Why wanted man was not arrested by deputy constable before deadly beating of ex-girlfriend
By Joel Eisenbaum
Click2houston
October 12, 2018
HOUSTON - The Harris County Constable's Office, Precinct 6, made contact with a man who had a warrant for his arrest, hours before he allegedly murdered his ex-girlfriend.
Paul Gregory Ramirez, 62, is accused of beating his ex-girlfriend to death with a baseball bat. Charlene Cadwell, 60, the victim, was scared of Ramirez, according to the woman's family members.
Friday, Cadwell's family members wanted to know why the deputy constable did not arrest Ramirez when he had the chance.
"They made a mistake, a big mistake. Now they're going to have to answer to the family and the powers that be," said Caldwell's sister Patrice Erikson.
Information provided by the Constable's Office reveals that the Southeast Houston police agency handled two 911 calls originating from the Lucky Tavern on Navigation Boulevard, after someone witnessed the Ramirez and Caldwell arguing, hours before her death.
After the second call, a deputy constable made contact with Ramirez, but did not arrest him, officials said. Later, Ramirez is accused of fatally beating Cadwell with a baseball bat outside her home on Sidney Street, according to police.
Precinct 6 Chief Deputy Lillian Lozano released the following statement about the event:
"First of all, we want to give our condolences to the family of Charlene Cadwell. Preliminary Information shows that Precinct 6 did not receive any calls for service to the residence on Sidney Street on Saturday, nor early Sunday, Oct. 6 and 7.
"Calls for service shows that our dispatchers first received a call from who appeared to be a worker at the bar Lucky’s Tavern at 4201 Navigation at 10:22 p.m. The caller stated that two patrons a gentleman is arguing with an older lady and a handicapped lady over money. Our Deputy voluntarily took the call at 10:27 p.m. and arrived at 10:30 p.m., and cleared the call GOA (gone on arrival) at 10:32 p.m. Minutes later, a second call came in from Lucky’s Tavern, 4201 Navigation at 10:44 p.m. and the deputy arrived at 10:47 p.m. and met with both Ms. Cadwell and suspect Paul Ramirez outside the bar.
"The Deputy searched the suspect for weapons and found none. The Deputy asked the Dispatcher to run the suspect and was advised by the Dispatcher that the suspect was clear. Ms. Cadwell stated she did not want the suspect to return to the house and the suspect stated that he had already made arrangements to have his cousin pick him up.
"The suspect was released and Ms. Cadwell left the bar on foot with another female. The Deputy cleared the call ADV (advised) at 11:01 p.m. No other calls regarding Ms. Cadwell or suspect Ramirez were received by our dispatchers. We will continue to investigate this tragic incident."
Channel 2 Investigates wanted to know why the warrant was not detected by the Pct. 6 dispatchers. A representative for the Houston Police Department, the agency that confirmed this week, that the Houston Police Department was able to "see" the suspect had a month-old warrant for his arrest, so it is not yet clear why the constable's dispatcher could not.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed that the warrant was issued after the robbery parolee cut-off his ankle monitor.
Following further inquiry about the process behind warrant checking, Precinct 6 Chief Deputy Lillian Lozano emailed the following statement:
"Our Dispatcher ran the suspect Paul Gregory Ramirez by name and Texas ID and he came back clear.
"We are working diligently with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to obtain official copies of the inquiries from Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018. According to DPS, this process may take up to 15 days to receive this information.
"We have no further comments at this time."
"I think they should have taken him, they should have found them warrants," Erikson said.
In total, it appears that three, possibly four 911 calls were placed by various people, from various locations, handled by various agencies before the suspect was murdered.
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Houston police accused of not responding to call about parolee who beat woman to death with bat
By Phil Archer
Click2houston
October 10, 2018
HOUSTON - Family members of murder victim Charlene Cadwell said the victim called Houston police repeatedly for help the night her parolee boyfriend allegedly beat her to death with a baseball bat, but that help never came.
Paul Ramirez, 63, allegedly admitted chasing Cadwell, 60, from her home in the 300 block of North Sidney Street in the early morning hours of Oct. 8, and beating her to death. Ramirez was a wanted man at the time.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice issued a warrant for his arrest more than a month earlier after he cut off the electronic ankle monitor he was forced to wear as a condition of his parole for armed robbery.
In July, two other parolees, Jose Rodriguez and Garry Jenkins, allegedly killed a total of four people after removing ankle monitors, triggering warrants for their arrests.
Andy Kahan with Houston Crime Stoppers said the killings show the current system of policing parolees is broken.
"Issuing a warrant is great. Following up to see that proper authorities are given notice would probably be more prudent," Kahan said Wednesday.
