The Buncombe County pretrial services worker assigned to monitor Ryan Ricky Houston, who committed one of western North Carolina’s most horrific crime sprees a year ago, was in a romantic relationship with him, according to the attorneys representing the estate of Houston’s murder victim in a federal lawsuit against the county.
Houston fatally stabbed his girlfriend, Malerie Crisp, on Aug. 1, 2024, and the next day he died in a fiery car crash that also killed the newly retired Marshall police chief. Houston was out on bond in connection with a May 2023 domestic violence episode that culminated in him shooting a Buncombe sheriff’s deputy.
In the 11 months before his deadly spree, Houston’s GPS tracker registered more than 240 alerts of possible violations of his court-ordered release, but none was reported to a judge, according to the wrongful death lawsuit filed in December on behalf of Crisp’s mother, Deborah Cauble, as estate administrator. It alleges “gross negligence” by the county and several of its employees…