Alleged Car Race Ends in Crash

Updated: Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009, 7:36 AM CDT
Published : Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009, 7:36 AM CDT

HOUSTON - A driver is removed from a car that is almost broken into two sections after crashing into a tree in northwest Houston.

Investigators say that at approximately 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, two drivers were racing their cars southbound on West T.C. Jester Boulevard at very high rates of speed when the Cadillac bumped a curb and crashed into a utility pole causing the driver to lose control of the car. The Cadillac slid into a grassy area and moved in circles until crashing into a tree while in reverse.

The driver was stuck in the Cadillac and had to be rescued, but was taken by ambulance to a hospital in stable condition.

Investigators say the driver of the other car involved in the race refused to stop.

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Local experimental aircraft group: Balloon boy details didn't add up

07:59 AM CDT on Monday, October 19, 2009
By Hayley Kappes / The Daily News
GALVESTON, Texas—As news spread Thursday of the 6-year-old Colorado boy who authorities believed was carried away by an uncontrollable Mylar helium balloon, George Gould thought details about the incident didn’t add up.

Gould, president of Galveston County’s Experimental Aircraft Association chapter, has operated helium balloons similar to the one involved in last week’s incident and said they can only carry 20 pounds at most.

Sheriff’s officials in Larimer County, Colo., said Sunday that last week’s incident was a hoax carried out by the boy’s parents in order to gain exposure for a television show, according to The Associated Press.

“I was pretty skeptical that anyone could be in that balloon,” Gould said. “That balloon wouldn’t have been able to pick him up off the ground.”

Gould worked in a weather observation office at Scholes International Airport in Galveston, where he would launch weather balloons 3 feet in diameter to determine wind speed and direction.

Altimeters, barometers and GPS devices can be placed in the balloons to transmit atmospheric information, Gould said. Mylar, a strong polyester film as thick as a trash bag, is reflective enough that radars can detect it, Gould said.

Mylar helium balloons also are commonly used by “amateur scientists as more or less a play balloon,” Gould said.

Houston man executed

KHOU: HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A convicted hit man was executed Tuesday evening for a triple slaying in Houston nearly 14 years ago.

Christopher Coleman, 37, was condemned for his part in a scheme by a Colombian man who hoped to eliminate a drug debt by staging a robbery. Four people wound up getting shot in a car on a dead-end street. Three of them, including a 3-year-old boy, died.

“Ain’t no way, fo fo,” he said when asked by a warden if he had a final statement from the Texas death chamber gurney. “I love y’all.”

It was unclear what “fo fo” meant, although in urban slang it can refer to a .44-caliber pistol or distinctive car rims made in 1984 and apparently popular in Houston. No relatives of the victims chose to attend the punishment and Coleman selected no personal witnesses to watch him die.

Coleman was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m. CDT, eight minutes after lethal drugs began flowing into his arms.

The lethal injection—the 18th this year in Texas, the nation’s most active death penalty state—was carried out after Coleman’s lawyers lost last-day appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles earlier rejected a clemency request for Coleman, who was one of three men convicted in the case. The other two, Enrique Andrade Mosquera, 44, and Derrick Graham, 40, received life in prison.

“All I know is the jury never heard the truth in this case,” said Coleman’s attorney, Patrick McCann. “And I don’t think anybody can say who shot whom.”

Prosecutors said Mosquera owed $80,000 for four kilos of cocaine he received from Hurtado Heinar Prado, 34, also from Colombia, but didn’t want to pay. Instead, he hired Coleman for $12,000 and Graham for $10,000 to stage a robbery during the payoff.

Hurtado Heinar Prado was in the front seat of a car driven by another Colombian, Jose Mario Garcia-Castro, 33, when they met the three men at the end of a Houston street in the early morning hours of Dec. 14, 1995. Elsie Prado, Prado’s sister and Garcia-Castro’s girlfriend, and her son, Danny Giraldo, were in the back seat.

Testimony showed that Coleman approached the passenger side of the car, said something to the two men in the front and opened fire. Only Elsie Prado survived. She identified Coleman as the gunman.

Ballistics tests showed that all 11 shots were fired from outside the passenger side of the car. Testimony showed that Mosquero was standing near the front of the driver’s side and Graham was in front of the car.

Coleman was arrested at a motel in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., a week later. He told police he was at the shooting scene but denied being the gunman. At his trial, Coleman’s lawyers argued he was not the gunman.

Coleman’s appeals attorneys argued that Elsie Prado’s testimony at his 1997 trial was not truthful, that she lied about her involvement in the drug deal and that she failed to disclose that she and Mosquera knew each other and grew up in the same neighborhood in Cali, Colombia.

Actor Patrick Swayze Dies; Houston Native Had Battled Cancer

LOS ANGELES (September 14, 2009)—“Dirty Dancing” actor Patrick Swayze, 57, has lost his yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer.

Swayze died Monday with his family at his side, his publicist Annett Wolf said.

In March 2008, it was disclosed that the Houston native had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Despite the grim prognosis, Swayze continued to work on the A&E series “The Beast,” in which he starred, although he said the cancer put him “through hell.”

Swayze became a star in 1987 with his performance in the coming-of-age classic “Dirty Dancing.”

