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American Morning

Missing Player

Aired July 01, 2003 - 09:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, police investigating the disappearance of Patrick Dennehy are now looking at the possibility that a teammate may have been involved in his death. A document released last night revealed that an informant told police another player at Baylor University, Carlton Dotson, shot Dennehy in the head during an altercation.
For more on the document and Dotson's possible connection, Matt Mosley of "The Dallas Morning News" joins us now from Dallas.

Hello to you, Matt.

MATT MOSLEY, "DALLAS MORNING NEWS": Hi, Heidi.

COLLINS: What do you know about this document?

MOSLEY: Well, I'd say it was a search warrant affidavit, and released to us yesterday by the judge, my colleague, Matt Stiles (ph).

And I think it's important to note here that no one has been charged yet.

But in this affidavit, an informant told police that Patrick Dennehy had been, in fact, shot in the head by Carlton Dotson, and he had heard that from someone else.

COLLINS: Right. I know that your paper actually spoke to Carlton Dotson. I believe that was on Friday. What did he have to say?

MOSLEY: He didn't have a whole lot to say. He told us he had talked to police at that point. And other than that, he didn't really want to comment. He said he had spoken with him, and that was all he wanted to say at the time. We've been able to reach some of his family members, and obviously, they are shocked by the development, and right now, they're trying not to say a whole lot. They're talking about positive things about Carlton, that he was a great high school basketball player, those types of things, but they don't want to believe this.

And again, we're waiting to hear something official from police, because he hasn't been charged with anything. Of course, his picture came up all over the country yesterday.

COLLINS: You do describe Carlton Dotson and Patrick Dennehy as friends, though. What do you know about their relationship? MOSLEY: Everybody we've talked to said they were inseparable. We've talked to several of their friends, people on the Baylor campus said they were always together. They hung out together at Patrick Dennehy's apartment complex, and that they were great friends. From everybody -- and, in fact, we've heard that Patrick Dennehy didn't hang out with a whole lot of members of the team, but Carlton Dotson is the one guy that he was always with.

COLLINS: What about this argument, though, overheard by an employee at a local apartment leasing company? What's your take on that?

MOSLEY: Well, that's just, you know, some background. We talked to someone that had showed them an apartment, and at the time, she also qualified that, she said, they apologized later and said, we fight like brothers. So we've got to be careful how much we read into these things, because a lot has been set about Patrick Dennehy getting into a shoving match in New Mexico. But what college player, what professional player hasn't gotten into a shoving match these days? And so things like that, they do provide some background. But again, they hollered to each other about what room they would get in this house they were looking at, and so I don't know how much you can read into that, but it just showed they got into arguments.

COLLINS: But there have been speculation whether or not Carlton Dotson was kicked off the basketball team or left on his own accord. Can you clarify any of that for us?

MOSLEY: We've been told by athletic officials that he was not pleased with his playing time. I believe in 28 games, he started one of those games, you know, maybe playing five or six minutes a game at most, and that he wanted to leave, and a lot of times in those situations, it goes both ways. A coach says, yes, I'll help you find another scholarship. And what he heard was that he wasn't playing time, went to the coach, and he said it's probably best for us to try to find you another place.

COLLINS: Quickly for you, Matt, this story has had to have had an affect on the area down there at Baylor University, in particular, a family university. What are people saying to you in that regard?

MOSLEY: This is one of the largest Christian universities, a large Baptist college in the nation. And it's been strange, because no one's on campus. Summer school ended yesterday, and there's a break. So no one's really on campus, but the people in Waco, it's always been -- they think of Baylor at this Baylor bubble, they call it, and it's isolated from everything else. So Waco's interesting. Unlike other college towns, a lot of the people in Waco, a lot of the restaurant workers, a lot of convenient store workers, they kind of say, those kids over there when they refer to Baylor. So when something happens, you know, this bizarre, at a campus that usually isolates itself, and doesn't find itself dealing with anything remotely like this, it causes shock.

