A jury Wednesday night decided that a 33-year-old Beaumont man was guilty of engaging in organized criminal activity. Taurean “T.J.” Bass drove a pickup truck as three men with guns raided a drug house on Ridgemont Drive in December.
The residents inside the house were also armed and a shoot-out ensued. A Houston man with Bass died of gunshot wounds in the front yard of the house. Another man with Bass, plus a man living at the house were seriously injured.
Bass faces 15 years to life in prison. The sentencing phase of the trial begins Thursday morning before 163rd District Judge Dennis Powell.
Bass took the stand Wednesday for his own defense. He told the jury he acted as a “mule” for drugs between Houston and the Beaumont area for Leonardo Elizalde, 37, of Houston. But Bass said he did not know when he drove a truck to a house in Orange on December 12 that his passengers had guns and were driving there for an invasion.
He told the jury he sat in his pickup truck while Francisco Sanchez and brothers Leonardo and David Elizalde, all of Houston, went inside the house.
Residents inside the house had a large amount of illegal drugs and were also armed. Sanchez, 35, was mortally wounded inside the house and died in the front yard. Leonardo Elizalde was also seriously wounded but made it back to the truck with Bass.
Brian Gant, 32, of Orange, who was living at the house, suffered more than a dozen gunshots but recovered.
Texas Ranger Bobby Smith connected some of people involved with the Tango Blast gang in Houston.
Prosecutor Walker told the jury the investigation involved half the detectives at the Orange Police Department, along with the Texas Rangers, Houston Police Department, Houston Gang Task Force, Hardin County Sheriff’s Office and Beaumont Police Department. “This was no little crime that happened in Orange,” She said.
Bass’s defense attorney told the jury that Bass was under duress during the shooting and aftermath. Bass testified he was scared after hearing gunshots and thought about leaving. However, he was more scared of Leonardo. The defense attorney said “these aren’t the kinds of guys you leave, especially when they know where you live.”
Bass said he was a contractor delivering industrial orders across the country with his flat-bed truck. An acquaintance introduced him a couple of years ago to Leonardo Elizalde. Bass said he agreed to transport drugs because he was “stupid” and “greedy.”
Mostly he delivered marijuana, up to five pounds. However, Bass said the arrangement “went down the hole” when he lost two pounds of methamphetamine because he gave it to his brother to sell. The brother was arrested with it.
He said he owed Leonardo money and when Leonardo asked for a favor, he felt obligated.
Prosecutor Walker called Bass a “liar” because he lied the day after the shooting to Beaumont police when he reported his pickup truck was stolen. She also pointed out that Bass also took his wife and two young daughters with him sometimes to Houston to do a drug transaction with Leonardo. “If you’re so scared of them, and you were bringing your family around them?” she questioned.
Ranger Smith’s testimony included tracking cell phone calls of Bass and the locations. Smith also said surveillance cameras at Walgreen’s on Dowlen in Beaumont showed Bass’s wife that night going inside and buying bandages. Bass testified he took the bleeding Leonardo to his brother’s house in Beaumont. They put Leonardo in the bathtub. Bass then asked his wife to get bandages.
Bass said he was told to get rid of the truck. He took it to a friend in Hardin County and left it on a rural road. A short time later Hardin County Sheriff’s Office found the truck on fire.
Testimony went on for two and a half days. Leonardo and David Elizalde have pleaded guilty to engaging in organized criminal activity but have not been sentenced.
Tymecia Walker, 22, who was inside the house with her mother, Kenyatta Walker, 36, has pleaded guilty to felony possession of marijuana and was not part of the organized criminal activity charges.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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