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Sunday, August 31, 1997

Murder charge against popular retiree in wife's death shocks town

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) -- When Almon Derwood Sikes, a popular Kaufman auto supply and appliance dealer, lost his wife in July 1990 to what authorities ruled were natural causes, the small East Texas town was saddened.

When Sikes was arrested Aug. 21 on charges that he murdered his wife of 42 years seven years ago, the town was shocked.

His arrest has flooded the streets of this town of 5,500 people, about 45 miles southeast of Dallas, with rumor and speculation.

"If you go into a store, neighbors are getting into each other's faces, hollering about this," resident Corey Cassells told The Dallas Morning News for a story in Saturday's editions. "People have their own theories. They've gotten to talking about O.J. Simpson and that kind of mess."

An indictment returned by a Kaufman County grand jury alleges that Sikes, 67, who retired in 1989 as owner of the Sikes Goodyear store, used a pillow to suffocate his 58-year-old wife, Ethel, on July 29, 1990.

Bail initially was set at $1 million, but he was released from the Kaufman County Jail on Tuesday after a judge lowered the bail to $100,000.

Said Jess Murrell, furniture store owner and one-time mayor, "It just stunned the community. It's not every day that something like this happens in a small community."

Sikes has declined to comment, but his attorney, Doug Mulder of Dallas, says his client maintains he is innocent of the charge.

Sikes' four children said earlier this week that their father grieved for several years after his wife died. The couple have adjacent cemetery plots at Kaufman Cemetery, and their names are inscribed on a joint headstone.

District Attorney Bill Conradt declined to discuss what evidence and motive exists for murder. He said he will reveal the case when it comes to trial early next year. However, he said a May tip from an informant prompted a three-month Texas Rangers investigation that led to the indictment.

County officials received permission Tuesday to exhume Mrs. Sikes' body this week so the Dallas County medical examiner's office can perform an autopsy. Justice of the Peace Johnny Perry said Thursday that an autopsy should have been performed in 1990 but wasn't.

Retired Justice of the Peace Mary Jane Tidmore initially ruled that Mrs. Sikes died of natural causes, Conradt said. However, she later made a handwritten notation that she could not determine the cause of death.

Sikes owned the Goodyear store for 17 years before his retirement. Barbara Smith remembered that Sikes would prepare grilled-cheese sandwiches for her when she visited his house as a child.

"He was like a father to everyone," she told The News.

Friends recalled that Mrs. Sikes' death initially was blamed on heatstroke after she spent a Sunday afternoon fishing with her husband. But some residents suspected Sikes from the start.

"Plenty of people said something wasn't right at the time," said hair-stylist Lesa Tettleton. "There wasn't anything wrong with his wife. She didn't have any kind of illness. And all of a sudden, she was gone."

However, some residents lament that Sikes' reputation could be ruined, regardless of the trial's outcome.

"I've always believed in the American system of justice -- that somebody is innocent until proven guilty," said Dave Greenslade, owner of Greenslade Drug Co. "But it seems that in this day and time, you are guilty until proven innocent. That's the way it is in small-town America."