Father Killed His Daughter’s Rapíst With Bare Hands in Texas

District Attorney Heather McMinn and Lavaca
County Sheriff Mica Harmon appear at a news
conference in Halletsville, Texas on Tuesday, Jun
19, 2012 in the aftermath of the killing
A Texas father who discovered a man ráping
his five-year-old daughter and beat him to death with his bare hands will not be charged
with homicide under state law. A Lavaca County grand jury decided not to press
charges against the 23-year-old father in the
June 9th death of Jesus Mora Flores, 47, who
was killed inside a remote shack after he was
caught molesting the young girl. Under Texas state law, deadly force is
authorized and indeed, justified in order to
stop an aggravated sexuál assault and
coupled with the fact that the harrowing 911
calls made by the father back claims he even
tried to save the pedophile’s life led to the grand jury’s decision. Lavaca County sheriff’s deputies said that the
father, whose name has not been released to
protect the little girl’s identity, sent her and
her brother to feed the family’s chickens. The boy rushed back to tell his dad that
someone had grabbed his sister and taken her
to a small secluded shack and the father
rushed towards his daughter’s screams and
arrived to find them both with their underwear
off. Flying into a rage, the father beat Flores
unconscious, but attempted to call 911 for the
rápist after he had made sure his daughter
was safe.Sheriff Micah Harmon had said in
June that he was not willing to press charges
against the father, rather the case would be presented to a grand jury. At the time, Harmon
said that the man was ‘very remorseful’ and
didn’t know at the time he had killed Flores. ‘You have a right to defend your daughter,’
Harmon told CNN at the time. ‘The girl’s father
acted in defense of his third person. Once the
investigation is completed we will submit it to
the district attorney who then submits it to the
grand jury, who will decide if they will indict him.’ Indeed, the father is heard profanely
screaming at a dispatcher who couldn’t locate
the property.
Becoming increasingly frazzled, the father at
one point tells the dispatcher he’s going to
put the man in his truck and drive him to a hospital before sheriff’s deputies finally
arrive.V’Anne Huser, the father’s attorney,
sternly told reporters several times during a
news conference at the Lavaca County
courthouse that neither the father nor the
family will ever give interviews. ‘He’s a peaceable soul,’ Huser said. ‘He had no
intention to kill anybody that day.’ The attack happened on the family’s ranch off
a quiet, two-lane county road between the
farming towns of Shiner and Yoakum. Authorities say a witness saw Flores ‘forcibly
carrying’ the girl into a secluded area and then
scrambled to find the father. Running toward
his daughter’s screams, investigators said, the
father pulled Flores off his child and ‘inflicted
several blows to the man’s head and neck area.’ Emergency crews found Flores’ pánts and
underweár pulled down on his lifeless body by
the time they responded to the 911 call.The
girl was taken to a hospital and examined,
and authorities say forensic evidence and
witness accounts corroborated the father’s story that his daughter was being sexuálly
molested. ‘Under the law in the state of Texas deadly
force is authorized and justified in order to
stop an aggravated sexuál assault or s*xual
assault,’ District Attorney Heather McMinn told
reporters in June. All the evidence provided by the sheriff’s
department and the Texas Rangers indicated
that’s what was occurring when the victim’s
father arrived at the scene,’ she
said. Authorities said he expressed regret at
the killing at the time, and no evidence so far has led them to doubt his story. The girl’s
grandfather agreed it had been an accident.
‘My son. Sorry,’ the grandfather told the
Victoria Advocate in broken English. ‘It was an
accident.’
Lavaca County Sheriff Micah Harmon added: ‘He was very remorseful. I don’t think it was
his intent for the man to die.’ Residents of the small Lavaca County town
were largely in support of the father, saying
the victim deserved it. Sonny Jaehne, a Shiner native, told the
Victoria Advocate: ‘He got what he deserved,
big time.
Friend Mark Harabis reiterated this: ‘I agree
with him totally. I would probably do worse.
‘The family will have to deal with that the rest of their lives, no matter what happens to the
father. Even if they let him go, he and his child
will have to deal with that the rest of their
lives.’