Dallas Defense Attorney Blog

A 53-year-old Houston man is innocent and should be released from prison after serving 22 years for a rape and robbery, his lawyer said Friday, because faulty forensics and false testimony from the Houston crime lab secured his conviction.

A jury convicted Gary Alvin Richard in a 1987 attack on a nursing student in a trial based largely on blood-typing evidence from the Houston Police Department crime lab. But, prosecutors and the defense attorney agree, new tests completed Friday show that an HPD analyst misled jurors at Richard’s trial and failed to report evidence that may have helped him.

Based on the new tests, both sides will ask a judge next week to release Richard on bond while they sort out what happened in his case.

“This is a new chapter, among many, of mistakes that were made, of sloppy work at the crime lab,” said Bob Wicoff, Richard’s lawyer. “Most troubling are the results that were not passed on to people who needed them.”

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Robert Lomas, 53, of Redwood City, got his nickname in the spring of 2007 during a series of bank heists he committed in the midst of a downward spiral in his personal life, defense attorney Richard Keyes told a jury Thursday during opening statements in his client’s murder trial.

The crisis for Lomas began with a domestic violence conviction for battering his wife Linda in a jealous rage, continued with the loss of his job at an auto-parts store, and further escalated as he tried to win his wife back from the arms of other men, both real and imagined, with thousands of dollars he stole from more than half a dozen area banks, Keyes said.

The defense attorney played the jury video footage of Lomas’ confession from the night of the murder to underscore the man’s affection for his murdered wife, Linda.

“She was my star, she was my life,” Lomas tearfully told investigators. “Everything I did was to keep her happy.”

What Lomas did to keep his wife content ranged from cleaning the couple’s studio apartment to cooking meals and, according to evidence, robbing banks and handing a good deal of the proceeds over to her, Keyes told the San Mateo County Superior Court jury. Read the rest of the article