A Houston man convicted on drug charges after testimony by former officer Gerald Goines is one step closer to having his case dismissed.
Frederick Jeffery was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2017 after Goines testified he found Jeffery’s phone next to a bag of methamphetamine.
Jeffery maintained that neither the phone nor drugs were his and began trying to prove his innocence while behind bars.
He filed to have his case overturned after learning of Goines’s involvement in the botched 2019 Harding Street raid.
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“I didn’t watch TV,” Jeffery said. “I was in the law library Monday through Friday.”
In July, Jeffery was moved from Coffield state prison to Harris County Jail and released on a personal recognizance bond after the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and the trial court judge agreed his case should be reviewed for dismissal.
In an opinion issued Tuesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Jeffery’s conviction should be overturned writing, “false evidence and testimony provided by Gerald Goines was material in that there is a reasonable likelihood that false evidence and testimony affected the judgment of the jury”.
“I thank them for seeing the truth and ask for God to have mercy on Goines soul, that’s all I can say about him,” Jeffery said.
In a statement to KPRC 2 News, assistant district attorney Josh Reiss said, “People’s faith in the criminal justice system demands that all convictions be righteous, this conviction was not righteous.”
Goines’ defense attorney Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube told KPRC 2 News, “there has been no evidence in any of these cases that he lied”.
The D.A.’s office said they will move to dismiss the case after a state-mandated 15-day waiting period.