The second week of the trial for former Houston Police Department narcotics officer Gerald Goines is underway.
Goines faces charges related to the fatal 2019 Harding Street raid, which resulted in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle, Rhogena Nicholas, and their dog. On Monday, he entered a plea of not guilty.
The first week of the trial revealed significant revelations, including an emotional testimony from Goines’ former partner, Steven Bryant.
For a recap of the key moments and developments from the first four days of the trial, check out our coverage:
KPRC 2 Investigates team Reporter Mario Diaz, Senior Investigates Producer Jason Nguyen, Senior Special Projects Producer Andrea Slaydon, and Digital Content Specialist Ninfa Saavedra will be at the trial dishing out the latest updates for ‘The Bench: Gerald Goines.’
5:30 p.m. - Court adjourns for the evening. Court will resume Tuesday at 9:45 a.m.
At the end of court on Monday, Judge Nelson announced that proceedings might extend to 6:30 p.m. moving forward, as the trial is progressing more slowly than anticipated. The defense team informed the judge that they do not expect the state to call all of its witnesses, and if this is the case, both sides could be done calling witnesses by the end of this week.
3:48 p.m. - Court resumes
The defense continued to question Lujan, presenting Goines’ medical records from February 2019 and then displaying images of the narcotics officers who participated in the deadly raid.
In a courtroom demonstration, the defense attempted to sketch an aerial view of the layout of the Harding Street home to give jurors a more personal feel of the layout of the home and how the narcotics team entered.
Next, the defense shows the courtroom a video of the home from the night of the deadly shooting, asking Lujan about different areas of the home throughout the video.
3:31 p.m. - Court rests for afternoon break
2: 17 p.m. - Detective Lujan passed to the defense team, once again
Before questioning the detective, the defense team asked to approach the bench to speak with the judge and the state on a private matter.
The defense questioned Detective Lujan about the Tuttles and Nicholas’ right to defend their home. Detective Lujan said the couple had a right to defend their home, but the defense attorneys said the law does not allow homeowners to defend their home against police officers.
Detective Lujan testified that the officers did not use unlawful use of force, therefore, the homeowners did have the duty to retreat when Houston Police Officers entered the home.
The defense then focused their questioning on the rifle that Gerald Goines was carrying during the deadly raid. The firearm was presented to the jury and displayed in the courtroom.
Detective Lujan testified that as part of his investigation, he had to log and inspect all guns used in the deadly raid.
The defense asked Lujan whether investigators found any rounds in the chamber of Goines’ gun during their examination. Lujan confirmed that no rounds were found in the chamber. During the raid, investigators discovered that Goines had a 10mm Glock, a Browning 9mm, and a rifle. The defense then inquired if there was any evidence indicating that any of Goines’ guns had fired inside or outside the Harding Street home. After pausing for a moment, Lujan stated that he did not recall finding any 9mm or 10mm casings either inside or outside the home.
1:34 p.m. - Court resumes for the afternoon. Detective Lujan remains on the stand
After lunch, Detective Lujan resumed his testimony, and the state began its second round of examination.
Lujan testified that he entered the Harding Street home at least four times. He explained that he had to return a second time because he was missing some ballistic evidence and needed to recover it.
On February 19, 2019, Lujan went back to the home and found additional ballistic evidence.
When Attorney Manning asked if there was any heroin, a pistol, or evidence of a drug operation inside the Harding Street home, Detective Lujan responded, “No.”
He also noted that when he returned to the home in February, it had been boarded up with plywood.
12:30 p.m. - Court breaks for lunch
10:50 a.m. - Court resumes -- Detective Lujan continues testimony
The state continued to play a bodycam video for the court, pausing throughout to allow Detective Lujan to respond to questions about what he heard officers say in the footage. In one portion of the video, the officers could be heard saying, “Can you see what happened? It looks like they got hung up at the door.”
The state then asked Detective Lujan if Tuttle had shot four officers and presented an image of Tuttle’s gun cartridges. Lujan testified that he could not confirm that Tuttle’s gun was fired four times during the Harding Street raid based on the cartridges and their display. He noted that one of the gunshots, as indicated by the cartridges, could have happened on a different day.
The defense inquired whether there was any evidence of friendly fire, to which Lujan responded that there was no evidence of friendly fire. (Friendly fire refers to incidents where an officer is accidentally shot by another officer during an exchange of gunfire.)
The defense also questioned Lujan about the potential use of excessive force by the narcotics team during the raid. Lujan testified that he had no evidence indicating the use of excessive force during the operation.
10:36 a.m. - Jury excused while state attorneys work on bodycam video they want to play for court
9:03 a.m. - HPD Detective Lujan resumes testimony
The defense continues questioning Detective Lujan about his investigation into the deadly Harding Street raid. Most of the questions were aimed at the detective’s knowledge of Tuttle’s gun and his documentation about the guns inside the home.
For the first time, Nicholas and Tuttle’s mental health was brought into play, with defense attorneys asking if Detective Lujan examined medical reports regarding Tuttle’s mental state at the time of the deadly raid.
Shortly after when the state re-crossed, attorney Manning played body camera video from the deadly raid and asked Detective Lujan to explain what he heard and he said he heard someone say, “You made me do it.” Followed by several gunshots and the word “stop moving,” which was followed by another gunshot.
The video was played for the courtroom with attorney Manning stopping several times and asking the detective to tell what he heard and explain the video. Manning explained the video going silent followed by two additional gunshots.