One of the longest criminal trials in Texas history pitted Zemmie Foreman and Douglas Bergman against District Attorney J.W. Simpson.

Simpson drafted two Lufkin lawyers to serve as special prosecutors.

The trial was held in Livingston just 45 days after Veal’s death.

The prosecution’s star witness was a high school teenager who watched the shooting from a picture window of the furniture store.

The defense countered with testimony from Hunter’s baby sister who told jurors that Veal had threatened her life many times over the preceding 15 years.

One piece of physical evidence was a bullet defect in Hunter’s truck that witnesses said was put there by Veal the day before Veal died.

Another former brother-in-law testified that he heard Veal announce he was going to kill Hunter Bergman.

The jury had heard from 84 witnesses over the 29 days in the courtroom. Nevertheless, they came back with a verdict in just an hour and a half.

One side of the courtroom celebrated while the other wept when the “not guilty” announcement came.

GROVETON

Valerie’s trial coverage

Appeal upheld

• Charles Victor Thompson
• Darren Cain and Dennise Hayslip

After a double murder in Tomball, two Harris County juries sentenced Charles Victor Thompson to death by lethal injection.

That sentence triggers a series of automatic appeals, and when Thompson was taken to the Harris County courthouse, he managed to walk away from the Harris County jail and elude capture for four days.

• Sheriff Joe Nettles examines the body found wrapped in duct tape in this photo from the archives of the Polk County Enterprise.
• Monroe Boyd Jr. shortly before his death in 2018. He remained in an Oklahoma state prison after he was convicted of murdering his wife in 1978.

Daniel Blank is on death row at the Louisiana State Penitentiary for the horrific murder of six people in Louisiana. He targeted these weathy residents to obtain cash to support his gambling habit.

This story was also featured on “FBI Files.” Watch that episode here.