A retired Houston officer gets 60 years in a couple's drug raid deaths that revealed corruption

[October 09, 2024]  By JUAN A. LOZANO

HOUSTON (AP) — A former Houston police officer was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday for the murder of a married couple during a drug raid that revealed systemic corruption in the department’s narcotics unit and prompted criticism of the law enforcement agency and its tactics.

Gerald Goines was convicted in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58. The couple were shot along with their dog after officers burst into their home using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering.

Prosecutors said Goines lied to get the search warrant approved and that his actions were part of a pattern of wrongful drug arrests and convictions of innocent individuals during his 34-year law enforcement career.

“Gerald Goines has been a stain on the reputation of every honest cop in our community, a community that he terrorized through corruption worthy of the movie ‘Training Day,’” said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg.

Goines, 60, looked down but had no visible reaction as he heard the sentences for each count of murder, which will run concurrently. The jury, which had deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days on his sentence, also fined him $20,000. Legal experts have said it is rare for a police officer to be charged and convicted for an on-duty killing.

Goines didn’t make eye contact when Ryan Tuttle sat on the witness stand after the sentencing, with a framed photograph of his father and stepmother, and said his family was still waiting for answers from the ex-officer about why he targeted the couple. Goines, who did not testify during the monthlong trial, remained silent.

“My father and my stepmother were not involved in any drug dealing. They were good people. They did not deserve this,” Ryan Tuttle said, and then stared at Goines as he walked away.

During closing arguments in the trial’s punishment phase, prosecutors had asked for a life sentence. Goines’ attorneys had asked for the minimum sentence of five years, saying Goines had dedicated his life to keeping drugs off the streets.

“We still don’t believe legally that he is guilty of the crime of felony murder and we look forward to having the appellate courts review this,” Nicole DeBorde, one of Goines’ attorneys, told reporters after the sentence was read.

Goines had been free on bond since he was charged, but he was taken into custody following his conviction last month by the same jury.

Prosecutors said Goines falsely claimed an informant had bought heroin at the couple’s home from a man with a gun, setting up the violent confrontation in which the couple was killed and four officers, including Goines, were shot and wounded, and a fifth was injured. A Texas Ranger who investigated the raid testified that the officers fired first, killing the dog and likely provoking Tuttle’s gunfire.

Former Houston police officer Gerald Goines sits in the courtroom after he was sentenced to 60 years behind bars on a pair of felony murder convictions on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Houston. Goines was found guilty of felony murder in the 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)

His lawyers acknowledged he lied to get the search warrant, but sought to diminish the impact. Two witnesses — a fellow officer and the judge who signed the warrant — said the raid never would have happened if Goines had told the truth.

Investigators later found only small amounts of marijuana and cocaine in the house, and while Houston’s police chief at the time, Art Acevedo, initially praised Goines as being “tough as nails,” he later suspended him when the lies emerged. Goines later retired as the probes continued.

The probe into the drug raid uncovered allegations of much wider corruption. Goines was among a dozen officers tied to the narcotics squad who were later indicted on other charges. A judge dismissed charges against some of them, but a review of thousands of cases involving the unit led prosecutors to dismiss many cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned at least 22 convictions linked to Goines.

Ryan Tuttle said he hoped the deaths of his father and stepmother would spur police reform not just in Houston but around the country.

“If it’s happening in Houston, it’s happening everywhere,” Tuttle said. “We have to make sure this stops.”

Ogg said the police department reviewed various policies after the raid but that a thorough revamping of narcotics enforcement by the agency has yet to happen.

An audit of the narcotics unit done after the raid found officers made hundreds of errors in cases, often weren’t thorough in their investigations and lacked supervision.

In a brief statement after the jury’s sentence, Houston police said, “We respect the jury’s decision in the trial involving Gerald Goines and thank the jurors for their time and service.”

“This is not an indictment against police officers. There are 99% upstanding police officers. This was also about sending a message to them, that we believe in them, we support them. What we don’t support is corruption,” said prosecutor Tanisha Manning.

Goines also made a drug arrest in 2004 in Houston of George Floyd, whose 2020 death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer sparked a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing. A Texas board in 2022 declined a request that Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for that drug conviction.

Goines also faces federal criminal charges in connection with the raid, and federal civil rights lawsuits filed by the families of Tuttle and Nicholas against Goines, 12 other officers and the city of Houston are set to be tried in November.

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