Man charged again in fatal shooting of girl
A Houston man was indicted in the 2022 shooting death of 9year-old Arlene Alvarez, nearly two years after a separate grand jury believed similar indictments were not merited in his case.
Tony Earls was indicted Tuesday on a murder charge, after what Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg described as months of additional investigating into the Valentine’s Day shooting centered on his decision to open fire on a fleeing armed robber. He was originally charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Earls was not in custody as of Wednesday, and charging documents were not available.
Ogg said in July 2022 that she would not task another grand jury to review Earls’ case unless new evidence was found.
Special prosecutor Warren Diepraam, whom Ogg’s office hired in March 2023, did not specify the new evidence since grand jury proceedings are secret by law. He credited the work of an FBI firearms expert who took a fresh look at the physical evidence. The expert recorded measurements at the scene and watched surveillance footage from the shooting, he said.
He also credited evidence found amid the family’s pending civil litigation related to the shooting.
“Earls had a clear view of the robber as he was getting away and a clear view of the Alvarez vehicle,” Diepraam said during a news conference later on Wednesday. “Earls should have never fired into that car.”
At the time of the shooting, Earls told police that someone robbed him and his wife, who was driving and taking out money, 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.
The armed thief was never apprehended, despite efforts by Houston homicide detectives to seek tips in identifying and finding him. Thousands of dollars were offered in reward money and surveillance footage of the fleeing robber was widely shared. Police have reviewed several tips related to his identity but have yet to name a suspect.
Chief Troy Finner, at the time of the grand jury’s decision to not indict Earls, identified the armed man as being “ultimately responsible” for the events leading up to Arlene’s death.
The child’s family lamented the grand jury’s first decision and urged the district attorney’s office to take the case to a grand jury again.
The child’s mother, Wendy Alvarez, said Arlene’s death was still fresh in her mind. The girl’s aunt, April Aguirre, said their family refused to accept the grand jury’s original decision. Since the shooting, Aguirre has gone on to decry bail practices and lend her name to efforts to unseat Democratic judges.
‘Been through hell’
Ogg, in her own remarks, said Arlene’s family has “been through hell.”
Earls has been wanted in Harris County since May 2023 when prosecutors accepted an aggravated assault of a family member charge on an assertion that March that he threatened a relative at gunpoint.
Houston police Sgt. Mark Holbrook said Earls is likely still in southeast Houston, around where the shooting took place.
Earls’ wife, Deyonna Hines, has been in communication with police, Holbrook continued, but authorities are relying on additional tips to find her husband. Diepraam said Hines’ account of the shooting, rather than Earls, would likely be needed to prosecute the robber.
“He didn’t see (the robber) the way she did,” Diepraam said.
During a news conference that followed the 2022 shooting, Hines sat alongside Earls, free on bond, as he cried and appeared shaken as others discussed the criminal case against him.
One of his then lawyers said Earls believed the robber fired at least one shot and that he returned fire in apparent self-defense.
Hines read a statement addressing her husband’s role in the child’s death.
“My husband told me he felt the same desire to protect us,” Hines said at the time.
Andy Kahan, director of victim services for Crime Stoppers of Houston, said a $5,000 reward has been offered for the whereabouts for Earls and the armed robber. A reward of $30,000 was initially offered in 2022 for the suspected thief, with financial help from billionaire Tilman Fertitta, but that amount expired after a year, Kahan said.
Special prosecutor at work
Diepraam, the special prosecutor behind the indictment, said he plans to ask a judge to set Earls’ bail at $250,000 once apprehended.
The former Harris County prosecutor signed a contract with Ogg’s office in March 2023 to work the Earls case and another, according to invoices and other county records. The other case involved Mansoor Abbasi for his role in a fatal hit-and-run that prompted questions from Ogg’s leadership about a two-year pretrial intervention agreement that outgoing prosecutor Sean Teare signed off on.
Teare went on to win the Democratic primary against Ogg and is facing off with Republican Dan Simons in November.
The office derided Teare’s agreement with Abbasi’s attorneys as a sweetheart deal, while Teare warned of weak evidence in the case. He casted their opposition as a political hit. By that point, he was on the verge of announcing his bid for district attorney.
Within weeks of Teare’s departure, Ogg’s office hired Diepraam and asked him to review both cases. His contract was amended the following month to task Diepraam with temporarily running the vehicular crimes division, which Teare previously lead for years, and for him to audit it, according to county records.
During an interview with the Chronicle’s Editorial Board, Teare criticized Ogg for bringing the victim’s family into the spotlight in the Abbasi case, going on to cite the case as an example of how she “goes about attacking people with no regard for anybody.”