Just when we thought the biker drama in whacko Waco, Texas had dulled to low roar, yet another tale comes out of Six Shooter Junction that sounds like something written by Kurt Sutter and played by 1990s Charlie Sheen.
So, said I, in my Jeanie Sue Riley voice, I wanna tell you of a story of a… well, this story ends in a murder for hire trial, not a PTA meeting. In day one of that trial, the judge told the jury this would be long and complex because there are a lot of moving parts with many people involved… I concur with him. Hang tight, and I will try to unwind this Texas sized soap opera for y’all.
But first, a little back story.
(Many people in this story are the lawyers in the Twin Peaks biker shooting… the main character is Waco attorney Seth Sutton. Seth represented some of the members of the dominant club in Texas during Twin Peaks. I am not even gonna say their name in this article, out of respect, because this whole clusterfuck truly did not involve them at all, beyond the Waco cops trying to sneak around and infiltrate someone to spy on them… because, you know, it’s worked SO well in the past, right? This is the total involvement of said dominant club in this whole mess, even though they were mentioned several times in the trial. I reckon they been mentioned enough in stuff they didn’t have anything to do with.)
Seth Sutton, is a Waco attorney, married to Katy Sutton. Allegedly they had some sort of swinger situation going on with Marcus Beaudin, and his wife, Chelsea Tijerna Beaudin, who were also Waco attorneys. Marcus and Chelsea divorced, and Marcus gets accused and eventually indicted of sexual abuse of a female child family member of Sutton.
I suppose after representing the Waco bikers in 2015, Sutton was moved to be a part of the biker community.
First, he ran on the Democrat ticket in 2018 against Abel Reyna, the DA who signed those Twin Peaks arrest warrants… but conceded to Republican Barry Johnson.
Then he made up his own motorcycle club, called, the Red Mouse Cult MC. (Seriously.) He was the President and went by the road name ‘Hollywood.’
Well, in Dec 2019, one of his club members named Jerry Dyers meets this dude named Scott Vaughn in a barber shop and they get to talking motorcycles and clubs and such. Scott Vaughn, has been an undercover Waco cop for around two decades. Well. It comes out that Sutton represented some members of a certain club during Twin Peaks.
Officer Vaughn goes back to his superiors and gets permission to go undercover in the club, to try to get close to the dominant club and try to catch them doing drugs or something. The name of the operation was ‘Operation Mighty Mouse’ and the undercover officer was involved in the operation from December 2019 to May 2020.
Well, he never got any info worth investigating about the big boys and so between Covid and monetary issues, the superiors told him to wrap up the investigation. He decided to disobey them and go rogue. (This is the Charlie Sheen part)
“I was in too deep and didn’t want to leave abruptly, I didn’t want to look suspicious.”
-Officer Scott Vaughn
That very night, Sutton tells Vaughn about the molestation of his family member. He said the girl was troubled and misbehaving and they sent her to a center to get help in Houston, and while she was there, she admitted that Marcus had molested her on multiple occasions. The discussion then turns to murder. Sutton and Vaughn discuss various ways to kill Marcus, including luring him over for sex with Katy or Chelsea, then killing him and making it look like a rape… or making it look like a road rage type incident. This particular scheme was interesting in that Sutton himself was involved in a road rage incident a few months prior.
Waco police reported that Darryl Lynn Gallaway and Waco attorney Seth Sutton got into a verbal altercation in March 2019 about 2:30 a.m. at a Whataburger. Police initially said Gallaway and Sutton got into an argument over how long Gallaway was taking to order at the drive-thru. However, after Gallaway’s arrest a week later, Sutton, a criminal defense attorney, said he made a general comment about the wait time at the restaurant that was not directed at anyone. He did not realize Gallaway heard him, but they got into an argument, he said.
“I wasn’t directing the first initial comment at him, because I know when things take a long time at a restaurant it is not a patron’s fault. But he thought I was directing it at him,” Sutton said at the time. “He started barking at me and I started barking at him, but then it ended and I didn’t think anything too big about it.” Police said Gallaway waited for Sutton to leave the restaurant on his motorcycle, followed him in his SUV and struck him near Waco Drive and North 38th Street.
So, Vaughn decides to go rogue and keep investigating. He ended up patching into the Red Mouse club on May 13, 2020, against his supervisors’ orders, and Sutton began to trust him.
Text messages flew between the two of them regarding the way they would decide to kill Beaudin, and how Vaughn could leave town and about alibis. Vaughn claimed this was where their initial operation took a ‘hard turn right. He went to his bosses, and told them what Sutton told him. While his supervisors were pissed he went rogue, they decided to have him wear a microphone and camera to capture Sutton plotting the murder. Beaudin was never warned of a threat upon his life.
Vaughn immediately goes to meet up with Sutton and Chelsea at Sutton’s house to talk about how they planned to kill Beaudin… Chelsea is lounging around the pool, and she and Sutton are telling Vaughn the layout and security codes to Beaudin’s house and discussing buying the gun… and Vaughn is secretly taping the whole damned thing.
In the video, Sutton and the officer can be heard forming a plan to kill Beaudin. Vaughn can be heard saying the plan needed to be thought out, a gun needed to be purchased and how they needed to learn Beaudin’s daily routine. Sutton can be heard agreeing and they both agreed this plan would take place in a few weeks.
Not long after this conversation, Sutton and Vaughn arrange to meet at the Salty Dog to exchange the money. Behind the scenes, officers were lining up surveillance and take-down teams in anticipation of Sutton’s arrest later that evening, the undercover detective said during testimony.
The detective told jurors Sutton arrived at the Salty Dog and they got a beer and talked for about an hour or so. Sutton allegedly told the undercover detective to proceed with the murder-for-hire plan and gave the detective $300 to buy the gun. Immediately after that, the police who are lying in wait hop out and arrest Sutton.
Sutton and Tijerina both were arrested Friday, on May 22, 2020 and charged with criminal solicitation of capital murder.
Before the whole thing made it to trial, tragedy occurred…on May 28,2021, Department of Public Safety troopers responded to a deadly motorcycle crash… and the lone rider, Chelsea Tijerina, a 2011 Baylor Law School graduate, co-conspirator in a murder plot, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The whole sordid mess came to a head last week as Seth Sutton stood trial for a plot to murder Marcus Beaudin. He was represented by another household name during the Twin Peaks trials… Dallas attorney Clint Broden.
The prosecution marched cops and ‘biker experts’ and witnesses and videotapes past the jury, and Broden hammered away at each witness about how it seemed like Officer Vaughn was the one doing all the pushing and plotting and planning…. The Marine Veteran officer Scott Vaughn even took the stand himself. The jury saw photos of the biker vest Vaughn wore as a member of the Red Mouse Cult and other ones that showed the money Sutton paid Payne for the gun, ammo, gas and the gun seller.
Then it was time for the defense of Seth Sutton.
Once the State rested its case, Broden took less than five minutes and only included a stipulation, which was one sentence long.
The statement said Beaudin was not told of any potential threat on his life by law enforcement from the time the undercover officer said Sutton told him he wanted to kill Beaudin up until Sutton was arrested.
Jury summations began the morning of Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. Jurors deliberated for 12 hours without reaching a unanimous verdict. The jury foreman told the judge he didn’t see further deliberation leading to a unanimous verdict. While at least six jurors declined to comment after, court officials said that at one point during deliberations the jury was deadlocked 9-3 in favor of guilt…..
And just like that, the Seth Sutton case was declared a mistrial.
-AIW
