First prosecution in 10 years for a Houston Police killing
A judge Thursday ordered a former Houston police officer to spend 60
days in jail, rejecting a jury's recommendation that the ex-officer
should serve no time behind bars and only be placed on probation for
the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy. State District Judge Mary Lou
Keel made the jail term part of the probation for Arthur J. Carbonneau,
25, who was convicted earlier this week of criminally negligent
homicide in the November 2003 death of Eli Eloy Escobar. The jury
Wednesday had sentenced him to nine years, six months and 14 days of
probation. Prosecutors had asked jurors to recommend the maximum 10
years in prison. As part of the sentence handed down Thursday, Keel
also ordered Carbonneau write a letter of apology to the Escobar
family. Prosecutors had asked the judge for a six-month jail term,
along with a handwritten apology letter to the Escobar family and
apology letters to the Houston Police Department and the city.
The jurors Tuesday convicted Carbonneau of criminally negligent
homicide in the shooting death of Eli Escobar. The parents of the
14-year-old were devastated by the jury's recommendation that Arthur
Carbonneau get probation on Wednesday. The jury had a wide range to
choose from while considering Carbonneau's punishment, which could have
been as stiff as 10 years in prison. They settled on probation for nine
years, six months and 14 days. The victim's mother left the courtroom
sobbing on Wednesday. She and other family members had been waiting for
more than a year to see their son's killer behind bars. [ more] and [more]and [more] and [more]
Jose Sanchez says police came to talk to him about a fight he
was in earlier in the day. He says his friend Eli was not involved in
that attack and that he tried to leave. That's when officers tried to
restrain him and Escobar put up a fight. Sanchez said, "He went crazy.
The cop grabbed him, threw him on the floor. He told him to calm down.
He wouldn't and he just shot him in the head." Sanchez says Escobar did
nothing to warrant the use of deadly force. Neighbor Patricia Ulmer
agrees. She watched the shooting from the balcony just above, and says
it looked like the officer deliberately wanted to kill the boy."It was
so unnecessary." Another eyewitness Jesse Rodriguez had accompanied the cops to the scene
after reporting that another youth had punched his son. "They ignored
me when I was telling them who had assaulted my son," he said. "They
were too busy roughing up Eli, who didn't have anything to do with the
assault." Rodriguez said that as the cops seized Escobar, "he was
saying, "Help me! Help me! I didn't do anything. What did I do?' They
had no mercy on him, no compassion." "They're killing our children,"
added Diane Bossom of Copwatch, an anti-police brutality organization. [more]
