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A Harris County grand jury on Wednesday reindicted former Houston Police Officer Gerald Goines on two felony murder charges in connection with the deadly Harding Street raid.
The new indictments came a week after Harris County District Judge Veronica Nelson threw out the original indictments, siding with the defense’s argument that they lacked specificity.
An indictment is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. When someone is indicted, it means a grand jury composed of residents believed there was enough evidence to charge that person with a crime.
“We look forward to seeking justice for the victims’ families when we present our case as scheduled in June,” said Joe Stinebaker, a district attorney’s office spokesperson.
The original indictments against Goines, filed in January 2020, included two counts of felony murder related to the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. The married couple was killed in a firefight after Houston police officers looking for heroin stormed their Harding Street home in January 2019. Police have accused Goines of providing false information to obtain the “no-knock” search warrant used in the raid.
Prosecutors opted to charge Goines under a provision of state law that allows them to charge a person with murder if someone is killed during the commission of a separate felony. In Goines’ case, prosecutors said the separate felony is tampering with a government record.
Goines’ defense lawyers argued the original indictments should be thrown out because prosecutors didn’t specify which section of the tampering law they accused Goines of violating. The omission meant Goines was in danger of being tried for an offense other than the one he had been indicted on.
Nelson granted the defense’s motion to quash the indictments last month, dealing a temporary blow to the years-long effort by prosecutors to hold Goines accountable for the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas. Following the ruling, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement that it was “shocked and tremendously disappointed” in Nelson’s decision and vowed that it would continue to pursue the case.
Nelson took over the case earlier this year after Harris County District Judge Frank Aguilar was suspended over a misdemeanor domestic assault charge.
The new indictments against Goines had not been filed in online court records as of Wednesday afternoon.
“The Nicholas family has seen so many starts and then stops again in the criminal cases that they can only hope that both the District Attorney and U.S. Attorney’s offices secure some level of justice, finally,” Nicholas’ family said in a statement Wednesday.
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