Josue Flores: The Kids Don’t Leave You | The Evidence Room, Episode 25

[Music] [Music] her son remained calm as the judge read the sentence death by execution hosway Flores was murdered last Tuesday on his way home from school the men confessed to shooting the team execution style there was some uh satanic type activity taking [Music] place officers tell us tro stabbed her boyfriend with stiletto heels shoes [Music] 2-year-old Riley an Sawyer's brutal killing shocked the nation she was beaten to death stuffed in a plastic box found by a fisherman in Galviston Bay former NFL player Antonio Armstrong senior and his wife Dawn Armstrong were murdered we the jury find the defendant Antonio Armstrong Jr [Music] guilty one by one they describe the deaths of the alleged other eight victims of the convicted rail Park [Music] [Applause] [Music] killer welcome back to the evidence room this week's episode is about a life cut short a life filled with promise that was taken for no reason at all hosway Flores was 11 years old when he was stabbed to death while walking home from Marshall Middle School along Fulton Street and even though cameras blanket this area it would take 6 years before his killer would be [Music] convicted every time we see we open the boxes we see the last group photo from that day the time stamp cuz the clock was right there that was literally his last photo a piece a party for a science club and you know he's going to be dead within 20 minutes of that photograph was Haunting like that those last uh um 50 ft or so you can see him and he's just marching toward the inevitability of Andre Jackson his little best friend at the time um we met at the school and him he testified for us um that was also wild we're looking at at hos who is forever an 11-year-old little boy and then you're talking to his best friend at the time who was 11 who has now grown up he a senior in high school and so you're seeing a 18-year-old and um and he still has a picture of his way and um and he wants to be that and he and he said um cuz he would talk to hway about W to be a doctor and he is going to college um and he wants to honor his friend so it it was interesting to it when I say he killed what he could have been um that's what we mean by that gentleman thank you very much I appreciate that man I didn't expect motions to come back back [Music] up Tuesday May 17 2016 1643 and 01 seconds1 transfer for medic and police um I'm on James Street okay what are you reporting officer oh my God there's a cop right what [ __ ] um a kid just got stabbed like he's like is he in the street or where is he he's in he's in he's in the street yeah we just got stabbed some some man like black dude just ran up and and stabbed this kid why did you guys bring me in here okay did they tell you why you were arrested no okay well I think there may be some things we need to clear up okay okay um right now you are under arrest do you understand that for somebody within seconds to come across an 11-year-old child and brutally murder them it's hard to even get your head around it John Jordan assistant district attorney as I was one of the prosecutors on the we call it the hosway fors case you know I've been around for about 25 years and so I've I've been a part of a lot of these cases and have witnessed many more and we always call the Case by the style of the defendant's name and this is the only case that I can remember in the last 25 years that everybody refers to it as the hosway forest case a question police are trying to answer in a neighborhood is trying to understand how could anyone attack and murder a child I have an 11-year-old and a 10-year-old and I also have an 8-year-old and I can't imagine what this mom is going through each candle balloon stuffed animal and painting left here is an individ ual expression of grief the image of a smiling hos Flores on the minds of so many we talked about it sometimes at school cuz we were like I mean this could happen to any of us Flores was laid to rest Tuesday hundreds attended the funeral at the Holy Name Catholic Church a mariachi band help live spirits but ever present is the reminder a killer is on the loose sometimes I have to walk home from school and sometimes like since my mom she get scared now that like if I H walk from school something bad will happen to me amidst the grief there is also all from a community that will never stop searching for justice a thought scene on this poster the hosway killer you will never find peace you will never forget this innocent face you will always be haunted by what you did he was just playing in the puddles playing on the Gates doing nothing to anybody and that is so [Music] sad [Music] he had told a teacher I'm a big boy I can walk home cuz he hadn't been walking home alone usually his sister was there his family was was working income his dad was a painter um good people but certainly lower economic ladder working hard to put food on their table but they believe in that education his older sister was was a nurse and and he dreamed of being a doctor and he was in advanced science in fact he was um in an after school program um for Science and and so the reason why he was walking in that neighborhood not at the time that class let out but a little bit