COLLINS: Matt Mosley of "The Dallas Morning News," thanks so much for your time this morning, Matt. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired July 1, 2003 - 09:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, police investigating the disappearance of Patrick Dennehy are now looking at the possibility that a teammate may have been involved in his death. A document released last night revealed that an informant told police another player at Baylor University, Carlton Dotson, shot Dennehy in the head during an altercation.
For more on the document and Dotson's possible connection, Matt Mosley of "The Dallas Morning News" joins us now from Dallas.

Hello to you, Matt.

MATT MOSLEY, "DALLAS MORNING NEWS": Hi, Heidi.

COLLINS: What do you know about this document?

MOSLEY: Well, I'd say it was a search warrant affidavit, and released to us yesterday by the judge, my colleague, Matt Stiles (ph).

And I think it's important to note here that no one has been charged yet.

But in this affidavit, an informant told police that Patrick Dennehy had been, in fact, shot in the head by Carlton Dotson, and he had heard that from someone else.

COLLINS: Right. I know that your paper actually spoke to Carlton Dotson. I believe that was on Friday. What did he have to say?

MOSLEY: He didn't have a whole lot to say. He told us he had talked to police at that point. And other than that, he didn't really want to comment. He said he had spoken with him, and that was all he wanted to say at the time. We've been able to reach some of his family members, and obviously, they are shocked by the development, and right now, they're trying not to say a whole lot. They're talking about positive things about Carlton, that he was a great high school basketball player, those types of things, but they don't want to believe this.

And again, we're waiting to hear something official from police, because he hasn't been charged with anything. Of course, his picture came up all over the country yesterday.

COLLINS: You do describe Carlton Dotson and Patrick Dennehy as friends, though. What do you know about their relationship? MOSLEY: Everybody we've talked to said they were inseparable. We've talked to several of their friends, people on the Baylor campus said they were always together. They hung out together at Patrick Dennehy's apartment complex, and that they were great friends. From everybody -- and, in fact, we've heard that Patrick Dennehy didn't hang out with a whole lot of members of the team, but Carlton Dotson is the one guy that he was always with.

COLLINS: What about this argument, though, overheard by an employee at a local apartment leasing company? What's your take on that?

MOSLEY: Well, that's just, you know, some background. We talked to someone that had showed them an apartment, and at the time, she also qualified that, she said, they apologized later and said, we fight like brothers. So we've got to be careful how much we read into these things, because a lot has been set about Patrick Dennehy getting into a shoving match in New Mexico. But what college player, what professional player hasn't gotten into a shoving match these days? And so things like that, they do provide some background. But again, they hollered to each other about what room they would get in this house they were looking at, and so I don't know how much you can read into that, but it just showed they got into arguments.

COLLINS: But there have been speculation whether or not Carlton Dotson was kicked off the basketball team or left on his own accord. Can you clarify any of that for us?

MOSLEY: We've been told by athletic officials that he was not pleased with his playing time. I believe in 28 games, he started one of those games, you know, maybe playing five or six minutes a game at most, and that he wanted to leave, and a lot of times in those situations, it goes both ways. A coach says, yes, I'll help you find another scholarship. And what he heard was that he wasn't playing time, went to the coach, and he said it's probably best for us to try to find you another place.

COLLINS: Quickly for you, Matt, this story has had to have had an affect on the area down there at Baylor University, in particular, a family university. What are people saying to you in that regard?

MOSLEY: This is one of the largest Christian universities, a large Baptist college in the nation. And it's been strange, because no one's on campus. Summer school ended yesterday, and there's a break. So no one's really on campus, but the people in Waco, it's always been -- they think of Baylor at this Baylor bubble, they call it, and it's isolated from everything else. So Waco's interesting. Unlike other college towns, a lot of the people in Waco, a lot of the restaurant workers, a lot of convenient store workers, they kind of say, those kids over there when they refer to Baylor. So when something happens, you know, this bizarre, at a campus that usually isolates itself, and doesn't find itself dealing with anything remotely like this, it causes shock.

COLLINS: Matt Mosley of "The Dallas Morning News," thanks so much for your time this morning, Matt. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com