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Murdered millionaire was removing son from insurance, secretary says

(Court TV) -- Just a few days before he was shot to death, a millionaire businessman took steps to remove his son as a beneficiary of his life insurance policy, the murdered man's secretary said Tuesday at his son's wrongful death trial.

Charles Mayhew Sr. filled out paperwork to replace his son and namesake, Charles "Chuck" Mayhew Jr., with his grandson, the witness testified. But after Mayhew was murdered, that insurance form was missing from his briefcase, said Linda White, an administrative assistant for the family real estate company.

Mayhew Sr.'s daughter, Amanda Mayhew Dealey, 52, is suing her younger brother in a Dallas civil court for the 1998 murder, which she says he committed after realizing that his father was cutting him off financially. She is seeking $5 million as well as to exclude him from the $8 million inheritance.

"Would that [change in the policy] have taken money out of Chuck's pocket?" asked Dealey's lawyer, Steve Sumner.

"Yes it would," White said.

White's husband Larry also testified Tuesday, the third day of testimony, and cast doubt on Mayhew's claim that he and his then wife, Phyllis Dean, were nowhere near his father's house at the time of his murder. Larry White, who lived on property adjoining Mayhew Sr.'s home, said he saw a car that looked like Dean's on the road to the house. On cross-examination, however, he admitted that he was not sure who was in the car, nor whether it was Dean's.

Both Whites portrayed Chuck Mayhew, 50, as a chronic alcoholic who verbally abused his 81-year-old father until his death and said they immediately suspected him of murder.

After prostate surgery rendered the elder Mayhew incontinent, "he called him a diaper-wearing son of a bitch," Larry White said.

Linda White recalled Mayhew Sr. as a quiet, old-fashioned gentleman who quietly weathered his son's profane tirades and was kind to her and her husband.

"I never had a cross word with Mr. Mayhew," she said.

Displaying photos of Mayhew Sr. looking fit and happy with his beloved bird dog, Jack, Linda White said Mayhew Jr. repeatedly threatened to kill the animal to get at his father.

"He loved that dog," she said.

Both, however, admitted that Chuck Mayhew and perhaps others had fingered them as the murderers.

"It's very upsetting to me. I am appalled that the accusation has been made," Linda White said.

But under cross-examination by defense lawyer William Hommel, Larry White acknowledged that he and Mayhew Sr. had a spat over a deer stand before the murder, and he conceded that he had no strong alibi for the night of the shooting.

"It was just you and your wife there at the house," asked Hommel.

"Yes," White said.