A 33-year-old Texas man was indicted Tuesday on murder charges in the February 2022 slaying Arlene Álvarez, 9 years old — nearly two years after another grand jury declined to indict him in connection with the child’s fatal shooting.
was released after a Harris County grand jury declined to indict him for aggravated assault in July 2022. But the case was sent to another grand jury this year after District Attorney Kim Ogg assigned a special prosecutor to re-examine it.
Earls was at a bank the night of Feb. 14, 2022, when he was robbed at gunpoint, the district attorney’s office said in a news release. As the robber fled, Earls pulled out a gun and began shooting at the suspect, the office said.
When Earls began shooting, the Alvarez family drove by the bank — with Arlene in the back seat — and he fired several shots into the truck, fatally striking the young woman, the district attorney’s office said. Arlene’s parents previously said CNN affiliate KHOU They were on their way to a Houston restaurant for a Valentine’s Day dinner when their daughter was shot in the head.
Arlene, who was in fourth grade, took care of her younger siblings — who were also in the vehicle at the time of the shooting, her parents’ attorney said — and “got along with everyone.”
Earls previously said he began shooting because he heard gunshots as the robber began to run away and believed he was being shot, according to prosecutors. He supposedly didn’t know someone was hit by his gunfire and he left the scene to call police and report the robbery, according to KHOU.
He was arrested and charged, but was released after the grand jury refused to indict him.
Special prosecutor Warren Diepraam, who took over the case, said an FBI firearms expert was brought in to examine the evidence.
“The expert opinion is that Mr. Earls saw the robber run past the vehicle with Arlene Alvarez inside – the vehicle did nothing to give Mr. Earls justification to shoot at the passing vehicle,” Diepraam said in a statement on Wednesday.
Houston police are still working to identify and arrest the armed person who robbed Earls, he added.
CNN has reached out to Earls’ attorneys for comment. If convicted, he could face five years to life in prison, the district attorney’s office said.
“We have a duty to ensure justice is served, and that meant asking a new grand jury to review new evidence,” Ogg, the district attorney, said in a statement. “We did everything we could to find out exactly what happened that day to ensure we got justice.”
CNN’s Andy Rose contributed to this report.
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