Drug buddy tells jury Morrow shared idea of robbery at car wash

By Steve Olafson
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

LIBERTY By Cecil Smith's account, he and Robert Brice Morrow shared many
a crack pipe during the 15 years they knew one another.

On Wednesday, however, the limits of their drugaddled friendship were
reached.

Smith, a Liberty man who worked in the oil fields with Morrow and said he
considered him a friend, testified against his longtime crack buddy during
the fourth day of testimony in Morrow's capitalmurder trial.

Rail thin and shaggyhaired, he told jurors that Morrow had mused about how
easy it would be to rob women at a local car wash for dope money.

The conversations, he said, took place as the pair gazed at the car wash
from a gas station across the street, where they bought beer and cigarettes
after smoking $50 to $100 worth of crack cocaine following a day in the oil
fields.

Smith said that when he learned of the slaying of Myra Elisabeth Allison, a
21yearold Liberty college student who was abducted from the car wash, he
was incarcerated at a state prison drug rehabilitation unit in Huntsville.
He told his counselor about his conversations with Morrow.

"It seemed too coincidental to what me and Robert Morrow talked about,"
Smith told jurors.

Their friendship carried no weight in his decision to tip police, he said.

As he put it, "I feel there's a big difference between smoking dope and
capital murder."

Smith, who lives in the subdivision where Morrow once did, displayed an
impish grin across the courtroom toward Morrow during his testimony, but
his longtime friend didn't return the look as he whispered questions for
his lawyers to fire at him.

Under crossexamination, Smith insisted he was not seeking any of the
$30,000 reward money that has been offered for information leading to the
arrest and indictment of Allison's killer.

He also said he has not been promised leniency from the judicial system and
expects to soon be returned to a state drug rehab unit.

Smith has previous convictions for delivery of marijuana and possession of
cocaine. He is on probation for a driving whileintoxicated conviction.

Despite his past, Smith said Morrow's suggestions that women at the car
wash could easily be overpowered with a knife surprised him.

"It kinda startled me," he testified.

Morrow also suggested the pair could have sex with any of the women they
robbed and that the victims could easily be "taken care of," Smith said.

"He said if I said anything, he could take care of me, too," he testified.

Police used information from Smith to obtain a search warrant against
Morrow, a 38yearold exconvict, who was forced to surrender hair and
blood samples to investigators.

When police questioned Morrow on June 19, 1996, about 2« months after
Allison's slaying, he told them he had been drinking all day at the Lazy H
Bar in Liberty, where he took up with a Chambers County man who was
celebrating his birthday with friends, according to police testimony on
Wednesday.

Morrow said the birthday party then moved to a bar called Smitty's in
Crosby, where he remained until midnight, Liberty Police Chief Billy
Tidwell testified.

Police couldn't confirm any parts of Morrow's story, Tidwell said, leading
them to intensify their investigation.

When Morrow agreed to give a written statement, he changed parts of his
story, saying he had gone to Channelview instead of Crosby and omitting the
name of the Chambers County man he said was celebrating his birthday,
Liberty Detective Tom Chapman testified.

Police still could not confirm any parts of the story, Chapman said.

Allison, a University of NevadaLas Vegas student who was home on spring
break, was reported missing April 3, 1996, after taking her family's 1988
Oldsmobile to a car wash at U.S. 90 and FM 563. Her bludgeoned and slashed
body was found the next day in the Trinity River by a fisherman checking
his trot lines.

Prosecutors have subpoenaed 221 potential witnesses in the trial, which
resumes today before state District Judge W.G. "Dub" Woods.