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No one will answer for Twin Peaks shootings after DA dismisses last 24 defendants
https://www.wacotrib.com/news/twin-peaks-biker-shooting/no-one-will-answer-for-twin-peaks-shootings-after-da/article_124b9c6f-d3ab-581b-bb85-56ed33560735.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share
All remaining criminal cases will be dismissed from the 2015 Twin Peaks biker shootout that left nine dead and 20 injured, prosecutors said Tuesday, ending a four-year prosecutorial fiasco that resulted in zero convictions.
McLennan County District Attorney Barry Johnson said he will dismiss the remaining 24 criminal cases to “end this nightmare that we have been dealing with in this county since May 17, 2015.”
Johnson’s decision means no one will be held accountable for killing or injuring bikers or for engaging in a chaotic battle in a shopping center parking lot in front of a Sunday lunchtime crowd.
“There were nine people who were killed on that fateful day in Waco, Texas, and 20 injured, all of whom were members of rival motorcycle clubs/gangs, and the loss of life is a difficult thing,” Johnson said. “But after looking over the 24 cases we were left with, it is my opinion as your district attorney that we are not able to prosecute any of those cases and reach our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
McLennan County DA statement on Twin Peaks cases
McLennan County DA statement on Twin Peaks cases
Johnson inherited the Twin Peaks cases when he took office in January, and said he has spent 75 percent of his time since then with a team of prosecutors and investigators trying to determine how to resolve the remaining cases.
About 200 bikers were arrested after the shootout on identical charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and held on $1 million bonds each. Former McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna sought indictments against 155 bikers on those identical charges and chose to try Jacob Carrizal, the Bandidos Dallas County chapter president, first.
Twin Peaks (copy)
Jacob Carrizal, seen on a courthouse video screen testifying during his trial, is the only Twin Peaks defendant whose case made it to trial. It ended in a mistrial because jurors were unable to reach a verdict.
Staff photo — Jerry Larson, file
Carrizal’s case, tried in Waco’s 54th State District Court, ended in mistrial in November 2017, with most of the jurors in his case favoring acquittal. No other defendant has been tried since.
Johnson’s campaign hammered Reyna for his handling of the Twin Peaks cases, and he won the March 2018 Republican primary by 20 percentage points. After the primary, Reyna dismissed all but 24 of the remaining Twin Peaks cases.
The special prosecutors appointed to handle four cases in which Reyna recused his office dismissed those cases by early this year. One of the prosecutors called Reyna’s mass prosecution strategy a “harebrained scheme” that was “patently offensive.”
EDITORIAL: Twin Peaks highlighted glaring failures of our criminal justice system
EDITORIAL: Twin Peaks highlighted glaring failures of our criminal justice system
With McLennan County District Attorney Barry Johnson’s reluctant decision Tuesday to dismiss…
Reyna’s office re-indicted the remaining two dozen, mostly on riot charges. Other charges that may have been possible arising out of the melee, such as attempted murder, aggravated assault or felon in possession of a firearm, were barred by three-year statutes of limitation before Johnson took office, Johnson said.
“Following the indictments, the prior district attorney had the time and opportunity to review and assess the admissible evidence to determine the full range of charges that could be brought against each individual who participated in the Twin Peaks brawl, and to charge only those offenses where the admissible evidence would support a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Johnson said in a statement.
“In my opinion, had this action been taken in a timely manner, it would have, and should have, resulted in numerous convictions and prison sentences against many of those who participated in the Twin Peaks brawl. Over the next three years the prior district attorney failed to take that action, for reasons that I do not know to this day,” he said.
America has imported more warlord theocracy from Afghanistan than it has exported democracy.
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