A Clarke County judge has found enough evidence to send a Thomasville murder case to a grand jury, ruling after prosecutors relied on a transcript from an earlier bail hearing rather than calling witnesses.
Clarke County District Judge J.R. Morgan made the ruling at a preliminary hearing held July 14 in the case of Hector Hugo Duran Gutierrez, who is charged with murder in the June 8 shooting death of Henry Howard. Morgan found probable cause to bind the murder charge over to a grand jury, which will decide whether to hand down a formal indictment.
Authorities say Howard was killed following an altercation with Gutierrez inside Mi Mexico Restaurant in Thomasville. The dispute moved outside the restaurant and ended in gunfire that killed Howard. Much of the encounter was captured on surveillance video.
Instead of putting on witnesses at the July 14 hearing, District Attorney Stephen Winters entered an 80-page transcript from a separate hearing held June 10 under Alabama’s Aniah’s Law. That law permits judges to deny pretrial bond to defendants charged with serious violent felonies, and it is named for Aniah Blanchard, a 19-year-old who was murdered in 2019 by a man who had been out on bond at the time. The June 10 hearing was prompted by motions filed by Gutierrez’s attorney, Robert McMillan.
The lone witness at that earlier hearing was Thomasville Police Department Detective Jamarcus Robinson, the lead investigator on the case. According to his testimony, the account of the shooting matches what law enforcement has previously described publicly: an argument inside the restaurant that spilled into the parking lot and ended with Howard being shot.
Testimony also indicated Howard was killed with a .40-caliber pistol that Gutierrez had legally purchased less than three months before the shooting. Gutierrez’s attorney told the court his client is originally from Mexico but has lived in the United States legally, including eight years in Clarke County.
Following the July 14 hearing, Morgan ordered that Gutierrez continue to be held without bond. Beyond the murder charge, he also faces a charge of discharging a firearm into an occupied building or vehicle. If convicted of murder, Gutierrez could face a sentence ranging from 20 years to life in prison.