Convicted ex-HPD officer Gerald Goines suffers a medical emergency in court

HOUSTON – The penalty phase for Gerald Goines’ murder trial has now been suspended after Goines was rushed to hospital from the courthouse.

Several of Goines’ loved ones screamed in panic as he suffered a medical emergency late Thursday morning, in the middle of closing arguments for the sentencing phase.

Five minutes into the prosecutor’s closing argument, Goines froze in his seat, his mouth hanging open slightly and a blank look in his eyes.

Judge Veronica Nelson halted the proceedings, excused the jurors, and as the former Houston Police Department narcotics officer was helped out of the courtroom, he experienced difficulty breathing and paramedics were called to assist.

Goines’, who just turned 60 on Wednesday, was found guilty of murder last week. His heart was clearly monitored when he was brought out. He was taken from the courthouse on a stretcher, connected to ECG electrodes on his chest and given oxygen.

This happened, interrupting closing arguments for the penalty phase, shortly after defense attorney Nicole Deborde told jurors that Goines is a “broken man… He is an old sixty. His health is destroyed… Five years is more than enough, together with the conviction he already has, to punish a man who will never stop punishing himself, until he breathes his very last breath.”

However, prosecutor Tanisha Manning told jurors not to be manipulated. She said investigators have uncovered “a pattern of corruption” in which Goines “planted drugs on people in neighborhoods he was supposed to protect.” Manning also called Goines “shameful, conniving, untrustworthy and a corrupt cop” just before his medical episode.

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Deborde says Goines was left with serious health problems after he and three other officers were shot in 2019 while serving a no-knock warrant that killed Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle. It is because of their deaths that Goines was convicted of murder, as he lied to secure the search warrant for their Harding Street home.

Some supporters of the couple want Goines to receive the maximum sentence: life in prison.

“Yes. Yes. He took the other two lives of my neighbors… it will be an example to the other law enforcement officers who fail to protect and serve the public,” said Joseph, who lives on Harding Street.

Goines, a 34-year veteran of the Houston Police Department, was two weeks from retirement when the fatal raid occurred.

The former officer faces a sentence range of five years to life in prison. Closing arguments will continue at 9 a.m. Monday if Goines is out of the hospital by then.