{"id":115379,"date":"2025-08-03T10:43:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T10:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115379\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T10:43:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T10:43:18","slug":"man-accused-in-2022-shooting-death-of-9-year-old-arlene-alvarez-indicted-for-manslaughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/115379\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused in 2022 shooting death of 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez indicted for manslaughter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>HOUSTON<\/strong> \u2013 The man accused in the death of 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez in 2022 has been indicted on a manslaughter charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Tony Earls Jr. has been in jail since his arrest in May of 2024. He had originally been cleared after being no-billed by a grand jury in July 2022. A special prosecutor was appointed to the case, and it was brought before another grand jury who indicted him for murder on April 23, 2024.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">However, Earl\u2019s defense attorney says he will go to trial in September on a manslaughter charge instead of a murder charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIt never really should have been a murder. It\u2019s not a murder. We don\u2019t think it\u2019s a manslaughter, but it\u2019s never been a murder,\u201d said defense attorney Ed McClees.<\/p>\n<p><b>The backstory<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">According to police, Alvarez was struck by a bullet while riding in the back of her family\u2019s truck. Alvarez was rushed to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she later died.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Earls was at the Chase Bank at the intersection of Winkler and Woodridge when he was robbed at gunpoint at 9:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2022. After the robbery, Earls fired his handgun at the robber, who was running away from him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">At the same time, the Alvarez family were driving past the bank in their pickup when Earls fired several shots into the truck, killing the child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Police said that Earls did not initially know he had struck the child until he went home and called to report the robbery. Earls was initially charged with aggravated assault-serious bodily injury.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">But when a Harris County grand jury failed to indict him in July 2022, he was released. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg assigned Special Prosecutor Warren Diepraam to reexamine the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Diepraam called in an FBI firearms expert to examine the physical evidence that had been collected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cThe expert\u2019s opinion is that Mr. Earls saw the robber run past the vehicle with Arlene Alvarez inside \u2014 the vehicle did not do anything to give Mr. Earls a justification to shoot into the passing vehicle,\u201d Diepraam said. \u201cMr. Earls had a clear line of sight, and obviously Mr. Alvarez did not stop and say to the robber, \u2018Get in\u2019 or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">Sign up for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 The man accused in the death of 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez in 2022 has been indicted on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":115380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[72366,4219,4345,17257,358,72365,12433,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-115379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-arlene-alvarez","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-indictment","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tony-earls","14":"tag-trial","15":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114964424545188205","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}