Murder conviction of Granby man among Texas newspaper's top stories for 2007

Today's Killeen Daily Herald in Texas features an article reviewing top trials of 2007 in its reading area. Among those are the trials of Timothy Payne, an East Newton High School graduate for his involvement in the 2004 strip club murders in that city, as well as the conviction earlier in the year of his accomplice, Richard Lee Tabler, the man who actually committed the murders. The following passage about Payne is included in the article:

A Bell County jury, after six hours and six minutes of deliberating, found Timothy Doan Payne guilty of capital murder on Nov. 15, the last murder trial of 2007 in Bell County.

Payne was most known for his involvement with Tabler in the killings as the follower who tagged along with the quadruple murderer, videotaping the second killing.

The jury of seven women and five men came out to announce their verdict shortly after 10 p.m. in the trial of the 21-year-old former Fort Hood soldier.

Payne told the jury his account of the night, portraying himself as a man who got caught up in the secret revenge plot of Richard Tabler's, one that put him in the wrong place at the wrong time.