Second murder suspect this month vanishes after cutting off Harris County ankle monitor

Second murder suspect removes ankle monitor

For the second time this month, a murder suspect in Harris County has removed his ankle monitor and vanished before trial. FOX 26's Mekenna Earnhart has the details. 

HOUSTON - Walter Pozos is the second high-profile Harris County murder defendant to cut off a GPS ankle monitor and vanish right before trial in less than a month, following capital murder suspect Lee Gilley's escape to Italy.

Harris County crime: Second murder suspect this month cuts of ankle monitor, vanishes

Big picture view:

A lag in the local pretrial justice system

Public court records show Harris County prosecutors must legally petition judges to compel private tracking companies to turn over electronic monitoring records during active fugitive manhunts, victim advocates calling this a lag in the local pretrial justice system.

The issue has come to light following a search for 32-year-old Walter Pozos, a Harris County murder defendant who investigators say cut off his GPS ankle monitor and vanished right before his scheduled jury trial last week.

According to an affidavit from a Harris County Sheriff's Office detective, Pretrial Services first detected a tamper alert on Pozos' device on May 11. Officials left a voicemail instructing Pozos to report for a device inspection, which went ignored. When he failed to appear in court for his trial two days later, his bond was forfeited and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

A formal legal motion filed on May 12 reveals that the Harris County District Attorney’s Office had to file a "State's Motion and Order to Produce Sentinel GPS Activity Logs". The motion sought to force the private tracking vendor to hand over data logs detailing the device's integrity and active tamper alerts so law enforcement could use the records to help locate him.

On May 15, prosecutors officially filed a new felony charge against Pozos for bail jumping and failure to appear. Because Pozos skipped court, the District Attorney's office has since filed a motion requesting a judge set his future bond at $200,000 should he be apprehended.

Pozos was originally out on bond for a 2023 felony murder charge. He is accused of leading police on a high-speed chase while evading arrest, causing a crash that killed his passenger, Hector Catilleja Correa.

A false impression of safety

What they're saying:

Andy Kahan, Director of Victim Services for Crime Stoppers of Houston, stated that the current framework surrounding electronic monitoring gives the public a false impression of safety.

"An ankle monitor is as good as the person who wants to honor it," Kahan said. "If they want to honor it, it's the greatest tool in the world. If they don't want to, guess what? There is nothing you can do to prevent them from removing, destroying, or tampering with that. The public is given a false sense of security in actually believing when someone is on an ankle monitor that they're being closely watched... That’s basically all fiction."

The hunt for Pozos comes less than a month after another high-profile local case gained national attention. Capital murder suspect Lee Gilley allegedly severed his tracking device on a Friday night, but court officials were not formally notified of the violation until the following Monday morning. Investigators confirmed Gilley used an alias to board an international flight, reaching Milan, Italy, before being detained by international authorities.

Kahan compared the disparity between tracking an escaped prison inmate and a pretrial defendant to "night and day."

"If an inmate breaks out of prison, all hell breaks loose. There's an APB alert... Everybody knows that inmate has escaped from prison," Kahan said. "The same person who's on pre-trial release, who has an ankle monitor, when they break loose, nobody knows. That's the night and day difference and that's got to change."

Harris County Pretrial Services, the county department tasked with supervising defendants placed on electronic monitoring, declined to answer inquiries regarding their emergency data-sharing protocols or the timeline of Pozos' escape.

A spokesperson for the agency stated explicitly to FOX 26 that they "will not be providing any statements at this time or doing any interviews."

While federal law enforcement and local deputies continue operations to locate Pozos, Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for anonymous information leading to his arrest.

Meanwhile, Gilley remains in foreign custody pending formal extradition proceedings back to Texas, an outcome Kahan addressed directly.

"I am offering Lee Gilley a free gondola ride when he comes back to Harris County," Kahan said. "We'll give him a gondola ride in the Buffalo Bayou and we'll deposit him at the Harris jail and say, 'Arrivederci, dude.'"

Contact Crime Stoppers

What you can do:

Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Walter Pozos is urged to contact Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-TIPS (8477). All submissions through Crime Stoppers remain completely anonymous.