Sentencing of former Houston cop Gerald Goines begins after murder conviction – Houston Public Media

Lucio Vasquez / Houston Public Media

The sentencing phase of former Houston police officer Gerald Goines’ murder trial began Thursday morning after the former cop was convicted on two counts of felony murder for his role in the Harding Street drug raid in 2019.

The same jury that convicted Goines will now be tasked with determining the severity of Goines’ punishment. He faces up to life in prison. On Thursday, jurors heard additional testimony from several people, including two Houston officers, a recently exonerated man and a confidential informant who had worked with Goines for more than two decades.

On Thursday morning, the jury heard from Richard Bass, a sergeant with the Houston Police Department. He was questioned about other criminal cases in which Goines had allegedly lied about a confidential informant buying drugs at specific locations through the Houston area.

According to prosecutors, Goines had a habit of lying, leading to more than 30 convictions being overturned since 2019 due to Goines’ questionable involvement, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. One of these overturned cases resulted in a lawsuit being filed earlier this year.

Another one of these cases left Otis Mallet falsely imprisoned on a drug charge back in 2008. Houston police arrested Mallet and his brother and charged them with intent to deliver four or more grams of crack cocaine after then-HPD narcotics officer Goines claimed to have given the brothers $200 in exchange for the drugs.

Mallet spent time in prison until he was eligible for parole. But in 2020, his case was eventually overturned, along with his brother’s case, after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared the two men innocent. On Thursday, Mallet took the stand.

“I’ve lived with it,” Mallet said. “My life is about moving on…I have two sons that this affected dearly.”

“They was vindictive, they was mad,” he added.

Investigators found that Goines had created a fake story to obtain a no-knock warrant to search the home of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas on Jan. 28, 2019. The raid left the couple dead while wounding multiple officers, including Goines.

Prosecutors argued that these lies had directly led to the couple’s deaths – an argument that the jury ultimately agreed with on Wednesday after more than seven hours of deliberation.

During Thursday’s court session, jurors also heard from a confidential informant named Nikengi Calvin, who said she had worked with Goines for about 22 years. At first, Calvin said she would buy drugs for Goines as a confidential informant, but eventually, their relationship changed.

Towards the end of their working relationship, Calvin said she was paid to provide her signature on blank confidential informant forms meant to document when and where she bought drugs from – even though she had never visited nor bought drugs from those locations.

HPD Detective John Snook was also called onto the stand. He had investigated Goines after the raid and was questioned about what they found inside Goines’ police car. A small baggie filled with white powder was found, along with multiple pistols, pill bottles and more than $1,000 in cash, according to Snook.

By Thursday evening, the jury was dismissed. Family members of Tuttle and Nicholas held each other and cried as people emptied out of the courtroom.

The trial will be on break until Wednesday morning.