By Jessica Robertson
Baytown Sun (Baytown, Texas, USA)
Harris County prosecutors meticulously made their case Tuesday against a Baytown teenager accused of stabbing a donut shop owner to death two years ago.
Jarrett Driver, 17, faces a capital murder charge in the 2005 murder of Bunrith In, a 47-year-old immigrant from Cambodia, who owned what used to be Dina’s Donuts at 3712 W. Baker Road.
Wearing a button-down shirt, slacks and a tie, Driver spoke only once when he pleaded not guilty to the charge. His mother, Sherry Driver, attended the trial, as did several of In’s family members, including his wife and daughters.
In his opening argument, assistant district attorney Bill Hawkins told jurors that the early morning homicide began as a robbery and escalated after In handed over only $20 and some change to Driver.
He first pulled a pistol on Mon Meach — the only witness — who was working behind the counter when Driver came into the shop around 4:40 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2005, Hawkins said.
After the gun failed to fire, he allegedly chased the couple through the shop with a knife, struggling with In and ultimately stabbing him 13 times, according to police. Driver was arrested four days later, after Meach identified him from a photo lineup.
“That lineup was the seventh that she’d looked at,” Hawkins said, adding that it was the only one she saw that included Driver’s picture.
Hawkins brought five of his 11 witnesses to the stand in the first day of testimony, including Baytown police and emergency medical personnel, but the bulk of the day was spent questioning Meach through an interpreter, who translated her native Cambodian into English.
A 15-year-old Ross S. Sterling High School student at the time of the murder, Driver regularly visited the donut shop in the weeks leading up to the crime, she said, usually stopping in after 9 a.m. and ordering one or two breakfast tacos.
At least two times before the homicide, he came to the store but didn’t have enough money to pay for his order, Meach said. On one occasion, she said, he stole donuts from the couple.
On the morning of the crime, he was the second customer to visit the shop, she said. When he came in to place an order for five tacos, Meach was in the front of the building while her husband was preparing donuts in the closed-off kitchen.
After putting the tacos in the microwave and asking if she could get him anything else, Meach said she saw Driver put on a latex glove. Police later found a box of similar gloves during a search of his apartment, Hawkins said.
“When he pulled his gun, I called my husband,” Meach said. “I felt that I was going to die.”
The cash register didn’t have much money because the store had only seen one prior customer, Hawkins said. Driver allegedly leaped over the counter to the side where Meach and In stood and demanded more than the $20 bill he’d been offered.
“He leaped up, reached for his gun and pointed it at me, at my forehead,” she said. “(After he was given the money), he demanded the tacos. My husband opened the microwave to bring them, and he slapped them away.”
After Driver pulled out a knife, Meach said In pushed her into the back of the shop, where she heard sounds of a struggle but couldn’t see what was happening. When she came back to the front of the store, she saw her husband had fallen to the floor.
Once Driver left the shop, she said she locked the front door and called 911. While waiting for paramedics, Meach tended to her husband’s injuries.
“I took a pillow to him and asked, ‘what should I do?’” she said. “He just opened his eyes and looked at me.”
Officer Chris Gaskins arrived a few minutes later, taking note of the large amount of blood in the back of the shop. In his testimony, he described finding a panicked Meach, who was yelling, “he’s been killed.”
“She was visibly upset,” Gaskins said. “There was blood on the apron she was wearing and on her hands.”
In his cross examination, defense attorney R.P. “Skip” Cornelius focused on the language barrier between Meach, who said she only knows enough English to get by with customers, and police.
The couple’s daughter, Nimol In, arrived shortly after police and acted as an interpreter in Gaskins’ first interview with Meach outside the donut shop. Cornelius argued that Meach’s English couldn’t have been good enough to produce a description of the suspect police used in their search.
The description posted on fliers around the area and distributed to media outlets was of a black man in his late teens or early 20s, wearing dark-colored clothing. Police also listed his height as 5 feet 8 inches and his weight as 160 pounds.
Meach said Tuesday that she wasn’t sure how tall the suspect was or how much he weighed, in response to questions from Cornelius.
“You could not possibly have said this man weighed 160 pounds or was 5 feet 8 inches,” he said.
During a subsequent interview with lead investigator Det. Ken Widner later that morning at the Baytown Police Department, several family members attempted to translate Meach’s answers.
“Her English was very broken and very hard to understand,” Widner said. “There was some discrepancy in the point they were trying to get across.”
During that interview, he said he showed Meach two photo lineups of possible suspects, one generated by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the other by the Harris County Sheriff’s Department.
She couldn’t identify the man that had killed her husband in either lineup, Widner said. Several days later, Meach was shown four additional lineups and recognized a man who was a frequent customer but did not murder In, she said.
A sketch artist from the Houston Police Department developed a detailed picture of the suspect, who Meach identified as Driver in the final photo lineup she saw.
“She immediately began tapping on the photograph and (said through the translator) that he was the one who had murdered her husband,” Widner said. “She was shaking, visibly crying and speaking in Cambodian to her daughter.”
After arresting Driver at his Quail Hollow Drive apartment, officers received consent from his mother, who also lived there, to search his bedroom. Although the search produced latex gloves, it didn’t lead to a weapon or anything containing In’s DNA, Cornelius said.
“When the defendant’s home was searched, that’s exactly what you were looking for, but you didn’t find any,” he said to Widner.
Although Driver will be considered an adult, he is not eligible for the death penalty in the capital murder charge because of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. If convicted, he would automatically receive a life sentence, with the possibility of parole after 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors will continue their case today before the defense brings forth its witnesses.
