HOUSTON — The state rested its case Monday against Andre Jackson, the man charged with murder in connection with the death of 11-year-old Josue Flores as he walked home from school in 2016.
Prosecutors called Flores’ mother, Maria Flores, as their final witness. Through a Spanish translator, Maria talked about how Josue wanted to be a doctor and would have turned 18 this summer.
Josue’s father, Juan, cried in the courtroom as Maria held her composure recalling her final moments with her son.
Maria said she received a call the afternoon of May 17, 2016, about the attack just two blocks from her home.
“Only that my son was bleeding,” Flores said. “I asked, and I was told that he had been stabbed.”
Flores said she wasn’t allowed in the back of the ambulance, so she rode in the front.
Once the ambulance arrived at the hospital, Flores testified she saw Josue through the open doors with a tube in his mouth.
“His eyes were open, and I thought, ‘My son is already dead,’” she said.
Maria said that when her husband and brother-in-law arrived at the hospital, she broke the news to them.
“When (my husband) entered, I told him that my son was dead,” Maria said.
Earlier Monday, a senior DNA analyst testified that her private Florida lab found some of Flores’ DNA on the cuff of Jackson’s green jacket.
Rachel Oefelein, of DNA Labs International, said 85% of the DNA belonged to Jackson, 10% to Flores, and 5% from an unknown person.
That’s evidence a grand jury saw in 2019 when they indicted Jackson on the current murder charge.
In 2017, Jackson’s initial murder charge was dropped because DNA testing by Texas DPS came back inconclusive.
The Florida lab uses a newer technology called M-Vac, which collects DNA from porous and rough objects or surfaces.
Sgt. Richard Rodriguez of the Houston Police Department’s cold case unit told the court Monday, “The technology is always changing from 2016 to 2019, and we wanted to see what else we could do to solve this case.”
Stella Mireles-Walters, who founded the neighborhood watch group Safe Walk Home after Flores’ murder, was in the courtroom Monday.
“How do you catch DNA on your clothes?” Mireles-Walters said while reacting to the evidence shown. “Do we just catch it by the air? No. There has to be that very close contact.”
Dr. Robert Benjamin, a forensic analyst and the first witness called by the defense, testified because of the small amount of DNA on the cuff, “the DNA could have come to be (on the cuff) in a variety of ways.”
Benjamin also said Josue Flores’ shirt had too much mold growth to collect evidence.
“I would suspect, quite frankly, that it wasn’t properly dried before it was sealed,” Benjamin told the court.
Testimony continued later than usual Monday afternoon after Judge Denise Collins told Jackson's lawyers she wanted them to get through all of their witnesses so the defense can rest its case.
Closing arguments are expected to begin Tuesday morning.