But in Cadwell’s death, Houston police apparently were told a warrant for Ramirez’s arrest had been issued and that he was threatening Cadwell.
Cadwell’s sister, Patrice Erickson, was spending the night at the victim's house the night of the killing.
“She called the cops and no cop showed up,” Erickson said.
Erickson said Ramirez was enraged because Cadwell had kicked him out earlier in the evening and he returned several times -- threatening Cadwell and demanding to be let in.
“He was screaming at the top of his lungs that she 'shouldn’t have f***** with me.' And he kept saying that over and over again,” Erickson said.
Erickson said Cadwell called Houston police three times that night, telling them Ramirez was wanted for a parole violations and asking for help. But she said a patrol car never arrived.
“When he broke in through the window, he chased her out of the house with a baseball bat and that’s when he started beating her with a baseball bat,” Erickson said.
Houston police said at least three calls were received from Cadwell the night she was killed. They said they’re still trying to determine if an arrest warrant for Ramirez was in the system at the time, and if any officers were dispatched to make contact with Cadwell.
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Tracking Houston's accused serial killer since his release from prison
By Damali Keith
Fox 26
July 17, 2018
HOUSTON -- If the state was supposed to monitor Jose Gilberto Rodriguez, how did he slip away, going on an alleged murder spree here in Houston?
Rodriguez is now locked up in the Harris County Jail accused of going on a killing spree across northwest Houston.
He has been in the Bayou City since December 2017 after being released from prison in September 2017. Rodriguez had been locked up since March 1990 for Burglary with Intent to Commit Theft (with a Deadly Weapon), Attempted Aggravated Sexual Assault (with a Deadly Weapon) and Auto Theft. An additional ten year sentence was tacked on in 1992 when he was charged with Possession of a Deadly Weapon in a Penal Institution. Rodriguez was initially sent to Dallas after his release from prison because of Hurricane Harvey and he was wearing an ankle monitoring device until he apparently decided he had worn it long enough.
When an offender is being tracked by an ankle monitoring device their every move is watched and recorded on a computer.
"So this man has just been sitting at home. He’s on house arrest, so that’s what he’s supposed to be doing,” explains Shannon Pena with EZ Monitoring. The company is one of only three businesses in Harris County approved to track probationers.
Rodriguez, accused of killing three people in just a matter of days, was under mandatory supervision after he was released from prison nine months ago. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Rodriguez had been doing everything required which would include things like getting a job, passing random drug tests, registering as a sex offender, submitting to a polygraph test and meeting with his parole officer. However, on July 5, TDCJ says Rodriguez’s ankle monitoring device had been tampered with and three days later it stopped transmitting all together. A warrant was immediately issued for his arrest.
“There is an infrared beam of light that travels in the strap every second. So if that strap is ever cut, we’ll be notified immediately,” explains Pena.
EZ Monitoring showed us how precise an ankle tracking system is.
“They’re very accurate. We’re able to tell how many satellites they are communicating with at any given time. If they’re communicating with two or three there’s a broader range of where that person could be. If it’s eight to ten satellites we’ll know within two to three feet where that person is,” says Pena.
She says the tracking technology is improving all the time. There’s now one ankle monitoring device that’s nearly tamper proof.
“This has a steel cuff. So this can not be cut,” Pena explains.
There’s also now a device with a two-way speaker so authorities can talk to the person being tracked. Officials can even sound an alarm from the device alerting everyone nearby if the person goes to an area they’re not supposed to.
In a news conference this afternoon, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said, “Look at what these ankle monitors mean. They mean nothing. They cut them off and we have three dead people.”
Acevedo says there are 18,000 parolees in the Houston area and 600 of them are considered extremely high risk. The chief says he plans to put together a task force to go after parole violators, creating an environment where parolees know there are only two choices in Houston, to abide by parole or within hours you will be arrested. Chief Acevedo says he is "rolling out the unwelcome mat for parolees."
EDITOR’S NOTE: Ankle monitors are no substitute for person-to-person field contacts between parole officers and parolees. Chief Acevedo was spot on when he said “they mean nothing.”
In one case where a parolee cut off his ankle monitor and went on to commit murder, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said he was complying with all his parole conditions until he cut his monitor off. How the fuck would they know? Other than his worthless mandatory office visits, the only thing TDCJ would be able to tell is the movements of the parolee and not what he was doing at the time. He could be using heroin, coke or meth and the only way parole authorities would know about this is if he happened to fail a drug test or if the cops caught him. He could be beating his wife or kids, committing burglaries or thefts, etc., and the only way parole authorities would know about this is if the cops caught him.
The only thing the monitors are good for is to show the parolee was present at the scene if he was dumb enough to commit a crime wearing his ankle monitor, or that he removed his monitor.
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