Exonerated man on trial in new killing
The overturned murder conviction that led to Lydell Grant’s freedom after nine years behind bars made waves in the Texas criminal justice system.
Grant’s brother aired concerns that it made him suspicious of others.
“He was doing so good after,” Grant’s younger brother, Alonzo Poe, said Monday during a hearing aimed at lowering his sibling’s bail on a new murder charge.
A judge pressed Poe, 45, about what he knew of the southwest Houston fatal shooting that prompted his brother’s arrest last April. His answer spoke more of Grant’s state of mind. His brother’s exoneration, prompted by the Innocence Project of Texas conducting a new DNA analysis that ruled Grant out as a suspect, made national headlines. The money Grant had or could receive was also highlighted in those reports, Poe said.
“A man pulled up on him — I’m assuming he was paranoid at the time of the offense,” Poe continued in court.
Grant’s arrest on another murder charge followed about two years of freedom after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared him innocent of a 2010 killing in Montrose. Houston police officers this year tied him to the April 6 death of 33year-old Edwin Arevalo, who was shot and killed after crashing into Grant’s vehicle, according to court records.
Surveillance footage from a gas station in the 13000 block of Hiram Clarke Road showed a man firing into Arevalo’s vehicle and then leaving, prosecutors said. Police recognized the man in the footage as Grant based on a prior interaction with him.
A magistrate initially set Grant’s bail at $1 million. He has been held at the Harris County Jail ever since. Grant’s concerns over the bail amount led to arguments in court over whether his family could afford securing his freedom and guarantee his return to court.
Grant’s court-appointed attorney, Jimmy Ortiz, asked for the bail to be lowered, while a prosecutor, Brittney Symons, argued for the judge to keep the bail as is, citing the allegation that placed Grant with a firearm, which she said he was prohibited from having, and using it to kill a stranger.
Symon quizzed Poe about his brother’s juvenile arrest in 1993 for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon — Grant’s only conviction for a violent offense. The case was a long time ago, Poe said.
Poe did not elaborate on Grant’s financial situation in court.
Grant received a lump sum of about $673,000 and $3,300 in monthly payments, said Kevin Lyons, a spokesman for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The payments would stop if Grant is convicted in the latest case, Lyons said.
Judge Denise Bradley, a visiting jurist in the 486th District Court, asked Poe during the hearing why the siblings’ parents were unable to help with bail.
“They’re willing to do it but can’t,” Poe said. His mother’s recent heart surgery was a financial burden for the family, he said
The $1 million was too high, the judge said, but she weighed the family’s inability to pay against the threat to community safety should Grant make bond. Bradley lowered it to $750,000.
Bradley signaled that she wants Grant’s case resolved by next April, either through a plea bargain or trial. She asked the prosecution to make a plea offer by the time both sides return to court next month.
Delays in ballistics testing in Grant’s case may foil that plan, Symons said. She described the delay as two to three years — an amount that contrasts with the 256-day turnaround that the Houston Science Forensic Center has averaged for that kind of testing in recent months, according to the lab’s website.
“Our office is working on a workaround,” Symons said.