Catherine Mehaffey Shelton

Catherine Mehaffey Shelton

I am currently reading the book, Luggage By Kroger, written by Houston reporter, Gary Taylor. He had a very short lived but volatile relationship with then Houston attorney, Catherine Mehaffey. At the time he met Catherine she was involved in a civil suit. She was not the attorney, but the plaintiff against the estate of an ex-boyfriend who Catherine claimed as a common-law husband. The ex-boyfriend, George Tedesco had been found brutally murdered in the garage of his home in January of 1979. Catherine had been suing him for a divorce and they were due in court on the day he was found murdered.

Catherine would lose her civil case against George Tedesco's family when there was no proof that the couple had ever portrayed themselves as a married couple, one of the main things in order to prove a common-law marriage. In fact, Tedesco's family could never even prove that the couple had lived together, even for the three short months that Catherine would claim. In court she had admitted taking things from Tedesco's home just after his murder was discovered and sold them for money. Items had even been found later in her possession as well as in the possession of a man named Tommy Bell, a man associated with Catherine. George Tedesco's family sued both Catherine and Tommy Bell but before the case would see the inside of a courtroom Tommy Bell would be found dead also. His death would be ruled a homicide as a result of Russian Roulette. To be fair it is unclear what the results of this case were against Catherine but as you will see this really was, and would be the least of the problems Catherine would and has faced over time. Despite obviously being a suspect in George Tedesco's murder, Catherine was never charged. Then again, no one has ever been charged in his murder.

Catherine's relationship with George Tedesco was not her first, nor her last domestic problem. A man by the name of Ferris Bond dated Catherine in the early 1970's when they were both in law school. Bond would later say that when he learned Catherine had been scheduled to take the Bar Exam he contacted those in charge and questioned that they were even considering allowing her to become a lawyer. He stated in his letter that after dating Catherine for a short period of time he broke things off with her. But over the next three years she stalked him. He would move from apartment to apartment but she would find him. At one point his apartment, with his belongings inside was set on fire. In other incidents Bond claimed that Catherine had stolen his car and even pointed a shotgun at him. Bond says that he called the police on several occasions but most of the time law enforcement dismissed the allegations as simple domestic issues. At that time period those things were taken less serious than they would later, but even less so when it was a man making allegations against a woman. He does say she was arrested on at least two occasions. One involved the fire at his apartment. A neighbor claimed to have seen Catherine climbing from a window just prior to the flames being discovered. The second time was when his car was stolen. Nothing was ever done to Catherine in either of those incidents. In fact years later she would claim that she was never arrested at all related to them. To be fair I cannot say for sure if she was or was not. But, I will also say that just because Catherine said she was not, and there may no longer be a record, does not necessarily mean she has told the truth. It seems she has a way of having her record expunged and private. Bond claims that just after finishing law school he would join the Marine's simply to get away from Catherine.

It does not appear that Gary Taylor knew about the incidents involving Ferris Bond when he met Catherine in 1979, but then again it seems that it may not have mattered to him even if he did know. In his book he recalled telling her that “everyone starts with a clean slate” when it came to him. It was very clear that Taylor knew of the things surrounding George Tedesco and his estate considering not only was the story “big news” in Houston but Taylor, as a reporter for The Post his primary coverage was at the local courthouse. He had friendships with other attorney's, judges and law enforcement. However, it did not take long before Catherine's clean slate with Taylor was tarnished. While I must admit that I am not far enough into Taylor's book to say for certain how long the two dated, it appears that it was only a few short months before Taylor broke things off.

It appears that, as Ferris Bond has alleged, Catherine also began stalking Taylor and odd things began happening to him. At some point Taylor's home was burglarized and Catherine allegedly contacted him about being able to help him recover some of his things. Taylor says he went to Catherine's home where she led him to the bedroom and then to her closet. It was there that Taylor stated he saw some of his property only to turn around and see that Catherine was aiming a gun at him. She fired the gun and the bullet nicked him. Fearing for his life he was able to push her out of the way to get past her and towards the door. When he was heading out the door Catherine fired again, this time hitting Taylor in the back. He made his way down the street to safety and received help.

While John Gotti was known as the Teflon King, I am not sure that many would argue with me that Catherine Mehaffey may be the Teflon Queen. Catherine was arrested and charged with attempted murder but it is unclear if she ever spent a night in jail. She went to trial in 1980 and apparently she did not testify in her own defense because after the jury was unable to decide on a verdict there was a big deal made about the fact that she did testify in the re-trial. It was said that the jury only took an hour before they returned with a conviction and Catherine was sentenced to ten years. Later at least some of the jury members spoke to the media saying that Catherine had done more harm to her case than good when she testified. She had claimed in court that she had shot Taylor in self defense and that it was he who had first pulled a gun on her. Not only was there no evidence of this but the fact that Taylor was shot in the back showed that he was moving away, not towards her, at the time of the shooting. This indicated that Catherine was not in danger, if she ever had been, as she had testified to. The jury not only felt that Catherine was lying but that her attitude was rather cavalier about the incident.

