OCTOBER 13, 2007
NNOCENT DNA RONALD TAYLOR FAMILY INTERVIEW
Lawyers from the Innocence Project, a legal clinic that works to free the wrongfully convicted, secured Taylor’s release Tuesday morning during a brief hearing. State District Judge Denise Collins ordered him released on a personal recognizance bond.
During the proceedings, to which Taylor wore an orange inmate’s uniform, his lawyers spoke of the significance of his case in the context of the years-long scandal at the HPD crime lab.
“There are a legacy of cases where the Houston Police Department did faulty serology,” said Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project.
Harris County’s top prosecutor, Chuck Rosenthal, appeared in court and expressed regret for Taylor’s years of wrongful incarceration.
Taylor was accused in the 1993 rape of a woman attacked while sleeping in her Third Ward home. The victim never got a good look at her attacker, Taylor’s lawyers said, but police showed her a video lineup. The woman identified Taylor, whose image was included because a neighbor reported seeing him in the area that night, his lawyers said.
Taylor was charged in her attack and at trial, about two years later, the woman’s testimony was the core of the evidence against him. An analyst from the HPD crime lab also testified, incorrectly telling jurors that DNA testing could not be performed on a bedsheet from the apartment because it contained no semen.
Jurors sentenced Taylor to 60 years, a crushing verdict for his mother, Dorothy Henderson.
“He was away for so long that I watched my five sisters and three brothers die while he was incarcerated,” she said. “No parent should have to go through that.”
Taylor’s stepfather contacted the Innocence Project in 1998 and pleaded with the legal clinic to take his case. Twelve years after Taylor’s conviction, Innocence Project lawyers arranged for a private lab to re-examine the evidence.
“I just knew that if I could get it tested, it would be over,” Taylor said.
The lab, ReliaGene Technologies in New Orleans, found semen on the sheet, discrediting HPD’s work on the case. A DNA analysis of the fabric revealed the profile of another man — Roosevelt Carroll — and no evidence from Taylor.
Both men had short-cropped hair and 6-foot frames. They both also lived within a mile of the victim’s home.
Unlike Taylor, who had been convicted and released on nonviolent crimes of forgery and cocaine possession, Carroll had a history of violent sexual crimes.
A twice-convicted rapist, Carroll is serving a 15-year sentence for failing to register as a sex offender.
Carroll cannot be prosecuted for the 1993 case because the deadline for a grand jury to indict him has passed. Although Carroll was free for much of the time Taylor was imprisoned, Taylor said he is not angry.
“I don’t have grudges,” he said. “What good would that do me?”
While Taylor is free, the case against him has not yet been officially resolved. Judge Collins must forward documents that detail the case’s history, submitted by prosecutors and Taylor’s lawyers on Tuesday, to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
That court will taken final action on the case, but those steps can take time.
OCTOBER 13, 2007
SOLDIER ESCORT TO CONROE
OCTOBER 13, 2012
242 ROBBERY SWAT SCENE
Early this morning around 3:00 AM the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office received a 9-1-1 call that a robbery was occurring at the McDonald’s Shell at the corner of SH 242 and IH 45 and that suspects had entered the store with handguns. Oak Ridge and Conroe Police officers arrived on the scene and believed that employees were still inside the store with the suspects. Sheriff Office deputies learned during interviews with store employees that at least two armed suspects had come into the restaurant through the drive-thru window and both suspects had handgun. One employee was able to exit the building safely out the drive-thru window while the suspects were distracted. Initial attempts to contact anyone inside the business were unsuccessful and SWAT and Crisis Negotiators were called to the scene. Multiple attempts were made to contact anyone inside the business and eventually one employee came out that had been hiding behind a counter. The witness did not know if the suspects were still inside but two employees were unaccounted for and they were believed to still be inside the business. SWAT entered the business and found two employees hiding in a backroom and the suspects were gone. Investigators with the Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Rangers are interviewing witnesses. Suspects: 2 Black / Males 5’9 — 5″10 wearing a black hoodie and mask, wearing gloves Crime Stoppers will pay up to a $1000 cash reward for information leading to an arrest or indictment of a felony crime. Call 800-392-STOP (7867). Anonymous tips can also be made through the Montgomery County Crime Stoppers Web Page at www.montgomerycountycrimestoppers.org.
