A man on trial this week in Bastrop County District Court was convicted of tampering with evidence and sentenced to four years probation and a $1,000 fine by a jury of six men and six women.
Daniel Lee Holmes pled not guilty on Monday to a charge of altering or destroying methamphetamine in order to prevent its use in an investigation.
On Thursday afternoon the jury found Holmes guilty and later returned the probation time and fine during the subsequent punishment phase.
The incident which Holmes was convicted of took place on March 16, 2007 when Holmes was pulled over off of Texas 21 by Department of Public Safety officer John Vincent, according to courtroom testimony. During the process of the officer searching Holmes and the truck he was riding in, Holmes put a bag of crystal meth into his own mouth. Vincent then began to struggle with Holmes in order to retrieve the bag. The bag was retrieved and booked into evidence and later identified as containing methamphetamine.
Holmes’s attorney Vann Pressley made the case to jurors that Vincent did not have probable cause to pull Holmes over.
“He (Vincent) stopped Daniel Holmes that night and he started his fishing expedition…pushing around to see what would happen and casting his line to see what would come back,” Pressley said. The defense also made the case that Vincent was unnecessarily rough with Holmes during the arrest.
Prosecutors Phil Hall and Greg Gilleland disagreed and told jurors the facts in the case were clear.
“This (Holmes) is not a man who was beaten down and tortured, yet John Vincent has to hear this over and over again in this trial,” Hall said during closing arguments. “Ignore the rhetoric; ignore the half-truths; go back there and read the law.”
Following the conviction Hall said he was pleased with the results.