later was because he was at the end of the year party for this Advanced science and he wanted to be a doctor being 11 years old and walking home from school block and a half from your home you should be safe and I think it just touched a nerve in our community from the get-go I'm hoping it helps everybody heal after 7 Days of grief anger and fear this Northside Community came together once more in a show of support for Jos Flores and his family it really so strongly shows how much and How Deeply people care about each other and that's that's been beautiful father Anil Thomas performed a blessing for H on the steps the holy Catholic Church before giving the homy during his funeral mass God is in control God Will Take Care Of God will protect each one of us prayers of protection on the minds of everyone in this neighborhood still on edge asos's killer remains on the loose there's still a lot of apprehension and fear cuz they don't know if somebody might be next we'll work to make this a a better stronger safer wonderful neighborhood a promise that comes too late for H he never made it home last Tuesday so the funeral procession took him there today stopping for a final family photo before carrying him to his final resting place um I'll never forget hostway Flores I'll never forget uh his mom I'm Chris Condon I'm an assistant district attorney with Harris County I was uh the other prosecutor assigned to the trial case for Jose Flores I remember when Chris and I went to the property room before trial as we're going through all the evidence and we pulled out his backpack and there was a card in there for his mother for Mother's Day um it was just so tragic Yolanda arago was walking near North Maine in Henry Street this afternoon when she looked down and spotted something shiny in the sewer drain it looked like a knife and artiaga knew she had to let the police know right away way this corner is only a few blocks away from where 11-year-old Jos Flores was stabbed to death she said like I told the officials I'm not sure it's the knife that killed the kid but right now any evidence is good to find the killer Houston police are not calling this a major development and right now they are not linking this knife to any crime but it has been collected as evidence it has been taken into our custody and it will be taken to the property room and it will be processed for any evidence that may or may not be on it it could be a knife from anywhere it could be a knife from that somebody just threw down there it could be down there for weeks the family is hoping otherwise they would love for this knife to give police some Clues as to who killed hosway I hope and pray that first of all that it is the weapon and and that if it is I hope that all the evidence stayed intact or at least some like they could find something on it when no why was was was murdered um the knife was was never found um although there was attempts in looking and gutters and neighborhoods and things of that nature and we know based on the emy's report from hose's autopsy that it was a small blade likely a pocket knife I mean we don't know but it was a very small blade so it would have been very easy to to hide um to discard anything shiny that was found in this neighborhood was taken in for testing like so it was and and officers were volunteering their times I mean officers you know who weren't even working were coming in I mean everybody cared everybody cared about this um and so it wasn't for lack of trying it's just we never found the murder weapon hours after making his court appearance charges against Chay Calhoun and the murder of 11-year-old Jos Flores were dropped investigators say Calhoun who was arrested and accused in the stabbing death was not responsible and had an alibi that checked out this looks like a bony investigation had they done one eye Oder of real investigative work they would have saw and learned just from the family alone that he could he could not have committed that murder his family says Calhoun was in peralan at the time of the crime and store surveillance video there proves he didn't commit the murder he was with me all that night and all that afternoon so there was no way that this was possible for him to do this and I just wanted to be cleared up that he he's not the person that did this to this young man but as Calhoun's family is relieved by the latest development another family is grief stricken all over he was all about love and compassion and just being there for people and I know that's the message that he would want to come out a special Memorial was held in Marshall Middle School in hos honor where he attended as the search for his killer begins again cuz I know HPD is working hard I know they are working hard fulltime overtime I know they're putting their hearts into it how did it come that this person was the first person arrested you know it's before I I I guessed the analysis of all of the the footage in the neighborhood and I think there was a lot of pressure I mean this was truly a situation where it is Strang or danger and we all know that rarely happens to the most innocent person in our community an 11-year-old walking home from school and so officers in the area were just trying to help and there was an officer