Jago Times "English Edition" Best Online Newspaper
Accused hitmen received reduced prison sentences recently after the credibility of a Dallas homicide detective involved in their cases was questioned.
The officer was legally absolved last month of tampering with records and perjury after he accused a fellow officer of orchestrating a murder. While some said the detective’s recent legal troubles were a factor, his attorney contends that plea deals are not uncommon.
A Dallas County grand jury charged four people with multiple counts of capital murder related to killings in 2017.
Emmanuel Kilpatrick is accused of killing five people that year. Jermon Simmons and Kevin Kidd are accused of helping him in four of those murders. A woman, Joy Gray, was charged with helping in three of them.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/4VIRIYQ7SJG4EDP2WVAVV7TWYU.jpg)
In the deals, Kilpatrick, Simmons, Kidd and Gray pled guilty to first-degree murder – as opposed to capital murder, which carries only two sentences: life in prison without parole or the death penalty. Gray received 35 years, Kidd and Simmons got 40 years. Kilpatrick got life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Court proceedings for the cases were paused after Kilpatrick told police he committed the killings at the behest of former Dallas police Officer Bryan Riser. Detective Esteban Montenegro investigated Kilpatrick’s tale and believed him.
In 2021, Montenegro obtained a warrant for Riser’s arrest on suspicion of capital murder. The case quickly fell apart. Dallas County prosecutors didn’t believe Montenegro had enough evidence to prosecute. A Dallas judge ordered Riser’s release from jail.
Montenegro then came under review. The Dallas police department’s public integrity unit sent two felony cases of tampering with records and a misdemeanor case of perjury against Montenegro to prosecutors. However, a grand jury declined to indict him.
Even though Montenegro was not charged, prosecutors would not want to put him on the stand in a trial, said defense lawyer Toby Shook, who represents Riser. Montenegro’s credibility was “destroyed,” Shook said, when he testified against Riser in a hearing to determine whether enough evidence existed to keep Riser in jail.
People with less serious records have received lengthier sentences than the accused hitmen, Shook noted.
“They got great deals considering how many people they murdered and their criminal history,” Shook said. “It was all a direct result of Montenegro’s faulty investigation into Bryan Riser that they got those deals.”
However, most cases result in plea deals rather than trials, said Messina Madson, who represents Montenegro.
Every case has nuances that are considered in plea deal negotiations between prosecutors and defense lawyers, the details of which aren’t typically known to others, Madson said.
“Riser’s attorney is not in a position to have this knowledge and has an agenda to bash my client,” Messina Madson said. “It’s politically motivated and unreliable and just false.”
Claire Crouch, a spokeswoman for the DA’s office, confirmed the plea deals Kilpatrick, Kidd, Simmons and Gray got but declined to comment on the factors prosecutors considered.
Tom Cox, a longtime Dallas lawyer not involved in the cases, said these deals are “dramatically better” than people accused of similar crimes typically get.
That indicates prosecutors didn’t want to risk losing the cases in front of juries where Montenegro’s credibility and judgment could be questioned, Cox said.
“It means that a defense attorney can attack the quality of the investigation and point out to the jury that they can’t be confident that anything this detective said is true,” Cox said.
Kilpatrick’s lawyer, William “Karo” Johnson, defended Montenegro. He said other factors caused delays in the cases.
“I’ve been around a while and quite frankly [Montenegro] is one of the best homicide detectives they ever had,” Johnson said. “He’s honest and hardworking. You can trust him.”
Three days of shootings
Liza Marie Saenz, Irby Walton Sr., his son Irby Walton Jr., and Cristobal Zepeda were killed over three days in March 2017.
Kayakers found Saenz’s body in the water of the Trinity River near the 200 block of Santa Fe Avenue after hearing several gunshots ring out on March 10 of that year.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/RCOO4FFEOFVDUVDLPZFPMPKDYM.png)
Later that night, witnesses told police they saw a woman identified as Gray accompany Irby Walton Sr. inside his apartment. The witnesses said they later heard gunshots and saw several men and a woman leave the apartment, according to the arrest affidavit.
Police found Walton Sr., 69, and Walton Jr., 41, dead in the apartment the following day. Some of their electronics were missing.
Zepeda was shot dead in his car on March 12, 2017.
During the court hearing trial for Riser, Shook, the lawyer, said Gray acted as a prostitute to lure the Waltons and Zepeda. Gray spoke with police that March and said she agreed to help rob Zepeda but did not want him to be killed, according to an arrest affidavit.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/YZNOPZL7NGLNAPUWL4NKQQI7AQ.jpg)
Kilpatrick, Simmons and Gray were convicted in Zepeda’s killing. Kilpatrick, Simmons and Kidd were convicted for Saenz’s murder. All four were convicted in the slayings of the Waltons.
Only one case was resolved before the detective acted on Kilpatrick’s accusation against Riser. Kilpatrick pled guilty in 2019 to murder in exchange for a life sentence for killing the Waltons.
About five months after Riser’s arrest, in August, 2021, Gray pled guilty to murder for 35 years for Zepeda’s slaying.
Kidd pled guilty to the Waltons’ murders in 2022, nearly a year after Riser’s arrest. The rest of the deals were agreed to this year.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/CA4FATGUJBJU24FLMRVYQ2QJQM.jpg)
Kilpatrick and Kidd were also indicted on capital murder charges for another man, Albert Douglas, who was reported missing in February 2017. Douglas’ body has never been found, Dallas police said. The charges against Kilpatrick and Kidd were dismissed this year.
In 2009, Simmons pled guilty to the 2004 murder of Timothy McIntosh, according to court records. Simmons received a sentence of five years in prison. It is unclear whether he served the full five years.