Suspect arrested in death of girl, 9
A Houston man indicted on a murder charge in the 2022 shooting death of 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez was arrested Wednesday at a southeast Houston home, court records show.
Police arrested Tony Earls at a home in the 5000 block of Tarawa Road, a residence that county records show is tied to his family, about a week after Harris County prosecutors announced a grand jury’s decision to indict him. Prosecutors in 2022 accepted an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge in the girl’s death, but a grand jury chose not to indict him on that offense and others.
Earls told police after the shooting that someone robbed him and his wife, who was driving, outside a Chase Bank in Houston’s Gulfgate neighborhood. He mistakenly believed the armed man was fleeing in the family’s vehicle on Winkler Drive and opened fire, striking the back window, authorities said.
He fatally struck Arlene as she sat in the back seat with headphones on.
Special prosecutor Warren Diepraam, who was contracted by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to give Earls’ case a second look, attributed last month’s indictment to months of additional investigating.
Despite the extra efforts, the armed robber who first targeted Earls and his wife has yet to be publicly identified or apprehended. Diepraam, who said he is aware of a person of interest, anticipates that a $5,000 reward from Crime Stoppers of Houston will increase to find that individual.
Earls’ initial appearance Friday in the 337th District Court was delayed until Monday as he was in medical at the Harris County Jail as of Friday morning and was unable to appear until later in the day.
His court-appointed attorney, Ana Paula Funes-Baker, said she had not had a chance to visit Earls yet.
April Aguirre, Arlene’s aunt, observed the brief proceeding as the attorneys addressed the judge about Earls’ absence.
She called Earls’ alleged actions “cruel.”
“He executed her,” Aguirre said.
Diepraam on Friday characterized Earls as “a threat to the public.”
He said at an earlier news conference that he planned to ask a judge to set Earls’ bail at $250,000 on the murder charge but no documentation was filed recommending that amount, records show. A prosecutor who oversaw a probable cause hearing Thursday instead requested $100,000, which a Harris County magistrate approved.
The same magistrate set bail at $40,000 for an unrelated aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge that was filed in May 2023 against Earls. That charge prompted a warrant Earls was not arrested on until the recent indictment.
A public defender, who emphasized that Earls had been robbed in the moments before the fatal shooting, described Earls as a lifelong Houstonian with a 6-year-old daughter during the hearing. He has been unemployed for the past three years, the lawyer said.