who had run into someone named Chay coun previously um and it kind of fit the description with a knife and kind of a an altercation um so it's some so he was arrested and he gave an alibi and immediately the officers followed up on that alibi and thankfully he was on surveillance in a far away area of town at the time that the crime occurred so the case was was um quickly dismissed um but make no mistake of it it was a tragedy anytime a an innocent person is arrested it I don't want to make light of it um although I think everybody was in good faith I just want the right person to get caught and I don't want any anybody covering for anybody else let Justice be served so how did how did Andre Jackson get on one's radar what ended up breaking the case initially and we came back to it when we tried the case is surveillance footage um folks who um good citizens who reported seeing something in the area um officers going on the ground and pulling ring doorbells and surveillance footage from businesses and and Metro and trying to develop a timeline because they knew when the 911 call had come in so what was the common theme was there was an African-American male seen fleeing the scene various descriptions in a green jacket they released video footage of him in the area a a a convenience store owner was familiar with that jacket because it was so unusual that it was like a unusual green color he had seen the the lettering on the back that didn't make sense and so he knew when he saw on the local television any I heard anything they knew that they had seen that person earlier that day was he living in the area he was living at the Salvation Army within a few blocks of that convenience store HPD had uh some of the surveillance video that they captured was um kind of a it's like an overhead view of a side street not too far away from the Salvation Army and as Andre Jackson was fleeing the stabbing he ran underneath this surveillance camera and you could see very clearly uh well in one angle you could see his face but you could see very clearly the jacket in the back and you could see it said it was like JB Lyman was the lettering on the back of the jacket um they released that photograph to the public and this man who ran the store recognized the jacket it was like a gift from God I mean like if he had just been dressed normally and and didn't have a distinguishing um jacket I don't know if the crime would have ever been solved and and so from there the officers went to that convenience store they were able to pull from ATM machine to see who had made a withdrawal around that time and that's how he was developed as a suspect where was he arrested at the Salvation Army he was arrested at the Salvation Army taken into custody did he have the jacket on the jacket was in his room it was not on him it was on the on the back of a chair inside the room that he that he was in you know this case of the little boy that was stabbed in the area over there yes okay you're arrested on a warrant regarding that okay what does that mean what does that have to do with me well first thing my question [Music] is is this a photograph of you um no it's not no do you have a jacket like that yes but I don't know if those are the letters that are on my jacket it's kind of Chinese the day the murder occurred was Tuesday May 17th is this me on the 17th yes that is you on the 17th where like like I told you you said it's part of the crime scene how well hold on let me get there for a second okay bear with me for a second Andre Okay on Tuesday May 17th the stabbing occurred at approximately 4:40 p.m. okay and what time are these pictures from those pictures are from right after the the stabbing okay now let me ask you from what camera okay where were you on that day that afternoon I don't know you don't know where you were bizarre is the exact word I would use um it it was it was odd it was just odd because he was trying to find out what the investigators knew this is you right okay here's the here's the problem okay for you the problem for you is you're seeing fleeing from the crime scene from there to towards the Salvation Army seen fleeing that's what these pictures are insinuating perhaps there's perhaps there's another re well that's what I'm asking you perhaps there's another reason and so we've already established that that's you in the photographs okay right right okay were you on hold on were you on Fulton that day I don't know the streets over there I have to look at a map okay well I can get us a map what I'm can get us a map in just a [Music] second tears from suspect Andre Jackson Jr as he stood before a judge for the first time tears also came from the family and friends of 11year old hway Flores Jackson is accused of stabbing Flores at least 20 times a prosecutor said Jackson admitted to being at the murder scene defendant was then arrested and admitted that he is the person on the surveillance cameras and admitted that he was at the scene and Rain from the scene prosecutors said a total of five surveillance cameras in the area captured Jackson wearing a distinctive jacket prosecutors said that one of those pieces of video was captured before hose's death but was only discovered last Thursday devastated man it was devastated