Killer's mom may talk - Jackson Clarion Ledger12 March 2010, 2:03 amThe mother of convicted killer George Bell III could give a statement under oath soon for the first time about what she witnessed the night her son raped, beat and strangled Heather Spencer.
The statement would become part of a wrongful death suit filed in 2008 against the Bells as well as the drug treatment program George Bell III attended before the murder. The suit seeks the maximum amount of compensation and punitive damages allowed under Mississippi law.
George Bell III killed Spencer, his 28-year-old ex-girlfriend, in his mother's home between Sept. 10 and 11, 2007, just days after leaving the Narconon Arrowhead drug rehabilitation center in Canadian, Okla. He then kidnapped Spencer's roommate at gunpoint and took her to a house on Trawick Drive in northeast Jackson.
George Bell pleaded guilty in February 2008 and is serving a life sentence.
The case has been used to help create laws and greater awareness about the deadly nature of domestic violence.
Robbie Bell settled her side of the case in July for a confidential amount of money. But Hinds County Circuit Judge Winston Kidd recently ruled she still must comply with a request to provide a deposition.
"Her deposition could take place in the next two or three weeks," attorney Eric Stracener said Thursday. He represents Spencer's estate and mother Linda Francomb in the civil case.
In court documents, Stracener asserts Robbie Bell "is, and has always been, the most critical witness in this case" and "has done everything within her power to avoid giving a deposition."
Robbie Bell would not comment when reached Thursday about Kidd's ruling in February. Her attorney, Todd Burwell, did not return calls.
The suit contends Robbie Bell put her son, who "had been abusing cocaine, angel dust, PCP and steroids," in Narconon while wanted by Jackson police on a domestic violence warrant for attacking Spencer with a rubber mallet in June 2007. Spencer, who needed more than 50 stitches to close her wounds, later dropped the charge.
Spencer's family believes Robbie Bell was present during the murder and knew about her son's drug use.
Robbie Bell had been charged with accessory after the murder but the charge was dropped for lack of evidence.
Francomb and Spencer's brother Xan say they hope Robbie Bell's deposition clears up the fuzzy details of not just what happened that night but also how it was able to happen.
"I've seen the autopsy reports. I, unfortunately, know a lot of the facts about what happened to my daughter," Francomb said Thursday. "One of the things we want to find out from the suit is how much did (Robbie Bell) know and could she have done something to prevent it. Could she have made a phone call."
"For me personally, it would be closure," Xan Spencer said. His sister would have turned 31 on Wednesday.
The family also blames Narconon and its parent corporation, Narconon International, of failing to adequately treat George Bell III and to warn Spencer that Bell left the program months shy of completing it.
Narconon International was founded in 1966 by William Benitez, a former Arizona state inmate, and has grown into a network of 120 centers worldwide.
"Our drug rehabilitation program does not use drugs or medications to solve the problems caused by drugs, but does use nutrition and nutritional supplements as an important component of its delivery. Thus the Narconon program is neither a psychiatric nor medical, but a social education model of rehabilitation," the program's Web site states.
Francomb said she questions Narconon's methods because they follow the principles of the Church of Scientology, a religion founded in the 1950s based on the teachings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.
"The reason we filed suit to begin with is the fact that after George's care there, he murdered my daughter," she said. "I just feel like they didn't do the correct job of helping him with his problem. If they are going to continue to be in the business, they either don't need to be dealing with violent offenders or they need to make sure they treat those people for their violent tendencies."
Narconon's local attorney, Jim Becker, did not return calls for comment. However in a motion filed in November to dismiss the case, the defense states, "While Bell was enrolled in treatment in Oklahoma, Ms. Spencer twice came to visit him. Further, Bell left the facility on a leave of absence twice to return to Mississippi for several days without incident. Upon his return, he was drug tested and each test returned drug free."
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