HOUSTON (AP) — A former Houston police officer was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Tuesday for the murder of a married couple during a drug raid that revealed systemic corruption in the department’s narcotics unit.
Gerald Goines, 60, was convicted in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, who were shot along with their dog after officers burst into their home using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering.
The same jury convicted Goines of two counts of murder last month after state prosecutors presented testimony and evidence to show he lied to get a search warrant that falsely portrayed the couple as dangerous drug dealers.
The probe into the drug raid uncovered allegations of much wider corruption. Goines was among a dozen officers tied to the narcotics squad who were indicted on other charges.
A judge in June dismissed charges against some of them, but a review of thousands of cases involving the unit led prosecutors to dismiss many cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has overturned at least 22 convictions linked to Goines.
The jury's sentencing deliberation was delayed a few days after Goines suffered a medical emergency in the courtroom and was taken away in an ambulance. They ultimately deliberated for more than 10 hours over two days on Goines’ sentence.
Defense attorney Nicole DeBorde asked jurors for the minimum sentence of five years, saying Goines had dedicated his life to keeping drugs off the streets. “Our community is safer with someone like Gerald, with the heart to serve and the heart to care,” she said.
Prosecutors asked for life in prison, telling jurors that Goines preyed upon people he was supposed to protect with a yearslong pattern of corruption that has severely damaged the relationship between law enforcement and the community.
“No community is cleansed by an officer that uses his badge as an instrument of oppression rather than a shield of protection,” said prosecutor Tanisha Manning.
During the monthlong trial, prosecutors said Goines falsely claimed an informant had bought heroin at the couple’s home from a man with a gun, setting up the violent confrontation in which the couple was killed and four officers, including Goines, were shot and wounded, and a fifth was injured.
Goines’ attorneys argued that the first to fire at another person was Tuttle and not police officers. But a Texas Ranger who investigated the raid testified that the officers fired first, killing the dog and likely provoking Tuttle's gunfire. An officer who took part as well as the judge who approved the warrant testified that the raid would never have happened had they known Goines lied.
Goines’ defense acknowledged he lied to get the search warrant but sought to minimize the impact of his false statements. They portrayed the couple as armed drug users who were responsible for their own deaths because they fired at officers.
Investigators later found only small amounts of marijuana and cocaine in the house, and while Houston’s police chief at the time, Art Acevedo, initially praised Goines as being “tough as nails,” he later suspended him when the lies emerged. Goines later retired as the probes continued.
During the punishment phase, jurors heard from family members of Nicholas and Tuttle who described them as kind and generous. Tuttle’s son said his father was “pro-police.”
Several of Goines’ family members told jurors he was a good person and had dedicated his life to public service. Elyse Lanier, the widow of former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier, said she had known Goines for 20 years as a “gentle giant.”
One of the people wrongfully convicted based on Goines' false testimony, Otis Mallet, told jurors that what Goines had done to him "traumatically disturbed” his life.
Goines also made a drug arrest in 2004 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 that drug conviction.
Goines also faces federal criminal charges in connection with the raid, and federal civil rights lawsuits filed by the families of Tuttle and Nicholas against Goines, 12 other officers and the city of Houston are set to be tried in November.
Nicholas' family expressed gratitude after Goines' convictions in a statement saying that “the jury saw this case for what it was: Vicious murders by corrupt police, an epic cover-up attempt and a measure of justice, at least with Goines."
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Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press