I must be fair in saying that while Catherine was obviously convicted at her second trial that it is still unclear that she went to jail. The recent case against Michelle Carter should tell us that while it is rare, there are times in which judges allow defendants who have been convicted to remain free pending their appeals. At any rate of course Catherine filed an appeal and in 1982 it was granted, reversing her conviction and sentence. It took a little bit of searching to discover just what grounds the appeals court used in coming to the conclusion that Catherine deserved yet another day in court. It appears that the conviction was reversed on two grounds, both of which personally I do not agree with. The first was on the grounds that the trial court had allowed witnesses to testify basically to Taylor's reputation as far as telling the truth about matters, even those unrelated to the incident between him and Catherine. The appeals court stated that since the defense allegedly did not bring up any issue with Taylor's reputation or his truthfulness in general, aside that is from normal cross examination or accusations related solely to the incident, and Taylor had never had his testimony impeached, the trial court erred in allowing this testimony. The second grounds that the appeals court ruled was presented in error had to do with the testimony of the police officer who had been involved in Catherine's initial arrest. The police officer had testified that Catherine had allegedly told him two different stories while sitting in his police car about the incident and that they had contradicted each other. However, the trial court had allowed his testimony basically to say that she told two different stories and that they were different from the one she had testified to the jury, but the court did not allow the officer to go into the specifics or details of either of these stories.

Based on how I read the appeal, the court basically believed that when it came to Taylor there had been no need to presumably press to the jury how truthful of a person he was without any evidence that he was anything but. In essence you don't see this often I suppose unless as the courts pointed out, that the witness had been accused of being a liar in the past, which had not apparently occurred here. As far as the second issue it seems to have been a bit two fold at least in my opinion. I believe the only way the officer could have told the jury exactly what Catherine had stated in her alleged two versions would have been if it was on tape and that she had waived her right to an attorney. Catherine herself was an attorney and would have known this when, and if she opened her mouth. But, the way it was presented left the jury very little information to determine just what about her stories were contradicting. It seems to me, especially with the decision that was made that it would have been best to leave the officer off the stand.

In the end rather than go through a third trial was allowed to plead guilty to aggravated assault. She received a sentence of probation and had her law license temporarily suspended. It was later revealed that the agreement also apparently allowed her record to be expunged. Even still this was not even close to being the last of Catherine's problems.

In the middle of all of her court issues involving the shooting of Gary Taylor, Catherine met a man named Clint Shelton. His family owned a gun shop and that is where the couple met. I find this very interesting considering the fact that it was 1981. She had already had one trial (if not two) for attempted murder and had yet been cleared and although the circumstances of the two meeting is not completely known, at least to me, I find it interesting they would meet in such a place.

It appears that over the next several years the couple became closer and married, while Catherine was able to begin practicing law again. At some point a man named Michael Hierro came into her office and became her client. Michael was facing a robbery charge but to be fair I have no idea what became of his case. In the meantime Michael's wife, Marisa began working for Catherine. Some reports say she was working as a secretary, others indicate that she was working more either as an interpreter or on immigration cases. I tend to feel as if it was a little of everything. It was said that Catherine completely depended on Marisa and had often bragged that she was wonderful. By most accounts Catherine's attorney business (although there were very few things that stated if she had any sort of specialty) was booming.

But, things soon seem to sour between Catherine and Marisa. After working for Catherine for about seven months, Marisa left and opened an immigration consulting business in downtown Dallas. It was then that things seemingly got ugly and law enforcement was often involved. Publicly and professionally they both often accused the other of “scamming” clients. By all accounts it seems that both women may have been correct.

Over time, much like ex-boyfriends of Catherine's claimed against her, Michael and Marisa Hierro accused Catherine of stalking and threatening them. Of course, just as she had done in the past, Catherine denied that she had done any of the things that the Hierro's accused her of doing. She would continue to do so despite any evidence that arose from an incident on December 20, 1999.

Michael and Marisa pulled into the drive of their Dallas home late that night. As they began to get out of the car shots were fired at them. When it was all said and done Michael would be dead at the scene and although Marisa played dead after being shot in the arm and chest as well as bullet pellets in her face, she survived. Marisa would tell investigators that while she was laying on the ground she heard someone yell out “shoot her, shoot her again.” She would claim that the voice she heard belonged to Catherine Mehaffey Shelton. She would also claim that she had heard Clint Shelton also.

