Texas Grand jury: No indictment against hero father who killed daughter's alleged abuser
Texas, grand jury did not return an indictment against a hero father who did exactly what every father in his situation should do: he killed a man he found allegedly sexually abusing his daughter.
"The substantial amount of evidence showed that the witness statements and the father's statement and what the father had observed was in fact what had happened that day," Lavaca County District Attorney Heather McMinn told reporters.
The father, who will not be charged, is not being named to protect the identity of his daughter.
The father called 911, and he and his family tried to "save the life" of alleged attacker Jesus Mora Flores "despite what they had just witnessed," McMinn added.
McMinn said that Flores, 47, was not an acquaintance of the family.
According to the Lavaca County Sheriff's Office, the father and his family had gathered for a horse shoeing last Saturday at their ranch where they keep horses and chickens.
There were seven people in attendance in total, including four members of the family, two acquaintances and a stranger to the family, who was the alleged molester. According to McMinn, the alleged abuser was a legal worker from Mexico.
His 5-year-old daughter had gone off toward the barn, to feed the chickens, the child's grandfather told the media.
Then her father heard screaming and ran. He found a man sexually abusing his daughter, according to Sheriff Micah Harmon.
The father stopped the alleged abuser, and then pounded him repeatedly in the head, killing him, authorities said.
On the recorded 911 call, the father can be heard crying, and telling the operator, "I need an ambulance. This guy was raping my daughter and I beat him up. And I don't know ... I don't know what to do."
Later in the call, when the operator tells the caller, "I'm working on it if you can hold on," the emotional father says, "The guy's dying on me!"
McMinn also told CNN the child's grandfather and aunt both administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Neither officials nor the family's attorney, V'Anne Huser, took questions from reporters Tuesday but Huser said in light of the grand jury's decision, "in our opinion, today, the story is over."
McMinn told CNN she had "never seen a case this clear" in her career.
The incident occurred outside the town of Shiner, a community between Houston and San Antonio that has about 2,000 people within its city limits and another 1,500 or so on its outskirts, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The father, who will not be charged, is not being named to protect the identity of his daughter.
The father called 911, and he and his family tried to "save the life" of alleged attacker Jesus Mora Flores "despite what they had just witnessed," McMinn added.
McMinn said that Flores, 47, was not an acquaintance of the family.
According to the Lavaca County Sheriff's Office, the father and his family had gathered for a horse shoeing last Saturday at their ranch where they keep horses and chickens.
There were seven people in attendance in total, including four members of the family, two acquaintances and a stranger to the family, who was the alleged molester. According to McMinn, the alleged abuser was a legal worker from Mexico.
His 5-year-old daughter had gone off toward the barn, to feed the chickens, the child's grandfather told the media.
Then her father heard screaming and ran. He found a man sexually abusing his daughter, according to Sheriff Micah Harmon.
The father stopped the alleged abuser, and then pounded him repeatedly in the head, killing him, authorities said.
On the recorded 911 call, the father can be heard crying, and telling the operator, "I need an ambulance. This guy was raping my daughter and I beat him up. And I don't know ... I don't know what to do."
Later in the call, when the operator tells the caller, "I'm working on it if you can hold on," the emotional father says, "The guy's dying on me!"
McMinn also told CNN the child's grandfather and aunt both administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Neither officials nor the family's attorney, V'Anne Huser, took questions from reporters Tuesday but Huser said in light of the grand jury's decision, "in our opinion, today, the story is over."
McMinn told CNN she had "never seen a case this clear" in her career.
The incident occurred outside the town of Shiner, a community between Houston and San Antonio that has about 2,000 people within its city limits and another 1,500 or so on its outskirts, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.