David
10-17-2002, 03:25 PM
Oct. 17, 2002
Houston Chronicle
Officer's relatives share grief with jury
Punishment phase continues for killer
The widow of a slain Houston police officer told jurors Wednesday that she
sleeps with a picture of her husband so she still can see his face when
she awakens each morning.
(Carlos Antonio Rios / Chronicle - Patricia Vasquez leaves court Wednesday
after testifying during the punishment phase of the capital murder trial
of Alex Adams, who was convicted of killing her husband, Officer Albert
Vasquez. )
The officer's mother said she has cried every day since he was shot to
death May 22, 2001.
"I shouldn't have lost him that way," Ira Becker sobbed. "He didn't
deserve to leave this world that way."
Becker and her daughter-in-law, Patricia Vasquez, poured out their grief
from the witness stand before prosecutors rested their case in the
punishment phase of Alex Adams' capital murder trial.
Adams, 20, was convicted Saturday by the jury that now is considering
whether he should die or receive a life prison sentence for the slaying of
Officer Albert Vasquez.
The emotional back-to-back testimony of the two women moved the audience
to tears and visibly affected some jurors.
"No one asked me for a choice," Patricia Vasquez cried. " ... I don't like
having my son saying 'Daddy' to a picture of his daddy."
Her 32-year-old husband was killed while conducting a drug sweep with
other officers at a southwest Houston apartment complex. Both women wear
gold pendant replicas of Vasquez's badge, bearing number 5437.
Adams' attorneys began their effort Wednesday afternoon to persuade jurors
to choose a life sentence. Members of Adams' family are expected to
testify.
Vasquez was killed while working an off-duty security job with three other
officers at the Natchez House Apartments at 6200 Marinette in the
Sharpstown area. The owner was paying them $25 an hour to patrol the
complex, which police said was known as a drug haven and an "extremely
dangerous" place.
Vasquez's partner and best friend, Enrique Duharte-Tur, has testified that
he saw the shooting, rushed to aid his friend and was shot four times
before wounding Adams in a shootout.
Prosecutors have suggested that Adams, who had been arrested a short time
earlier with four other men, had a gun hidden in bandages that covered a
leg injury. He was using a crutch and handcuffed to another suspect when
Vasquez was shot point-blank in the head.
Patricia Vasquez said she had kissed her husband goodbye that morning
"just like a normal day" and spoken with him several times on the phone
that night.
When she arrived at Ben Taub Hospital after the shooting, she said, she
knew he was dead because of the look on a fellow officer's face.
She and the rest of the Vasquez family spent time with the body at the
hospital that night.
"I just kept rubbing his chest because he was very warm," she said.
The next day, she had to make funeral arrangements at the church where the
couple had exchanged wedding vows, she told jurors.
During the burial four days later, a thunderstorm kept her from seeing her
husband's casket lowered into the ground.
"I was just mad," she said. "So angry because I knew I would never see him
again."
Vasquez smiled only once as she recounted a happy moment just days before
the slaying.
She said she was lying in bed on a Saturday with her husband's 6-year-old
son from a previous marriage and the couple's 9-month-old son when her
husband walked in.
"He said, 'This is what I want. This is the family I want.' I don't know
why he said that then," she said. "We had weekends like that before."
Becker learned about the shooting from her daughter. On the drive to the
hospital from her home in Montgomery County, she said, she thought he
might have only an arm or leg wound.
When she reached the hospital, she said, she knew it was bad.
Becker said she lashed out at a doctor who assured her that her son did
not suffer.
"How can you tell me my son did not suffer?" she cried on the stand. "He
sure did suffer."
Becker said she could not stop touching her son's body.
"I wanted to hug him so bad but I didn't want to hurt him more than he
already was."
She waited until his body was rolled out on a gurney, to be taken to the
morgue, so she could make the sign of the cross over it.
Although she wanted to be a pallbearer at the funeral, Becker said, she
did not want to ask one of his friends to step aside.
"I carried him for nine months at the beginning," she said. "I wanted to
carry him at the end."
In making their case for a life sentence, Adams' attorneys presented
testimony that contradicted previous accounts of his alleged involvement
in a 2000 shooting death in Prairie View. He has been indicted on a murder
charge in that death.
Also, clinical social worker Bettina Wright testified that Adams had drugs
in his system on the night of Vasquez's murder and had abused drugs since
middle school.
Defense attorney Anthony Osso said outside court that Wright's testimony,
which is to continue today in state District Judge Denise Collins' court,
underscores the point that drug abuse can harm a developing mind.
A criminologist also testified that convicted murderers in Texas rarely go
on to commit acts of violence in prison.
In deciding whether Adams should spend his life in prison or be executed,
the jury will be asked to consider special issues. If any one of the 12
thinks Adams is not a future threat, he will receive an automatic life
sentence.
If jurors are unanimous that he is a future danger, they will consider a
second issue: whether any mitigating circumstances justify sparing his
life. They must unanimously decide "no" for a death sentence to be
imposed.