Three years later, his role in “Ghost” made him a big screen favorite.

Patrick Swayze was born on August 18, 1952 in Houston, Texas, the eldest child of Patsy Yvonne Helen (née Karnes; b. 1927), a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jessie Wayne Swayze (1925-1982), an engineering draftsman.[6][7] He had two younger brothers, actor Don (born 1958) and Sean Kyle (born 1962), and two sisters, Vicky Lynn (1949-1994) and Bambi, who were adopted into the family.[8] His surname originated with an English immigrant ancestor named "Swasey".[7]
Until the age of 20,

Swayze lived in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston, where he attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic School, Oak Forest Elementary School,[9] Black Middle School,[9][10] and Waltrip High School.[9] During this time, he also pursued multiple artistic and athletic skills, such as ice skating, classical ballet, and acting in school plays. He studied gymnastics at nearby San Jacinto College for two years.

Patrick Swayze on Wkipedia.

Waterspout comes ashore in Galveston

By Chris Paschenko & Rhiannon Meyers / The Daily News & Kevin Reece / 11 News
GALVESTON, Texas — The National Weather Service confirmed a waterspout came ashore in Galveston on Sunday damaging buildings, knocking out power and injuring at least three people.

It happened soon after a strong line of storms moved into the county, and the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning. A waterspout is a tornado that forms over water.

Dolphin World, a souvenir shop in the 2900 block of Seawall Boulevard, was damaged about 9:45 p.m. Debris covered the streets.

Ironically, Dolphin World survived Hurricane Ike with very little damage. But after this storm, things were different.

“It’s very, very bad. Very difficult. Basically everything inside is gone. Brings back memory of Ike,” Schlomo Hamo of Dolphin World said.

Witnesses told The Daily News that a piece of the roof from Dolphin World struck a man who was pushing his bicycle down the seawall. They said he was taken away by ambulance.

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CNN) -- Three boaters who were stranded at sea for more than a week were being reunited with their families Sunday.

Three missing boaters were returned safely to Port Aransas, Texas, after their rescue on Saturday.

A day after the U.S. Coast Guard said it was suspending its weeklong search for the boaters, the men were found alive Saturday night.

The crew of a Good Samaritan vessel found Curtis Hall, 28, James Phillips, 30, and Tressel Hawkins, 43, sitting on top of their capsized 23-foot fishing vessel about 180 miles from Port Aransas, Texas, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

The men had been missing at sea since they failed to return from a fishing trip on August 22.

The Coast Guard had called off their search Friday after it said it had looked over more than 86,000 square miles.

Hall went to a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, but left after he waited too long in the emergency room, his mother told CNN. He returned to his home in Palacio, Texas, to rest and will see a doctor later on Sunday for what he thinks are second-degree burns on his legs from sun exposure, she said.

After the rescue, Phillips was on his way home to reunite with his family, his wife, Shane, told CNN. He did not seek medical attention, she said.

Hawkins suffered open sores on his legs after floating in the water for eight days, he told CNN from the emergency room of a Corpus Christi hospital. He plans to leave the hospital soon and head to Fort Worth, Texas, to reunite with his family, he said. E-mail to a friend | Mixx it | Share

Police: 5 suspects sought in Texas doctor's slaying

NN) -- Police are looking for five suspects in connection with the shooting death over the weekend of a Houston, Texas, doctor, authorities said Monday.

Dr. Jorge Mario Gonzales was found shot to death at his ranch in rural Texas on Saturday, police say.

Dr. Jorge Mario Gonzalez, 56, was chief of the critical care section at Houston's Methodist Hospital and "a pulmonary medicine leader," according to the hospital system's Web site.

He was found dead Saturday, when police responded to a 911 call of a burglary in progress shortly after noon, Austin County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Paul Faircloth told CNN.

The responding officer found three vehicles leaving the location, Faircloth said, and a person in one vehicle fired on the officer. Neither the officer nor his patrol car was struck, and the officer did not return fire, Faircloth said. The officer was able to provide a detailed description of all three vehicles, he said.

At the home, which Faircloth said is in a rural, wooded and isolated area, officers found Gonzalez shot to death and another person wounded. The second victim was airlifted to an Austin, Texas, hospital.

Gonzalez' wife and a small child were found unharmed inside the home, Faircloth said. KHOU identified them as Charleen Gonzalez, 29, and the couple's 2-year-old son, and reported the two hid in a closet.

Authorities do not know whether the incident was a burglary or an intended home invasion, Faircloth told CNN, and "we do not know if this is random or targeted." Several leads were being followed Monday morning, he said, and numerous agencies were involved in the investigation.

The slaying took place at Gonzalez' ranch outside Bellville, Texas, said Lisa Block, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Bellville is about 50 miles west of Houston.

Gonzalez, his wife and child arrived at the ranch about 11 a.m. Saturday, Block said, and "the suspects were at the house when they arrived." Gonzalez' wife ran inside with the child and called 911, she said.

Ranch worker Noel Galvan was the second victim, Block said. He was taken to an Austin, Texas, hospital, where he was last listed in critical condition, she said.

Faircloth said five suspects are being sought. Block said police are investigating how many suspects were involved, but believe there were at least four.


READ THE FULL STORY AT CNN.COM