HOUSTON, TX — A Texas man was convicted Tuesday of manslaughter in the death of a 9-year-old girl who was shot while riding with her family to get pizza on Valentine’s Day 2022, according to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Tony Earls, 35, was found guilty after a jury deliberated for less than an hour, prosecutors said. The shooting happened after Earls was robbed at gunpoint at a Chase Bank ATM and began firing at the fleeing suspect, striking a passing truck carrying Arlene Alvarez and her family.
According to prosecutors, Arlene was sitting in the backseat wearing headphones and did not hear her father yelling for her to duck. She was shot in the head and died the next day.
Earls called 911 after the shooting and told the dispatcher, “A guy pulled up. He put the gun up to my wife’s face,” according to courtroom audio cited by Houston ABC affiliate KTRK. “I had my gun in my waist. We gave him everything he needed, and when he got ready to leave, he started shooting. So I draw my gun and I shot back.”
But prosecutors said surveillance video showed that Earls was the only person who fired shots, not the robber. During closing arguments, prosecutors also showed jurors a photo of Arlene taken hours before she was shot.
“There is a right for a family to be able to drive down the block on Valentine’s night. Have you thought about that? The day of love,” prosecutor John Jordan told jurors, according to KTRK. “Make no mistake, that man was not fearful anymore. That man decided he was angry, and he was going to do something about it.”
Earls’ attorneys argued the robber—who has not been arrested—was ultimately responsible for Arlene’s death.
“I’ve never heard the state give so much benefit of the doubt to an aggravated robber,” defense attorney Ed McClees told the jury, as reported by Law&Crime. “The robber should be in this chair,” he said while pointing at Earls.
Earls faces up to 20 years in prison. The sentencing phase began Wednesday.
According to her obituary, Arlene was a fourth grader at De Zavala Elementary School. Her family remembered her as a joyful child who loved helping care for her baby brother and spending time with her cousins. “She was the center of attention anywhere she went. A true angel,” her obituary stated.
A Harris County jury found 35-year-old Tony Earls guilty after less than an hour of deliberation. Prosecutors said Earls had just been robbed at a Chase Bank ATM in Houston when he began firing at the fleeing suspect. He then shot toward a passing pickup truck where Arlene Alvarez was sitting in the backseat.
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