didn't leave Thomas's presence until 7:55, when Zeigler brought Mays into the store and Thomas fled the scene.

What is the basis of Frye's estimate?

He believed that Zeigler had fired several shots inside the store at 7:25, probably in killing Mr. and Mrs. Edwards.  Since Felton Thomas didn't mention hearing any shots when he and Mays were parked out back,. Frye deduced that Thomas and Mays must have arrived at the scene after 7:30.  At that time, according to Thomas, only one car was parked out front when he and Mays pulled up outside.  that had to be the Edwards sedan.  Therefore Zeigler must have been gone from the store, for some murky purpose, and then returned and met Thomas and Mays in the motel parking lot at 7:35.3

The problem for Frye and Eagan was that the actions and movements that Thomas then described—the trip to the orange grove, pulling the breaker switch, the fence-hopping, the drive to Temple Grove, and so on—couldn't possibly have occurred in less than fifteen minutes, and probably consumed twenty minutes or more.  This would mean that Mays, Thomas, and Zeigler didn't arrive at the store before 7:55, with Mays being killed shortly afterward.

Eagan told the jury in his first closing argument: "At 7:45, estimated, Mrs. Tinsley hears another series of shots.  I submit to you that that's when Tommy Zeigler walked into that dark store with Charlie Mays."

But Eagan had to know that Mays wasn't killed at 7:45.

We could almost say that ten minutes isn't much of a gap, that Tinsley was in the ballpark.  Unfortunately for Eagan, Tinsley specifically testified that she heard the second volley no later than 7:45.  If she is correct, she heard a volley of shots from the store while (according to the state's theory) Zeigler, Mays, and Thomas were pulling into Zeigler's driveway at 75 Temple Grove.

Eagan had to choose between Tinsley on one hand, and, on the other, Thomas and Williams, whose accounts are both very vague about time.  If Thomas and Williams were correct, then Tinsley had to be inaccurate (though Eagan did not say so to the jury).  Yet Tinsley was much more specific, and much more credible, given her awareness of the time.  Furthermore, the disrupted clock on the store seemed to demonstrate her accuracy in placing the time of the first volley.

THE LIGHTS AND THE GATE

The state's theory does not adequately address some of the physical circumstances that police found when they arrived at the store.

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3    Why Zeigler should want to leave the murder scene and drive around for five or ten minutes, further risking identification, is not explained.  It is another of those peculiar circumstances that must be true if the state's theory is to be accepted.