Not guilty pleas

Three out of four defendants indicted with capital murder in connection with the slaying of Odessan Robert Clayton Thornhill Jr. pleaded not guilty in an arraignment hearing Monday afternoon.

Willie Hurst, 18, Heather Mitchell, 19, and Kathleen Newbury, 20, all entered not guilty pleas in Judge Denn Whalen's 70th District Court.

Derek Elms, 21, didn't make an appearance Monday. Jack Stoffregen, chief public defender for the West Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases program, said his office plans to waive arraignment and enter a plea of not guilty.

A grand jury indicted the four with capital murder on Sept. 8. Autopsy results are being withheld from the media after officials asked for an Attorney General's opinion on whether the autopsy is public record.

In June, Hurst led Odessa police to a ditch eight miles northwest of Goldsmith that contained Thornhill's body. The 24-year-old had been missing since May 21.

Ector County District Attorney Bobby Bland said last week that no decision has been made as to whether the state will seek the death penalty. He would not comment on the case Monday.

Elms, Hurst, Mitchell and Newbury were arrested in a four-day span in June and have been in the Ector County Detention Center since. Their bonds are $1 million each.

The court appointed new attorneys for each defendant after their indictment. David Zavoda, Newbury's lead counsel, said since the death penalty is still on the table, two state-certified death penalty case lawyers had to be appointed for each of the four defendants.

Zavoda said he expects Newbury's pre-trial to come up in November.

"We don't know anything about the facts right now," Zavoda said, adding that he and his co-counsel, Jason Leech, will start looking into details of the case soon.

Stoffregen said he's appointed public defender Rusty Wall as Elms' chief counsel, but Elms will have to get a new lawyer if the death penalty isn't sought.

"I've already assigned a team to his case, and they've had several face-to-face encounters with him," Stoffregen said.

Stoffregen said he expects to discuss the case with Bland in the next couple of weeks to find out if the death penalty will be an option in this case.

"The DA obviously needs some time to do their investigation to see if it needs to be a death penalty case," Stoffregen said.