Jurors consider murder charges against former Houston drug agent who justified fatal burglary with a lie

During closing arguments in Gerald Goines' murder trial on Tuesday, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Keaton Forcht urged jurors to hold the former Houston narcotics agent responsible for the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, two killed in a 2019 drug raid that Goines instigated by describing a heroin purchase that never happened. “Just because you have a badge doesn't mean you're above the law,” Forcht said.

Goines targeted Tuttle and Nicholas based on 911 calls from a neighbor, Patricia Garcia, who described the two as armed and dangerous drug dealers who had sold heroin to her daughter. Garcia, who didn't even have a daughter, later admitted she had made the whole thing up and pleaded guilty to making false statements.

In the affidavit Goines filed in support of the no-knock search warrant that authorized him and his colleagues to break into the middle-aged couple's home on the evening of Jan. 28, 2019, he claimed that a confidential informant purchased heroin from a man at 7815 Harding Street, where Tuttle and Nicholas lived. Goines later confessed that he fabricated that transaction, although he claimed he personally purchased heroin at the home the night before the raid. Prosecutors proved that was untrue, too, by presenting evidence that Goines was 20 miles from the home at the time of the alleged drug purchase and had not visited the location that day.

Goines planned to present two bags of heroin he had obtained elsewhere as proof of the alleged purchase. But that plan went awry after he and his colleagues broke down the front door and immediately shot the owner's dog. Tuttle, who prosecutors say was napping in a bedroom at the time, responded to the commotion and gunfire by grabbing a revolver and shooting the intruders. Four of them, including Goines, were hit. Police responded with a hail of at least 40 bullets, killing Tuttle and Nicholas, who was unarmed but reportedly looked like she was trying to grab the gun from an injured police officer.

Because of this disaster, the two bags of heroin remained in Goines' car. “Once you get past the tragedy and the disgust, I think you get to the irony,” Forcht told the jury. “I find it ironic that the only person who had heroin in this case was Gerald Goines. He had it in his car for a week.”

In his opening statement, Forcht argued that Tuttle responded to the break-in as “any normal person” would, defending himself and his wife against attackers he did not know were police officers. “The evidence will show that Gerald Goines was legally responsible for every shot fired in that house, whether it was fired by police officers or Dennis Tuttle,” he said.

The defense disputed this account. Although the officers were not wearing uniforms, Goines' lawyers argued that the word police on their tactical gear would have made it clear who they were. The defense also claimed that the officers verbally identified themselves as police officers, although the existing audio recording does not reflect this.

According to the report of Art Acevedo, then police chief of Houston, at a press conference On the night of the raid, the officers “posed as Houston police officers and simultaneously broke down the front door.” Within seconds, they had killed the dog. It would not be surprising if Nicholas and Tuttle missed an announcement in all the chaos and confusion.

While Goines' lawyers acknowledged that he lied to obtain the search warrant, they argued that Nicholas and Tuttle were responsible for their own deaths. “If they had followed the officers' orders,” defense attorney George Secrest told the jury on Tuesday, they would still be alive.

The two murder charges against Goines are based on a law that applies when someone “commits or attempts to commit a crime” and “during and in furtherance of the commission or attempt … commits or attempts to commit any act that clearly presents a danger to human life and causes the death of any person.” That charge was inappropriate in this case, the defense argued, because Goines' underlying crime — submitting the forged search warrant affidavit — was not the cause of Tuttle and Nicholas' deaths; they were self-inflicted.

While the prosecution stressed that the police officers fired first, Secrest stressed that Tuttle fired “the first shot at a human being” (not the dog). “These police officers didn't shoot anybody until they got shot,” he said. “Nobody shot Dennis Tuttle until he started putting bullets in people's faces and necks.”

Goines' lawyers also repeatedly pointed to the amount of marijuana and cocaine for personal use found in the house, suggesting that Tuttle and Nicholas were involved with drugs after all. Forcht rejected the suggestion that the couple's drug use was relevant to Goines' defense. “The time to investigate these two people,” he said, “was before they were murdered, not now.”

In addition to the murder charges, each of which carries a sentence of five years to life in prison, Goines is also charged with tampering with government records, a crime punishable by two to 10 years in prison. The case is now in the hands of a jury, which began deliberations Tuesday afternoon.