Slaying suspect speaks

Three days after four young Odessans were charged with murder in the death of a 24-year-old Odessa man, different stories of the crime are emerging.

In a Friday morning interview at the Ector County Detention Center, 18-year-old Willie Carl Hurst said he and the two young women charged with murder had no part in the actual slaying of Robert C. Thornhill - that is in stark contrast to an affidavit that police filed earlier this week with Municipal Judge Dennis Jones.

Hurst, Derek Elms, 20, Heather Mitchell, 19, and Kathleen Newbury, 20, are all charged with murder.

While Mitchell, Newbury and Elms all declined Friday to be interviewed, Hurst said Elms is solely to blame for Thornhill's brutal death.

The affidavit filed with Jones said statements made by some of the four indicated Hurst took an active role in the slaying

Hurst disagreed Friday, maintaining his innocence in what he described as a "fight gone wrong."

Hurst said the events of May 17 began with an argument between Thornhill and Elms.

"Robert had made Derek mad somehow, and Derek was pacing around," Hurst said Friday while speaking on a phone line from behind glass at the jail. "Robert said ‘I want to fight him,' and so I gave the phone to Derek."

Hurst said while Thornhill and Elms were to meet in the 6400 block of Alderfer Avenue to fight, he didn't think the two would actually come to blows.

"Usually Robert would say he wanted to fight and then back out," he said.

Hurst said Elms and Thornhill - who was driven to the site by Mitchell - met on Alderfer.

In a separate interview Friday, Mitchell's mother, Shannon Mitchell, said her daughter didn't know beforehand that Thornhill was going to be killed. She did admit that her daughter would have to take responsibility for the role she played in Thornhill's death.

Hurst said he thought Elms and Thornhill had worked things out at one point during the meeting on Alderfer.

"Derek talked with Robert, and it looked like they were cool," he said. "Next thing I know I hear ‘Baby, get over.' When I ran over to the car, I saw Robert's throat slit."

Hurst said he was called to the car by his girlfriend, Mitchell.

Hurst is accused in the affidavit of shooting Thornhill with a crossbow after Elms attacked the 24-year-old man. However, Hurst said Friday that it was Elms who shot Thornhill.

"All I could do is cry," he said. "He drug him back and shot him."

Hurst said Elms killed Thornhill and then took Thornhill's keys and used the 24-year-old's white 1996 Chevrolet S-10 extended cab pickup to take his body eight miles northwest of Goldsmith.

"He used the dude's truck," he said. "There was no way that we could use any of our cars."

Hurst said the affidavit is also incorrect in accusing him of helping move Thornhill's body. Hurst claims Elms moved the body alone.

"I didn't go with him that night," he said. "Derek showed me where the body was at the next day."

The affidavit stated Elms admitted to investigators that he and Hurst took the body out to an oilfield lease road and dumped the body in a ditch, covered it with gasoline and set it on fire.

Hurst eventually led police to Thornhill's body a month after the slaying.

"It took three hours to find the body," he said. "I couldn't remember where the body was at."

Hurst said he didn't originally tell police about the slaying because he "was scared" and said the slaying has left him in shock. He also indicated he's afraid of Elms.

"It was horrific," he said. "It messed me up in the head. I had to stay drunk for the next 30 days."

Meanwhile, Shannon Mitchell said she was disturbed by comments on stories about the slaying on the OA's website calling the four "monsters" and "trash."

She said her daughter's not "a throw-away child."

"Heather doesn't understand what's going on," Shannon Mitchell said. "I think she got mixed up with the wrong people."

Shannon Mitchell said she believes her daughter wasn't aware that Thornhill was going to be killed, but she said her daughter should go to jail.

"She does deserve to do what jail time she has to do for assisting, but she didn't know what they had planned," Shannon Mitchell said.

Shannon Mitchell said she's also had problems with Derek Elms. She even filed a police report after he threatened to "burn down my house with me and my kids in it" over a dispute about Heather's Social Security card.

The police report stated Shannon Mitchell had reported at 11 p.m. May 23 that a person she knows threatened to burn her house.

Shannon Mitchell said she feels for the Thornhill family.

She said she's tried to contact the Thornhill family.

"I feel so sorry about what happened to Robert Thornhill," Mitchell said. "I tried calling Karen Thornhill but haven't got a call back yet. I don't blame her if she doesn't call because my daughter helped do this."

Benevolence Fund

>> A benevolence fund has been set up for the victim's family. Donations can be sent to First Basin Credit Union account 60872.

Also, funeral arrangements for Robert Clayton Thornhill Jr. are still pending with Hubbard-Kelly Funeral Home.