Murder trial jury hears from those wrongly put away by former HPD officer during punishment phase

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Otis Mallet Jr. does not want to relive the years of freedom he lost at the hands of convicted felon and former Houston police officer Gerald Goines. But Mallet walked into court Thursday afternoon to help seek justice for Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas because they are no longer here to speak for themselves.

The couple was killed five years ago in a botched police raid that happened based on Goines' lies.

Wednesday afternoon, a jury convicted Goines of felony murder. Thursday morning, the punishment phase of his trial began. Goines could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

PREVIOUS REPORT: Former HPD officer Gerald Goines, now a convicted murderer, enters penalty phase next

On the stand, Mallet was calm as he recounted that fateful day in 2008 when he had just arrived at his family home after taking his kids to basketball practice. Mallet recalled how several police cars swarmed around him, arresting both him and his brother for drugs they never had.

Mallet took the case to trial, asking the court, "Why would I plead guilty when I didn't do something?" But with Goines testifying against him, Mallet was convicted and sentenced to prison.

Mallet was the first person to be declared "actually innocent" by the courts after the Harding Street raid broke open Goines' decades of false police work.

"It's been a long wait to see justice and to see him get what's coming to him," James Ybarra, who came to court to witness Mallet and others testify, said.

In 2015, Ybarra was arrested when officers raided where he was getting his haircut based on Goines' faulty police work. He, too, spent time behind bars and had a felony on his record until the Harding Street raid exposed Goines.

"Unable to get a good job, unable to function with a felony on my record, you can't do a lot of things with a felony," Ybarra said. "(I was) just happy it was overturned, and I'm happy they see the liar that Gerald Goines is."

Two current Houston police officers who investigated Goines' actions after the raid also took the stand. They methodically detailed how the former officer would regularly pay a confidential informant for alleged drug buys on houses that the C.I. never visited.

That confidential informant also took the stand, testifying that she worked with Goines for over 22 years. On the stand, the C.I. said that while in the beginning, she actually bought the drugs for Goines as part of his investigations. However, in the later years, she would just meet up with Goines and sign the paperwork. She didn't buy the drugs she said she did, and for each of those occasions, Goines would pay her $25 to $75.

"A lot of times, we refer to the punishment phase as the 'everything but the kitchen sink phase,'" Murray Newman, a Houston criminal attorney who has attended much of the trial, said. "Because they can bring up anything. It can be a criminal charge. It can be any other bad acts relevant to punishment."

Goines' new jail booking photo was taken overnight after the guilty verdict on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Gerald Goines' sentence could rest on testimony from those wrongly convicted before botched raid

Goines was the primary investigator for 441 criminal cases from 2008 to 2019.

Since the botched Harding Street raid in 2019, where Goines murdered Tuttle and Nicholas, more than 30 convictions have been overturned, according to the district attorney's office.

Because a gag order exists, we do not know how many people who Goines wrongly sent to prison will testify.

Mallet's testimony, however, was riveting. When asked to identify Goines, sitting at the defense table, he said calmly, "That looks like a man going through some things."

Because of jury scheduling, the punishment phase of the trial will resume next Wednesday.