Delia D'Ambra

However, by the time he got indicted, the draft had already ended, and when his case made it to court, his lawyer managed to get the charge dismissed.

At his arraignment for Conley and Bill's murders in May 1982, Claude pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which by that point included two counts of first-degree murder, resisting arrest, concealing evidence, and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

When his trial got underway a few months later on September 15th, it took place in Caldwell, Idaho, because the presiding judge had granted the defense's request for a change of venue to get the case out of Owyhee County.

If convicted, Claude faced capital punishment.

Interestingly, even though so much time had passed and Claude was finally in custody, no one had managed to figure out where Bill Pogue's body was.

His brother Ed Pogue continued to search the unforgiving terrain of Humboldt County, but even with the case in court, the mystery of Bill's final resting place remained unresolved.

Some of the more crucial witnesses to testify at trial were Jim Stevens and George Nilsen, the folks who were considered the state star witnesses.

From what I gathered reading the source material, it doesn't appear that either of those men were ever charged in relation to the murders.

Instead, they'd turned state's evidence.

Not to mention, Jim had undergone a polygraph in January 1981 and passed.

So investigators were confident he was not personally involved in the shootings.

Anyway, when it was George's turn to take the stand, he told the court that he considered Claude a close friend, and after he and Jim Stevens showed up at his house after the shooting, asking him to help get rid of the game warden's body, he went along with it and provided them with his truck, digging tools, and fuel.

He also admitted to giving Claude a head start and provided him with $100 to go on the run.

Similarly, Jim's testimony covered a lot of what folks already knew, which was that he'd been at the campsite at the time of the killings.

He told jurors that he believed Bill Pogue had been shot before he'd even had a chance to reach for his service weapon.

Jim said that when he'd asked Claude why he shot the game wardens, Claude's response had been, quote, But when it was the defense's turn to present their findings of things to the jury, they went all in on the self-defense claim.

And the person who they put on the stand to talk about that in detail was none other than Claude Dallas Jr.

himself.

He testified that he felt certain Bill Pogue and Conley Elms would have killed him on January 5th, 1981, if he had not acted first.

His version of events was that Bill had been acting very aggressively from the get-go, and he'd threatened to shoot Claude if he didn't cooperate.