A former Texas police officer was handed a 60-year jail sentence on Tuesday after a couple were fatally shot during a drug raid that exposed corruption within one of the police units.
Gerald Goines, 60, was sentenced after being convicted last month following the murder of Dennis Tuttle, 59, his wife Rhogena Nicholas, 58, and their dog after officers burst into their home in January 2019.
The drug raid reportedly exposed systemic corruption in the department’s narcotics unit, according to NBC News’ Dallas-Fort Worth local outlet, as the couple’s death was said by prosecutors to be the result of Goines’ pattern of lying about drug arrests and getting people wrongly convicted.
Goines allegedly had no visible reaction as the sentences were announced after the jurors reportedly deliberated for more than 10 hours, the outlet reported.
“This is historic because we believe this is the first-ever murder conviction of a Houston-area law enforcement officer committed while in uniform,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.
“We hope other victims who have been hurt or wrongfully accused or even convicted see the courage of these families and also come forward,” Ogg said.
Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP
NBC DFW reported that Tuttle’s son Ryan was called as a witness in court, and said that his father and stepmother were “victims of severe systematic failure in police work, particularly with the supervision of Gerald Goines.”
He added that they “were not involved in any drug dealing. They were good people. They did not deserve this.”
The prosecutors asked for Goines to spend life in prison, according to the Associated Press, and prosecutor Tanisha Manning said, “No community is cleansed by an officer that uses his badge as an instrument of oppression rather than a shield of protection.”
Prosecutors said Goines falsely claimed someone had bought heroin at the couple’s home from a man with a gun, which resulted in the confrontation at their house that saw them killed along with their dog as well as four officers, including Goines, being shot and wounded with another injured, NBC DFW reported.
Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP
The officers had used a “no-knock” warrant, meaning they did not need to announce themselves before entering, but a Texas Ranger who investigated the raid said that the officers shot first, killing the dog. It was thought that this then provoked Tuttle to open fire, the local outlet said.
In the investigation in 2019, detectives found only small amounts of marijuana and cocaine at the house and Goines was suspended when it emerged he’d lied, according to the AP. He later retired as the investigation continued.
It was also said by two witnesses, who were another officer and the judge who signed the warrant, that the raid would not have occurred if Goines had not lied.
Defense attorneys had asked jurors to give Goines the minimum sentence of five years, pointing to how he dedicated his 34-year career in law enforcement to keeping drugs off the streets, the AP reported.
The sentencing had also been delayed after Goines suffered a medical emergency in the courtroom, according to the AP.
One of the attorneys told jurors in closing arguments that the 60-year-old’s health was in a bad way after being shot in the face during the raid.
The investigation into the drug raid revealed a much wider corruption in the unit, in which Goines was part of a group of a dozen officers in the narcotics squad who were indicted on other charges, some of which were later dismissed, NBC DFW reported.
It was reported by NBC DFW that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned at least 22 convictions linked to Goines.
Goines is also set to face federal criminal charges in connection with the raid, and the families of Tuttle and Nicholas have filed lawsuits against Goines and 12 other officers which are scheduled for trial in November, according to the outlet.
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