Defendant in Llano County murder case claims he carried out slaying on instructions from motorcycle-gang pair
LLANO — A defendant charged with murder told investigators it was either kill or be killed by members of a motorcycle gang if he didn’t carry out an execution-style slaying, a jury heard during the second day of the man’s trial.
Thomas Barkley Creech, 35, is accused of fatally shooting Mark Shurish, 29, whose remains were found October 2010 in a burn pit on a ranch in Mason County.
A Llano County jury on Aug. 28 heard Creech in a taped interview with sheriff’s investigators Mark Burke and Bill Boyd claim he killed Shurish on the orders of two members of a motorcycle gang as part of an ongoing drug war.
"I was going to clean up the mess or I was part of the mess," Creech told the lawmen in a videotaped interview, which was played to jurors in 424th state District Judge Dan Mills’ courtroom.
Two interview sessions were conducted Oct. 22 and Oct. 24, 2010, after Creech’s arrest.
In the tapes, Creech outlines what happened June 5, 2010, when he and Shurish arrived at a Buchanan Dam residence in the 9000 block of RR 1431 after leaving a local bar.
During the interview played for jurors, Creech said he got Shurish to the residence under the pretense the deceased was going to meet a possible funding source in the drug trade. Once in the home, Creech told investigators he and Shurish went to the bedroom where methamphetamine transactions took place.
"About the time that (Shurish) realized nobody was there, I shot him," Creech said in the video.
Llano County investigators said Creech took the body to the ranch to dispose of it.
Creech fled to Missouri, where he eventually turned himself in to authorities after Burke contacted him about recovering Shurish’s body, the investigator told jurors.
Creech told investigators that he killed Shurish under orders from two members of a mid-tier motorcycle gang.
Burke told jurors that Creech believed the pair directed him to take the action because Shurish was beginning to expand a methamphetamine business on their turf.
However, Burke said it seemed likely the two motorcycle club members were actually carrying out a personal agenda.
Burke told the court that investigators learned one of the men had a previous relationship with Shurish’s wife Kelly Ann Lee.
During the interviews two years ago with investigators, Creech told deputies he felt coerced into slaying Shurish because if he didn’t, he and his then-girlfriend Letecia Chapman Jeffers could be the ones who were killed.
Under questioning by defense attorney Richard Davis, Burke said it appeared Creech believed the slaying was authorized by an outlaw motorcycle gang.
In earlier testimony, witnesses told jurors that Creech was a member or a prospective member of a lower-tier affiliate of two other motorcycle gangs.
The two men Creech told authorities coerced him into killing Shurish were members of a middle-tier gang, Boyd told jurors.
But during their investigation, Boyd reached out to a member of the top gang, who told the lawman they take care of their own issues and don’t delegate, Burke told jurors.
Burke told the court the two men probably acted on their own. He added deputies have not been able to locate the pair, although they know their identities.
After Shurish died, the lower-tier club stripped Creech of his patch and took his motorcycle; the two men who spoke to Creech were also banished by the clubs, investigators said.
Lee testified Aug. 27 that she believed her husband, Creech and another woman were involved the methamphetamine trade.
A woman who lived near the Buchanan Dam residence where Shurish died told jurors she witnessed many people coming and going day and night.
Both the state and defense rested Aug. 28.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Aug. 29.
As the investigation unfolded two years ago, three other people were charged in the case with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, meaning a corpse — Mary Louise Grote, 56, Justin Dale Silvernale, 26, and Jeffers, 25.
Authorities have since dropped the charge against Grote. Jeffers was scheduled to enter a plea Aug. 17 but never showed up, court officials said.
Silvernale earlier this year pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to two years in prison.
No one else has been charged in the case.