January 25, 2017 - On Monday, January 23, 2017, Justin Earl Bennett plead out to two charges in the 273rd Judicial District Court with Honorable Charles Mitchell judge presiding and who was represented in court by Attorney Rudy Velasquez.
Shelby County District Attorney Stephen Shires commented on the plea bargain deal, "Ultimately Mr. Bennett determined to take responsibility for his actions and I applaud him for that."
According to the plea agreements, Bennett received six years to be served in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) Institutional Division for evading arrest with credit for time served which according to court documents is approximately 160 days.
He was indicted by the July Term A.D. 2015 grand jury for evading arrest with vehicle, a third degree felony. The indictment stated that in August of 2014 Bennett intentionally fled from Center Police Department Sgt. Ricky King while driving a vehicle. He was also indicted for evading arrest with previous conviction, a state jail felony. The indictment stated that prior to the aforementioned evading arrest indictment, in February 1998, Bennett was convicted of the offense of evading arrest.
The charge of evading arrest with previous conviction was dismissed as a condition of the plea agreement.
Bennett also received a two-year sentence to be served in the State Jail Division of TDCJ with credit for time served for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
He was indicted for delivery of a controlled substance in a drug free zone which enhanced the state jail felony to a third degree felony. The indictment stated in August 2014 he possessed less than one gram of cocaine within 1,000 feet of Center ISD Middle School.
The two separate sentences will be served consecutively, meaning once Bennett serves his time for Evading Arrest with a vehicle, he will then begin serving his time for the possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
D.A. Shires wanted to comment concerning his views as District Attorney, "It hurts my heart to send anybody to prison because that is a waste of somebody's life. From the pragmatic standpoint it hurts my pocketbook to send somebody to prison because when we send somebody to prison, you and I and the tax payers, we have to feed them, we have to clothe them, we have to provide them a place to live, and most expensively we have to provide them with health care. So, from every aspect sending people to prison is not good business.
"On the other side of the coin, that's the only way, with some people, that's the only way to protect our citizens. And maybe they will learn their lesson and when they come out maybe they will be better people. That may be naive of me to think that way and I've said this a hundred times, as hard as I try to send somebody to prison, and again, I think when we look back at the end of this year we're going to see how many people I've sent to prison and I think it's probably going to be a relatively high number. As hard as I work to send people to prison, I'm gonna work twice as hard to help people to change their lives to where they don't go to prison because that is the ultimate goal, that's the better thing.
"If people will act right and take responsibility in their lives, especially, I hate sending people to prison that have young kids, I hate it. What I hope to be able to do is ultimately have these folks, have them be productive members of society, take the energy and the intelligence and the ingenuity that they often utilize in criminal episodes to use them in positive, in a positive fashion. And I've said this all along, my goal as the District Attorney is consistent with keeping the community safe, is to help people make better decisions, and to do right. But at the same time, all this stuff that has been going on here, people dealing drugs, and then people breaking into people's houses, breaking into people’s garages and out buildings and stealing stuff - that's gotta come to an end. It doesn't matter how much I may not want to dole punishment out to people, if they are gonna do that crap and they're not going to stop, then, we are going to send them off."
