HOUSTON, Texas – The man facing charges in two separate possible road rage shootings in the Houston area over the last year and a half has been denied bond for at least 60 days.
On Tuesday, Judge Josh Hill denied bond for 28-year-old Carlos Chavez and agreed to keep him in custody on charges of murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
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The decision was made during what’s known as an 11A bail hearing, which isn’t all that typical, and must be done within the first seven days after a defendant is arrested.
Prosecutors argued that since Chavez is a twice-convicted felon, accused of new crimes while on bond for previous aggravated assault and felon in possession of a weapon charge, and accused of using a gun in the murder, he should be held without bond.
Chavez’s defense attorney Juan Guerra asked the judge to set a bond on the new charges, arguing that prosecutors hadn’t explained a substantial showing of Chavez’s guilt, but Judge Hill sided with prosecutors.
While out of jail, he was charged in the Nov. 7 shooting of 23-year-old Jadrian Edwards, a father shot while driving on Beechnut Street with his 5-month-old daughter in the backseat, and found dead behind the wheel in a bank parking lot.
Edwards' mother Patrice Edwards-Blake told only KPRC 2 on Monday she believes Chavez shouldn’t have been allowed on the streets and urged Judge Hill not to let him walk free.
Crime Stoppers of Houston’s Andy Kahan also called the case involving Edwards “utterly preventable,” but after court on Tuesday, Guerra fired back on the claims.
"Judge Hill and all his colleagues went to law school. They were prosecutors. There were defense attorneys. What does that mean? It means they can’t predict the future. What it means is they have an encyclopedia of knowledge of a defendant, somebody that’s accused of a crime, what the bond is, are they entitled to bond, what the amount is and the circumstances. So the narrative that you guys are creating that this could have been avoided is unreasonable. It’s unfair. You guys need to do better," Guerra said before walking away from news cameras.
Chavez’s arrest record dates back to 2013. In 2017, records show he pled guilty to a robbery after attacking a woman for her purse and got sentenced to two years in state prison.
After Chavez’s arrest for the 2023 road rage shooting, earlier this year in February, records show Judge Hill set his total bond at $60,000, as requested by prosecutors, and Chavez was able to post that and walk free from jail the following day.
At the time, he was already out on personal bonds, meaning no cash down, for two felon in possession of a weapon charges that he was arrested for before being charged in the road rage incident.
Prosecutors plan to return to the court and ask for Chavez to be held without bond indefinitely pending trial within the next 60 days because he violated bond conditions on his four charges pending at the time of the murder.