Trial Starts for Former Houston Police Officer Charged with Murder after No-Knock Raid

On September 9, 2024, the murder trial of Gerald Goines started in Houston, Texas, more than five years after the killings. The former Houston Police officer, undercover officer, and narcotics squad leader, was charged with the murders of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nickolas.

On January 28, 2019, undercover Houston drug police raided the residence of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, both 58 years old. Both of them and their dog were killed. The raid was caused by a neighbor who lied about the Tuttles, and Officer Gerald Goines lied on an affidavit to obtain a no-knock warrant.  From Houstonpublicmedia.org:

During the hearing on Monday, Goines’ defense team acknowledged that the former officer had fabricated a story about a confidential informant purchasing heroin from the couple’s home, but claimed that the murder charges were excessive — “a case of overcharging,” according to attorney Nicole Deborde Hochglaube, who’s representing Goines.

After opening statements, prosecutors questioned Sarah Sanchez, who had lived on Harding Street during the incident and was close with both Tuttle and Nicholas.

Prosecutors questioned Sanchez about Patricia Garcia, a neighbor who made three 911 phone calls on the evening of Jan. 8, 2019, in which she told police that her daughter was doing heroin inside the couple’s home and that the couple were drug dealers and had guns inside their home.

Investigators eventually found that Garcia had no daughter and that her other claims were also false. She was the first person to be sentenced in connection with the deadly raid in June 2021.

“She was always fighting with Rhogena, always jealous of Rhogena,” Sanchez said during Monday’s hearing. “She was very hateful.”

One of the reasons the cover-up of the lies that led up to the raid fell apart might be because Officer Goines was wounded in the neck and could not talk in the hospital.  Members of the narcotics squad, which Goines led, were forbidden from communicating with each other while the raid was being investigated. Some of the members of the squad had been in the narcotics division for 20 years or more.

The murder charges against Goines are based on Texas statute Sec. 19.02. (b) (3):

 (3) commits or attempts to commit a felony, other than manslaughter, and in the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempt, or in immediate flight from the commission or attempt, the person commits or attempts to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual;

The prosecution theory is: lying to procure a no-knock warrant, then participating in the no-knock raid is sufficient to meet the standards of the statute.

According to the defense, as recounted in a Reason.com article, Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas were responsible for their own deaths by resisting the no-knock raid after their door was broken down and their dog was shot and killed.

The raid and investigation were covered extensively on AmmoLand.  Video coverage from a body camera, a neighbor’s surveillance camera, and cell phone video were important in the investigation.

In addition to the Texas state charges, Goines faces federal charges. Civil lawsuits are ongoing.

The digital age is making it much harder to cover up corruption, at least for individual officers and small units.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.