OCTOBER 13, 2012
MONTGOMERY COUNTY SWAT SCENE*
OCTOBER 13, 2013
TWINS MOTHER SPEAKS OUT
Brandy Dominguez spoke out today about the incident in the Tarkington area of Liberty County on Saturday. Brandy, who was born in Kentucky and is married to a Hispanic male who is a legal United States Citizen is beside herself today after the incident yesterday. Dominguez who is on a non-secured $50,000 bond according to court records for transporting an illegal from Deep Southwest Texas earlier in the year. Dominguez , age 30 has two twin girls. He husband works out of town as a welder for not much more than minimum wage was desperate. Both vehicle had broken down and there was no food on the table. The payments for the home were getting behind and she was unemployed. When someone approached her with a way to make some quick cash she accepted. Federal Officials will not let her discuss the case as she has not yet appeared for her final court date. She said if the same person had asked her to run drugs she would have rather starved, seeing what it does to todays young people. This was a first time and lasted a very short distance before Border Patrol stopped and arrested her. She was held overnight and then released in deep West Texas. With no money and just her personal possession she began to walk toward San Antonio. That night a man in his 60’s stopped and picked her up and told her he would help her get to San Antonio after he stopped at home to check on his animals. While there he offered to allow her to use the shower. Thinking this man who was in his 60’s was not a threat she accepted. She didn’t plan to step out of the shower into the room with the man armed with a shotgun and a handgun. He sexually assaulted her. She was able to get away and was able to contact a friend in Houston to come toward San Antonio and pick her up. She says now after all that she would never try something like that again.
Every month a probation officer assigned to her for pre-trial comes to the house to visit her as he has before. Not long before he arrived she drove to Dayton to get some things from a convenience store. She left her sleeping children in the care of her sister, Amy Castillo, who had been staying with her. When she left her sister was on the couch with her computer. Not long after when the probation officer arrived she did not hear them knocking as she was asleep on the couch.
There are two mobile homes on the property. One of which they live in and have been making repairs as they are needed. The second one they got which was not livable, was placed in front of the second one. Plans were to remodel it and eventually join the two together for a much larger home. As they are set up now, you enter through the unused mobile home and exit out the backdoor. Between the back door and the front door of the second trailer is a ramp connecting the two.
With her sister asleep on the couch and not hearing the knock on the door of the front trailer the officers entered and found her asleep. As they talked to her the officers heard noise in the backroom which was locked with a slide type gate lock near the top.
This lock Dominguez said had been installed awhile back. She explained when she is home alone, the girls in what many people describe 2-year-olds as being in their terrible two’s will get into things. Several weeks ago while she was in the shower the girls had slipped out the door and gotten outside. To fix this she had installed a fence using T-posts and chicken wire around the property and closing off access to under the trailers. She said this was all she was able to afford. With that done she still worried about them getting into something in the home so she installed the lock. While she showered or was in the restroom she would latch it so they couldn’t wander.
She had a bed for each until her nieces were visiting several months back and broke the frames on both. She was in the process of getting new ones from a friend but had at least five blankets for the children to sleep on when they didn’t sleep with her.
As far as no toys in the room, there were plenty, she stated if you walked into the room and looked in a open area next to the closet they had many. They even had a big screen television complete with a DVD player to watch their favorite shows.
The carpet on the floor was dirty from years of use but there was no odor that would be common with feces or urine.
Officials stated the children had been naked. To this she stated that it was possible. She has purchased several types of clothes with zippers or buttons and still the two girls slip out of the clothes. In fact if they soil a diaper she said many times they will remove it and bring it to her for changing.
OCTOBER 13, 2018
MAGNOLIA DOUBLE AUTO PEDESTRIAN FATAL CRASH
Just after 10 pm MCHD and Magnolia Fire were dispatched to a double auto-pedestrian crash on FM 1774 at Cripple Creek in front of the Chevron station. Units arrived on the scene to find a male and female in the roadway and critically injured. MCHD requested an additional ambulance from Northwest EMS. Both victims were transported to Memorial Hermann In the Woodlands in critical condition. Life Flight was originally requested but due to a 25-minute arrival, they were canceled. According to DPS, a young male was traveling southbound on FM 1774 at Cripple Creek at the posted speed limit. The area is in a construction area of the roadway. As the driver approached Cripple Creek both the male and female failed to yield right of way to the truck and were struck. The truck, which had a large bumper suffered very minimal damage. No charges are expected.
