HE SHOULD’VE KNOWN BETTER –
Oct. 9, 2024 – That amounts to a life sentence for Gerald Goines, who instigated the no-knock raid that killed Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas by falsely accusing them of selling heroin. “This is historic because we believe this is the first-ever murder conviction of a Houston-area law enforcement officer [for a crime] committed while in uniform,” said District Attorney Kim Ogg.
In this case, that trust was sorely misplaced. Goines targeted Tuttle and Nicholas, a middle-aged couple who had lived at 7815 Harding Street for two decades, based on 911 calls from a neighbor, Patricia Garcia, who described them as armed and dangerous drug dealers who had sold her daughter heroin. Garcia, who did not even have a daughter, later admitted she had made the whole thing up, pleading guilty to federal charges related to her false reports.
