HOUSTON (AP) — A former Houston police officer was convicted Wednesday of murder in the deaths of a couple during a 2019 drug raid that revealed systemic corruption problems within the police department’s narcotics unit. A jury found Gerald Goines guilty of two counts of murder in the January 2019 deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his 58-year-old wife Rhogena Nicholas. The couple, along with their dog, were fatally shot after officers burst into their home using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering.
Goines faces up to life in prison. The same jury that convicted him will also decide his sentence after hearing additional testimony and evidence during the trial’s punishment phase, which is set to begin Thursday. During the trial — which began on Sept.
9 — prosecutors presented testimony and evidence they said showed Goines lied to get a search warrant that falsely portrayed the couple as dangerous drug dealers. During closing arguments in the trial, prosecutor Keaton Forcht said Goines’ actions wrongly led officers to the couple’s home, resulting in a violent confrontation in which the couple was killed and four officers were shot and wounded and a fifth was injured. Goines’ lawyers had acknowledged the ex-officer lied to get the search warrant but minimized the impact of his false statements.
They said his actions did not merit a murder conviction and he had been overcharged. Nicole DeBorde, one of Goines’ .