Second shooting linked to man
Person of interest in judge attack charged in Houston slaying
An Alief man who authorities said is a person of interest in a weekend shooting involving a Travis County judge was charged with murder on Tuesday in an unrelated deadly shooting in Houston earlier this year.
It was a bizarre twist to a case that continues to unfold as authorities detailed the allegations against Chimene Hamilton Onyeri and raised the specter that others could be involved in both crimes.
“We’re not going to make any assumptions,” Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters when asked whether other people may have helped Onyeri.
Whoever was involved, he said, “we’re going to hold them accountable.”
Charges have not been filed against Onyeri in the Travis County case, but Acevedo said the 28-year-old is a person of interest in the attack late Friday night of State District Judge Julie Kocurek.
Court records show that Onyeri had a case before Kocurek, where prosecutors were seeking to revoke his probation in a fraud case, a move that could send him to prison for as long as 20 years. The motion to revoke came after a string of alleged misdeeds, including charges of passing counterfeit money in Fort Bend County and identity theft in Calcasieu Parish, La.
Kocurek, who was shot about 10 p.m. Friday in the driveway of her home in west Austin, remained hospitalized Tuesday
after being wounded from shrapnel and flying glass.
Other people were with Kocurek that night, but she was the only person struck in the gunfire.
Acevedo said police believe they have a link between the shooting and Kocurek’s caseload as a judge, although the chief gave no details.
Such a link would lend credence to assertions by some investigators that the attack on Kocurek was an assassination attempt.
‘A cowardly act’
The Austin chief of police said the attack was “a cowardly act on the fabric of society.”
Acevedo said investigators “absolutely believe” the shooting was an attempt to murder the judge. Without elaboration, he said investigators are checking reports from neighbors of “suspicious activity” in the upscale neighborhood near Kocurek’s home on the day of the shooting.
The chief said Onyeri could face charges of attempted murder, which would be filed in Travis County. He also said the murder charge filed against Onyeri in Harris County would take precedence.
Attorneys for Onyeri in Houston and Austin did not return calls for comment Tuesday.
Father was surprised
In Houston on Tuesday, police officers from Houston and Austin searched the brick home where Onyeri lives with his father and three siblings.
His father said he was surprised when officers knocked on the door Monday evening and told him Onyeri is a suspect in the Austin shooting.
“I allowed them to search; I gave them my key,” Innocent Onyeri said. He said he called his son’s lawyer in Austin but did not learn anything else.
“I don’t know anything,” he said. “People ask me, and I don’t know.”
Onyeri had been in police custody for hours when authorities announced later Tuesday that he had been arrested on an unrelated charge of murder.
That case stems from the shooting death of Jacobi Alexander at an apartment complex in the Alief area about 9:35 p.m. on May 18, according to court records.
Houston police reported at the time that Alexander was walking through a common area of the Falls of Bellaire complex, at 6771 Westbranch, when two men approached him, then shot him. No motive was given for that shooting.
Lengthy record
Onyeri has a long arrest record. In 2013, he was acquitted by a jury during a trial on charges of armed robbery. He also was arrested and charged with murder in a 2008 shooting, but those charges were later dismissed.
Before that, he spent six days in jail after pleading guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession. He also admitted guilt in 2007 to evading arrest in a plea deal that saw the dismissal of charges for trespassing and unlawfully carrying a gun.
In the Travis County case, he and a friend were arrested during a traffic stop in 2012 for possession of 17 fraudulent gift cards embedded with stolen credit card numbers.
Onyeri’s case fell in Kocurek’s court and in November 2013, he agreed to a three-year probation. Eight months later he was arrested in Fort Bend County, accused of distributing counterfeit $100 bills.
Prosecutors moved to revoke his probation in August after he was allegedly caught in Louisiana trying to use fake credit cards. In September, he was released on a $30,000 bond.