Waiting for justice in murder case tries community’s patience

It’s the last thing anyone wants: to release the sole suspect in the slaying of an 11-year-old stabbed to death on his way home from school.

And yet, it is what some of us have wanted for a long time.

For prosecutors to follow the evidence where it leads, to trust the law over hunches and tunnel vision, to do the right thing even if it is the hardest thing.

And what is harder than looking into the eyes of Josue Flores’ parents and telling them that the man jailed for more than a year in their child’s slaying must be set free because DNA and blood evidence showed no connection to the crime?

That’s what prosecutors in Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s office did earlier this month, standing on the front porch of the Flores family’s home in near Northside.

“It was quite a blow,” Tom Berg, first assistant district attorney, said in describing the family’s response. “It was a visceral blow. You could see it. The word we use is golpe in Spanish.”

But it was the only choice after long-awaited forensic results failed to link Andre Jackson to the May 2016 murder. Not so long ago, lacking forensics might not have been a deal-breaker. Prosecutors might have still cobbled together a case from circumstantial threads and conjured motives.

At least then someone would be behind bars. At least the victim’s family and the public could sleep at night believing that justice had been done. At least.

Now, police are back where they began — hunting for a suspect, although Police Chief Art Acevedo was still insisting Thursday that Jackson is “more than likely” the right guy. Prosecutors don’t seem to share that opinion, although the possibility, no matter how slight, weighs on their minds.

“We’re governed by law and not speculation,” Berg told me in a phone interview. “We can’t deprive people of liberty based on fear alone.”

The DA’s office couldn’t ignore

problems in the case, Berg said. Josue was stabbed around 20 times, requiring the killer to be close to the victim, but not a trace of the boy’s DNA was found on Jackson. Even with surveillance video, other evidence against Jackson was lacking, Berg said.

It’s a hard case to make, and it was the second suspect police arrested who didn’t pan out.

“We’ve lost a year,” Berg said, revealing frustration that was only exacerbated by the delays in getting the DNA results from a lab run by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Police, he added, “need to shake all the trees and get people to start talking.” Demanding answers

That’s exactly what the police chief says his department is doing. Acevedo faced a skeptical crowd Thursday night in near Northside as residents packed a meeting to demand answers on Josue’s case and other public safety matters in an area plagued by vagrancy and drugs.

Acevedo, who was Austin’s police chief at the time of Josue’s slaying, fielded questions alongside Ogg, also relatively new to her post, state Sen. Sylvia Garcia, and representatives of other agencies, including the Harris County Sheriff ’s Department, Metro and Houston ISD.

People wanted to know how they could feel safe now that anyone can be a suspect. They wanted details on the case, and about the DNA collected.

They wanted to know Jackson’s whereabouts and whether he was given a lie detector test, and what police were doing to gather more information on him.

One asked why police still consider Jackson a suspect. The chief wouldn’t say, refusing to answer specific questions he said could jeopardize the investigation.

Afterward, I pressed Acevedo about whether continuing to focus on Jackson might blind investigators to other possibilities.

“Just because we think he’s a good suspect doesn’t mean that we’re not dusting everything off and making sure we’re not missing anything,” he said. “That crime occurred in a very public space, and I’m convinced there are people out there who still haven’t come forward. I told my team let’s not just focus on this person. Let’s focus on the crime.”

Residents thanked officials for showing up and seemed touched by Acevedo’s invitations to e-mail or call him directly with concerns, but disappointment remained, along with uncertainty that the crime would ever be solved.

“I feel like they dropped the ball. I feel like they took too long,” said Stella Mireles, who started a Safe Walk Home neighborhood watch program after Josue’s death.

Carmen Nuncio, a longtime Houston ISD volunteer, still had so many questions.

“Why did they arrest the first one? Why did they arrest the second one? I don’t get it,” she told me. “You either did it or you didn’t. I do want them to get the right person, but this family needs closure.” Not easy but honorable

John-Paul Cortez, an assistant principal at Northside High School, seemed more patient with the process. He said he has tried in recent days to explain Jackson’s release to young people upset by the DA’s decision.

“I said, ‘think about it. They knew that everybody would hate them if they let him go, but they knew he wasn’t the right one,’ ” he said. “This is what we teach them in class. Sometimes, the legal system is not perfect. Sometimes, it’s not great, but you have to have trust and faith that it’s going to work out.”

That’s what the district attorney asked the worried crowd to do Thursday night.

“Just know,” Ogg said, “the job of seeking justice is not easy, but it is honorable.”

We all know this. This case is proof.