Jarrett, the lead prosecutor in the only Twin Peaks case to go to trial, and Burks, who helped prosecute Christopher Jacob Carrizal, both have participated in preparing Twin Peaks cases for prosecution since the district attorney began taking the cases to court.
When Reyna won the DA's seat in 2010, she prepared to move with him to his new job, and did, but not for long.
Young lawyers--Robertson is 32- -work in DA's offices because that's where they learn how to try cases, learn how to deal with judges, learn how to interpret the law and learn how to pick and talk to juries, Robertson said. "The turnover doesn't surprise me much because it's the nature of the work we do," he said.
Reyna, Jarrett, Burks and assistant DA Amanda Dillion prosecuted the Carrizal case last November. With Jarrett and Burks leaving, there was no word on who would lead the remaining Twin Peaks prosecutions. Burks came to work for Reyna in 2017. Phone calls Tuesday to Reyna were not returned.
She was the widow of Ben Roden, who had led the Branch Davidians, a splinter group of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, for several years. After Mr. Roden's death in 1978, Lois Roden had assumed leadership, and their son, George, was assumed to be her successor.
Roden, the victim and complaining witness in the trial, had to be fetched from the county jail, where he was serving a six-month sentence for contempt, because of his abusive language to a Federal judge in one of his civil suits. The courthouse was filled with supporters of Mr. Koresh and his co-defendants.
Under Texas law the district attorney had no such option, said John W. Segrest, now the McLennan County district attorney. "The Government can keep weapons used in a felony," he said, but without convictions, "there was really not any other choice" but to return the guns and ammunition.