Jurors weigh murder charges against former Houston narcotics cop who lied to justify deadly home invasion

During closing arguments in the Gerald Goines murder trial Tuesday, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Keaton Forcht urged jurors to hold the former Houston narcotics officer accountable for the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, who were killed during a 2019 drug raid that Goines triggered by describing a heroin buy that never happened. “Just because you have a badge doesn’t mean you’re above the law,” Forcht said.

Goines targeted Tuttle and Nicholas based on 911 calls from a neighbor, Patricia Garcia, who described them as armed, dangerous drug dealers who had sold heroin to her daughter. Garcia, who didn’t even have a daughter, later admitted to making it up, pleading guilty to federal charges related to her false statements.

In the affidavit Goines filed in support of the arrest warrant that authorized him and his colleagues to break into the middle-aged couple’s home on the evening of Jan. 28, 2019, he claimed that a confidential informant had purchased heroin from a man at 7815 Harding Street, where Tuttle and Nicholas lived. Goines later admitted to fabricating the transaction, though he claimed to have personally purchased heroin at the home the day before the raid. Prosecutors proved that wasn’t true either, presenting evidence that Goines was 20 miles away from the home at the time of the alleged drug purchase and didn’t go there that day.

Goines had planned to present two bags of heroin he had obtained elsewhere as proof of the alleged purchase. But that plan backfired after he and his colleagues broke down the door of the home and immediately shot the owners’ dog. Tuttle, who prosecutors said was sleeping in a bedroom at the time, responded to the commotion and gunfire by grabbing a revolver and firing at the intruders, hitting four of them, including Goines. Officers responded with a hail of at least 40 bullets, killing Tuttle and Nicholas, who was unarmed but appeared about to take a gun from a wounded officer.

Because of that disaster, the two bags of heroin remained in Goines’ car. “Once you get past the tragedy and the disgust, I think you get to the irony,” Forcht told the jury. “I think it’s ironic that the only person who had heroin in this case was Gerald Goines. He had it in his car for a week.”

In his opening statement, Forcht said Tuttle responded to the home invasion as “any normal person” would, defending himself and his wife against attackers he did not know were police officers. “The evidence will show that Gerald Goines was legally responsible for every shot fired in that house, whether it was by police officers or by Dennis Tuttle,” he said.

The defense disputed this version of events. Although the officers were not wearing uniforms, Goines’ lawyers argued that the word police The presence of their tactical gear would have made it clear who they were. The defense also claimed that the officers verbally identified themselves as police officers, although the existing audio recording does not reflect this.

According to the account of Art Acevedo, then Houston Police Chief, during a press conference On the night of the raid, the officers “introduced themselves as Houston police officers while simultaneously breaking down the front door.” Within seconds, they had killed the dog. It would not be surprising if Nicholas and Tuttle missed a single announcement amid the chaos and confusion.

Goines’ attorneys, who acknowledged that he lied to obtain the search warrant, nevertheless argued that Nicholas and Tuttle were responsible for their own deaths. “If they had obeyed the police officers’ orders,” defense attorney George Secrest told the jury Tuesday, they would still be alive.

The two murder charges against Goines are based on a law that applies when someone “commits or attempts to commit a felony” and “in furtherance of and in furtherance of the commission or attempt … commits or attempts to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual.” That charge was improper in this case, the defense argued, because Goines’ underlying crime — producing a fraudulent search warrant — did not cause the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas, which they themselves caused.

While the prosecution stressed that the officers fired first, Secrest pointed out that Tuttle fired “the first shot at a human being” (as opposed to the dog). “These officers did not shoot anyone before they were shot themselves,” he said. “No one shot Dennis Tuttle until he started shooting people in the face and neck.”

Goines’ attorneys also repeatedly pointed to the amounts of marijuana and cocaine used by their relatives found in the home, suggesting that Tuttle and Nicholas were involved in drug dealing. Forcht rejected the idea that the couple’s drug use was relevant to Goines’ defense. “The time to investigate these two individuals,” he said, was “before they were murdered, not now.”

In addition to the murder charge, which carries a possible sentence of five years to life in prison, Goines is charged with falsifying a government record, a felony that carries a possible sentence of two to 10 years in prison. The case now goes to the jury, which began deliberations Tuesday afternoon.

The article Jurors weigh murder charges against former Houston drug cop who lied to justify deadly home invasion appeared first on Reason.com.