How the case against Darlie Routier unfolded

Editor's note: This timeline was originally published on Feb. 2, 1997. We are bringing this back in conjunction with the new documentary series.

JUNE 1996

6 - Darlie and Damon Routier's two oldest sons, Devon, 6, and Damon, 5, are fatally stabbed in the downstairs living room of their home on Eagle Drive in Rowlett. Ms. Routier, 26, is wounded in the neck and upper torso. She tells police that a man wearing dark clothes and a baseball cap committed the crime. Mr. Routier tells police that he and the couple's 8-month-old son, Drake, slept through the attack in an upstairs bedroom.

8 - Ms. Routier is released from Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. She and her husband give statements to the police concerning the attack.

9 - More than 400 people attend graveside services for Devon and Damon. The Routiers ask the public, through relatives, to help police find the killer.

14 - The Routiers hold a graveside birthday celebration for Devon, who would have turned 7. They spray Silly String on the grave and sing Happy Birthday. Afterward, they give a 45-minute interview to KXAS-TV (Channel 5) during which they say they have nothing to hide and have no idea why someone would kill the boys.

17 - Police take down the crime-scene tape from the Routier home after seizing a large amount of evidence during what they describe as an exhaustive investigation.

18 - Police arrest Ms. Routier and charge her with capital murder in Devon's and Damon's deaths. Investigators say her account of the attack does not match evidence from the scene. She is held at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in lieu of $1 million bail.

28 - A Dallas County grand jury indicts Ms. Routier on two counts of capital murder, and a gag order is imposed on people involved in the case.

JULY 1996

1 - Mr. Routier, 28, pleads for a reduction in his wife's bail. He says he has about $2,000 in a business savings account and about $1,200 "on hand." He owes about $130,000 on his house and estimates that he would get only $100,000 if he sold it.

15 - Prosecutors announce they will seek the death penalty against Ms. Routier.

AUGUST 1996

28 - State District Judge Mark Tolle rescinds Ms. Routier's bail.

SEPTEMBER 1996

12 - Judge Tolle, acting on a request by Ms. Routier's attorneys, decides to move the case out of Dallas County because of pretrial publicity. (On Sept. 27, he orders the trial moved to Kerrville.) Criminal defense lawyer Doug Mulder announces he has been hired to consult in preparation for her defense.

20 - Prosecutors ask Judge Tolle to fire Ms. Routier's three court-appointed attorneys, saying taxpayers shouldn't foot her legal bills while the family pays for Mr. Mulder. The motion notes that the county had spent more than $59,000 on Ms. Routier's attorneys and on fees for investigators and DNA experts.

26 - In a pretrial hearing, Mr. Routier denies that he and wife argued about finances the night of the killings. Rowlett police Detective Jimmy Ray Patterson testifies that police found blood near the sink and near the front door. But he says they found no blood near the garage window where Ms. Routier said the intruder fled and none outside the house. Detective Patterson also says Ms. Routier showed little concern for her sons when police interviewed her the morning after the attack. Defense attorney Wayne Huff suggests that Mr. Routier was sedated at the time. A doctor from the medical examiner's office testifies that Ms. Routier's wounds could have been self-inflicted.

OCTOBER 1996

18 - Mr. Mulder says he has been hired to replace Ms. Routier's court-appointed attorneys and will seek to move her trial back to Dallas. Meanwhile, the judge in a custody hearing involving 1-year-old Drake Routier orders Mr. Routier to undergo a psychological evaluation. (Drake had been placed in temporary custody of Mr. Routier's parents.) Preliminary forensics tests show that a blood-stained sock found several doors from the Routier home contained deposits of Ms. Routier's skin. An police affidavit is released that casts doubt on Ms. Routier's story that the attacker escaped through a garage window. The affidavit says the window sill was still covered in dust and mulch on the flower beds below was undisturbed. The affidavit also notes that no blood splatters were discovered where Ms. Routier said she found the murder weapon and no appreciable blood was on the couch where Ms. Routier said she was stabbed. Police suggest in the affidavit that she inflicted her wounds while standing at the kitchen sink.

21 - Jury selection begins in the case involving Damon's death. Judge Tolle refuses to move the case back to Dallas.

22 - Lawyers schedule meetings with the 165 prospective jurors.

NOVEMBER 1996

14 - Seven women and five men are selected as jurors.

15 - Prosecutors suggest that Mr. Routier might have helped his wife stage the crime scene to mislead investigators. They cite fibers found on Mr. Routier's tennis shoes that match fibers from a sock stained with the boys' blood. Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis says in court papers that investigators also found head hairs matching Mr. Routier's on the murder weapon. Mr. Routier denies any wrongdoing.

18 - The jury is seated, and Judge Tolle recesses court for the holidays.

DECEMBER 1996

6 - A mortgage company repossesses the Routiers' home. Mr. Routier, who is living with relatives in Plano, says he stopped making the $1,300 monthly payments after his sons were killed.

