WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A transient from Virginia implicated in the August death of a West resident and his dog was indicted Thursday on murder and animal cruelty charges.
A McLennan County grand jury indicted Mathew Alan Cale, 46, in the death of Dillan Gene Lambright, whose body was found wrapped in blankets Aug. 3 at his South Williams Street residence in West with his dead dog lying on top of his body.
Cale was linked to the murder of Lambright and his dog by witnesses who told investigators they saw him in and around Lambright’s residence at the time of the murder and by a man who said he bought the suspected murder weapon and .45-caliber ammunition from him in the following days.
Matthew Cale(Telemundo Central Texas)
Cale also reportedly was seen driving Lambright’s golf cart around town and tried to sell the man’s power tools that police say belonged to Lambright.
Cale was arrested Aug. 10, but not before he managed to slip into the West police chief’s vehicle and reached for a rifle. A Texas Ranger assisting in the case opened fire, a county official said. Cale was not injured, but the Ranger filled the chief’s police vehicle with bullet holes, the official said.
According to an arrest affidavit, the West Police Department was contacted by a friend of the victim who asked them to check on Lambright. He said he had been there earlier in the day and smelled a strong odor of what he knew to be decomposition. He said the front door was locked and there were several objects blocking the door.
The man reported he gained access to the home through a window that was open and was overwhelmed by the smell of decomposition, the affidavit states. He saw a lot of insects inside the home and reported the temperature inside was “extremely hot and humid.”
West officers responding to the call also noted the smell and reported the home had no electricity, and a generator used to provide power was out of fuel.
The officers discovered what appeared to be a body lying on top of a bed wrapped and covered by layers of blankets. A spent .45-caliber shell casing was found nearby, but no firearm was located, police wrote in arrest documents.
West officials called a Texas Ranger to assist in the investigation and officials discovered a dead dog lying on top of a pile of clothing, bedding and other items. “Beneath this pile was the body of Dillan Lambright,” the arrest complaint states.
“The body was in decomposition with mild bloating, and mild insect activity,” the arrest affidavit said. The timeline of decomposition for both Lambright and the dog appeared to be the same, the investigators wrote in the warrant.
The Texas Ranger and the police chief also located a large blade buried into the bed near Lambright’s body.
According to the court documents, investigators would later learn the cause of Lambright’s death was “blunt force trauma” and “sharp (force) trauma” affecting his lungs and kidneys.
“The deceased dog was found with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the top of the head,” the Texas Ranger wrote in the arrest complaint.
“I believe that Mathew Cale killed the dog in the commission of murder,” the affidavit alleges.
The friend who went to Lambright’s home told the Ranger he last saw Lambright a week or two before his body was found, the affidavit states.
Lambright was known to drive around West in a golf cart, and the friend said he became concerned when he learned that an “unknown man with tattoos” was spotted driving Lambright’s golf cart and attempting to sell Lambright’s tools, vehicles and other belongings, according to the affidavit.
The friend said he decided to call police when he was told that all of the vehicles at Lambright’s residence, including a red pickup and a box trailer, were gone.
The Ranger also interviewed other witnesses who spotted “a man with tattoos” taking items and property out of Lambright’s residence and driving a red pickup hauling a box trailer.
Another friend of Lambright’s told investigators that he brought food for Lambright about 3 p.m. Aug. 1. That friend said a “man with tattoos” exited a vehicle parked on Lambright’s property and told him that Lambright left with a woman and would “be gone for a while.”
The man told the Ranger he also learned “a man with tattoos” had been spotted driving Lambright’s golf cart while trying to sell Lambright’s property around town.
The next day, the friend noticed all of the cars and property in Lambright’s backyard were gone. The friend said he did some investigating on his own and learned the name of the man with the tattoos was Mathew.
The investigation led the Texas Ranger to the Dollar General store in West, where an employee was shown a photograph of Cale. The employee said he recognized Cale from an incident on Aug. 1 in which Cale reportedly arrived at the store in a golf cart “appearing disheveled and frantic about purchasing a pre-paid phone.”
Cale, the arrest warrant states, became aggravated when the phone line on the pre-paid phone would not activate.
The Ranger later interviewed a man who said he bought a .45-caliber handgun with ammunition from Cale, the affidavit alleges. Cale also tried to sell him power tools.
Cale told the man “he only had 72 hours because law enforcement was looking for him” and indicated ”he had recently committed murder,” the arrest warrant alleges.
The firearm Cale sold the man is “a semi-automatic Ruger P90 handgun, chambered in .45 auto caliber,” according to the complaint.
Cale remains jailed under bonds totaling $780,000.
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