Murder suspect finds a way out of ankle monitor: Ignore the GPS bill, TX official says

GPS monitoring in Texas and across the country is experiencing issues that allow suspects to exploit loopholes that can result in their monitors being removed, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg told KHOU-11.

“While courts rely on electronic monitoring as a means of ensuring defendants’ appearances in court and the safety of victims and the community,” Ogg wrote, according to the Houston Chronicle, “the troubling loophole exposed in this case shows that defendants in Harris County may have the ability to evade electronic supervision by simply failing to pay their GPS vendor.”

Ogg wrote the letter to address the fact that an ankle monitor was removed from murder suspect Clint Walker, who is accused of shooting and killing 59-year-old Enrique Garcia in 2016, KHOU-11 reported. Walker was released on $100,000 bond, but because he failed to pay the GPS vendor, they sent someone on behalf of the company to physically remove Walker’s anklet mid-September, the news outlet reported.

Teresa May, the director of the Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department which supervises people released on bond, disagreed with Ogg and called the removal of Walker’s anklet, a violation of the company’s agreement with county officials, per the Houston Chronicle.

“When I contacted the owner, he had no good excuse,” May told Chronicle. “He couldn’t explain to me why he did it. I have never seen this before in my career, a vendor doing this.”

Officials say it is unclear if Walker ever attempted to flee; however, he was re-arrested Thursday, Ogg told KHOU-11.

In September, six Tennessee judges had a similar issue with a GPS vendor, Tennessee Recovery and Monitoring discontinued “monitoring twenty offenders outfitted with ankle bracelets,” WSMV reported.

One of the 20 offenders was a first-degree murder suspect, which angered Judge Mark Fishburn because he resided over that particular case.

Andy Baggenstoss, owner of Tennessee Recovery and Monitoring, said he misunderstood the proper channels to go through, according to WSMV.

“Baggenstoss said the issue of payment continues, though, to be a problem for his private company,” WSMV reported.