Wrongful arrest in 19-year-old's Spring murder was 'so confusing,' victim's family says

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Many questions still need to be asked after a man wrongly arrested for his friend's murder was released from jail Monday in Montgomery County.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office is dodging questions after detectives said they arrested the wrong person in a murder last week in Spring.

ABC13 first told you about this situation Monday night, and since then, our requests for answers on this ongoing matter were ignored

"They don't know, they act like they know. They don't know nothing. They just came straight to me because they don't know nothing," Mark Crooms, who was wrongly accused of killing his friend, said.

Crooms spoke first to ABC13 on Monday evening hours after he was released from the Montgomery County Jail. He spent the weekend there accused of killing his friend John Holmes III.

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

Crooms and his family now plan to get an attorney and pursue this situation legally.

They said Crooms had an alibi the entire time and felt like investigators weren't listening to them.

"He came back on the camera. You can see him again throwing the trash away at 6:43 p.m. (on July 16). It was impossible for my son to be out there killing somebody," Crooms' mother, Tracey Shepherd, said.

Shepherd added that Holmes was killed far from their home at 6:40 p.m. that day.

MCSO released Crooms on Monday after they said new evidence emerged, but the agency provided no other details despite ABC13's repeated requests for comment.

Deputies are still looking for the person who killed Holmes and why. His killer or killers remain on the loose.

"It's just so confusing, but we want justice for him," Brianna Holmes, the victim's sister, said.

Brianna Holmes added that her brother was kind, giving, and wholesome. They don't know who would do this to him.

The Holmes family told Eyewitness News they're devastated, and his death came as a shock.

"I'm in disbelief. Still, now, it (doesn't) feel real. It doesn't feel like he's really gone," Lexus Holmes, another of John Holmes' sisters, said.

If you have any information on who killed the 19-year-old, you're asked to call law enforcement.

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