Jurors hear from third Lankford brother

By Brad W. Gary Thursday, February 07, 2008

WALLACE - Mark H. Lankford left Texas for Canada in the spring of 1983, bringing one brother with him and telling family members he wanted to become a mountain man, a third brother testified Wednesday.

Robert Lankford told a Shoshone County jury Wednesday his brothers looked like they had spent some time in the mountains upon their return. The jury didn't hear that Mark Lankford allegedly once carried a nightstick with him everywhere he went.

Mark Lankford, 51, is being retried in the 1983 killings of U.S. Marine Capt. Robert Bravence and his wife, Cheryl. The Bravences were allegedly beaten to death June 21, 1983, at a remote campsite along the South Fork of the Clearwater River in Idaho County.

Brothers Mark and Bryan Lankford were convicted in separate 1984 trials in the killings. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Mark Lankford's conviction in 2006, ruling the original jury received an improper instruction regarding accomplice testimony. Brian Lankford is currently serving life in prison.

Mark Lankford remained quiet, but periodically conferred with defense attorneys during his brother's testimony. He has maintained his innocence in the case.

Idaho County Prosecutor Kirk MacGregor attempted outside the presence of the jury Wednesday to admit Robert Lankford's testimony that Mark Lankford carried a walnut-colored nightstick with him from 1980 or 1981 until the brothers left for Canada in 1983. Defense attorney Charles Kovis objected to its admission before the jury.

District Judge John Bradbury agreed, telling MacGregor he had not yet laid the proper foundation for such testimony.

"There's no evidence at all yet how the Bravences' died so I'm not going to allow that," he said.

Speaking with a southern accent, Robert Lankford was admittedly nervous during his testimony Wednesday. The 50-year-old electrical engineer from Houston told jurors Mark Lankford decided to head north and become a mountain man after losing his job as an oil company accountant.

"He had lost his job at Tenneco, and from what I understand the bills were piling up," Robert Lankford said of why Mark Lankford decided to go to Canada.

Bryan Lankford went with him, and the brothers left in Mark Lankford's Chevrolet Camaro in June. But they didn't stay gone that long, Robert Lankford testified.

"He said they had been to Canada, it got real cold, and they killed a moose with a shotgun," Robert Lankford testified Mark Lankford told him. They later traveled through Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California.

They were without Mark Lankford's Camaro upon their return. Mark Lankford told his brother the car became immobile after a rock got caught in the oil pan while traveling in the mountains, Robert Lankford testified.

The brothers stayed with Robert Lankford for six days in September of 1983. Toward the end of those days, Robert Lankford testified he bought a Nikon camera from his brother for $250 so the brothers could buy camping supplies for a move to the Trinity River in Texas.

Robert Lankford told the jury he assumed the Nikon camera was his brother's. Mark Lankford liked to take pictures and already had a Chinon camera. But he said he called the FBI when "something didn't feel right" about the sale.

A special agent came by, compared the serial numbers, and took the camera away, he testified. When he saw the camera Wednesday, Robert Lankford testified it was the same camera he bought. Other witnesses previously testified the camera once belonged to Robert Bravence.

Under later questioning by Kovis, Robert Lankford said Mark Lankford sold the camera to him, but Mark and Bryan Lankford may have traded the two cameras.

Mark Lankford had earlier reportedly tried to sell that Nikon camera in pawn shops, according to the testimony of Lankford family friend Roy Ralmuto. Now deceased, Ralmuto's testimony from Mark Lankford's 1984 trial was read aloud from the witness stand Wednesday.

The San Antonio man testified he bought bus tickets to bring Mark and Bryan Lankford back to Texas from Los Angeles, although under assumed first names.

Bryan Lankford was on probation for robbery, and had enumerated some traffic violations, Ralmuto testified.

Ralmuto later boarded the brothers for six weeks, according to his testimony. When they left, it looked as if they weren't coming back.

"Everything that could possibly belong to them, they took with them to the Trinity River," according to Ralmuto's testimony.

Also Wednesday, jurors heard testimony from former Idaho County Sheriff's deputies Jon Stroop and Randy Baldwin. The two were among the sheriff's staff who recovered the Bravence's bodies in a makeshift grave, and later Mark Lankford's Camaro, in the Summit Flats area of Idaho County, according to testimony.

The trial resumes at 8:30 a.m. today.

Gary may be contacted at bgary@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2262.

Originally published by the Lewiston Tribune