Parents ask grand jury to investigate police killing of son
New evidence is cited in an attempt to criminally charge Navasota officer
Two years after their son was shot to death by an off-duty Navasota police officer in plainclothes, Joseph Santellana and Roxana Regalado Harrison on Monday announced that they are independently asking Harris County grand jurors chosen outside the old “pick-a-pal” system to investigate criminal charges against the lawman based on new evidence.
Last year, another grand jury declined to indict Officer Rey Garza in the death of 17-year-old Jonathen Santellana.
“He was a great kid,” Harrison said of her son. “I felt like justice wasn’t served, and I felt like they didn’t give us a chance.”
Texas law allows grand jurors to inquire into indictable offenses brought to them by prosecutors “or any other credible person.”
In June, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill ending the state’s method in which judges selected commissioners to recommend prospective grand jurors. The so-called “key man” system was ques-
tioned as a source of bias in the criminal justice system.
Under the new law, judges now choose grand jurors under the same random selection used to seat regular civil and criminal court juries. The names are pulled from voter rolls and driver’s license records, a larger pool that supporters of the new system advocate as a pathway to more diverse grand juries across the state.
Jonathen Santellana’s parents, flanked by members of the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice, spoke outside the Harris County criminal courthouse during an afternoon news conference.
“I feel like I owe this to my son,” Joseph Santellana said. “Every case is different and the police aren’t always right. There’s a lot of times when they’re wrong and they should be held accountable when they’re wrong.”
Lawman’s story disputed
The Houston teen was sitting in his car outside a northwest Harris County apartment complex where Garza, a Navasota rookie officer, provided security. According to news reports and a federal civil rights lawsuit filed last week by the teen’s parents, Garza approached the vehicle on Nov. 13, 2013, with a gun drawn on Santellana and a female passenger. Believing they were targets of an impending robbery, Santellana put the car in reverse to flee and was shot by the officer.
At the time, authorities — including Harris County Sheriff ’s Office officials who responded to the shooting and then-Navasota Police Chief Shawn Myatt — said that Garza identified himself as an officer. The lawman opened fire, they said, when the car moved and pinned him against another vehicle. According to the lawsuit, the teen girl in the car disputes that version of events.
So does the opinion of a reconstruction expert hired by the family as they crafted their federal lawsuit, Houston civil rights lawyer Randall Kallinen said.
“We have an expert shooting reconstructionist who put together a report … and has determined that at the time of the shooting, Rey Garza was not in danger,” he said, noting that Jonathen Santellana’s autopsy indicated that he was shot in the back and through the rear of his head.
“We’re asking the grand jury … to look at this case and see if they cannot find probable cause to indict Rey Garza,” Kallinen said. “The citizens are tired of police getting off on every shooting.”
‘Not a no-bill forever’
According to a Chronicle analysis of Harris County District Attorney’s Office records, local grand juries in 2014 chose not to charge 47 officers from nine agencies, including 20 cases in which civilians died and 19 others involving wounded civilians. Texas was the last state in the nation to use the “pick-a-pal” system to select grand jurors.
Jeff McShan, a spokesman for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said five grand juries are currently in session. He said neither Jonathen Santellana’s parents nor their lawyers have shared the new information with prosecutors.
“If they have new evidence, I’m sure the civil rights division would look at it,” McShan said.
Amanda Peters, a Texas criminal law expert and professor at Houston’s South Texas College of Law, said that the parents are within their legal rights to take another bite at the apple.
“When a grand jury no-bills a case, that no-bill is not a no-bill forever,” she said. “With new evidence ... it is possible that they would consider looking at the case.”
Because grand jury proceedings are secret, it’s improbable that the family will ever know what evidence, if any, the first panel found credible.
“The grand jury is perfectly capable of investigating this case and taking it further,” said Peters, a former Harris County prosecutor and criminal defense attorney.
She added that some panels, often nicknamed “runaway grand juries,” take great initiative in determining whether there is probable cause to bring charges. “I would hope that given the traditional role of the grand jury, that they would be as willing to accept evidence brought before them from everyday citizens as they would evidence brought before them by a prosecutor.”
George Dix, a criminal law professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said there is no legal barrier or “formal procedure” for the parents to gain access to a grand jury.
Poor training alleged
The civil lawsuit against the Grimes County city northwest of Houston alleges that Garza was acting in the scope of his employment as a police officer during the shooting and accuses the Navasota Police Department of failing to train its officers on “the appropriate use of force,” among other allegations.
Garza, who joined the city’s police force in April 2012, resigned in September to take another job, Round Rock attorney Cary Bovey, Navasota’s legal counsel, confirmed Monday.