By Cody Stark
The Huntsville Item
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — An inmate accused of being a party in the slaying of a correctional officer during an attempted escape from a Texas prison more than seven years ago was re-indicted for capital murder last week.
John Ray Falk Jr. was originally indicted by a Walker County grand jury in March 2008 for his role in the slaying of Texas Department of Criminal Justice employee Susan Canfield, of New Waverly, in September 2007 in the garage area of the City of Huntsville Service Center adjacent to the Wynne Unit.
Falk was tried for capital murder in November 2012, but former 278th Judicial District Judge Ken Keeling declared a mistrial following a 55-day delay in the proceedings caused by a dispute over language in the jury instructions.
Falk’s case, which had been moved to Brazos County on a change of venue request, will return to Walker County for future hearings. Judge Hal Ridley, who replaced Keeling on the bench, will preside over the case.
“We decided to bring Falk’s case back before the grand jury so we could change some of the wording in the indictment that Judge Keeling liked to be included,” District Attorney David Weeks said. “This allows us to get the case back to Huntsville and see if it needs to be moved again. We were concerned with how it ended in Brazos County.”
Falk and another inmate, Jerry Duane Martin, ran away from a work detail at the Wynne Unit on the afternoon of Sept. 24, 2007. Canfield was killed while trying to prevent the escape when her horse was struck by a vehicle stolen by Martin.
Martin was convicted of capital murder in 2009 and sentenced to death. He was executed on Dec. 3, 2013 after waiving his right to an appeal.
Weeks said his office will once again seek the death penalty for Falk, who will be represented by different attorneys in his retrial. One of Falk’s original trial lawyers, Kyle Hawthorne, has been elected as the 85th Judicial District judge in Brazos County.
Following the mistrial, senior District Judge John Delaney was appointed to preside over the case after Keeling was recused. Delaney ruled against a motion filed by Falk’s attorneys, who argued a new trial would be double jeopardy because the prosecution had already seen their defense strategy, barring a retrial.
“The (U.S.) Supreme Court denied their appeal to the double jeopardy ruling, so now we can move forward with the retrial,” Weeks said. “When (Falk’s) new attorney gets on board we begin.”