Former Houston drug cop convicted of murder after his lies led to two deaths

A jury on Wednesday convicted former Houston narcotics officer Gerald Goines of two felony counts for instigating a January 2019 drug raid that killed falsely accused middle-aged couple Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas of heroin sales. Goines admitted he lied in the affidavit supporting the search warrant that authorized him and his colleagues to break into the couple’s home, describing a purchase of heroin that never happened.

The prosecution argued that Goines’ lies made him criminally responsible for the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas, who were killed after Goines and several other officers broke down the front door and immediately shot the couple’s dog. Tuttle, who prosecutors said was sleeping in a bedroom at the time, reacted to the commotion and gunfire by grabbing a revolver and firing at the intruders, wounding four of them, including Goines. Police responded with a hail of at least 40 bullets, killing Tuttle and Nicholas, who was unarmed but appeared to be about to grab a gun from a wounded officer.

The two counts of murder against Goines were based on a statute that applies when someone “commits or attempts to commit a felony” and “in the course and furtherance of the commission or attempt . . . commits or attempts to commit an act clearly dangerous to humans. the life that causes the death of an individual’. The charge was improper in the case, the defense argued, because Goines’ underlying crime — which produced the fraudulent search warrant affidavit — did not cause the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas, which they brought on themselves.

“This case is overloaded,” defense attorney Mac Secrest told the jury during closing arguments Tuesday. “It should never have been charged (as) a felony,” he said, pointing to prosecutors. “It was heightened because of the politics in their office, because of the media outcry, the pressure.”

Goines’ attorneys argued that Tuttle and Nicholas would still be alive if they had surrendered instead of resisting. While the prosecution pointed out that the police fired first, Secrest pointed out that Tuttle fired “the first shot at a human being” (as opposed to the dog). “These officers didn’t shoot at anybody until they were shot at,” he said. “Nobody shot Dennis Tuttle until he started putting bullets in people’s faces and necks.”

Although the officers were not wearing uniforms, Goines’ attorneys argued that the word police on their tactical gear it should have been clear who they were. The defense also argued that the officers verbally identified themselves as police officers, although the existing audio recording does not reflect this.

According to the account that Art Acevedo, then the chief of police in Houston, gave to a press conference on the night of the raid, police “announced themselves as Houston police officers while simultaneously breaking down the front door.” Within seconds, they killed the dog. It would be unfathomable if Nicholas and Tuttle missed an announcement amid the violence and confusion — a possibility that Jeff Wolf, a Texas ranger who investigated the incident, noted during his testimony.

“Mr. Tuttle reacted like anyone, any normal person would, hearing the gunshots ringing in their house, their doors blown off, his wife on the couch, the dog dead in the living room,” Harris County Assistant District Attorney Keaton Forcht said. during his opening statement two weeks ago. “He grabs his gun and storms out.” Forcht argued that Goines was therefore “legally responsible for every shooting in that house, whether it was by the officers or by Dennis Tuttle.”

Forcht reiterated this point during his closing argument. “Everything that happened in that house, everything, flowed directly from that warrant,” he said. Because of Goines’ dishonesty, he claimed, “those two individuals are now dead.”

After deliberating for about eight hours Tuesday and Wednesday, jurors accepted that framing, rejecting the defense’s contention that Goines’ victims were the real aggressors. The jury is scheduled to return Thursday morning to consider the appropriate sentence.

The felony charges are punishable by five years to life in prison. The jury also convicted Goines of tampering with a government record, a felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison.

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

In his search warrant affidavit, Goines claimed a confidential informant bought heroin from a man at 7815 Harding Street, where Tuttle and Nicholas had lived for two decades. Goines later confessed to fabricating that transaction, although he claimed to have personally bought heroin from the house the night before the raid. Prosecutors showed that was not true either, presenting evidence that Goines was 20 miles away from the home at the time of the alleged drug purchase and did not visit the location that day.

Goines also faces apparently redundant federal charges in connection with the Harding Street raid. “While acting under the color of law,” according to a November 2019 indictment, Goines “prepared an affidavit for a search warrant that contained numerous false material statements, presented that affidavit to a judicial officer in the state Texas, swore to the truthfulness of the contents of that affidavit, obtained a search warrant based on that affidavit from that judicial officer,” and “executed that search warrant.

In doing so, the indictment says, Goines “willfully deprived Dennis Tuttle of the right, secured and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States, that the people be secure in their persons, houses, acts and effects against unreasonable . searches and seizures”. That offense “involved the use, attempted use, and threatened use of a dangerous weapon” and “resulted in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas.”

In addition to the criminal charges, Goines faces federal civil rights lawsuits filed by relatives of Tuttle and Nicholas. One of those lawsuits also names Acevedo as a defendant.

Goines’ lies in the case were part of what Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg described as a “pattern of deception” spanning more than a decade. The Harding Street raid prompted Ogg’s office to reexamine about 1,400 drug cases involving Goines, a 34-year veteran who had a habit of tripping up suspects by fabricating drug buys. “Texas Court of Criminal Appeals it overturned at least 22 convictions related to Goines,” the Associated Press reports.

Acevedo, who initially hailed Goines as a “hero,” insisted the Harding Street raid did not reflect “a systemic problem with the Houston Police Department.” But Ogg saw things differently. “Houston police narcotics officers falsified documentation of drug payments to confidential informants with the support of supervisors,” she said in July 2020. “Goines and others could never have preyed on our community the way they did— o without the participation of their supervisors; every check and balance put in place to stop this kind of behavior has been bypassed.”