----------------
By LISA TEACHEY, Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
Officer's relatives share grief with jury
Punishment phase continues for killer
The widow of a slain Houston police officer told jurors Wednesday that she
sleeps with a picture of her husband so she still can see his face when
she awakens each morning.
(Carlos Antonio Rios / Chronicle - Patricia Vasquez leaves court Wednesday
after testifying during the punishment phase of the capital murder trial
of Alex Adams, who was convicted of killing her husband, Officer Albert
Vasquez. )
The officer's mother said she has cried every day since he was shot to
death May 22, 2001.
"I shouldn't have lost him that way," Ira Becker sobbed. "He didn't
deserve to leave this world that way."
Becker and her daughter-in-law, Patricia Vasquez, poured out their grief
from the witness stand before prosecutors rested their case in the
punishment phase of Alex Adams' capital murder trial.
Adams, 20, was convicted Saturday by the jury that now is considering
whether he should die or receive a life prison sentence for the slaying of
Officer Albert Vasquez.
The emotional back-to-back testimony of the two women moved the audience
to tears and visibly affected some jurors.
"No one asked me for a choice," Patricia Vasquez cried. " ... I don't like
having my son saying 'Daddy' to a picture of his daddy."
Her 32-year-old husband was killed while conducting a drug sweep with
other officers at a southwest Houston apartment complex. Both women wear
gold pendant replicas of Vasquez's badge, bearing number 5437.
Adams' attorneys began their effort Wednesday afternoon to persuade jurors
to choose a life sentence. Members of Adams' family are expected to
testify.
Vasquez was killed while working an off-duty security job with three other
officers at the Natchez House Apartments at 6200 Marinette in the
Sharpstown area. The owner was paying them $25 an hour to patrol the
complex, which police said was known as a drug haven and an "extremely
dangerous" place.
Vasquez's partner and best friend, Enrique Duharte-Tur, has testified that
he saw the shooting, rushed to aid his friend and was shot four times
before wounding Adams in a shootout.
Prosecutors have suggested that Adams, who had been arrested a short time
earlier with four other men, had a gun hidden in bandages that covered a
leg injury. He was using a crutch and handcuffed to another suspect when
Vasquez was shot point-blank in the head.
Patricia Vasquez said she had kissed her husband goodbye that morning
"just like a normal day" and spoken with him several times on the phone
that night.
When she arrived at Ben Taub Hospital after the shooting, she said, she
knew he was dead because of the look on a fellow officer's face.
She and the rest of the Vasquez family spent time with the body at the
hospital that night.
"I just kept rubbing his chest because he was very warm," she said.
The next day, she had to make funeral arrangements at the church where the
couple had exchanged wedding vows, she told jurors.
During the burial four days later, a thunderstorm kept her from seeing her
husband's casket lowered into the ground.
"I was just mad," she said. "So angry because I knew I would never see him
again."
Vasquez smiled only once as she recounted a happy moment just days before
the slaying.
She said she was lying in bed on a Saturday with her husband's 6-year-old
son from a previous marriage and the couple's 9-month-old son when her
husband walked in.
"He said, 'This is what I want. This is the family I want.' I don't know
why he said that then," she said. "We had weekends like that before."
Becker learned about the shooting from her daughter. On the drive to the
hospital from her home in Montgomery County, she said, she thought he
might have only an arm or leg wound.
When she reached the hospital, she said, she knew it was bad.
Becker said she lashed out at a doctor who assured her that her son did
not suffer.
"How can you tell me my son did not suffer?" she cried on the stand. "He
sure did suffer."
Becker said she could not stop touching her son's body.
"I wanted to hug him so bad but I didn't want to hurt him more than he
already was."
She waited until his body was rolled out on a gurney, to be taken to the
morgue, so she could make the sign of the cross over it.
Although she wanted to be a pallbearer at the funeral, Becker said, she
did not want to ask one of his friends to step aside.
"I carried him for nine months at the beginning," she said. "I wanted to
carry him at the end."
In making their case for a life sentence, Adams' attorneys presented
testimony that contradicted previous accounts of his alleged involvement
in a 2000 shooting death in Prairie View. He has been indicted on a murder
charge in that death.
Also, clinical social worker Bettina Wright testified that Adams had drugs
in his system on the night of Vasquez's murder and had abused drugs since
middle school.
Defense attorney Anthony Osso said outside court that Wright's testimony,
which is to continue today in state District Judge Denise Collins' court,
underscores the point that drug abuse can harm a developing mind.
A criminologist also testified that convicted murderers in Texas rarely go
on to commit acts of violence in prison.
In deciding whether Adams should spend his life in prison or be executed,
the jury will be asked to consider special issues. If any one of the 12
thinks Adams is not a future threat, he will receive an automatic life
sentence.
If jurors are unanimous that he is a future danger, they will consider a
second issue: whether any mitigating circumstances justify sparing his
life. They must unanimously decide "no" for a death sentence to be
imposed.
----------------
By LISA TEACHEY, Houston Chronicle