Judge's Daughter to begin serving Lenient Sentence

The judge's daughter, who was convicted of manslaughter, will begin serving her very lenient sentence.

Elizabeth Shelton, convicted in a crash that killed her boyfriend, will start serving her 120-day jail sentence Thursday.

Shelton, whose father is Judge Pat Shelton, previously had asked to serve time on the weekends and holidays to avoid problems with her school schedule.

We must not interfere with her education. Boo, hoo, hoo

Panel to be appointed to review Houston's Crime Lab cases

I am so glad that someone will be reviewing Houston's crime lab cases. Just the thought that there could be people in prison for crimes they did not commit makes me sick to my stomach. It is bad enough when we have unsolved crimes. To put an innocent person, in prison is something that we as a society should not tolerate.

Harris County criminal judges plan to appoint a three-attorney panel to review 180 cases that may have been mishandled by the Houston police crime lab.

The cases were identified in June by a former Justice Department inspector hired by Houston.

Authorities earlier this week released a man who was wrongfully convicted of rape in the 1990s after the lab failed to identify semen on the victim’s bedsheet.

Testing by an outside lab this summer found DNA evidence from another man.

Ronald Taylor was the third Texas prison inmate to be freed because of problems with the Houston crime lab.

The review calls for three defense attorneys to determine the importance of crime lab evidence to the 180 convictions—and act accordingly.

They likely will report to retired Judge Mary Bacon.

Judge's daughter gets light sentence for intoxication manslaughter

I cannot believe the sentence this judge's daughter got for her crime. A young man is dead. Let us think about the real victim and his family. My prayers go out to this young man's family. Did the jury really send a message to this drunken young lady? You be the judge.
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A jury Monday sentenced the daughter of a Harris County judge to eight years probation and fined her $10,000 for the intoxication manslaughter death of her 19-year-old boyfriend.

By law, 20-year-old Elizabeth Shelter must serve 120 days in jail before her probation begins.

If she fails to meet the terms of the probation, she will be sent to prison for five years.

The sentence came just hours after a jury convicted Shelton.

As the guilty verdict was read, Shelton remained stoic. Her family was visibly shaken.


Lawyers for Shelton, 20, did not deny that she was drunk when she crashed her SUV into the back of a box truck last year. They blamed the accident on the truck driver, saying he made an illegal lane change.

The truck driver denied the allegations.

Shelton's boyfriend, Matthew McNiese, was killed instantly in the crash and neary beheaded.

Witnesses said he was hanging out of the SUV's window before the crash.

Tests showed Shelton's blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit that night.

Witnesses testified that Shelton cursed at the ER nurse who was taking her blood at the hospital after the crash. She

told the nurse that her father, Pat Shelton, was a judge.

Shelton will be allowed to finish out the semester before reporting to jail on December 20.

She could have received up to 20 years in prison for the crime.

Houston Crime Lab Gross Negligence (Incompetence)

I would never categorize what Houston's Crime Lab did to Ronnie Taylor as a mistake. I would consider their actions gross negligence and severe incompetence. Every newspaper or television report states that this was a mistake. An outside lab was able to detect the DNA on the sheet. Houston's Crime Lab should be shut down and all of their work should be contracted out until they are able to hire competent employees.
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Wrongly Convicted Man Needs Justice

A man who spent 12 years in prison for a rape that DNA evidence later proved he did not commit is expected to be released from prison Tuesday in Houston, attorneys said.

Ronald Taylor, 47, would be the third innocent man released from prison because of mistakes made by the Houston Police Department’s troubled crime lab.

Taylor is scheduled to appear in front of state District Judge Denise Collins with his lawyers from the Texas Innocence Network and the Innocence Project, organizations that seek to free the wrongfully convicted, as well as Harris County prosecutors, who are supporting Taylor’s release.

“We’re all in agreement ... that Ronnie Taylor is innocent and spent the last 14 years incarcerated while the real perpetrator went unapprehended,” said Nina Morrison, an Innocence Project staff attorney.

The man whose DNA matches that found on the victim’s bedsheet is already in prison for failing to register as a sex offender.

Taylor has remained in jail since Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal acknowledged his innocence last week. The delays are common in these cases while authorities arrange an inmate’s release, Morrison and Rosenthal said.

Even if the judge grants his release as expected Tuesday, Taylor will still have to return to the county jail to get processed out, Morrison said.

“The sheriff’s department has assured us they will move as quickly as possible,” Morrison said. Morrison didn’t expect it to take very long for Taylor to then be released.

Taylor was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to 60 years in prison for the 1993 rape of a woman in her home. Taylor was convicted on the victim’s identification, Morrison said, although the victim told authorities she caught only a glimpse of her attacker’s face.

At the trial, an analyst with the Houston police crime lab testified that she had tested the bed sheet and found no semen. This summer, a private lab in New Orleans retested the bed sheet and found semen that was matched to Roosevelt Carroll, currently in prison for failing to register as a sex offender. The Innocence Project paid for the retesting.