DALLAS — Dallas County prosecutors allowed homicide cases to go to trial in recent weeks even after learning that evidence related to the crimes was permanently deleted, according to records obtained by The Dallas Morning News.
Defense lawyers for six people said Tuesday that they had not been made aware that evidence in their cases was deleted before being reached by The News. One defense lawyer said prosecutors alerted him to deleted photos after his client’s trial ended in a capital murder conviction with a life sentence earlier this month.
On March 8, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said defense attorneys were being notified about cases with deleted evidence as his office was being informed about them by Dallas police.
Claire Crouch, a spokesperson for his office, did not respond to defense lawyers’ assertions they hadn’t been informed.
“Regardless of the type of evidence that’s discovered, be it before, during or after a trial — if it is in the opinion of the Defense and/or the Court that it’s not material or relevant, a case can proceed,” Crouch said when asked why two cases proceeded to trial even after the DA’s office was informed about deleted evidence. “Defense attorneys always have the opportunity to object, ask for a continuance or another kind of relief and the judge will rule.’
Defense attorneys said they can’t object if they weren’t told that evidence was missing.
“I knew nothing,” said Scott Palmer, who represented a man accused in a fatal drive-by shooting during his trial last month. “This is a shock to me.”
The News obtained details about 21 homicide cases reviewed by Dallas police, offering the first public glimpse into which cases could be impacted by the police department’s widespread evidence storage issues.
Evidence was permanently deleted in 14 of the initial cases reviewed, according to the district attorney’s office. In two others, police found additional evidence that was turned over to prosecutors, Creuzot said. The remaining five had complete evidence.
Those cases account for only a fraction of the Dallas Police Department’s ongoing audit. The status of hundreds of other murder investigations remains unclear.
Cases with deleted evidence include the slaying of a 79-year-old woman in her South Dallas home; a man left for dead in a park; a 16-year-old killed inside a West Dallas home; and a driver who crashed his car in Pleasant Grove after he was fatally shot, according to court records. Police officials have said the cases being reviewed date back to 2016.
The News broke the story in early March about the audit of homicide cases amid other police evidence storage issues. Police officials opened the internal review into about 450 pending murder and capital murder cases after a high-profile trial was delayed in January because the lead detective failed to give lawyers hundreds of videos.
Since then, prosecutors and police officials have remained tight-lipped about what the ongoing review has shown.
If evidence was deleted, trials could be delayed or charges dismissed altogether. Families of victims could be left without closure or justice.
Dallas police officials declined to release specifics about how evidence was deleted in the 14 homicide cases.
Dallas police Executive Assistant Chief Albert Martinez has said digital police evidence was deleted due to human error, such as detectives not saving them quickly enough in case files or because of officers improperly categorizing the videos. Others may have been deleted because of deficiencies in DPD’s processes, he said.
Police officials declined to say Tuesday what was deleted in each of the 14 cases.
Police spokeswoman Kristin Lowman on Tuesday repeated past statements that the review is ongoing and the results will be shared with the DA’s office, courts and City Council members “if appropriate.” No timeline is set for the review.
The county public defender’s office is demanding answers before more murder cases go to trial.
Attorney Brad Lollar asked judges to have prosecutors declare on the record whether data was deleted in seven cases he is assigned to, according to court documents. Lollar anticipates the public defender’s office will file the same motions in seven more cases.
“If DPD is losing evidence and it impacts the outcome of a case, that’s something the public deserves to know,” Lollar said.
Police officials have insisted other evidence exists that will help resolve each case. Defense attorneys say that’s not up to police to determine.
Cases with deleted evidence
DPD’s issues with evidence preservation became apparent to the general public in January, when the high-profile murder trial against Nina Marano was delayed because the lead detective failed to give lawyers hundreds of videos in the case.
Marano is accused of killing Marisela Botello Valadez, a 23-year-old Seattle woman who went missing while visiting Dallas in October 2020. Her body was found months later. Two others, Lisa Jo Dykes and Charles Beltran, are also charged with murder in her death.
During recent hearings, it was revealed that Dallas police Detective Christine Ramirez failed to turn over hundreds of videos and photos in the case to prosecutors. Some of the videos were permanently deleted because Ramirez did not properly save them, an officer testified.
