Hello,  my name is Sandra Gonzalez, for the past 22 years I have been fighting for my dad's freedom, his name is Roberto De La Cruz. He was sentenced to 99 yrs in prison for a murder he did not commit. I know you say, everyone is innocent, not everyone might be innocent, but my father is. Unfortunately,  we have dealt, and still are dealing with, an unjust legal system that refuses to admit that they made a mistake and put an innocent man in prison. The lies of a suppose police informant, a drug addict, in collaboration with  Baytown PD and the Harris County DA office put my dad away until they hope he dies. They all know my father is innocent, we proved in a court of law that he is innocent but still my dad remains in prison. At this point, my last resort is to ask and plea to Governor Abbot for a pardon for my dad, so that at least he can spend the last years od his life with us.  We will never be able to recover the past years, but we can try to bring some joy to him in the present.

 

Details of the case: 

Jorge Pena, the victim was found murdered by, what was noted on the police report, a single shot to the face on Nov. of the year 1998. The police report stated that the last person Pena was seen with was his brother in law, which claimed he left him at a gas station. According to forensics, Pena was shot with a 357 caliber gun at close range. No leads, no suspects (the brother in law was never questioned and up until my dad was approached, the police had nothing.

At that time my parents lived in old baytown and my dad did not know Pena in any way. He did know the two supposed witnesses, Marcos Torres and Juan De La Garza, better known as mec in old baytown. During that time, Mec and Marcos always hanged around together as they were and still are drug addicts and they also were acquaintances of Raul, the brother in law. In March of 1999 my father was arrested on an unrelated case. It was at this time that we were informed that he was a suspect of this murder. He was questioned, shown pictures of the murder scene, told the type of gun used, (all this the BPD Detective Raul Budd would later claim that supposedly my father knew all this details and that's why they put him as a suspect, this of course lies as I was present when THEY provided all these details to him). They told my dad that an informat has given them information stating that he and mec supposedly saw my dad shot this man. My dad was officially charged with the murder on the word of these two individuals on Sept of 1999. He was presented with the two statements, though later on they would only use the statement and testimony of marcos Torres. Juan later on let the DA know that he would not testify and if they force him he would say the truth.

The case went to trial by jury and with only the outrageous testimony of Marcos Torres and the bogus collaboration testimony from the BPD detectives, my dad was found guilty. As per court transcripts, the judge made the comment that he could not believe that my dad was found guilty based on the outrageous testimony of Marcos Torres. In addition, we were not able to hire and attorney and the court appointed attorney did nothing. It was his first murder case and he had zero experience to handle it. A day later my dad was sentenced and has been in prison already 23 years innocent.  

All these years non stop I have been fighting for my dad's freedom. In 2011, we though that dream would come true. Due to new evidence(forensic evidence proved that Pena was shot where he was found and he was shot two times not once like Marcos testified) the trial court that found him guilty,  asked the texas court of appeals to grant my dad a new trial, as Judge Guerrero stated, "we have an innocent man in prison". The evidence proved that all the testimony of the only state witness, Marcos Torres, was a lied and that all the statements from the officers and anyone else thay collaborated to Torres story had also lied. We saw what we though, finally Justice coming our way, but it did not happen. Even with these new evidence and the recommendation of the judge, the Texas court of appeals denied the request foe a new trial. The response was, we know Marcos Torres lied but that doesn't mean he didn't kill him, other evidence show he did. The problem is, there is NO OTHER EVIDENCE, NOTHING. (See story and report on channel 2, 13 and baytown sun)

Apart from all this, we also came to find out that the brother in law Raul (the last person to had seen him) committed suicide a year later shooting himself in the head with a 357 caliber gun. When I found this out I fought to bring the gun to harris county and paid one of the best gun forensics specialists to test the gun. The Harris County DA/court denied our request to have the specialists test the gun and the bullets/fragments. They did their own test and the results where, it could be the gun but we can not say for sure, of course. 

Additionally,  recently I received information that Mec was the person killed Pena for drugs, I presented the affidavit and asked the Baytown mayor to ask the BPD to reopen the case and investigate this new evidence, but nothing.

This is now my last resort, to ask the governor  please do right, where all his suppose representatives of Justice have done wrong. Please give my father a pardon of clemency and let him come home. I ask that you all please help my dad come home by signing this petition to fight for his freedom. We just want him home, he has missed out so much, has grandkids, great grandkids that need their grandpa. Though he is not perfect and made mistakes throughout his life, my dad is a man with a kind heart, that even with his drastic childhood, he still managed to build a family, taught us kindness, love, respect, hard work and how to cook. He is a son, was a husband, a brother, and above all, he is our dad, please help us bring him home. Be part of making a difference in our lifes and by doing this, it will give hope to others in that the key is in helping each other so that nobody else suffers this injustice. The force is in the unity and my dad needs the force of your unity to help him come home. Thank you