Jarrett Driver, 17, faces a capital murder charge in the 2005 murder of Bunrith In, a 47-year-old immigrant from Cambodia, who owned what used to be Dina’s Donuts at 3712 W. Baker Road.
Wearing a button-down shirt, slacks and a tie, Driver spoke only once when he pleaded not guilty to the charge. His mother, Sherry Driver, attended the trial, as did several of In’s family members, including his wife and daughters.
In his opening argument, assistant district attorney Bill Hawkins told jurors that the early morning homicide began as a robbery and escalated after In handed over only $20 and some change to Driver.
He first pulled a pistol on Mon Meach — the only witness — who was working behind the counter when Driver came into the shop around 4:40 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2005, Hawkins said.
After the gun failed to fire, he allegedly chased the couple through the shop with a knife, struggling with In and ultimately stabbing him 13 times, according to police. Driver was arrested four days later, after Meach identified him from a photo lineup.
“That lineup was the seventh that she’d looked at,” Hawkins said, adding that it was the only one she saw that included Driver’s picture.
Hawkins brought five of his 11 witnesses to the stand in the first day of testimony, including Baytown police and emergency medical personnel, but the bulk of the day was spent questioning Meach through an interpreter, who translated her native Cambodian into English.
A 15-year-old Ross S. Sterling High School student at the time of the murder, Driver regularly visited the donut shop in the weeks leading up to the crime, she said, usually stopping in after 9 a.m. and ordering one or two breakfast tacos.
At least two times before the homicide, he came to the store but didn’t have enough money to pay for his order, Meach said. On one occasion, she said, he stole donuts from the couple.
On the morning of the crime, he was the second customer to visit the shop, she said. When he came in to place an order for five tacos, Meach was in the front of the building while her husband was preparing donuts in the closed-off kitchen.
After putting the tacos in the microwave and asking if she could get him anything else, Meach said she saw Driver put on a latex glove. Police later found a box of similar gloves during a search of his apartment, Hawkins said.
“When he pulled his gun, I called my husband,” Meach said. “I felt that I was going to die.”
The cash register didn’t have much money because the store had only seen one prior customer, Hawkins said. Driver allegedly leaped over the counter to the side where Meach and In stood and demanded more than the $20 bill he’d been offered.
“He leaped up, reached for his gun and pointed it at me, at my forehead,” she said. “(After he was given the money), he demanded the tacos. My husband opened the microwave to bring them, and he slapped them away.”
After Driver pulled out a knife, Meach said In pushed her into the back of the shop, where she heard sounds of a struggle but couldn’t see what was happening. When she came back to the front of the store, she saw her husband had fallen to the floor.
Once Driver left the shop, she said she locked the front door and called 911. While waiting for paramedics, Meach tended to her husband’s injuries.
“I took a pillow to him and asked, ‘what should I do?’” she said. “He just opened his eyes and looked at me.”
Officer Chris Gaskins arrived a few minutes later, taking note of the large amount of blood in the back of the shop. In his testimony, he described finding a panicked Meach, who was yelling, “he’s been killed.”
“She was visibly upset,” Gaskins said. “There was blood on the apron she was wearing and on her hands.”
In his cross examination, defense attorney R.P. “Skip” Cornelius focused on the language barrier between Meach, who said she only knows enough English to get by with customers, and police.
The couple’s daughter, Nimol In, arrived shortly after police and acted as an interpreter in Gaskins’ first interview with Meach outside the donut shop. Cornelius argued that Meach’s English couldn’t have been good enough to produce a description of the suspect police used in their search.
The description posted on fliers around the area and distributed to media outlets was of a black man in his late teens or early 20s, wearing dark-colored clothing. Police also listed his height as 5 feet 8 inches and his weight as 160 pounds.
Meach said Tuesday that she wasn’t sure how tall the suspect was or how much he weighed, in response to questions from Cornelius.
“You could not possibly have said this man weighed 160 pounds or was 5 feet 8 inches,” he said.
During a subsequent interview with lead investigator Det. Ken Widner later that morning at the Baytown Police Department, several family members attempted to translate Meach’s answers.
“Her English was very broken and very hard to understand,” Widner said. “There was some discrepancy in the point they were trying to get across.”
During that interview, he said he showed Meach two photo lineups of possible suspects, one generated by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the other by the Harris County Sheriff’s Department.
She couldn’t identify the man that had killed her husband in either lineup, Widner said. Several days later, Meach was shown four additional lineups and recognized a man who was a frequent customer but did not murder In, she said.
A sketch artist from the Houston Police Department developed a detailed picture of the suspect, who Meach identified as Driver in the final photo lineup she saw.
“She immediately began tapping on the photograph and (said through the translator) that he was the one who had murdered her husband,” Widner said. “She was shaking, visibly crying and speaking in Cambodian to her daughter.”
After arresting Driver at his Quail Hollow Drive apartment, officers received consent from his mother, who also lived there, to search his bedroom. Although the search produced latex gloves, it didn’t lead to a weapon or anything containing In’s DNA, Cornelius said.
“When the defendant’s home was searched, that’s exactly what you were looking for, but you didn’t find any,” he said to Widner.
Although Driver will be considered an adult, he is not eligible for the death penalty in the capital murder charge because of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. If convicted, he would automatically receive a life sentence, with the possibility of parole after 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors will continue their case today before the defense brings forth its witnesses.
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