HOUSTON — A Cypress man was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole for killing a good Samaritan on a New Year’s Day at a Chinatown restaurant in Harris County, District Attorney Kim Ogg said Thursday.
“He was a ringleader who sent masked gunmen into a family restaurant,” Ogg said. “People deserve to be safe when they sit down to celebrate a holiday meal with the people they love.”
Enzo Ubadimma, 24, was found guilty of capital murder after a five-day trial and he was automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole for his part in the robbery and murder of 58-year-old Herman Ray Browning at the Huong Giang Hue restaurant.
The night of the robbery
Ogg said Ubadimma was the head of a crime ring that included two men and two women. He drove to the restaurant several times to check it out with different members of the ring before the robbery.
Earlier in the day on Jan. 1, 2016, the two women pretended to use the restroom to check out the eatery, Ogg said. Around 8:45 p.m. Herman Ray Browning, Jr., was eating with his family at Huong Giang Hue, a Vietnamese restaurant in west Houston where Ubadimma took two men who went in with guns wearing ski masks while Ubadimma waited. The men forced employees and customers to lie on the floor while they took people’s items and money from the cash register. Police said at the time that Browning, Jr., stood up from the table and was shot in his chest and killed.
The two men ran from the restaurant in a car that Ubadimma was driving, Ogg said.
First court appearance
When Ubadimma appeared in court for the first time on Jan.11, 2016, with Tiala Alexander, who was 20 at the time, Telavell Coleman, who was 18 and Dadriana Holmes who was 19, who were all charged with capital murder, they were seen waving and smiling at the cameras.
Road to closure
Assistant District Attorney Megan Long, who is part of the District Attorney’s Homicide Division and prosecuted the case, said Ubadimma repeatedly checked out the restaurant and then recruited others to help him rob it.
“This defendant was not just a getaway driver; he masterminded the entire robbery and was the brains behind it,” Long said. “Meanwhile, Mr. Browning’s family was there to celebrate his wife’s birthday, and their hopes and dreams for the New Year turned into a nightmare.”
Cases are still pending against the two women as well as one of the men, who was a juvenile at the time and has been certified to be tried as an adult. The other man, Coleman, has also been sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of capital murder.
