HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — There was already drama in the courtroom before opening statements got underway Monday in the murder trial for a man accused of stabbing and killing an 11-year-old boy who was walking home from school.
The judge was not happy when she was asked to rule on what could and could not be allowed in opening statements, the day they were scheduled to begin.
The trial had already been delayed for years, but it finally began Monday morning.
Former Marine Andre Jackson pleaded not guilty. He’s accused of stabbing 11-year-old Josue Flores more than 20 times as he walked home from Marshall Middle School in 2016.
The state said during the trial, jurors will hear from several different witnesses, who say they saw a man matching Jackson’s description leaving the crime scene shortly after the attack.
They said the jurors will also see surveillance video of Jackson leaving the scene.
Before the opening arguments began, the defense brought up concerns with evidence relating to a green jacket found in a room at the Salvation Army on N. Main, where Jackson was staying at the time.
The defense had concerns about why police took the jacket and how they connected Jackson to it.
Surveillance video from 2016 showed Josue walking along the sidewalk moments before he was attacked. He was just blocks away from his home.
A neighbor who witnessed the attack told, before the 11-year-old collapsed on the ground, he said, “I just want to go home. I want to go home.”
The neighbor flagged down other drivers to help Josue and then got into his car and started chasing after the man who stabbed him. Unfortunately, the man got away.
The next day, based on witness tips, Houston police arrested a man. However, he was released two days later after his alibi checked out.
Three weeks after that, HPD arrested Jackson.
A year later, charges against Jackson were dropped after DNA tests on his jacket came back inconclusive.
Jackson proclaimed his innocence.
“I’m just tired of hearing my name associated with this case,” he said in a recorded video he posted to YouTube.
Then, in 2019, Houston Police’s Cold Case Unit took up the case.
The team re-tested Jackson’s jacket using new, more sensitive technology.
“The evidence came back positive that there was Josue’s blood on the defendant’s jacket,” Sgt. Richard Rodriguez said. “Three years had elapsed, and as you know, DNA technology has advanced a lot just in those three years.”
Sgt. Rodriguez has spent hours interviewing Jackson and reading his journals.
“I’m not a psychiatrist, I’m not a psychologist, I’m just going off what I feel as an investigator,” he said. “I think when he was out and about, everything just kind of came together at one time and for whatever reason he just snapped. Unfortunately, Josue was just at the wrong place at the wrong time and he was just a truly helpless, innocent victim that he could have complete control over, which is what he did. He controlled him and took over and took away his life.”
Jackson was indicted by a Grand Jury in 2019, and is now charged with murder for the second time.
The trial could take several days to wrap up.
