Here are things to know for Wednesday, July 14:
1. High-profile attorney assigned to capital murder case against Theresa Balboa
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High-profile attorney Anthony Osso was assigned to the capital murder case against Theresa Balboa.
Balboa, 29, is accused of killing Samuel Olson, 5, who was her boyfriend’s son.
Court documents stated that Balboa killed Samuel in her Webster apartment in May, took his body to a storage unit and drove to a Jasper motel.
Police believe Samuel, who would have turned 6 years old on May 29, died weeks before Balboa reported him missing on May 27, according to documents. The Harris County Medical Examiner determined Samuel died of blunt force trauma. Prosecutors said they filed a capital murder charge based on forensic evidence, phone records and statements from Balboa’s roommate.
Osso said the first step was putting together a defense team to help in the case. He said they’ll likely hire an independent pathologist to review the autopsy.
“It’s a slow process and we ask people to keep an open mind. It’s an unfortunate situation and we don’t have all the evidence in the case yet. It’s gonna take us a while to figure this out,” Osso said.
2. Tips steadily coming in as police try to identify man who shot, killed 17-year-old Astros fan
It has been one week without David, and one week since Paul Castro came face to face with the man who police believe killed his son.
“He haunts me look a ghoul,” Paul Castro told KPRC 2.
Castro and the suspected killer made eye contact for three seconds, but the encounter will haunt the west Houston father for a lifetime.
He wants a name.
“I have faith that the community is going to help us identify him so that he is taken off the streets and no longer poses a threat to my family,” he said.
Castro and his two sons were leaving an Astros game last Tuesday night when a suspected road rage incident ended with his 17-year-old son shot in the head.
David died at a hospital last Thursday.
3. ‘I want my pops back’: Family searching for popular Houston musician who they say disappeared from his Spring-area apartment
Houstonians have enjoyed Bernard Pierre Senior’s music at restaurants, bars and clubs throughout the region for nearly 20 years.
Now family and friends, with the help of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, are searching for him after he vanished from his Spring-area apartment over the weekend.
The father of six from the Bahamas often performed at Truluck’s in The Woodlands and in the Galleria area, and at the San Luis Resort in Galveston, among other venues.
In late April and early May, Pierre suffered two “massive strokes,” his family said. He spent more than a month in the hospital.
“The doctors told me he wasn’t going to make it,” Bernard’s son, Bernard Pierre Junior, told KPRC 2. “He was going to be a vegetable.”
4. Neighbors on edge after woman attacked, carjacked at gunpoint just steps away from her front door in west Harris Co.
Harris County Sheriff’s deputies are asking for the public’s help in identifying two suspects involved in a brazen carjacking that took place on July 6 in west Harris County.
HCSO released surveillance video from the woman’s home, located in the 15700 block of Misty Heath Lane, which shows one of the suspects following the woman as she headed toward her front door. Deputies said the suspect threatened the woman with a gun and attacked her.
The woman told deputies that the man also demanded her to hand over her keys to another man, who looked to be in his teens.
Witnesses said the two suspects jumped into the woman’s red Nissan and left the scene.
A few minutes later, deputies said the suspects were involved in a minor car crash after rear-ending a vehicle at the intersection of W Little York and Queenston Blvd.
5. Houston demonstrators blocked Southwest Freeway during rush hour to support Cuban protests
A group of protesters blocked the Southwest Freeway during rush hour Tuesday afternoon.
Several videos showed the protesters in southwest Houston as they demanded an end to dictatorship in Cuba. Police said the group was in support of #cubaSOS and was making its way to City Hall.
This was not the only protest Tuesday, demonstrators were also seen marching in Miami where they also shut down a highway and waved American and Cuban flags.
Outside the White House, Cuban Americans demanded the Biden Administration to take action against the Cuban regime.
So far, President Biden has steered clear of requests to intervene in the communist nation.