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Wrongful death suit pits sister against brother over father's death

By Jennifer Brite
Court TV

(Court TV) -- They say everything is bigger in Texas and the life of Charles Mayhew Sr. was no exception. He seemed to have it all a sprawling house in a suburb of Dallas, a multi-million dollar business and a beautiful daughter who had married into one of the most powerful families in the Lone Star state.

Although past the age when most people retire, the 81-year-old Mayhew Sr. was still enjoying life, brokering lucrative land deals, heading community organizations and waking up before dawn almost every day to care for his two older sisters.

But on February 28, 1998, the luck of the man who trusted everyone so much he never locked his door, ran out. A grandson found him dead in his bed, with a gunshot wound to his neck.

The case has baffled police, who have yet to arrest a single suspect, and has left many in the Mayhew's hometown of Sunnyvale wondering who would kill the town's beloved former mayor.

But his daughter, Amanda Dealey Mayhew, says she knows who did it.

She has sued her brother, Charles Mayhew Jr., for the wrongful death of their father, asking that he be excluded from inheriting any part of the elder Mayhew Sr.'s $8 million estate. Her brother denies any involvement in his father's death and filed a countersuit for defamation, which he has since dropped.

Complicated family history

From the outside, the family of Charles Mayhew Sr. was perfect. He served as the mayor of Sunnyvale, a small town 14 miles east of Dallas, from 1971 to 1973 and continued to be active in the community up until his death. He also lived in a spacious mansion and had amassed an $8 million fortune through an oil drill part company his father started in the 1920s and from savvy land deals.

His daughter followed in his political footsteps and ran for the Texas legislature. She was also an attractive socialite, once married to Joe Dealey Jr., a member of a prominent Dallas publishing family, for whom Dealey Plaza is named.

But under the surface, according to details revealed in court papers, their lives seemed more like something out of an episode of "Dallas," the popular 80s' television show about wealthy oil tycoons in Texas.

In 1972, Dealey, then 22, was kidnapped by two brothers, Franklin and Woodrow Ransonette. The two tied her up, submerged her in a well alive in a watertight container and told her family she was dead. She was eventually returned unharmed and the kidnappers both received 5,005-year prison terms, the longest ever given by a U.S. jury, according to news reports.

Fifteen years later, the family was back in court when the elder Mayhew filed a housing discrimination suit against the town he once led over an ordinance that stipulated that houses be built on plots of land that are at least one acre. He claimed it limited his ability to construct low-income housing because the poor often could not afford to buy that much land.

Sunnyvale's former mayor, Paul E. Cash, told the Dallas Morning News that although Mayhew Sr. strongly believed in his cause, the suit, "had kind of worn on him." Many in the town were upset because the case cost taxpayers $2 million. The matter eventually went to the Dallas Supreme Court, which ruled in the town's favor after Mayhew Sr.'s death.

But, Mayhew Sr. may have had more on his mind than the lawsuit. His son, Mayhew Jr., was no stranger to scrapes with the law and several months before the shooting was convicted of animal cruelty after killing two dogs belonging to an ex-girlfriend.

Also, according to Dealey, the relationship between father and son was becoming increasingly strained. In a videotaped deposition, she says that her brother drank heavily and was fighting more intensely with their father in the months before the elder Mayhew Sr.'s death. Mayhew Jr. has admitted that he and his father often argued, but claims the disagreements always ended amicably.

Brother against sister

In the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Dealey, she claims her brother, "intentionally and knowing shot his father." The suit claims that in the years before his death, the son "initiated a campaign of intimidation and terror" against the elder Mayhew. Mayhew Jr. allegedly threatened to kill his father by stuffing his testicles down his throat and wore a dog collar during parties with important business associates to humiliate the family.

The suit claims Mayhew Jr. constantly threatened to kill his father's beloved hunting dogs and allegedly shot every dog that crossed the family's property. He then stacked their bodies in a pile in order to intimidate the elder Mayhew, according to court documents.

He also had a drinking problem, Dealey alleges in court papers, and in January 1998, Mayhew Jr. collapsed at his wife's home. His father drove him to Parkland Hospital, where he was diagnosed with alcoholism, hyponatremia -- a disease caused by in taking too much water, probably brought on by Mayhew Sr.'s attempt to flush his body to pass a blood alcohol test to be performed by his probation officer -- and bipolar disorder. The family reportedly tried to have him involuntarily admitted to a mental hospital but he resisted.

The violence escalated, Dealey claims in the suit, as her father continued to limit Mayhew Sr.'s involvement in the family's business affairs. She says her brother had no finances of his own and was angered by the fact her father rewrote his will to give Mayhew Jr. a smaller share of the fortune and took away many of his power of attorney privileges.

But, Mayhew Jr. says that his father's death has caused him financial hardship, not the other way around.

"Who is going to take care of my interests to protect the fact that I'm supposed to be reciprocated," he said in a videotaped deposition. "My father would have seen to it that things could have been semi-fair. Everything that I was afraid of has come to fruition."

Finally, although there is no direct or physical evidence linking Mayhew Jr. to the killing, the suit claims there is a great deal of circumstantial evidence. Mayhew Jr. allegedly had a "particularly abusive and threatening fight" with his father the night he died.

However Mayhew Jr. claims that though an argument did take place, it ended on peaceful terms, with his father inviting him to lunch the next day.

Dealey also claims that her father intended to re-designate his insurance beneficiary so that his son "wouldn't have a motive to kill him." He allegedly absentmindedly left the note in his car, in plain view of the younger Mayhew. When her father's body was found, the insurance forms were missing.

The civil trial is being shown live on Court TV.



 
 
 
 



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