HOUSTON, Texas – In a case that has gripped the Houston community and sent shockwaves through law enforcement and Harris County, former Houston Police Department officer Gerald Goines was sentenced to 60 years in prison for murder.
On Tuesday afternoon, shortly after lunch, and after more than 10 hours of deliberating, jurors sentenced Goines for the shooting death of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas during a deadly unlawful drug raid in January 2019.
After the sentencing was announced, we spoke with our legal analysts for The Bench: Gerald Goines regarding the impact of this verdict and what it means for the Houston Police Department.
“A message has been sent to HPD by this jury. Sixty years for a former Houston Police Department officer who’s been convicted of murder. Never heard of this before. It’s such a unique case. I think the community, the Harris County jurors, sent a message to HPD that this won’t be tolerated,” Criminal Defense Attorney Rick DeToto said.
Goines, now 60 years old, will serve at least 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole, which most say is a life sentence given his age.
“He’ll be 92 by the time he’s eligible for parole. So, essentially, that’s a life sentence,” Criminal defense attorney Casey Gonzalez said.
Inside the courtroom, Goines remained mostly emotionless as the sentence was handed down by Judge Veronica Nelson. Besides a brief glance and smile at his family before the reading of his sentence, Goines remained with his head down and hands clasped.
“This is devastating. He’s lost his freedom. He’s probably going to die in jail. He knows that. His family knows that. And this is the dramatic parts of what we do as lawyers and what happens in these courtrooms. We saw in real time this man lose his life and his freedom,” DeToto said.
Goines, who was once described as a “giant” by those who knew him before he was shot during the deadly drug raid, has undergone several health challenges, according to his attorneys and family that took the stand.
“His health just appears to have dramatically declined from day one of this trial to now,” Gonzalez said.
The attorneys also pointed out what prison would be like for the former officer.
“I think that prison is the worst place for a police officer because you’re going to have people in prison who don’t like him. You’re going to have people, the people who run the prisons who don’t like him. So, unfortunately, it’s just not a very good location for him to be in,” Gonzalez said.
Hundreds of Goines cases had to be reviewed once authorities learned about his involvement in the Harding Street raid. During his trial, we heard from a man who said he was wrongly convicted for drugs by Goines.
“You’ve got a guy who because he was in narcotics for as long as he was, sent a lot of people away for a very long time, many of whom are still there, and some of whom, as we’ve heard in this courtroom, may be innocent of the crimes that they were convicted of. So, that’s going to add a completely different layer to his time in prison,” said Joe Vinas, criminal defense attorney and another member of our team of experts for The Bench: Gerald Goines.
KPRC 2 Mario Diaz asked DeToto, who represented Antonio “AJ” Armstrong Jr., found guilty of murdering his parents, about how he consoles a client who has essentially been hit with a life sentence.
“That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, going back there with that young man and sitting with him as he cried. He knew he was going to spend the rest of his life in jail. There’s nothing you can say. I put my hand on his shoulder. I sat with him for about 45 minutes while he cried. There’s really nothing you can say to that person. It’s devastating. Their life is destroyed. They know they’re going to prison. They’re going to leave their loved ones. For AJ, it was his son, his child and his wife. So it’s a very, very difficult thing. And it’s one of the hardest things we have to do as defense lawyers,” DeToto said.
With an appeal on the horizon, Detoto confirmed that Goines’ defense team will continue to fight. However, Gonzalez pointed out that both sides performed exceptionally well during the trial, making an appeal challenging.
“Appeals are easier when there’s a clear failure, but in this case, both sides did their job, and the judge managed everything smoothly,” Gonzalez said.
Goines had a powerful team backing him, Nicole Deborde and George “Mac” Secrest.
“They are two of the best lawyers that we’ve ever had in the state of Texas. Mac literally writes the book on criminal codes in the state of Texas. It doesn’t get any better than these two. But they’re not wizards. They can’t make things up. They had to deal with what they had to deal with, which was Gerald Goines, who was a giant of a man, killed two people and their dog,” said Vinas.
Although the criminal case has concluded, the legal battles are far from over.
The families of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas are now turning their attention to a civil trial, which is set to begin in federal court in November.
DeToto said that the criminal conviction would provide an advantage to the civil lawyers representing the families.
In addition to the civil case, federal charges against Goines are still pending, though the timeline for that trial remains uncertain.