Of course investigators went and spoke to Catherine and in turn also spoke to Clint and they both denied being involved. Catherine would tell authorities that she believed that Marisa was defrauding immigrants that were looking to get a green card and she was certain this played a part in the attack. As the years went on Catherine in her own words, and through her attorney's, would claim that Michael had learned of Marisa's “scam” and was going to “tell” on her and that they believed that Marisa had “orchestrated” the attack on Michael. When asked why Marisa would have been critically injured as she was if she had in fact set this ambush up Catherine would claim that she believed that had been an accident made by the shooter.

At the scene of the shooting investigators found a sawed off shotgun. Once the crime scene was secure one of the officers on the scene began searching the neighborhood. Just around the corner was an area that was under construction and a portable toilet was in the area. The toilet was searched and inside the officer found a “mask” made with pantyhose with the eyes cut out and two latex gloves. Both had been described by Marisa as being worn by the shooter. The items were sent off for testing. Hair and saliva were found on the mask. Eventually the results would return matching Clint Shelton. Clint and Clint alone was arrested on February 25, 2000.

Prosecutors could never conclusively tie Catherine to the murder so she was never charged. Clint apparently continues to maintain his innocence in the crime but after deliberating for three hours a jury convicted him and he was ultimately given a life sentence. He had admitted spying on Michael and Marisa and even admitted placing the mask and gloves in the portable toilet but claims he had left them there hours prior to the murder. He has later claimed that he had planned to divorce Catherine and that he wanted Marisa to testify for his side. He claimed he used, or at least intended to use the mask to lurk at the Hierro home to make sure that was where Marisa lived. The prosecution brought in the person who cleaned the toilet and testified that he had cleaned it just prior to when the murders occurred and the items were not there at that time. This indicated that the items were left only after the murders occurred, not before.

While her husband went off to serve life in prison, not being eligible for parole until 2030, Catherine moved on. But, as such is the life of Catherine Mehaffey Shelton, trouble continued to follow. Over the years she has been suspended from practicing law at least three times and was later disbarred. In 2003 her license was suspended after she was accused of charging immigrants for “legal services not performed.” In mid-2005 her license was suspended again but the reason was unknown. Later that year she was arrested on charges of “unlawful restraint” after she “failed to return a child to his mother. The story was difficult to follow but it seems that a family member had lost their child and Catherine took custody of the child. However when the court ordered Catherine to return the child she refused and it was several months before mother and child were reunited. It is not clear what came of the charges against Catherine.

In November of 2007 Catherine was once again arrested. This time it was for shoplifting. In the article announcing her arrest she was referred to as an “ex-lawyer.” She was accused of attempting to leave Nordstrom's with several items including a $1,200 purse. Another article written around that time had discussed her professional problems. It stated that she had fought at least one of her suspensions and won because she had allegedly not been properly notified for a hearing and because some paperwork was missing in the court file. It also stated that in May of that year she had been disbarred for “failing to perform legal work for clients, being late to hearings and misrepresenting herself as an immigration lawyer.”

Today Catherine is about seventy-one years old and according to a website she is not currently “eligible to practice” law in Texas. Of course that does not mean that she did not at some point decide to leave Texas. Then again I am unsure it matters. While Catherine was obviously not an honest or professional attorney and made many mistakes professionally, she has been most dangerous in her personal life. Every few years it seems she pops up and her antics are replayed for the media but it is unclear when it was the last time tabs her kept on her. It's entirely possible that she has remarried and goes by the last name of Greene now.

As far as Gary Taylor goes he of course wrote the book that was published in 2008. He claims that he fears that Catherine may come back some time and finish the job she started. The 2004 television movie, Heartless, starring Melanie Griffith and Esai Morales was loosely based Taylor and Catherine's relationship.

Marisa Hierro has had her own share of issues too. After investigators failed to even charge Catherine, Marisa sued her for wrongful death. According to Marisa's lawyer they had requested information from Catherine more than 100 times and she never complied. It seemed as if Catherine was successful in dragging it out so long that Marisa dropped the case. However, not to be outdone, Catherine turned around and sued Marisa for “malicious prosecution and libel.” Marisa did not show up for the case, later citing her reason as fear for her life and amazingly Catherine was awarded over five million dollars in the suit. Marisa's troubles did not end there.

Remember early on when I told you that it seemed that both Catherine and Marisa were correct when they accused each other of committing fraud against their clients? Well the television show 48 Hours, who was doing a show on Catherine as well as the attack on the Hierro's stated they did an investigation of their own. They claimed that several clients and their attorney's claimed that she was charging very high fees and doing very little. One lawyer group claims that just days before Michael was murdered she was asked if she was practicing law without a license and her response was simply that she would close down her business. Whether she did or not is unclear.