Officer testifies slaying suspect seemed 'boastful' during arrest

By Steve Olafson
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

LIBERTY The most notorious criminal suspect in Liberty County, now on
trial accused of capital murder, was arrested on the most unremarkable of
charges: illegally walking in the street.

After Robert Brice Morrow was picked up July 29, 1996, near a crack house
in Houston's Fourth Ward and taken to the City Jail, computer records
showed police he was wanted for the slaying of Myra Elisabeth Allison, a
21yearold college student from Liberty.

But Morrow was willing to fill in the blanks left by the computer.

"He said, `Ya'll got a big one. This is a highprofile case where I come
from,' " Houston Officer Charles Vazquez testified Friday at Morrow's trial.

"He said, `I'm on America's Most Wanted (TV show).' He seemed kind of
boastful about it."

Boastful or not, Morrow in the past week has been portrayed as a dangerous
man, even by those who called him a friend.

"Are you afraid of Robert Morrow?" Liberty County District Attorney Mike
Little asked Friday of one witness who often had smoked crack cocaine with
the defendant.

"Yes," replied Dane Schisler of Liberty.

"Do you worry about what might happen to you if you say anything that might
incriminate Robert Morrow?"

"Of course."

Schisler testified that Morrow asked him to lie about his whereabouts on
April 3, 1996, the night Allison was murdered.

More importantly, Schisler told jurors he had let Morrow out of his car
near a car wash where the University of Nevada Las Vegas student was
abducted.

While Schisler wavered under crossexamination about the date when he had
dropped Morrow off after the pair had smoked crack together, he was
forthright about his fear.

"I'm just afraid he might retaliate," he said. "If you're a snitch, they
might come and burn your house down."

Schisler, a warehouse worker, said Morrow's brother told him the defendant
wanted retribution against him and another prosecution witness.

He also told the jury that Morrow once told him of beating three men with a
baseball bat after they had attacked him.

Byron Rowe, a 21yearold Cleveland man who was brought from the Jefferson
County Jail to testify, said he had overheard Morrow talk about the murder
to another inmate at the Liberty County Jail in October 1996.

Rowe quoted Morrow as saying a friend of his had struck the woman with a
tire tool and that the pair left her near the Trinity River. The men then
smoked some crack but returned later to find the woman still alive, he
quoted Morrow as saying.

They then beat her to death and threw her body in the river, Rowe said.

"Whose idea was it to go back and make sure Lisa Allison was dead?"
Assistant District Attorney Steve Greene asked.

"Robert Morrow," Rowe said.

Another jail inmate, Brad Keaton, 20, of Liberty, testified that he had
seen Morrow about 1 a.m. on April 4, 1996, with blood on his arms and legs.

"I asked him what happened and he told me he got in a car wreck," Keaton said.

Keaton, who has been convicted of engaging in organized crime, said Liberty
County investigators equipped him with an electronic listening device when
Morrow asked to speak to him in the County Jail.

Authorities wanted to record any threats Morrow might make to intimidate
him, said Keaton, who testified that Morrow asked him to lie for him.

When defense attorneys Gary Bunyard and Steve Hebert asked to listen to the
tape, state District Judge W.G. "Dub" Woods sent the jury home while the
attorneys convened privately to review the tape.

Morrow, a 38yearold oil field worker, has told conflicting stories to the
police and media about Allison's death.

The trial is to continue Monday.