Conflicting witness statements were among the first clues that led to the arrests of three people in the killing of a 66-year-old McKinney businessman, according to probable cause affidavits released this week.
Richard Moore was found shot to death Feb. 27 in his McKinney home in the 8700 block of La Quinta Lane.
First his wife, Chansamorn Pokai, 33, told investigators that police had never responded to her home over arguments with Moore, even though officers had contacted the couple a few weeks earlier after a domestic disturbance call.
Then there was her boyfriend, Stephen Brockway, 31, of Frisco, who offered up a handgun for testing during his police interview, even though investigators had kept mum on the victim’s cause of death.
There was also the suspected gunman, Ronald Rosser, 51, of Longview, who said he didn’t know the man who died but had a typed document in his dresser drawer about where the man lived and what vehicles he drove. Included with the document were three photographs of Moore.
Pokai and Brockway are accused of hiring Rosser to kill Moore.
Pokai and Brockway are being held at the Collin County Jail on charges of capital murder for remuneration. Pokai is also being held on an immigration detainer. Rosser is being held at the Gregg County jail on a capital murder charge. He also faces a federal charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. All three have bonds set at $1 million.
Attorneys for Pokai and Brockway could not be reached on Friday. It’s unclear whether Rosser has an attorney.
Moore died of gunshot wounds to the head, according to the medial examiner’s office. Police recovered five spent .22-caliber long-rifle shell casings near his body.
McKinney police continue to investigate the case with the help of the Texas Rangers.
On the day her husband died, Pokai told police she’d been out running errands. She had picked up her two daughters early from school because of the icy weather. She said that after she’d been home for a bit, she heard the TV on in the bedroom and went to find her husband. She found him lying naked in the master bathroom “with blood all around him,” according to the affidavit.
According to the police affidavit, Pokai consented to a search of her cellphone. Police discovered that communications between her and Brockway had been deleted.
Based in part on the deleted messages, police asked Brockway to come to the station for an interview. He brought his attorney and a Plano bank receipt time-stamped at 1:07 p.m. Feb. 27. Police had been called to the Moore home at 1:34 p.m. that day.
Brockway also offered up a .357-caliber handgun for testing. Detectives, who knew Moore had been killed with a .22-caliber firearm, declined the offer, according to the affidavit.
Brockway also agreed to a search of his cellphone. Through his attorney, he provided detectives the following day with a more detailed account of his whereabouts on Feb. 27.
His timeline referenced meeting Pokai around 10:30 or 11 a.m. to discuss her payroll hours, according to the affidavit. But Pokai told police she didn’t have a job, and she didn’t mention meeting Brockway that morning.
Through follow-up questions, police learned Brockway and Pokai had been having an affair, the affidavit stated.
Brockway’s timeline also referenced a meeting that morning with a contractor named “Ron” who was supposed to do remodeling work for him.
Police found contact information on Brockway’s cellphone. The contractor turned out to be Rosser.
Rosser told police he came to the Dallas area for a meeting and ended up going to his friend Brockway’s house to wait out the storm. Rosser said he was supposed to do a tile-laying job for Brockway. That conflicted with Brockway’s statement about a ceiling redo, according to the affidavit.
With Rosser’s consent, investigators also extracted data from his cellphone. Among the information: Google searches for firearm suppressors and PVC pipe suppressors for .22-caliber firearms, according to the affidavit. Search phrases on the phone included the following: “how far will a .22 LR kill, the best way to quiet down a .22 long rifle and how to build a .22 caliber silencer,” according to the affidavit.
On March 8, Gregg County sheriff’s officials pulled over Rosser and arrested him on an unrelated traffic warrant. A search of his vehicle turned up a handgun that resulted in the firearms violation charge, the affidavit stated.
