Bank Robberies Increase In Houston

Oh no...not in Houston!!!!

The number of bank robberies in the Houston-area this year has more than doubled.

There were 54 last year and 116 this year.

Investigators said there is no one particular reason for the jump.

I am shocked that no one is trying to blame the increase on Katrina evacuees.

'Baby Grace' Has Been Identified

Riley Ann Sawyers, the 2-year-old girl missing from Spring is Baby Grace, the girl found dead in a plastic storage bin in West Galveston Bay nearly a month ago, Galveston County Sheriff¹s office officials said Sunday.

Chief Deputy Freddy Poor said that while investigators were sure enough about the match to inform the child’s next of kin, only DNA testing, which still was pending, could provide a positive match.

Meanwhile, the child’s mother and stepfather are being held in the Galveston County Jail charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence, according to jail clerks.

Report: 15 put to death by Texas had questionable, tainted evidence

Did the state of Texas put 15 people to death even though the evidence against them may have been tainted?

ll/News has obtained a report that explains exactly what may have gone wrong with the Houston Police Department’s beleaguered crime lab. Specific evidence questions that are tied to 180 criminal cases and include convicts who've already been put to death.

These are details we are seeing for the first time. The specific issues with each of the cases are now being examined.

They are catalogued in a spreadsheet obtained only by 11 News.

It was produced by the Bromwich team, tasked by the city with investigating the trouble at the crime lab.

It has been reviewed by HPD as well as Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal.

The spreadsheet coded cases. The color green for cases where evidence still exists and red for evidence still stored at the lab.

We've broken it down for you.

There are 62 murder cases and 40 capital murder cases among the 180 cases now under review.

Of those 40 capital murder cases, 15 of the convicted have already been executed. Ten more are still on death row.

"Just because they're on that list, you have to look at what part the serology played. What was the defect,” said Marie Munier of the DA’s office. “What part that (evidence) played in the conviction. What other evidence was there that these people committed these crimes?”

For some there is no question of guilt. Like Karla Faye Tucker.

There were errors in the lab work related to her murder case. But there was also an admission by her that she did indeed pick axe to death Jerry Dean and Deborah Thornton 24 years ago.

Then there is a case like the quadruple murder at Malibu Grand Prix in 1983. In all, three suspects would be convicted for the murders.

Two, Kenneth Ray Ransom and Richard Wilkerson, were executed.

But the HPD lab evidence shows something strange.

There were four victims and three suspects in the case. Retesting of evidence found two Blood Type AB tests.

But none of the seven individuals in the case are or were type AB.

"Each case will have to be looked at individually,” said Munier.

There are more than 160 hearings planned before Nov. 1 on the cases that are now being reviewed. But 15 already put to death won’t have that chance.

Drug Traffic a real pain along Texas/Louisiana border

Texas has been getting an unexpected flood of business from its Louisiana neighbors. Why would so many Louisianans flood across the Texas border?

It’s the draw of Texas pain management clinics that dispense pills much easier than Louisiana.

“At the height of the problem we were getting 80 to 90 percent of our cars from Louisiana,” said Orange County Sheriff Mike White. “Pain management is when you pay cash and you get the same pain prescription over and over and over.”

In fact, the sheriff’s department seized thousands of suspect pills from stopping so-called pain patients as they left the clinics.

“They get a cocktail of hydrocodone, Xanex and soma,” said White.

The problem – authorities say… the pill traffic is stretching from the Louisiana borders to Houston.

Recently federal authorities raided a clinic in Orange County. It’s out of this space now and business owners are happy about that.”

For the moment, seven out of the nine pain management clinics in Orange are no longer open, thanks to raids and crackdowns.

But with the border part of the pill mill gone, it’s unclear what that means for Houston.

Microwave baby's dad pleads insanity

A man charged with burning his infant daughter in a microwave oven will seek to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sam Cammack III, attorney for Joshua Mauldin, has filed notice of intent to plead insanity.

Under state law, a person can be found not guilty by reason of insanity if a jury finds the defendant did not know that his or her actions were wrong. It is a defense that worked in the cases of Andrea Yates and Deanna Laney, two Texas women who killed their own children.