Ex-officer charged with couple’s death in Houston drug raid awaits jury’s verdict

HOUSTON (AP) — A jury on Tuesday began deliberating the fate of a former Houston police officer accused of being responsible for the 2019 deaths of a couple during a raid that prompted a probe which revealed systemic corruption problems within the police department’s narcotics unit.

Gerald Goines is charged with two counts of murder in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his 58-year-old wife Rhogena Nicholas. Goines has pleaded not guilty.

The couple, along with their dog, were were fatally shot after officers burst into their home using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering.

Jurors could also convict Goines of a lesser charge of tampering with a governmental record over allegations he falsified the search warrant used to justify the raid of the couple’s home.

During closing arguments in a trial that began Sept. 9, prosecutors told jurors Goines, 59, fabricated a confidential informant and manipulated people in order to get a search warrant for the couple’s home that falsely portrayed them as dangerous drug dealers.

Prosecutor Keaton Forcht told jurors everything that happened in the home, including the couple’s deaths and the injuries to officers, “flowed directly” from the falsified search warrant and Goines’ lies. During the raid, four officers were shot and wounded, and a fifth was injured.

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“The deaths of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle are a grave, grave injustice,” said Forcht, with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

Goines attorneys admitted the ex-officer lied to get the search warrant but tried to minimize the impact of his false statements. They said Nicholas and Tuttle were responsible for their own deaths.

Tuttle and Nicholas “did not die because there was a bad warrant and officers came into their house” but because they failed to listen to officers’ commands and fired at them, putting the officers’ lives in danger, said George Secrest, one of Goines’ attorneys.

“You can hate Gerald … but he’s not guilty of murder,” Secrest said.

Nicole DeBorde, another of Goines’ attorneys, suggested to jurors that Tuttle’s history of psychiatric problems might have played a role in the shooting. She also suggested evidence did show the couple were armed and dangerous drug dealers.

But prosecutor Tanisha Manning told jurors Tuttle was a military veteran who had a long history of medical problems and that he had every right to fire his gun and defend his home from individuals who had burst through his front door.

Manning said prosecutors weren’t placing blame on the other officers in the house who didn’t know about the falsified search warrant and were justified in defending themselves.

“The only person responsible for that volley of bullets was Gerald Goines,” Manning said.

Investigators said they only found small amounts of marijuana and cocaine in the house.

During the trial, Jeff Wolf, a Texas ranger who investigated the shooting, testified officers fired first when they entered the home and shot the couple’s dog. Wolf said the gunfire and Nicholas screaming at officers likely resulted in Tuttle coming from his bedroom and opening fire at the officers.

Goines’ attorneys have said that officers had identified themselves before entering the home but Wolf testified the couple might never have heard this before gunfire erupted.

Goines’ attorneys argued during the trial that it was Tuttle and not officers who was the first to fire at another person.

An officer who took part in the raid and the judge who had approved the search warrant testified the raid would never have happened had they known Goines had lied to get the warrant.

If convicted of murder, Goines faces up to life in prison.

The probe into the drug raid also uncovered allegations of systemic corruption.

A dozen officers tied to the narcotics squad that carried out the raid, including Goines, were later indicted on other charges following a corruption probe. A judge in June dismissed charges against some of them.

Since the raid, prosecutors have reviewed thousands of cases handled by the narcotics unit.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned at least 22 convictions linked to Goines, who also faces federal charges.

One of the other cases tied to Goines that remains under scrutiny is his 2004 drug arrest in Houston of George Floyd, whose 2020 death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer sparked a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing. A Texas board in 2022 declined a request that Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for his drug conviction stemming from his arrest by Goines.

Federal civil rights lawsuits the families of Tuttle and Nicholas have filed against Goines and 12 other officers involved in the raid and the city of Houston are set to be tried in November.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70