Suspect charged with shooting judge wants cell records tossed
The man charged with hatching a plan to kill Travis County state District Judge Julie Kocurek unexpectedly took the witness stand Wednesday in federal court as he tried to persuade a judge to toss out cellphone records that put him in Austin around the time of the November 2015 attack.
At times playful and at other times uncooperative, Chimene Onyeri, 30, described the events that preceded his arrest in Houston three days after Kocurek was injured outside her West Austin home.
He boasted about winning money from his friend in a basketball video game just before he got word that police were stationed outside the house he shared with his father about 15 minutes away. Curious about what was happening, Onyeri testified, he hopped into a Dodge Charger driven by an associate and headed to the area. Two other men joined, including Onyeri’s co-defendant Marcellus Burgin, who has already pleaded guilty to an undisclosed charge related to the attack on the judge. A third co-defendant, Rasul Scott, also has pleaded guilty.
As the Charger approached the
house, the driver spotted a police vehicle parked in the middle of the road and took a quick left, Onyeri said. A black SUV followed, with Onyeri testifying he was concerned it might have been someone wanting to rob them or perhaps police who had a warrant for his arrest on an unrelated charge out of Louisiana.
Onyeri said he directed the driver, Reginald Matthews, around the neighborhood.
“I was telling him to watch his speed in the neighborhood, telling him everything to do,” Onyeri said.
They returned to the area to get a closer look at the police scene. A second SUV belonging to Houston police followed, stopping the car for an illegal wide turn into the wrong lane, an officer testified earlier this month.
All four of the vehicle’s occupants were arrested on various charges.
Officials seized Onyeri’s cellphone through a search warrant and uncovered “highly incriminating” evidence that puts him in Austin around the time of the attack, according to testimony from a former Austin police detective. The phone was found shattered inside the Charger. Onyeri testified Wednesday that he broke it in half because he thought police were tracking him by the phone’s signal.
A forthcoming ruling by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel will decide if the phone records will be admitted into Onyeri’s trial, which is set to begin March 26.
Wednesday in court, Matthews and Onyeri disputed the reason behind the stop. Matthews testified that he was being “extra careful” to not commit a traffic violation. Onyeri said the turn was lawful.
A 17-count indictment accuses Onyeri of operating an identity theft and credit card scheme with co-defendants Burgin and Scott. Authorities believe he wanted Kocurek dead out of concern she would have shut down the operation by sending him to jail on a probation violation. The charges against him include attempted murder.
Yeakel restricted the line of questioning Wednesday to the traffic stop, but there was some discussion about the scheme.
Federal prosecutor Gregg Sofer pressed hard to get Onyeri to admit that on the day of the arrest he had visited several Home Depot stores in the Houston area to cash in stolen debit cards. Onyeri said he wasn’t clear on what Sofer was asking. Only after Yeakel intervened did Onyeri admit that he had been at a Home Depot store that day. He did not elaborate on the nature of that visit.
A photo presented by Sofer revealed a large stack of gift cards in the kitchen cupboard of the friend whom Onyeri was playing video games with that evening.
Matthews made it clear he was uneasy about testifying, explaining why it took a subpoena for him to show up Wednesday after he skipped an opportunity to testify last week. And although much of what he said was favorable to Onyeri, he said his testimony was not influenced by a phone conversation the two had the other day in which Onyeri said, “You remember it like it was yesterday. I don’t have to express it.” Onyeri told Matthews he’d pay for him to come testify, offsetting any loss in work wages and even reimbursing him for gas.
Defense lawyer Victor Arana asked more questions, establishing that Matthews was given $400 and a hotel room through a defense witness fund.
A forthcoming ruling will decide if cellphone records will be admitted in Onyeri’s trial, set to start March 26.