Police beating victim cleared in murder case
Grand jury declines to indict man whose attack drew national scrutiny
Chad Holley, whose filmed 2010 beating by Houston police officers made national headlines, was cleared Friday of capital murder charges.
A Harris County grand jury declined to indict the 22-year-old in the Sept. 21 shooting death of David Trejo-Gonzalez, 42, in a north Houston apartment complex parking lot.
Holley learned that he was free from a potential life sentence or the death penalty during a visit at the Harris County Jail from his longtime supporter, Quanell X.
“When I told him that the charges had been dismissed, he broke down and started crying and said he thanked God,” the activist said. “He had been praying every day, he said, because he knew he was not guilty.”
According to court and medical examiner records, a man demanded money from Trejo-Gonzalez before he was fatally shot once in the chest. Holley was accused on the strength of an account by an unidentified witness, but he has maintained his innocence.
J. Philip Scardino, Holley’s defense attorney, has said for months that his client was accused on thin proof.
“There wasn’t much of a case to begin with. This case just turned on the testimony of a person who is not very credible and there wasn’t any physical evidence. There was no gun, no fingerprints, no DNA, no tangible forensic evidence that connected Mr. Holley with the crime,” Scardino said. “I think the grand jury saw that for what it was and said: We can’t indict someone on this kind of evidence.”
Jim Leitner, grand jury division bureau chief for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said grand jurors in the future could review the case.
“If other substantive evidence emerges, the law allows for a grand jury to again consider this matter,” he said in a statement issued Friday by the district attorney’s office.
When Holley was charged in December with capital murder, he had been in the Harris County jail for two months on alleged probation violations.
In 2013, he received seven years of deferred adjudication under a felony burglary plea deal. That probation was in effect in
October when he was arrested on misdemeanor charges of theft and trespassing.
During a February hearing, State District Judge Hazel Jones noted that Holley was not complying with probation restrictions and denied him bail, but said she would reconsider her order after the murder charge was considered by a grand jury.
Holley was a 15-year-old high school sophomore in 2010 when he was beaten by Houston police as he fled a burglary arrest. The incident gained national attention in 2011 when surveillance video surfaced that showed officers kicking and punching the unarmed teen.
Quanell leaked that film just as footage from security cameras and cell phones increasingly were beginning to substantiate allegations of police brutality.
A dozen officers were disciplined and four were indicted on misdemeanor charges. Two took plea deals, one was convicted by a jury and the fourth was acquitted. Holley was convicted of burglary in juvenile court and received probation.
Quanell has mentored the young man since the police beating and continues to fulfill a promise to “keep an eye on Chad” made to his mother. Joyce Holley died of cancer in 2014.
“The main thing now is to get him out of jail, get him a job, get him going to work and help him to stay on track,” the activist said.
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