DA takes on cop slaying case
Jury selection to begin in the trial of a man accused of killing a Bellaire officer
Jury selection will begin Monday in the capital murder case against a 23-yearold accused cop killer whose lawyers will face off directly with Harris County’s top prosecutor.
Attorney Patt McCann said he expects his client, Harlem Harold Lewis III, to be convicted for fatally shooting Bellaire police officer Jimmie Norman and business owner Terry Taylor after a routine traffic stop turned into a chase on Christmas Eve 2012.
While his death in prison is almost certain, Lewis’ defense team said they will argue for life without parole.
“It’s death in custody or death in custody with a needle,” McCann said. “One of the two is going to happen.”
Devon Anderson, who was appointed district attorney after Mike Anderson died of cancer last summer, will be fulfilling her husband’s campaign promise to personally prosecute accused cop killers.
“I am honored once again to represent the great State of Texas in the courtroom as we seek justice for Corporal Jimmie Norman and business owner Terry Taylor,” Anderson said in a statement issued Friday.
She spent 12 years as a prosecutor for the office, working on several capital murders and at least two death penalty trials. In 2000, shewas the lead prosecutor in the capitalmurder trial of “The Railway Killer”
Angel Maturino Resendiz, who was sentenced to die after confessing to killing nine people. During that trial, then-district attorney Johnny Holmes assisted her
Still, it’s rare for the district attorney in Texas’ biggest city to argue cases in court herself. The district attorney usually delegates to one of the roughly 250 lawyers employed by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office so that she can handle the administrative responsibilities of the office.
“Some people might be skeptical andmay see it as a stunt, but I don’t see it that way,” said Geoffrey Corn, a professor at South Texas College of Law. “It’s a demonstration of commitment to the law enforcement community and, in this case in particular, a commitment tothe legacy of her husband.”
Pat Lykos, who was the DA for four years before Mike Anderson was elected in 2012, did not personally try any cases during her tenure. Prosecutors in her administration secured two death penalties in police deaths.
Her predecessor Chuck Rosenthal put Robert Gene Will on death row for killing Harris County sheriff’s Deputy Barrett Hill in2000. He had vowed to prosecute Juan Quintero for the killing of HPD officer Rodney Johnson, but resigned three months before the case went to trial in May 2008. Quintero was convicted, but sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Former Harris County District Attorneys Holmes, Carol Vance and Frank Briscoe tried cases during their time as DAs.
Officials with the Bellaire Police Department declined to comment on the trial, but said they expect officers of all stripes to pay attention to the trial. Several have been subpoenaed because they were the first responders and investigators.
Lewis, then 21, was driving a black Honda Civic in a residential area of Bellaire when Norman tried to stop him on the morning of Dec. 24, 2012. Lewis fled and minutes later stopped in the parking lot of a Maaco body shop on Bellaire Boulevard.
Witnesses said Norman approached the car, then tussled with Lewis as he tried to get the young man out of the Honda.
Norman was fatally shot before he could draw his pistol. Witnesses said Taylor, the owner of the body shop, came out to see what was going on and to try to help Norman, a 24-year law enforcement veteran. He was shot in theback.
Backup officers arrived in the middle of the shooting and a gun battle erupted. Lewis was wounded and ran. Police followed a trail of blood to find him hiding under a truck about a block away.
McCann said Lewis panicked when he was being pulled over because he had been raised to fear police and he has a low IQ.
“You wonder, if only his dad hadn’t had made him quite so afraid of police that maybe this wouldn’t have happened,” McCann said. Court filings show that Lewis’ father has been prohibited by the court from talking to his son after apparently leading his son to distrust his attorneys.
In a motion to withdraw as attorney, McCann wrote there was a “severe breakdown of attorney-client communications” because of Lewis’s father’s “misguided attempt to control hisson’s case.”
State District Judge Mark Kent Ellis denied the motion to withdraw. Ellis issued an order prohibiting Lewis’s father from contacting his son. McCann said the father has continued to violate the order, according to court records.
Lewis’s father declined to comment on the case, saying the restraining order keeps him from talking about the case.
If the jury convicts Lewis of capital murder, they will have to decide if he will be a future danger to society andif there are any mitigating factors that should keep him off death row.
Prosecutors, including Anna Emmons and Craig Goodhart, are expected to bring up past occurrences of wrongdoing, including burglary of a motorvehicle, theft and domestic violence.
He also kicked a jail guard since his arrest in 2012 and was caught with six prescription pills that treat anxiety and depression.
Since his arrest, Lewis has complained of sleepless nights and nightmares about the shooting, according to court records.
“He absolutely feels a great deal of remorse,” McCann said. “Him accepting responsibility for what happened and realizing that if he had acted a different way this could have been avoided has been the struggle of this pastyear.”