in uh not just for the whole city but for the whole family man it was real hard man it was real hard cuz he started crying too man he realized what he did was wrong and he realized that he's going to pay the price for it disgust and anger from people inside the courtroom many of them walked the mile and a half from the crime scene to the courthouse some were not pleased that Jackson's bond is set at $100,000 I don't want him to be in Joe I don't want no death penalty I don't want nothing like that I him to be in Joe sit there and think about everything he did that's the first time he was arrested why was he released in the charges dismissed the first time he was um arrested in good faith based on the statements of the people at the scene based on again the importance of the green jacket but he was arrested while DNA was pending What specifically was being tested DNA has to be swabbed from you know pieces of evidence um a lot of times that's going to be uh from a fluid like a bodily fluid that can be identified blood semen that kind of stuff um there was no uh blood on this jacket now either you know I don't know maybe maybe no blood got on the jacket during the stabbing maybe it been wiped down uh we we don't know we'll never know um so they they were not processing specific areas there wasn't so in other words there wasn't like an obvious blood stain that they're swabbing to see so um they were uh they were sort of just going to places that would have most likely contacted the victim so they swabbed you know sort of the outside part of the jacket and uh luckily they swabbed the uh kind of the what I guess like the the cuff of the jacket um the jacket was a material that doesn't wouldn't really hold DNA it would have been kind of easy to wipe off it was kind of like uh I I always tell people like you know like letterman jackets from high school you know the sleeves are made out of that kind of like that plastic leather that was kind of the material the jacket was made out of but the Cuffs were made out of kind of that gathered cotton kind of stretchy material so more absorbent more absorbent and so uh the the DNA um analyst with DPS swabbed that part of the jacket both cuffs pretty extensively inside the cuff outside the cuff we had been waiting for the better part of a year for the outcome of the DNA evidence in an effort to link him to the homicide the results of the DNA and the blood analysis are at best inconclusive I was familiar with somewhat of the history that it had been filed um it had been filed assuming that the DNA would come back a certain way and then when the DNA came back as inconclusive the decision was made a tough decision to dismiss the case um because you only have one opportunity to try a case and if you try it and you don't have all the evidence you're going to second guess yourself if you don't have the right result 2 years later and the pain of hosway flores's death is still very fresh we want Justice hose's family the community along with police and elected officials gathered to remember the 11-year-old in 2016 Jos was on his way home from school when someone stabbed him more than 20 times along this fence I'm feeling sad Stella meles Walters created safe walk home North Side after Jos was killed to help protect other students we need to come together we need to reignite the fuel and close this case it's it's a tragedy on a tragedy everyone thought police solved the case when they arrested a man named Andre Jackson but last summer the Harris County District Attorney's Office dropped charges against Jackson because of inconclusive forensic evidence justice has not been served at this point all we can do is keep trying many people including Houston police chief R oo believ Jackson was the killer obviously the police chief is convinced he was the right person but he's acknowledged we have to have the right evidence as well when we bring a matter in court we want answers we want to know what's going on with his case Sonia Parker says she is a friend of the Florida family and she like many are frustrated police have not found the little boy's killer what finally happened that brought Jackson back onto everyone's radar there was a homicide investigator um named Rich Rodriguez let's just call him the cop who wouldn't quit he is sitting in a um a homicide conference I think it was in Atlanta and someone from Dean um DNA International a private company out of Florida was given a presentation on what they have developed in the Private Industry as opposed to the government on um a little bit more sophisticated um DNA testing and he immediately thought of hisa of a case that he had been assigned because he was a cold Cas Squad and said maybe that could help um us we have evidence now in Utah a lab that is utilizing techniques to extract DNA from evidence that uh that our lab and our state lab does not have the capacity to do and we're hopeful that we're going to extract that DNA and we to get this sus we're going to bring them here he coordinates taking the sample that had been previously analyzed and found inconclusive and they took that specific sample so it wasn't a reab it wasn't a new swab it was the DNA that had been removed but uh but our Labs just didn't have equipment you know were