contaminated, Wymore said.
Special prosecutors in the case hardly said a word as Fischer and Wymore spoke. The hearing is expected to last two weeks.
