Gerald Goines to stand trial in September for fatal attack on Harding Street

HOUSTON, Texas – Six years have passed since experts say a botched raid cost the lives of a Houston couple and exposed systematic corruption within the Houston Police Department’s drug enforcement unit.

The much-talked-about Harding Street raid occurred on January 28, 2019, when Houston police officers raided a home on Harding Street in the Pecan Park neighborhood, presumably as part of a drug investigation.

In September, Gerald Goines, who is accused of murder for his role in the Harding Street raid, goes on trial.

Goines pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of married couple Dennis Tuttle (59) and Rhogena Nicholas (58) and the family dog ​​in January 2019.

KPRC 2 Investigates reporter Mario Diaz, senior Investigates producer Jason Nguyen, senior special projects producer Andrea Slaydon and digital content specialist Ninfa Saavedra will be live at the trial and provide the latest updates for “The Bench: Gerald Goines.”

What happened

On January 28, 2019, Houston police searched Tuttle and Nicholas' home.

When officers entered the home (in plain clothes and with a no-knock search warrant), they were met by a dog they described as “aggressive” and which was eventually shot by one of the officers.

Former police Chief Art Acevedo, who was HPD's top cop at the time of the deadly raid, said Tuttle came out of a back room of the house and fired at the officers with a .357 revolver, wounding one of them. Acevedo said as the injured officer fell onto a living room sofa, 58-year-old Rhogena Nicholas tried to grab his gun.

The officers returned fire, killing both Tuttle and his wife, Nicholas.

Four HPD officers were shot during the raid and another suffered a knee injury.

In the weeks following Tuttle and Nicholas' deaths, the fallout from the raid quickly became apparent after KPRC 2's investigation uncovered legal documents showing HPD had entered the home based on a bogus warrant issued by former drug agent Goines.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg filed murder charges against Goines in August 2019. He was also accused of lying in several other drug cases over the years.

KPRC 2 reports on the raid on Harding Street

Since first reporting on the raid in 2019, KPRC 2 Investigates has dug deeper into the investigation to find out what happened and why, leading to several key revelations.

On February 15, 2019, nearly a month after the raid, KPRC 2 Investigates found an affidavit showing that Houston police officers forged an illegal search warrant that gave officers the green light to enter Tuttle and Nicholas' home without knocking.

In March 2019, KPRC 2 Investigates learned that Angel August, an HPD officer involved in the internal investigation into the Harding Street raid, was relieved of duty.

Around the same time, KPRC 2 also reported on a questionable 911 call. On January 31, 2019, Acevedo described the call: “The officer made a detailed note in the call history to document his actions, what he had learned and done.”

KPRC 2 investigators subsequently checked the officer's answering machine and found that it contained no details and no report had been filed with police following the 911 call.

On April 16, 2019, KPRC 2 Investigates was the first to tour the interior of the Harding Street home.

What has happened since then?

Since the fatal attack, finding justice for the Tuttle and Nicholas families has not been easy.

Months after the deadly raid, two former HPD officers were charged: Gerald Goines for murder and Steven Bryant for tampering with a government document. The woman who made the false 911 call, Patricia Garcia, was also charged with submitting false information.

Officials say Garcia, the victim's neighbor on Harding Street, made a series of 911 calls on Jan. 8 that they believe set in motion the chain of events that culminated in the botched raid 20 days later. She allegedly told officers her daughter was in the house with heavily armed drug dealers. She is accused of falsely claiming the people in the house were using crack and heroin.

Garcia was later sentenced to 40 months in federal prison in 2021.

In addition, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Goines lied in the affidavit used to obtain a no-knock search warrant that was executed at the home and led to the fatal shooting.

According to court documents, Goines “made false statements in a file, document and tangible object with the intent to hinder, obstruct and influence the investigation and proper handling of the case within the federal jurisdiction.” He is also accused of developing and executing a tactical plan, knowing it contained false information, “including that a confidential informant purchased heroin at 7815 Harding Street on January 27.” Bryant was accused of lying in a supplemental report filed two days after the raid.

In 2020, then-Mayor Sylvester Turner signed an executive order banning no-knock raids unless the police chief personally signed them.

In 2021, KPRC 2 learned that 12 officers were charged in connection with the raid. Most of the 12 officers were accused of overtime theft and evidence tampering, and Goines and Felipe Gallegos were charged with murder.

The murder charge against Gallegos was ultimately dropped due to the conduct of a former prosecutor, who stated that while working on the case, the prosecutor “raised concerns about this verdict.”

In June 2024, the judge who was hearing many of the charges against several other officers dismissed several charges. Notably, nine of the officers who had been charged with an alleged overtime scheme related to the raid had their charges dropped. Some of the officers still face charges of tampering with government records and theft.

The officers charged were Hodgie Armstrong, Nadeem Ashraf, Felipe Gallegos, Cedell Lovings, Griff Maxwell, Frank Medina, Oscar Pardo, Clemente Reyna and Thomas Wood.

The judge ruled that the charges were too broad. She made a similar ruling on Goines' murder charge, but prosecutors resubmitted the case to a grand jury and Goines was again charged with murder.

Bryant, who was accused of tampering with a government document, pleaded guilty in federal court in 2021 but has still not been convicted.

Goines' trial is scheduled to begin on September 9, 2024.