protocols sensitive enough to determine whose DNA that was and they were able to look at it with their their more advanced equipment and determine that it was hostway flores's DNA was it immediate go get him go pick him up and we'll take charges now there was a coordination between the Houston Police Department police chief um the elector district attorney um sharing information um and making sure that everybody was on the same page um obviously once the case is dismissed years before and now we're going to resurrect something um Folks at the highest level need to be consulted um and a warrant was issued for his arrest and he was taken into custody this is the first video of Andre Jackson since his arrest charging the murder of 11-year-old hos Flores back in 2016 deputies escorted him from the courthouse back to the Harris County Jail I'm Grace Jones son Fox today's hearing was reset and Jackson didn't stand before a judge Jackson was initially arrested in 2016 but prosecutors dropped the charges after DNA test came back inconclusive announced yesterday the District Attorney's Office says new Advanced DNA testing on a jacket ceased from Jackson's home does show a mash to hosway a community member was at the courthouse showing support for the Flores family we're here to support the family we're here to support the justice system we're here to support whatever Justice we can get hi my name is Andre and I'm making this video in direct response to the media as well as the press conference that was held about the case of Jose flores's murder I'm going to try to make this as quick as possible and as concisely as possible because quite frankly I'm just tired of hearing my name associated with this case so I know we you you pick him up you arrest him but then he does that YouTube video how did that factor into the prosecution um we really it was more humorous to us um it you know obviously there was a lot of public statements he made that showed some animosity towards the Hispanic community in town um and that was concerning um however we we weren't going to use that in trial um and so it was just more information to try and figure out who this person was they are just trying to save face and console the community and they're going about it in the wrong way by trying to disseminate false hope that one day I will be proven as Jose flores's killer I am not his killer my fifth point that I want to emphasize is that the very same community that they are mentioning so much needs to be where they look for a person of interest or a suspect they need to reference the crimes that young Hispanic Americans are committing across Houston this is nearly a form of harassment and I'm considering legal action against this municipality and judicial system Andre Jackson is accused of killing 11-year-old hos Flores after stabbing him 20 times with a pocket knife while he was walking home from school almost 6 years ago as prosecutors present their case against him much of today's testimony centering on key evidence in the case including New pieces of surveillance video played in court which showed the young boy at different times from leaving Marshall Middle School to walking down the street with his backpack on several other videos played for the jurors show the accused Andre Jackson putting on his jacket and looking at his hands walking past an elementary school and running down a street the jacket Jackson had on safe prosecutors is the same green jacket that they say belonged to Jackson the day the 11-year-old was killed and that it contained his DNA this morning Jackson sat with his defense team as the state called the first witness the owner of a Chevron gas station the business owner testified that he provided surveillance video to police in 2016 which showed video of a man in a green jacket inside of his business the family is Desperately Seeking Justice and closure a member of lulac who is here to support the family says they have waited six long years for justice for hosway they are very um saddened and hopeful at the same time the work that was done by HPD finding and um going through all those videos cannot be overstated it was important I mean it it gave us I think during during our our our trial prep and throughout the trial we kept coming back to the map um so we had a a map of of the neighborhood where the school was located where Jos had traveled where the murder occurred and then where Andre Jackson fled uh all the way back to the um to the shelter that he was staying at at the time we had that map on our on our wall and no matter what we did whoever witness we always went back up to that map and you could just follow the jacket everybody else in the neighborhood was running toward hosway and we had one person who was running away and it was this guy in the jacket the part about that that always got me though um is as Andre Jackson comes around the corner the first time we pick him up on video he's that got the jacket kind of draped over his shoulders and before he puts it on you can see him kind of go like this and it looks like he's checking his hands and then he throws that jacket on um and that was always something that was very telling to me I mean it was hot outside so he's putting on a jacket which is weird but