Current:Home > ScamsRetired Houston officer gets 60 years in couple’s drug raid deaths that revealed corruption -ProfitQuest Academy
Retired Houston officer gets 60 years in couple’s drug raid deaths that revealed corruption
View
Date:2025-04-11 15:24:33
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.
Gerald Goines, 60, was convicted in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, who 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.
Goines looked down but had no visible reaction as he heard the sentences for each count of murder, which will run concurrently. The jurors deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days on Goines’ sentence.
Prosecutors presented testimony and evidence to show he lied to get a search warrant that falsely portrayed the couple as dangerous drug dealers.
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 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.
Defense attorney Nicole DeBorde had asked for the minimum sentence of five years, saying Goines had dedicated his life to keeping drugs off the streets. “Our community is safer with someone like Gerald, with the heart to serve and the heart to care,” she said.
Prosecutors asked for life in prison, telling jurors that Goines preyed upon people he was supposed to protect with a yearslong pattern of corruption that has severely damaged the relationship between law enforcement and the community.
“No community is cleansed by an officer that uses his badge as an instrument of oppression rather than a shield of protection,” said prosecutor Tanisha Manning.
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.
Goines’ attorneys acknowledged he lied to get the search warrant but sought to minimize the impact of his false statements. They argued that the first to fire at another person was Tuttle and not police officers. But a Texas Ranger who investigated the raid testified that the officers fired first, killing the dog and likely provoking Tuttle’s gunfire.
An officer who took part as well as the judge who approved the warrant testified that the raid would never have happened had they known Goines lied.
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.
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.
Nicholas’ family expressed gratitude after Goines’ convictions in a statement saying that “the jury saw this case for what it was: Vicious murders by corrupt police, an epic cover-up attempt and a measure of justice, at least with Goines.”
___
Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
veryGood! (1557)
Related
- What to know about Tuesday’s US House primaries to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz
- Arizona lawmaker Athena Salman resigning at year’s end, says she will join an abortion rights group
- Man accused in assaults on trail now charged in 2003 rape, murder of Philadelphia medical student
- Lionel Messi's 2024 schedule: Inter Miami in MLS, Argentina in Copa America
- Tarte Shape Tape Concealer Sells Once Every 4 Seconds: Get 50% Off Before It's Gone
- Taylor Swift baked Travis Kelce 'awesome' pregame cinnamon rolls, former NFL QB says
- A Kansas City-area man has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges over aviation exports to Russia
- 2 men, Good Samaritans killed after helping crashed car on North Carolina highway
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- ICHCOIN Trading Center: Seizing Early Bull Market Opportunities
Ranking
- Spooky or not? Some Choa Chu Kang residents say community garden resembles cemetery
- Turkey says its warplanes have hit suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Iraq
- How do people in Colorado feel about Trump being booted from ballot? Few seem joyful.
- The Masked Singer Season 10 Finale Reveals Winner and Unveils a Pretty Little Finalist
- McKinsey to pay $650 million after advising opioid maker on how to 'turbocharge' sales
- Your single largest payday may be a 2023 tax filing away. File early to get a refund sooner
- About Almcoin Cryptocurrency Exchange
- Texas police officer indicted in fatal shooting of man on his front porch
Recommendation
Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
I am just waiting to die: Social Security clawbacks drive some into homelessness
Judge threatens to dismiss lawsuit from Arkansas attorney general in prisons dispute
Taylor Swift’s new romance, debt-erasing gifts and the eclipse are among most joyous moments of 2023
Travis Hunter, the 2
Arizona man arrested for allegedly making online threats against federal agents and employees
Taylor Swift baked Travis Kelce 'awesome' pregame cinnamon rolls, former NFL QB says
Boston mayor apologizes for city's handling of 1989 murder case based on 'false, racist claim'