After that trial was delayed, and as a result of other police digital storage issues reported by The News, Creuzot asked police on Feb. 17 to review all homicide cases filed with his office.
On Feb. 21, police notified prosecutors that one case, the killing of 51-year-old Robert Frazier on July 18, 2021, was missing police body-camera video, Creuzot said.
Johnny Hernandez is charged with murder in the case. His trial is set to start May 22, according to court records. His defense attorney, Bree West, said prosecutors notified her on Feb. 13 that a video was deleted.
On Feb. 25, prosecutors learned about the 13 other homicide cases with deleted evidence, Creuzot said. At that time, two of those cases were actively in trial.
Jordan Rodgers had been indicted on murder and aggravated assault charges in the drive-by shooting of Gloria Roque. Prosecutors took Rodgers to trial on the aggravated assault charge and dismissed the murder charge. The trial started Feb. 21 and ended Feb. 28 with a conviction and sentence of 24 years in prison, said Palmer, his lawyer.
If prosecutors found out evidence was deleted on Feb. 25, they should’ve told the defense, Palmer said.
“I would’ve immediately asked for the trial to be postponed or for a mistrial,” he said.
Rebekah Perlstein, who represented Rodgers along with Palmer and Michael Levine, said she was “most disturbed” that Creuzot’s March 8 news release states information about deleted evidence being given to the assigned prosecutors who, in turn, shared the information with defense lawyers.
“It was never communicated to us,” Perlstein said.
The other case was filed against Eugene Webb, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Thomas Brown. Webb surrendered to police and admitted to the slaying, his lawyer said.
A trial on his punishment began Feb. 21. A jury sentenced Webb on Feb. 24 to five years in prison. His defense attorney, Paul Johnson, said while he didn’t know evidence was deleted, he didn’t think it would’ve made a difference because Webb confessed and there were other witnesses.
Other convictions
Two other cases with deleted evidence went to trial the week after Creuzot’s office was informed about the storage issues. Both resulted in convictions.
Da’Kerrick Antwuan Hamilton was convicted of capital murder and sentenced March 3 to life without parole for the shooting death of 27-year-old Desjuan Holmes.
Hamilton abducted Holmes at gunpoint, then shot him multiple times at Thurgood Marshall Park, where his body was found Sept. 10, 2019, police said. A second man, Michael Taylor, pleaded guilty March 7 to aggravated assault in the case, according to court records.
Johnson, the lead attorney for Hamilton, said prosecutors let him know after the trial that photos of the arrest of a co-defendant were deleted. Johnson said he didn’t think the evidence would’ve made a difference in Hamilton’s case.
Steven Bernard Griffin was convicted of murder March 7 and sentenced to 30 years in prison in the fatal stabbing of Toby Washington, according to court documents. Griffin was seen following Washington into a parking lot in Deep Ellum on Aug. 27, 2021, before striking him, police said. Washington was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Griffin’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Their appellate attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment about whether they were notified about the deleted police evidence or if they plan to use that information in appeals.
DPD’s implemented changes
The police department’s issues extend beyond deleted files. In February, The News reported that police may be violating evidence laws with 52,000 improperly stored digital records.
Those files weren’t labeled by officers as required by department policy when uploaded to the digital storage platform. If records aren’t tagged, they aren’t deleted but become difficult to find, police officials have said — meaning files tied to criminal cases may not have been turned over to attorneys as required by state law.
As a result of the storage issues, Dallas police changed settings in its data storage platform to keep all digital files for at least one year, instead of the previous minimum of 90 days.
Dallas police internally posted job listings this week for a new sergeant and three officers assigned to their violent crime unit whose responsibilities are to ensure all digital evidence is included in cases before they’re submitted to prosecutors.
The effect of the department’s storage and evidence preservation issues continue to play out in courtrooms.
On Tuesday, prosecutors in the Marano case asked a visiting judge to recuse Judge Amber Givens because, they believe, she showed bias against them in hearings last month to determine whether all evidence was turned over to defense lawyers. A ruling is expected at the end of the week.
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(Staff writers Jamie Landers and Maggie Prosser contributed to this report.)
