The sentencing of a former Houston police officer convicted of murder in the deaths of a couple during a 2019 drug raid was put on hold Thursday after he suffered a medical emergency in the courtroom.
A prosecutor was addressing jurors during closing arguments in the punishment phase of Gerald Goines’ trial when the ex-officer could be heard breathing heavily as he sat at the defense table.
The jury was taken out of the courtroom, and Goines was helped by one of his attorneys and a bailiff as he walked to a holding area outside the courtroom. Goines was later seen on a stretcher that was loaded onto an ambulance parked in front of the courthouse.
His condition was not immediately known. Due to a gag order in the case, neither prosecutors nor Goines’ attorneys would comment on what happened.
One of the other cases tied to Goines is his 2004 drug arrest in Houston of George Floyd , whose 2020 death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer sparked a nationwide reckoning on racism in policing. A Texas board in 2022 declined a request that Floyd be granted a posthumous pardon for his drug conviction stemming from his arrest by Goines.