District Attorney Heather McMinn and Lavaca County Sheriff Mica Harmon appear at a news conference in Halletsville, Texas on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 in the aftermath of the killing
A Texas father who discovered a man raping his five-year-old
daughter and beat him to death with his bare hands will not be
charged with homicide under state law.
A Lavaca County grand jury decided not to press charges against
the 23-year-old father in the June 9th death of Jesus Mora Flores,
47, who was killed inside a remote shack after he was caught
molesting the young girl.
Under Texas state law, deadly force is authorized and indeed,
justified in order to stop an aggravated sexual assault and
coupled with the fact that the harrowing 911 calls made by the
father back claims he even tried to save the pedophile's life led to
the grand jury's decision.
Lavaca County sheriff's deputies said that the father, whose
name has not been released to protect the little girl's identity,
sent her and her brother to feed the family's chickens.
The boy rushed back to tell his dad that someone had grabbed
his sister and taken her to a small secluded shack and the father
rushed towards his daughter's screams and arrived to find them
both with their underwear off.
Flying into a rage, the father beat Flores unconscious, but
attempted to call 911 for the rapist after he had made sure his
daughter was safe.
Sheriff Micah Harmon had said in June that he was not willing to
press charges against the father, rather the case would be
presented to a grand jury. At the time, Harmon said that the man
was 'very remorseful' and didn't know at the time he had killed
Flores.
'You have a right to defend your daughter,' Harmon told CNN at
the time. 'The girl's father acted in defense of his third person.
Once the investigation is completed we will submit it to the
district attorney who then submits it to the grand jury, who will
decide if they will indict him.'
Indeed, the father is heard profanely screaming at a dispatcher
who couldn't locate the property.
Becoming increasingly frazzled, the father at one point tells the
dispatcher he's going to put the man in his truck and drive him to
a hospital before sheriff's deputies finally arrive.
V'Anne Huser, the father's attorney, sternly told reporters
several times during a news conference at the Lavaca County
courthouse that neither the father nor the family will ever give
interviews.
'He's a peaceable soul,' Huser said. 'He had no intention to kill
anybody that day.'
The attack happened on the family's ranch off a quiet, two-lane
county road between the farming towns of Shiner and Yoakum.
Authorities say a witness saw Flores 'forcibly carrying' the girl
into a secluded area and then scrambled to find the father.
Running toward his daughter's screams, investigators said, the
father pulled Flores off his child and 'inflicted several blows to the
man's head and neck area.'
Emergency crews found Flores' pants and underwear pulled
down on his lifeless body by the time they responded to the 911
call.
The girl was taken to a hospital and examined, and authorities
say forensic evidence and witness accounts corroborated the
father's story that his daughter was being sexually molested.
'Under the law in the state of Texas deadly force is authorized
and justified in order to stop an aggravated sexual assault or
sexual assault,' District Attorney Heather McMinn told reporters in
June.
All the evidence provided by the sheriff's department and the
Texas Rangers indicated that's what was occurring when the
victim's father arrived at the scene,' she said. Authorities said he
expressed regret at the killing at the time, and no evidence so far
has led them to doubt his story. The girl's grandfather agreed it
had been an accident. 'My son. Sorry,' the grandfather told the Victoria Advocate in
broken English. 'It was an accident.'
Lavaca County Sheriff Micah Harmon added: 'He was very
remorseful. I don't think it was his intent for the man to die.'
Residents of the small Lavaca County town were largely in
support of the father, saying the victim deserved it.
Sonny Jaehne, a Shiner native, told the Victoria Advocate: 'He
got what he deserved, big time.
Friend Mark Harabis reiterated this: 'I agree with him totally. I
would probably do worse. 'The family will have to deal with that the rest of their lives, no
matter what happens to the father. Even if they let him go, he
and his child will have to deal with that the rest of their lives.
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