JANUARY 1997

1 - Ms. Routier is moved from the Lew Sterrett Justice Center to the Kerr County Jail.

2 - Prosecutors say blood stains on the back of Ms. Routier's nightshirt appear to match the knife-blade pattern of the murder weapon.

4 - Ms. Routier turns 27.

5 - In an interview, Mr. Routier says his love for his wife has grown since the slayings. "Me and her are soul mates. I do believe that God put us together for a reason," he says.

6 - Both sides give opening arguments. Ms. Routier's attorneys say she is devoted to her children and has been traumatized by the slayings. Prosecutors say she is a selfish, cold-blooded woman who stabbed her sons because she and her husband could no longer satisfy their expensive tastes.

7 - Ms. Routier appears to choke back tears as she hears her own screaming on a police dispatch tape from the night of the slayings. Two officers testify that Ms. Routier gave conflicting accounts of where she was attacked and about whether she was asleep at the time. They also say she showed little concern for the children.

8 - A Baylor emergency room doctor testifies that Ms. Routier's knife wounds were superficial. He also says she did not seem distraught.

9 - Jurors hear from five nurses and a Baylor police officer who testify that Ms. Routier made a variety of statements about the attack while she was being treated.

10 - Rowlett paramedic Jack Kolby recounts Damon's last breath. "He gasped a gasp for air, and that was the final time that he breathed," the paramedic says. "His eyes were open, and there was still a light of life in his eyes. As I was with him, it slowly faded." On cross-examination, paramedics say Ms. Routier was distraught at the scene.

14 - A Rowlett police officer testifies that insurance records on the boys and Ms. Routier's handwritten will were found beside the couch after the attack.

15 - Crime scene expert James Cron, who helped Rowlett police, testifies that he realized quickly that evidence didn't fit Ms. Routier's account. A banker testifies that Mr. Routier was denied a $5,000 loan three days before the killings.

16 - Outside the jury's presence, Ms. Routier's laundry woman testifies that she found Drake wrapped in blankets and gasping for air the day before his brothers were killed.

17 - Jurors watch video of the graveside birthday party. A woman who once called herself Ms. Routier's best friend, Barbara Jovell, testifies that Ms. Routier told her she attempted to kill herself less than a month before the killings. A forensic serologist testifies that blood evidence on Ms. Routier's nightshirt could have been contaminated by police.

20 - Testimony suggests that the knife used to slash the garage window screen came from a butcher block inside the Routiers' kitchen.

21 - DNA analysts testify that all of the blood at the scene belonged to Ms. Routier or one of the slain boys. Questions about the blood evidence lead to a heated exchange outside the courthouse in which First Assistant District Attorney Norman Kinne refers to Ms. Routier's mother, Darlie Kee, as "trailer trash."

22 - An expert testifies that blood evidence from the nightshirt suggests that Ms. Routier stabbed the boys. Mr. Kinne apologizes for his "trailer trash" remarks.

23 - FBI Special Agent Alan Brantley testifies that Damon and Devon were killed by someone who knew them. He stops short of saying Ms. Routier is guilty but says much of the evidence contradicts her account. "It's almost as if the offender had no regard for the children but had some attachment to items of property in the house," Agent Brantley says. He also says the boys' stab wounds didn't match up with Ms. Routier's injuries. And he said it was odd that Ms. Routier wasn't attacked first. Ms. Routier's aunt, Sherry Moses, testifies Ms. Routier began screaming when she saw the boys' bodies at the funeral home. David Rogers, a pastor who has counseled Ms. Routier, testifies that he also believes Ms. Routier's grief to be real. Other witnesses report seeing bruises on Ms. Routier's right arm while she was still being treated at Baylor, suggesting they were inflicted in a struggle with an intruder.

24 - Ms. Routier wrote the beginnings of a suicide note in her diary a month before the slayings, prosecutors said. Mr. Mulder says the diary also contains numerous entries that show Ms. Routier's concern for her children.

27 - Detective Patterson testifies that Rowlett police planted hidden microphones beside the boys' graves "in case someone went up there and made a confession about what happened." Mr. Mulder questions the legality of the action. Mr. Routier also testifies, disputing much of the prosecution testimony and saying his wife helped try to resuscitate the children.

28 - A psychiatrist testifies that Ms. Routier can't remember the attack because she has partial amnesia brought on by trauma.

29 - Ms. Routier takes the stand and denies killing her sons. She says she can't remember anything about the attack.

30 - A private investigator who tried repeatedly to elicit a confession from Ms. Routier says she never denied killing the boys. "She always had the same verbal response: `If I did it, I don't remember,' " retired Dallas homicide Detective William Parker says.

31 - Ms. Routier interrupts Mr. Davis' closing arguments, calling him a liar. Defense attorneys also give closing arguments, and the case goes to the jury.