HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Attorneys for former Houston police officer Gerald Goines — convicted of murder in the botched Harding Street raid — say their client deserves a new trial.

Jurors found Goines guilty of murdering a couple under the pretext of a narcotics charge based on a lie in September, and the 61-year-old was sentenced to 60 years in prison last month.

Over five years ago on January 28, 2019, a false 911 call led to a restraining order from the HPD Narcotics Squad at the home of husband and wife Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. The raid on Harding Street left Tuttle, Nicholas and their dog dead in a hail of police gunfire in their own southeast Houston home.

Goines — the lead HPD agent involved in the raid — lied on an affidavit to obtain the original restraining order, claiming the couple was dealing heroin.

His lawyers’ argument for a new trial centers on a cell phone that belonged to Tuttle. They accuse civil attorneys of withholding the phone, which they believe could have been vital evidence in the trial.

According to our partners at the Houston ChronicleA judge ordered Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials to bring Goines from Navasota’s Pack Unit in Harris County for a hearing on why Tuttle’s cell phone went to civil attorneys for its own litigation rather than at the Harris County District Attorney’s office.

If Goines’ defense team had received the phone, they likely would have searched it for evidence.

Goines’ attorney, Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube, argued that civil attorneys shared a large number of records with prosecutors early in the case but withheld the phone.

A hearing on whether he will receive a new trial is set for Dec. 4. Defense attorneys issued a subpoena to obtain the phone.

Prosecutors had already asked Goines to return to court that week for additional charges related to the Harding Street raid, including forgery.

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