Judge West Rejects Teen's Plea Deal—Right Back to Jail

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Good morning, you're Brendan Ernest, and Mr. Ernest was previously in court, look at this way, pay attention to me. In Cause Numbers 26, DCCR0429, 0430, and 0908, enter pleas of guilty to aggravated robbery, obstruction or retaliation, and robbery. I've received the pre-sentence report, have y'all both had an opportunity to review that report? [00:00:39] Speaker 2: We have, Your Honor. Yes, thank you. [00:00:42] Speaker 1: In addition to that, I've received and reviewed jail incident reports, have y'all had an opportunity to review those? Yes, Judge. All right, I am not inclined at this time to accept this plea agreement, based on the information of the offenses themselves, as well as the additional information that the detective has relayed with regard to all of the things that Mr. Ernest has been involved in, as well as these, what he's doing out at the jail. So, y'all want to talk to me about - it's going to change my mind? [00:01:14] Speaker 3: I don't, uh, I don't know if this is going to change your mind, but I meant to object to the part of Officer Jackson's statement, as far as any uncharged conduct that happened while he was a juvenile in 2023. [00:01:27] Speaker 1: I think that it's relevant, and it's information that's important for me to know. If he's had contacts just because he was a juvenile, and certain people didn't follow through because he was a juvenile and wanted to give him that opportunity, I don't think he gets to now say, well, I didn't get in trouble, so, um, because somebody was nice and gave him some opportunity [00:01:47] Speaker 3: back then. Well, then, what I would say, Judge, is, is, this is a youthful opinion. He's 17 years old. Uh, these are his first, uh, cases. Uh, some juvenile history that, um, like it was, uh, successful completion of probation. He's not, never been on probation as a, as a, uh, as a breather felony or misdemeanor. That's right. The alternative judge, I know, is prison. Uh, and certainly the amount of, uh, uh, violent crime going on in our, going on in our community. I just, I just, it's, it's, it's for, for a first offense. I just, I have a hard time sending people to prison for their first offenses. Even though these are serious offenses, some, some of them do deserve to go to prison for their first offense. But a 17 year old first contact as an adult, I would ask the board to consider following the agreement with some sort of, I know the probation recommends MRT. I know the probation recommends MRT. I've also talked with, uh, Mr. Ernest about, uh, uh, ISF and he's willing to go. [00:02:56] Speaker 1: So here's my thought on something like this based on the nature of these offenses and based on what he said to the police that day, which gives me a huge amount of concern. I'm not going to repeat the words here about what he said he was going to go back and do to that clerk. I'm not letting them out today, not doing it. If a jury wants to do that, um, I'm not wanting to throw things on my, y'all know how I am about my, my trial docket. Um, I'm not inclined to just throw things on the trial docket, but I think this is one for the community of Jefferson County to decide instead of us. Um, because I'm not going to give them probation. If they choose to do that, then that's going to be up to them. But I, I don't think this is in any way someone deserving of probation, regardless of his age, at least at this time, if he had been not acting like a fool in jail, maybe I decide differently, but he hasn't changed anything. You haven't changed anything. I'm talking like you're not here. You haven't changed anything about your behavior. You're out in our jail acting like an idiot with the rest of the youthful people out there, doing nothing but giving those people that are going to work every day crap. And if you think that's going to get you somewhere and you're going to get to go home today, now you see what it's going to do. It's not, you're going to get set for trial. And when you come to trial, if you're found guilty of these offenses, a jury is going to get to see all of that information about how you're acting at our jail. So you need to keep that in mind between now and when you come back to trial, because if you're going to be asking a jury to give you probation and you've been acting like this, highly unlikely. All right. So what I'm going to do is Mr. I'm going to set it on the trial docket. Mr. Ernest, Mr. Rojas has been appointed to represent you. He's one of the attorneys who handles a lot of cases for me as a court appointed attorney. With your permission, I can release him and I'll appoint another attorney today who can begin preparation for trial a little quicker. Is that okay with you? [00:05:03] Speaker 3: Not, Susan? [00:05:04] Speaker ?: Yep. [00:05:06] Speaker 1: If you want to keep Mr. Rojas, you can keep him. If you want to get someone else, you can ask for that as well. [00:05:11] Speaker ?: Thank you. [00:05:12] Speaker 1: All right. So Mr. Rojas will begin preparation for trial. And, you know, there's things if y'all want to go to a jury for punishment only and accept responsibility, that's an option. But talk to him about that. But I'm not going to do it. All right. Thank you. I appreciate what y'all did. And I don't like getting involved too much in these negotiations. The offer was obviously made because of his age. Sure. No, I completely understand that. And I know you didn't know probably all the information, Mr. Smith, once it came out in the pre-sentence report, about some of the specific facts of the case as well as some of that history that gives me concern as well as this jail stuff. So I'm not, I don't, I'm not saying you shouldn't have given the offer. I'm just saying there's a lot of things you probably didn't know as well. So let's go back with the Bayless. [00:06:03] Speaker 2: Charges against you. [00:06:18] Speaker 1: Do you have any questions about the laws that make you ineligible to possess a firearm or ammunition or about how long that meant? [00:06:25] Speaker 2: Judges, come to the attention of the state through Mr. Burrell that the defendant has, in addition to the Jasper County cases, alleged in the motion a new offensive evading detention felony in Harris County. I believe felony in Harris County. There's an active warrant for that now. I can either file a first amended motion to include that now that we have that offense material. We can allow him to go on that warrant, whatever the court wants to do, or go through this motion and see where we are. And I will, I can still add it, but we kind of know where we were, whatever you want me to do. [00:06:59] Speaker 1: I mean, I guess if it is this going to be the state's position based on all of that for me to revoke the probation, then I think I need all the information. So first amended would probably be the best way to go. I know getting officers from Harris County might be difficult, but my thought is let's get it filed. Okay. Get an officer, get whatever discovery materials you can get on that to Mr. Rojas. If there's an agreement at the next court date, great. If not, we'll get pleas of true or not true and then set a hearing and see who you can get to come. Possibly, and if there's an agreement to take any witness on Zoom, we can still do that, especially on these hearings. But if that would be up to Mr. Rojas, you guys, and I'm not trying to pressure you to do it, but y'all can visit about that. If that's an option, we can take some certain things up that way as well. Sure. I'll do the file this week. Perfect. All right. We'll just do a reset then for that. Thank you, Mr. Rojas. Good to see you. Thank you. [00:07:54] Speaker 3: Thank you, Josh. [00:07:55] Speaker 2: It's completely because you can't. We're getting home. So that's it. It's a bit of a bit.