Man charged with murder after victim found stuffed in 2-ft deep plastic bin at Houston motel
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A man is charged with murder after a dead body was found stuffed in a plastic container bin at a Houston motel.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office says 34-year-old Eric Pleasant has been arrested and charged with murder. Eyewitnesses said they saw him leaving a room at the Champion Lodge Motel in the 4700 block of FM 1960. He was allegedly dragging a bin with him.
Eyewitnesses describe the bin as measuring about 2 and a half feet and at least 2 feet deep. The victim's head and one of his legs were hanging out of it, according to witnesses.
"Last night, it was just really crazy," said Cassandra Whittington. She lives at the motel and said she was walking between her room and the laundry when she noticed a man trying to drag a bin-- as she calls it -- a "tote."
Officers found the body around 6pm Thursday night at the Champions Lodge in the 4700 block of FM 1960 West, the man's legs and head hanging outside the container.
VIDEO: Man seen with body in plastic container in N. Harris Co. motel
"When I came back out to check on my laundry, he was asking another dude to help him with the tote and I guess the dude got scared when he found out what it was," Whittington says. "And he got shooken up and left and I was like, when found out on the news what it was I was like, 'Oh my God.'"
Detectives say Pleasant shot and killed the victim in one of the rooms at the motel. One person living at the property says the victim and another man had been arguing here near the property office Wednesday.
Demarcus Washington, who lives in the motel, says he was equally surprised to see the man attempting to move the plastic container.
"Just to see a body being dragged outside a room? Like that is strange, like nuh uh," Washington says.
Demarcus Washington says both the suspect and the victim have been around the motel before.
Days earlier, Washington saw both men in a heated exchange.
"I seen the same two guys get into an argument like over here in front of the front office, really, but like they was talking about a guy owed them some money," Wsshington says.
There are cameras all over the place out here, and motel owners say detectives have a copy of the video that may show the suspect dragging that bin through the common areas of the motel.
The suspect, identified by authorities as Eric Pleasant, 34, has been charged with murder. He was found not far from the crime scene and arrested. Authorities say he shot the victim inside a motel room during a fight.
Pleasant is being held on a $60,000 bond at the Harris County Sheriff's Office Detention Center.
The victim's name has not been released, pending notification of next of kin. Detectives say he is a white male in his 40's.
