Man tied to missing tiger is back in jail.
Six-hour hearing reveals new details but few answers
A man connected to India, the missing tiger, returned to jail Friday after a Fort Bend County judge revoked his bond and raised it to $300,000 on a separate murder charge.
Authorities led Victor Hugo Cuevas off in handcuffs after lawyers at the hearing unveiled new details about the escape of the big cat. Its whereabouts have been unknown since Sunday night, when police said Cuevas hopped in a Jeep Cherokee and drove the juvenile animal away from an active police scene.
Cuevas, 26, on Friday arrived at the Fort Bend County Justice Center in a different vehicle: a Bentley. He sat stoically for the nearly six-hour proceeding.
The striped feline remained front-and-center, however, as prosecutors attempted to prove that Cuevas violated conditions of his murder bond by breaking curfew the night of the incident and committing a new law violation.
“The safety of the community is at stake,” Fort Bend prosecutor Christopher Baugh said, asking for Cuevas to be held without bond. “Where is the tiger now?”
Cuevas’ attorney, Michael Elliott, argued that authorities had no grounds to arrest Cuevas on the new Harris County violation of evading arrest. He added that Cuevas cared about finding India.
“If he’s locked up, there’s no way he can help get the tiger,” Elliott told the judge.
A viral video showed Cuevas taking India into a house in the Energy Corridor area and leaving the scene after a Sunday night showdown with an off-duty Waller County deputy. Authorities eventually found an outdoor enclosure for India and evidence that the 9-month-old male had been sleeping inside at the home
in the 1100 block of Ivy Wall Drive.
Cuevas has remained quiet on a possible location of the tiger. Houston police told the Chronicle on Thursday that they believe India has changed hands possibly 12 times since Sunday, highlighting the workings of a local exotic animal ring in which animals are passed person-to-person in attempts to hide them.
During a short interview with reporters before the hearing, Elliott repeated that Cuevas does not own the tiger but loves him and takes care of him from time to time.
After, Elliott said Cuevas hopes India will be found and put in a preserve. He revealed that Cuevas met the owner while buying a dog from him and learned that he also had a tiger.
Cuevas is awaiting trial on a murder case in Fort Bend County, in which he is accused of fatally shooting Osiekhuemen Omobhude outside a popular restaurant in 2017.
Cuevas has repeatedly maintained his innocence, stating in court documents that he shot the victim in self-defense after Omobhude pointed a gun at him.
‘That is my tiger’
Three witnesses testified for prosecutors and two testified for Cuevas at Friday’s hearing, with tensions reaching a boiling point as Waller County Deputy Wes Manion took the stand.
Manion detailed the minutes he spent confronting India in the neighborhood during his testimony to state District Judge Frank J. Fraley, recalling how he held his gun out and backed up as the predator prowled toward him.
Cuevas emerged from the
house and said, “Don’t kill it, don’t kill it, don’t kill it,” Manion said.
Cuevas later told him, “That is my tiger,” he said. He approached India, grabbed him by the collar, kissed him on the forehead and put him in his house, the deputy continued.
The man emerged again only to “peel out” in a Jeep with India, driving through a neighbor’s yard, Manion said.
During a cross-examination, Elliott quizzed Manion on his knowledge of penal codes and his ability to try to detain Cuevas. Manion was off-duty and not in uniform. He said he identified himself as a peace officer and intended to assist Houston police in a Class C misdemeanor citation for owning a tiger, which is illegal under Houston city ordinance.
Attorneys became irritated at several points in the hearing and erupted into loud voices after Elliott
asked Manion why he cut 10 seconds of footage from a video that showed Cuevas’ car and police driving down a street during the alleged escape.
Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton said his office would be looking into the “serious” allegations of evidence tampering but said he did not believe there was any malicious intent.
Elliott also asked whether Houston police officer Justin Nguyen, who responded to the scene, had the authority to chase after Cuevas. Nguyen did not tell Cuevas that he must stay in place, although Manion asked him to pull forward in his driveway, according to testimony.
Video didn’t show Nguyen following Cuevas on the same street moving in the same direction. He arrived on the scene to respond to reports of an animal, but he followed Cuevas’ vehicle because it accelerated out of the driveway
with reports of the tiger inside, he said.
Baugh told the judge during his closing arguments that an officer just needs reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot, and that Cuevas surely knew he was being followed.
Giorgiana Cuevas, who said she is Cuevas’ wife, also testified and told the judge that when Cuevas came back inside with the tiger, she told him to go to his car and bring the cat to safety.
She added that she didn’t know the owner. Cuevas, a barber, MMA fighter and AirBnb host, was just watching the animal, she said.
After Cuevas left, Manion knocked on her window as she had a panic attack, and “he smelled and seemed to be drunk out of his mind,” she said.
Prosecutors then asked her about the Bentley and owner, without success. They also questioned her credibility, asking whether she remembered telling the authorities on Sunday that she had met Cuevas only three days before on the dating app Tindr.
After the hearing, Elliott said that was the first he heard that Giorgiana Cuevas might have been untruthful at the scene. He also said Cuevas intended to arrive in a truck, which broke down on the way to court and led him to call a friend, who had the Bentley.
‘Has to be some changes’
Cuevas walked out of the Fort Bend County Jail on Wednesday on bond relating to the new Harris County evading arrest case stemming from the Sunday incident.
Four other bond revocation motions on the murder case had been filed against him for a series of alleged violations, including an arrest last November in Sealy where he allegedly fled officers on a four-wheeler.
Other violations include hours-long stretches in which his ankle monitor lost power, and visits to a Katy shooting range.
Keith Strauss, Cuevas’ stepfather, testified that Cuevas would have to move back home and that he would take personal supervision of his son if he made bond again.
“Now I see there has to be some changes,” he said. “This is too much. I’m going to put the hammer down this time.”
Fraley revoked his old $125,000 bond and set the new amount at $300,000 on Friday, more than double. The judge held the same bond conditions he had before, which included curfew, and agreed to set a trial date as soon as possible.
Elliott said it’s unclear whether Cuevas will make bond.