why would you check your hands first before you slip your jacket on when asked jway FL is his father and mother said they were happy as they walked out of the courtroom telling us they would speak more about the jury's decision tomorrow after their son's killer was sentenced Andre Jackson began sobbing even before the jury walked into the courtroom and continued crying as the verdict was read God muttering the words oh God after a jury convicted him of killing the 11-year-old honor student nearly 6 years ago on May 17th 2016 after stabbing him rough 20 times with a pocket knife prosecutors surrounded the 11-year-old's mother and father who were also in tears after the verdict was read five members of Jackson's family also sobbing as they listen to the verdict in their closing arguments prosecutors spent about 11 minutes of the allotted hour Jackson faces 5 years to life in prison at his request it will be the judge not the jury who decides his punishment we were so exhausted from the um way nights you know and um and I remember saying that you know guys um we're put in this position and it's an honter um but I don't want to live in a community where someone can be killed walking home from school and we got the right person and he gets to go home free it's just this just can't happen can I ju and Maria Flores leaned on gratitude the day they say justice arrived 6 years after the 11-year-old son walked toward home but never made it a judge Wednesday sentenced Andre Jackson the Man convicted of killing Jos Flores to life in prison yor I'm asking you to write the wrongs in the system Jackson in a written statement begged the judge for five years he cited an unfair case one he wrote relied on Revenge rather than justice but after speaking for some 16 minutes Jackson learned he'd spend the rest of his life Behind Bars Justice was done today for J Flores the right decision pressed Harris County District Attorney Kim a who praised her prosecutors for going the long haul the case came down to DNA evidence on a Green Jacket Jackson is accused of wearing the afternoon he killed Jos trace DNA as found by a lab in Florida after test in Texas couldn't link Jackson to the crime I think the challenge was a number of years ago dismissing the case knowing the DNA was in conclusive with the hope that one day we would be here today there was video evidence tying Jackson near the scene but beyond that his attorneys say there wasn't anything else yet guilty was juror's conclusion it should be uh concerning for the citizens that that this is all it takes my client was never identified by any witness as the person that was the murder hosway flotes would have graduated high school this spring had he not been stabbed over 20 times times his best friend Angel said the two had a pack a promise he says to always be there he gave me the motivation to keep going he gave me the strength to get up and say this day is is for hos and now I feel like I made it up to [Music] him you always want to know why as though that's somehow comforting as though there was something that Andre Jackson could say that would make us understand why he would do this to that little boy um but the truth is there is no explanation that could fill that hole there's nothing that could make what he did acceptable or understandable even or relatable um and so I think one thing I've learned is don't try to understand uh don't don't try to understand what a monster does just accept that it has been done I've said it in closing and I truly believe it I mean I I you know such a horrific crime um the case was dismissed and dormant for years and the way it ended up resurrecting itself and ultimately Le leading to his conviction was hos himself how so his DNA hose years later was telling us I'm here I'm on his jacket because he killed me and um it just took patience it took um and the family was always so kind and they had every reason to be angry um the community was angry and and and the family was just trusting I don't feel like we got the conviction I I truly believe hosway got the conviction H's memory is honored through this Memorial Park and a bus stop dedicated in his name in front of Northside High School where he would have graduated a Grassroots organization called a safe walk home was also founded in his memory volunteers on the near North Side watch over school children as they walk to and from class thank you for joining us for this week's episode of The Evidence room a new episode of The Evidence room streams every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. on kprc2 Plus for everyone on the kprc2 investigates team I'm Robert Arnold we'll see you next week

Channel: KPRC 2 Click2Houston

Views: 269,300

Keywords: True Crime, Andre Jackson, Docuseries, Josue Flores, Josue Flores Andre Jackson, Josue Flores Case, Josue Flores Surveillance, Josue Flores Trial, Josue Flores stabbing, The Evidence Room, The Evidence Room season 4, True Crime Documentary, True Crime Stories, josue flores Houston, murder stories true crime, true crime stories solved, murder of josue flores, teh evidence room, the evidence room season 4, documentary, true crime documentary

Id: uI1AcIwq4V8

Length: 37min 57sec (2277 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2023