http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/2443816 HPD officer indicted in death of teenager Murder charge against lawman first here in decade By ANDREW TILGHMAN and PEGGY O'HARE Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A Houston police officer was indicted on a murder charge Wednesday in the shooting death of a 14-year-old boy during a scuffle at a northwest Houston apartment complex last year. Officer Arthur J. Carbonneau, 24, is accused of intentionally killing Eli Eloy Escobar II on Nov. 21. The teen was shot in the head at close range at the Burnham Woods apartments in the 3100 block of Mangum. The Harris County grand jury's indictment marks the first time in more than a decade that a law officer in the county has been charged with murder stemming from an on-duty killing. The youth's family welcomed the news. "Eli's not coming back, but at least the officer's going to get justice," said Alfonso Perales, an uncle of the boy's mother, Lydia Escobar. Police had said the shooting was an accident. On his attorneys' advice, Carbonneau did not appear before the grand jury. A two-year Houston Police Department veteran, he was suspended with pay after the shooting, pending the outcome of an internal investigation. He faces a sentence ranging from five years to life in prison if convicted. He turned himself in and was released on $20,000 bail Wednesday night, said attorney Aaron Suder of the Houston Police Officers' Union. The Escobar family plans to file a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Police Department, said James DeAnda, an attorney working with the family. Escobar was the second of two unarmed Hispanic teens killed within a month last fall in shootings that put intense scrutiny on HPD's use-of-force policies. A civil rights group hailed the indictment as a sign of a new attitude toward police misconduct. "Definitely, it is a bold decision by the grand jury," said Johnny Mata, a spokesman for the local chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens. "In general, all good men and women in the community, I think, are fed up with a lot of these cases and the degree in which it has been happening," Mata said. The grand jury heard from about 16 witnesses over four days before choosing a murder charge rather than a lesser one such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. That means the jurors found probable cause to believe the shooting was neither accidental nor justified, said Assistant District Attorney Don Smyth. The shooting occurred after Carbonneau and Officer Ronald Olivo responded to a complaint in the 4600 block of West 34th. Police had been told that a 14-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man had harassed a 10-year-old boy at his home. The 10-year-old's father, Jesse Rodriguez, and others led the officers to an apartment at the Burnham Woods complex, where they found Escobar and several other teens playing computer games and told them to stand outside, witnesses said. Rodriguez pointed out one and said he had harassed his son. Escobar, witnesses said, had not been involved in the earlier incident. He began to leave and ignored the officers' orders to stop, police and witnesses said. The patrolmen grabbed Escobar, who fell down and kicked them, police said. After Escobar kicked Carbonneau in the groin, the officer drew his pistol, police said. The teen then kicked Carbonneau's arm and the gun fired, they said. A grand jury voted in January not to indict Officer Richard Kevin Butler in the shooting of a teen who was killed three weeks before Escobar's death. Jose Vargas Jr., 15, was shot in the chest on Oct. 31 while Butler was working an off-duty job in west Houston. Butler, a 10-year Houston police veteran, was fired last month after an internal investigation. Police said Vargas was driving a vehicle outside a movie theater when off-duty officers working security became suspicious. Vargas drove away and Butler pursued on foot. When traffic forced Vargas to stop, Butler pointed his pistol through an open window and Vargas accelerated, the door frame striking Butler's arm and causing the gun to fire, police said. Terry Bryant, a lawyer for Vargas' family, said the indictment in the Escobar killing should send a clear message to the new police chief that HPD's deadly-force policies must change. When Mayor Bill White introduced his choice for the new police chief, Harold L. Hurtt, he said he had given Hurtt a mandate to ensure that police use deadly force only when justified. The last local peace officer to face a murder indictment stemming from an on-duty shooting was former sheriff's Deputy Joseph Kent McGowen. He claimed self-defense after shooting Susan White in her home on Aug. 25, 1992 because she had pointed a pistol at him. Prosecutors said, however, that McGowen had been serving a warrant obtained with false information. They said White had complained after learning that McGowen had arrested her son after arranging for an informant to buy a gun from him. McGowen was convicted in 1994 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned. He was convicted again in 2002 and sentenced to 20 years.
