Mistaken release leads to tragedy

Parole violator facing murder charges had been out due to error

As paramedics loaded Alexis Saborit into an ambulance Monday night, the man accused of fleeing from a Harris County Sheriff ’s Office deputy and then crashing into a bicyclist and another driver, killing both, told authorities he had a parole warrant for his arrest.

The crash, however, was not Saborit’s first encounter with law enforcement since the warrant for his arrest was issued in December 2018, almost a year after he had been paroled on a fraud conviction. That encounter, when he was arrested as a suspected car burglar in July 2019, should have returned him to prison, but an “oversight” at the Harris County Jail allowed for his release.

The crashes in north Houston killed 63-year-old Jarvis Taylor and 57-year-old Roosevelt McClendon. Their deaths, said crime victims advocate Andy Kahan, were “utterly preventable.”

“If he had been (held on the parole warrant in July 2019), one can easily speculate Mr. Taylor and Mr. McClendon would be alive today,” said Kahan, who is with Houston Crime Stoppers. “Our system let them down.”

Saborit was speeding in his Mercedes-Benz along Veterans Memorial Drive near West Road around 9 p.m. Monday when a deputy tried to stop him, authorities said. The parolee instead fled, crossed over into wrong side of the road and then struck Taylor, who was on a bike, and then McClendon, who was driving a Buick LaCrosse.

Saborit, who suffered serious injuries in the crash with McClendon, was also hospitalized. As medics treated him, he admitted to investigators with the HCSO Vehicular Crimes Division that he had an active parole warrant for his arrest.

Records show Saborit received a six-year prison sentence in 2015 for participating in a massive identity theft ring in Harris County, having amassed more than 50 Social Security numbers, credit cards numbers and other forms of identification from unsuspecting victims.

He was granted parole in January 2018, but it was revoked in December 2018 when he caught a misdemeanor marijuana charge from police in Tarrant County, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Jeremy Desel.

State authorities filed a parole warrant, often called a “blue” warrant, for his arrest that same month, Desel said. It was immediately entered into statewide and nationwide databases used by law enforcement, Desel said.

On July 26, 2019, police officers in Friendswood nabbed Saborit as a suspect in a car break-in, according to Friendswood Police Department officer Lisa Price. The parole warrant showed up when they ran his name through one of the databases, Price said.

The officers took him to the Harris County Jail to answer the parole warrant in lieu of filing a burglary of a motor vehicle charge for the break-in, Price said.

‘An oversight somewhere’

In jail, his parole warrant was somehow lost in a paperwork shuffle, and Harris County Sheriff ’s Office authorities are investigating how that happened, agency spokesperson Jason Spencer said.

“There was an oversight somewhere,” Spencer said, “but we don’t know where it is.”

When a person is booked into jail, their information passes through several hands, Spencer said. In Saborit’s case, paperwork on his parole warrant was misplaced before it got into the hands of staffers tasked with reviewing bond paperwork before releasing inmates.

Those staffers did find he had warrants for a December 2018 marijuana charge from Tarrant County, as well as an unrelated burglary of a motor vehicle charge from the same county. Jailers released him July 31 after he paid a total of $8,500 on two bonds for the North Texas charges.

“That whole system still relies on humans,” Spencer said. “Sometimes, throughout that complicated process, … a box isn’t checked or a piece of paper isn’t stapled to the right form.”

Deputies again had the chance — and failed — to capture Saborit in January when he walked into the jail lobby to a pay a bond, court records show. When Saborit handed over his driver’s license, the parole warrant showed up for jail staff, according to court documents.

As deputies tried to arrest him in the lobby, Saborit managed to escape and run to the nearby parking lot where his car was parked, court records show. Deputies announced themselves and told him he was under arrest as he fled.

In the parking lot, a deputy had Saborit at gunpoint, but he sped away, narrowly hitting a few deputies as he left. Detectives filed felony evading charges against Saborit later that day.

Deputies made no effort to track down Saborit after the evading warrant was filed, Spencer said. Because evading in a motor vehicle is not classified as a violent offense, it was given a lower priority by the sheriff’s office division that handles warrants, Spencer said.

Could get a life sentence

Saborit is now in jail on two felony murder charges. He is held with no bond, records show.

In Texas, anyone who is accused of committing certain felonies while doing something “clearly dangerous to human life” can be charged with felony murder if someone dies during the commission of the underlying crime, according to state law.

Sgt. Simon Cheng, who helped investigate the crash Monday, said the underlying crime was when Saborit allegedly fled from the deputy.

“The big picture issue here is that this gentleman made it clear he was not going back to state prison willfully,” Spencer said. “On that night when one of our deputies tried to pull him over for speeding, he knew he had warrants. He made the decision to endanger other peoples’ lives and kill two innocent people. He’s ultimately responsible for that.”

If convicted on either of the murder charges, Saborit is facing a sentence between five and 99 years in prison, or a possible life sentence.