Witness places Satterfield as scene of crime

Since the incident had occurred 4½ years ago, he had forgotten about it when Allison interviewed him. But Tuesday, when he was sworn in by 329th District Court Judge Randy Clapp at 9:03 a.m., he looked at Satterfield sitting at the defense table and realized he had seen him before … at the burn pit with Henry Floyd. He immediately notified the district attorney who quickly wrote up a Brady disclosure for the defense.

Brady v. Maryland, a landmark United States Supreme Court case, established that the prosecution must turn over all evidence that might exonerate the defendant (exculpatory evidence) to the defense.

As the final witness to testify Tuesday, he also said on June 10, 2018, he saw a silver car on Henry Floyd’s property matching the description of the 2015 Hyundai Genesis owned by Maya Rivera.

The burned skeletal remains of Ray Shawn “Baby Ray” Hudson Jr., 4; his mother Maya Victoria Rivera, 24; and his father, Ray Shawn Hudson Sr., 28; were discovered June 16, 2018, in the burn pit more than four feet below the surface.

Satterfield is being tried for the murder of Ray Shawn Jr. who would have turned 5 the day after his murder.

Frankum said living in the country, neighbors look after each other’s property. His 17 acres share a fence with Floyd. He said they look out for each other. He said a few things happened on June 10 that got his attention.

After driving his fence line (which borders Floyd Road, a private road in front of Henry Floyd’s house) that morning on his four-wheeler, he was walking into the house when he heard two pistol shots. He explained he knows the difference from a pistol shot and a rifle shot, but noted that it is not unusual in the country to hear gunfire, “so I didn’t think anything of it.”

Later in the day when his wife got home from work she said to him, “Is Henry burning? Doesn’t he know we’re in a burn ban?”

Frankum said he saw dark black smoke, and fearing maybe a tractor was on fire, retrieved his binoculars to look. There were some flames above the burn pit, but dark black smoke was rising rather than the more common white smoke caused by brush and garbage. He testified that from his experience rubber products such as tires cause black smoke, and burning rubber burns hot and long, helping to keep fires going. He saw two men “tending to the fire,” so he felt everything was under control.

Asked how he recognized Satterfield, he said, “He stood out being a white man with a Black family.”

And asked about the gray Hyundai, Frankum said he’d “never seen it before, and haven’t seen it since.”

June 16, after being gone from home for a couple of days, he returned to find a flyer on his door with a picture of the three victims. He said he tossed it in the trash because he didn’t know them and didn’t think he’d ever see them. Soon thereafter his wife said there was a helicopter overhead.

Frankum said a helicopter was flying slow and low over the Floyd property. He got his binoculars and saw it was a Texas Rangers helicopter. He also saw “more than a dozen” law enforcement vehicles on his neighbor’s property. Realizing the flyer and the activity across the fence might have a connection, he retrieved the flyer from the trash can.

He also saw Floyd’s orange backhoe being operated. He didn’t know by whom, but said he thought it was a Black man. Ranger David Chauvin later testified Floyd offered to run the backhoe to help find remains.