Andy Kahan - Crime Stoppers Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Andy con from Crime Stoppers is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Andy, good morning, Hey, great to be here, Thanks for
having me.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good good to have you, Thanks for making the time.
What can you tell us about Benny Simmons, this eighteen
year old charged in this robbery case.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I can tell you, in my almost forty years of
being involved in a criminal justice system, I've never ever
seen anything like this. And every person I discussed this
with from the legal profession yesterday also reiterates that same
talking point as well. None of us are ever seeing
someone who got twenty years for capital of murder. First

(00:34):
of all, he got a break on that and twenty
years for aggurator robbery with a deadly weapon as a juvenile.
So he got a two for one sweetheart deal, basically
a twenty year sentence for capital of murder getting out
in two years in three months. Uh. I don't none
of us can understand how this happened because the way

(00:54):
we reinterpret the law, you have to serve a minimum
of ten years. I spent yesterday trying to get answers
from juvenile officials, and that was like trying to break
in the Fort Knox. It was reminded me of the
old guests Mark series. It was like the cone of
silence every time I would ask a question on there.
But I'm going to get answers eventually, because the people

(01:17):
of Harris Caanty deserve answers, and that eighty one year
old crime victim, she of all people, deserve to know
why this guy was out.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, that's she does. She she is who the system failed.
There's no question about it. Judge Leash Shapiro or Lee Shapiro,
sendced him to twenty years in that case you were
talking about with the in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
That's half of the forty year sentence that could have
been imposed. So leniency from the very very beginning. But
then tell me, Andy, how the hell was he paroled

(01:49):
after just two years.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
I don't know. If you get an answer, you know,
let me know, because yesterday I it was a feudal
attempt to find out why he was getting out. No
one seemed to want to be very forthcoming with how
he was released after serving such a short time span.
Never seen anything like this, And to me, this also

(02:12):
indicates I'm fairly sure he can't be the only one.
Just from all my years of dealing in the system.
He cannot be the only one. So I don't know
if this is going to open up the proverbial Pandora's box,
but I am on it and I'm not going to
stop until I get answers, because public safety deserves answers.
I don't know how in your right mind you thought

(02:35):
of releasing him two years and three months into a
twenty year sentence was in the best interest of public safety.
You could have remanded him to the big boy prison
Texas Department of Criminal Justice to serve out the remainder
of his sentence before it became paroligible. But you didn't
do that. You just put him back on the streets.

(02:56):
And now you have an eighty one year old senior
citizen that paid the price that.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, well, and you know the bare minimum you know,
in a lot of states, you know, the juvenile justice
system requires somebody convicted of a violent crime as a
minor like that to be held at least until they're
twenty one. That would have put him in for five
years or four or five years had he been held
just until twenty one. But he didn't even get held there.
And it begs this question for me. Anyway, Andy, and
I don't know the answer to whom do parole boards report?

(03:23):
To whom do they you know, do they serve? I'm
trying to figure it. Figure it out here. Is that
anybody that has forty over.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
The Yeah, the juvenile justice system is basically is tough
crack because of the confidentiality statures of dealing with juvenile
Everything is protected, everything is sealed. So I don't know
the answer to that, because I've never seen a situation

(03:51):
like this. It would be who the juvenile justice system,
particularly in this stase, to at least release a statement
why they felt releasing Benny Simmons was in the best
interest of public safety and also cite the statute that
allowed them to release someone who was convicted of capital
murder and aggravated robbery well before what we perceived to

(04:15):
be the minimum time that he had to serve, which was.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Half Yeah, you know what, that's a great point. And
I know you're not a lawmaker, you're with crime stoppers,
but wouldn't it behoove I think the people to serve
the people to make sure that the parole board releases
such statements before release, not just after some new crime
is committed. When you're going to turn somebody who's a
violent criminal loose and not even care if they're a

(04:39):
juvenile or not. But if you're going to turn somebody loose,
I feel like that should be public statement. Here is
the official public statement regarding the release of prisoner ABC
or D before they are actually set free, so that
when something else happens, then we can refer back to
what the what the parole board said here, because to me,
leniency in a parole board is just, I don't know,
it's unconscionable when these people go back reoffend.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
You're trying to put logic into a system that often
doesn't use logic. There's an old saying of mine that
criminal justice and logic are often oxymoronic terms that have
difficult times meeting each other, and you're seeing a living
proof of it with the release of Benny Simmons.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Andy Conn Crime Stoppers very very well said Andy, thank
you for the time.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
This morning, you bet, thanks for having me on. Take
care