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On June 3, 1993 I was at the
beach down at Surfside, Texas on vacation, It was late in the morning on a Thursday when a
car went by slowly then turned around and came back and stopped by where I was
sitting. Two young guys got out and asked if I could spare them a beer.
Being a nice guy I told them yes, I gave them a beer each. Then we sat down and
rapped for about 30 to 45 minutes when they asked for another beer. I got up and got
three beers ( two for them and one for myself) and gave them to them, while saying that
was all I could spare. That's all I remember, they left me for dead, sitting in my
chaise lounge with a can of beer in my hand.
A beach worker found me a couple of
hour’s later, unconscious and bleeding from the head. He called the sheriff and an
ambulance and they took me to Brazosport hospital in Lake Jackson, Texas. They did a cat
scan there and had life flight come and get me and take me to Hermann hospital in Houston,
Texas where they did the surgery. It ended up being 2 punctures and seven fractures of the
skull. One of the punctures was big enough for the doctors to put their fingers through
and touch my brain.( I found out later that I had been hit with a pair of bolt
cutters.) I ended up totally paralyzed from the neck down on my right side and
from the waist down on the left. I spent six days at Hermann and then transferred to
Memorial City Rehab Hospital on N. Gessner in Houston. I spent the next three months there
as an inpatient. Then started outpatient therapy, I went there for about a year then
started going to TIRR ( The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research) in Houston, as an
outpatient.
Well after a little over six years I’m still using a walker to get around and I have to use a left footed gas pedal to drive my truck (my left leg has quite a bit more movement then my right does). But what can you say, "SHIT HAPPENS".
They caught the two guys that did it, but they each say the other did it. One of them has gone to trial twice, the first one ended in a mistrial cause one of the jurors found out her sister-in-law had passed away after they had started deliberating and Judge Gayle had to dismiss her. According to Texas law, if twelve jurors get the charges from the judge twelve of them have to deliver the verdict so Judge Gayle had to declare it a mistrial. The retrial was in March of this year, and he was found not guilty, I guess the jury believed the other one did it. I really believed that this guy had done it so I was just sitting there in a state of shock along with all the D.A.’s staff (and I found out later even Judge Gayle couldn’t believe the verdict that jury brought back) when the guy came over to where I was sitting. With tears in his eyes and said he was sorry about what had happened to me, and no one had the right to do that to someone else, but he didn’t do it, and he would be there to testify against the other guy when his trial comes up. That’s scheduled for November 2, 1998 so I’ll update this page after the next trial( if it is not rescheduled again).
UPDATE: 10/27/98
I talked with Keith Allen the asst. D.A. who is handling the case that was supposed to go to trial next Monday. He said the case had been taken off the trial docket because Steven Michael Correia is scheduled to enter a plea of guilty of aggravated robbery, in the assault of Gary R--------, on November 20, 1998 in exchange for a ten-year sentence.
Well ten years is not enough but its better than going through another trial and facing the chance that the jury might feel sorry for him (like they did for Speedy at his trail) and bring back a not guilty verdict. After five and a half years it looks like there might finally be some closure to this assault. I will keep you informed of any new developments in this case.
Yesterday I went down to the Brazoria County Courthouse in Angleton to hear Steven Michael Correia enter his plea. He plead guilty to the charge of "Theft from a person" and he was sentenced to ten years in the Texas prison system, he was credited with two years that he has already served. At least that will keep him from being able to do it to someone else for the next 4 to 8 years.
I just wanted to let everyone know how I am doing now. My physical condition has not changed much, I still have to use my walker all the time. I have been attending Houston Community College for about the last year and a half, I'm in the last semester for a Certificate in Desktop Video and Animation. I have really enjoyed going back to school and have been learning a lot of computer programs.
I asked the assistant D.A. if I could get a copy of some of the pictures that they had taken at the beach and at the hospital. I must warn you that these pictures are pretty graphic but that's what happens when you get hit in the head with a pair of bolt cutters.
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I was sitting at the beach enjoying the sun and surf. |
| This is the chair that they left me sitting in holding a can of beer in my hand. |
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This was me at Brazosport Hospital about four hours after it happened. |
midi-hey jude
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