HOUSTON – A Texas Department of Criminal Justice parolee wanted for a deadly shooting in the Acres Homes area of Houston was just charged with two other felonies 10 days earlier, but made bond, officials said.
The TDCJ parole warrant, which gives authorities the right to detain parolees believed to be in violation of their parole, came four days after the suspect, Demondrian McWright, 29, posted bond, according to Andy Kahan, director of Victim Services for Crime Stoppers of Houston.
“If the parole board had issued a warrant while he was arrested, that is the most powerful warrant in the state. He would have been locked up no matter how low the bond that was issued by the court,” Kahan said.
Kahan said the Saturday night murder of Gerald Nash, 36, outside at a convenience store at 2500 W. Little York, was completely preventable.
McWright appears to have made the combined $30,000 bond on Jan. 17, 2020. The TDCJ revocation warrant was issued Jan. 20, according to Kahan. The murder was committed Jan. 25.
“TDCJ is still looking into this specific case and investigating. Circumstances surrounding all pre-revocation warrants are investigated before issued,” said Jeremy Desel, director of communications for TDCJ.
After this story was published, TDCJ Spokesperson Jeremy Desel issued a statement to KPRC 2 Reporter Joel Eisenbaum. The statement reads in part:
“The offender in question was arrested and or booked on January 15th, 2020 at 7:18pm. He was released on bond at 12:14am on January 17, 2020. The information on his arrest was entered into the TCIC system which issues a “flash notification” to TDCJ that an offender has been arrested on January 17, 2020 nearly three hours later at 3:08am. When TDCJ was notified of his arrest he had already been released on bond,” Desel wrote.
He went on to write, “In your story you quote Mr. Kahan…”If the parole board had issued a warrant…”. The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole does not issue warrants. The board makes decisions regarding the parole of offenders in custody on pre-revocation warrants. TDCJ issues the warrants. TDCJ takes the supervision of all parole offenders very seriously and investigates all possible violations of parole as quickly as possible. It is normal to gather facts about any accusation before issuing a pre-revocation warrant which can take some time. In this case however, even if a warrant had been automatically generated upon the notification of the arrest that would not have stopped the parolee’s release on a bond set by the court. That arrest notification to TDCJ happened after he had already been released.”