20-year-old cleared of killing friend after new evidence was found, family says

SPRING, Texas (KTRK) -- A Humble man charged with murder is now free after the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said it found new evidence.

The arrest was in connection to a 19-year-old who was gunned down in Spring.

On Monday night and ONLY ON ABC13, 20-year-old Mark Anthony Crooms spoke with Eyewitness News after spending the weekend in a jail cell accused of killing his friend John Dennis Holmes III on July 16.

Crooms had been home for just two hours when Eyewitness News spoke to him and his family after MCSO said new evidence produced his alibi.

In surveillance camera footage of his arrest, authorities move in on Crooms and his family with guns drawn, a moment his mother can't get out of her head.

"I have never been so traumatized in my life. I am scared for my life. I am scared for my son's life. I am scared to even live here anymore," Tracy Shepherd, Crooms' mother, told ABC13.

The sheriff's office believed Crooms was guilty of shooting and killing Holmes. According to MCSO, the arrest warrant was based on "probable cause established during the early stages of the investigation."

"They said they had my fingerprints in my friend's car, and I said, 'Of course, they are in his car. That is my friend," Crooms told ABC13.

The sheriff's office said Crooms was released because his alibi checked out, which his mom said she gave investigators upfront.

"We have cameras. I told them, 'I know for a fact he left one time to go down the street and get McDonald's," said Shepherd.

Holmes was killed at about 6:30 p.m. on July 16, the same day as Crooms' birthday. A timestamp from Crooms' home camera shows him at home in Humble at 6:27 p.m., 17 miles away from where the murder happened in Spring.

"They just came straight to me because they don't know nothing," Crooms said.

ABC13 found that Crooms has a criminal record, including a felony charge of organized criminal activity in Montgomery County, but he said he didn't kill his friend.

"There is just so much going on in my head right now; it is hard for me to even talk to anybody," Crooms admitted.

Retired police detective Mark Stephens said murder investigations are complicated. Mistakes happen sometimes because witnesses lie or people make false identifications, but Stephens said there are still many questions to be asked here.

"It really is important if these charges were justified by that probable cause," Stephens said.

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