Houston Chronicle details capture of death row inmate's mother in smuggling case

The capture of Texas death row inmate Richard Lee Tabler, mother, Lorraine, who provided a cell phone used by her son and other prison inmates, is detailed in an article posted tonight on the Houston Chronicle website.

Tabler, along with 2004 East Newton High School graduate Timothy Doan Payne of Granby, were responsible for the deaths of four people connected with the Teazers strip club in Killeen, Texas. Payne was convicted earlier this year by a Bell County, Texas, jury, but was not facing the death penalty:

During the phone calls, Whitmire said he tried not to ruffle Tabler or arouse his suspicion. "I said, 'How did you get a phone?'" Whitmire recalled of his first conversation. "He said, '$2,100.' I said, 'How are you charging it?' He said, 'I have a charger.' "

Moriarty traced the cell phone to within the Livingston prison where Tabler is awaiting the death penalty.

The inspector also found that Tabler's mother, Lorraine Tabler, was paying for the phone's minutes from her home in Georgia. And he discovered that the same phone had been used by as many as nine other inmates, all of them known gang members, to place 2,800 calls.

Their relatives sent payments to Tabler's mother to offset the phone bill. Many of their calls went to fellow gang members outside of prison, Whitmire said. They also called relatives and anti-death penalty advocates, he said.

Monday's crackdown was hatched after Whitmire learned Tabler's mother would be landing in Austin around 9 a.m. to visit her son. While police staked out the airport, Ward got Tabler on the phone so investigators could catch him with it, Whitmire said. A random search of Tabler's cell last week had come up short. Tabler told Whitmire he had handed the phone off to a guard in advance.

As police arrested his mother in Austin on Monday, investigators surprised Tabler in his cell. Before they snatched the phone, Whitmire said, Tabler made a final threat to the reporter: "I will Google you. I can find out what you drive."