Murder of Paul Broussard

Paul Broussard, a 27-year-old Houston-area banker and Texas A&M alumnus, was beaten and stabbed to death in a gay-bashing outside a Houston nightclub on July 4, 1991, by ten teenaged boys. The youths had driven from the northern Houston suburb of The Woodlands to the heavily gay area of Montrose solely to "beat up some queers", in the words of one of the convicted teens. The Attack: Paul Broussard was walking across a parking lot just after 2:00 a.m., on July 4, 1991, in Houston's Montrose neighborhood with his friends Cary Anderson and Richard Delaunay when the trio was attacked by 10 young men from The Woodlands area: Jaime Aguirre, Javier Aguirre, Derrick Attard, Jon Buice, Chance Paul Dillon, Rafael Grable Gonzalez, Gayland Randle, Leandro Ramirez, Brian Spake, and Jeffrey Valentine. All but three of the attackers were under 17, and the eldest of them—Paul Chance Dillon—was 22. All attended McCullough High School in The Woodlands. The "Woodlands Ten" as they became known, had spent the two days prior to the attack binging on alcohol. Hours before the attack, they piled into two cars and cruised Montrose harassing men they presumed to be gay. They identified their targets by asking directions to Heaven, a popular area gay bar and threw rocks at men who answered with directions. Broussard and friends were just blocks away from home when the attackers asked them for directions to Heaven. Upon receiving them, the 10 attackers exited their vehicles and attacked the three gay men with fists, steel-toed boots, bear claws and a knife wielded by Jon Buice. Anderson and Delaunay escaped down a busy street, while Broussard headed down a dead end street where he was surrounded by the 10 attackers. Delaunay said the ten young men were cheering and yelling as they attacked Broussard. Broussard suffered abrasions, puncture wounds, a broken rib, bruised testicles, and two stab wounds. As he lay on the ground, almost unconscious, two of his attackers rifled through his pockets and took a comb as a souvenir. The ten young men then drove off up I-45 towards The Woodlands, still cheering and yelling. The well-known gay area of Houston known as 'Montrose' regularly experienced delayed responses from police and EMS in the early days of the AIDS epidemic due to the first-responders' fear of contamination. When EMS finally arrived at the scene early in the morning of July 4, they found Paul Broussard wounded but still lucid and conversant. After spending what has been termed "an extended period of time documenting the fact that he was gay," EMS prepared to transport Broussard to Ben Taub Medical Center, the city's trauma hospital. However, Broussard objected and stated his preference to be taken to St. Joseph Medical Center, a short drive away. For unknown reasons, EMS determined that the severity of his wounds warranted nothing higher than a Code 1 transport (no lights or sirens). Further, what should have been an eight minute trip took almost an hour It was another hour before a doctor could be found who was willing to address Broussard's wounds. (http://theguywiththeknife.com) He died of internal injuries eight-and-a-half hours later. His mother, Nancy Rodriguez, flew into Houston, Texas from Atlanta, Georgia, and met with Houston police as well as with Anderson and Delaunay. Protests: Houston Gay Rights Advocate Ray Hill went to the Houston Police to find out the progress in the case. Once he heard that had no intention of pursuing a gay murder, he met with television and newspaper outlets while helping to organize the largest gay rights protests in Houston's history. Queer Nation Houston helped organize the large public protests, some of which took place in front of the mayor's house, with Nancy Rodriguez participating. The resulting media attention led to one of the assailants' girlfriends calling the police. Arrests and Sentencing: Derrick Attard went to New York after the attack, and was arrested there.Jon Buice is reported to have turned himself in after being encouraged to do so by his father. All ten were soon arrested. Attard received probation for agreeing to testify agains the other nine. Activist Ray Hill lobbied the prosecutor and District attorney for "meaningful sentences" for The Woodlands 10. All ten of Broussard's assailants were eventually plea-bargained without the case ever going to trial. Four more also received probation, and Nancy Rodriguez—aided by the Houston Crime Victim's Office—worked with the D.A. to set the terms. The court also ordered them to pay for Anderson's hospital bill and Broussard's funeral. Derrick Attard and Gayland Randle violated the terms of their probations and were sent to prison. Jon Buice confessed to inflicting the stab wound that the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office said caused Broussard's death, and received a 45-year sentence. Paul Dillon received a 20-year sentence for attempted murder and aggravated attempted murder. The three remaining assailants received sentences of 15-years-and-one-day, for their admitted participation in the beatings. Their sentences were criticized by Queer Nation and Nancy Rodriguez as being too light. Prison, Parole and Release: Paul Dillon was the first of the attackers to be released, in March 2000, after serving just six years. He owed his freedom to a mandatory release law that was repealed in 1996. Derrick Attard, Rafael Gonzalez, Gayland Randle, Brian Spake, and Jeffrey Valentine also received probation and were released. Jon Buice, who received longest sentence and is the last of The Woodlands 10 remaining in prison, was scheduled for a parole hearing in 2009, after having been denied parole in October 2003, October 2005, and October 2007. On July 5, 2011 the Houston Chronicle reported Buice will be released from prison on parole around October 2011. Jon's parole was revoked for reasons that were not disclosed to him and his family. He was paroled on December 30, 2015. Documentary Film: "The Guy With The Knife": In 2006, while visiting Houston to reporting on a story about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Canadian Filmmaker Alison Armstrong heard about an "unusual friendship" between a gay rights advocate (Ray Hill) and the man he had helped send to prison (Jon Buice). She learned that for several years, Hill had been writing and visiting Buice while encouraging him to pursue his education. Furthermore, he had been working for over ten years to help Buice win his freedom through the parole process. During her initial interview with Ray Hill, he admitted fabricating the "hate crime" story along with other reported details of the case. "When I went to the police to follow up on Paul's murder, they told me they had no intention of solving the case," he said. "So I lied to get media attention to get police to solve a gay murder. It was wrong, but it worked." (http://theguywiththeknife.com) Armstrong became intrigued about the unusual friendship between the two men, the role the media had played in the all aspects of the case, and the practices of a criminal justice system that would plea-bargain 9 minors into the adult prison system without the case ever going to trial. What resulted was a documentary entitled, '''"The Guy With The Knife."''' The film uncovers, among other things, an historic and adversarial relationship between Houston first responders (police and EMS) and the gay community. In one scene, a respected medical examiner is shown reviewing the 20-year-old case files and amending the cause of death to include "delayed treatment" due to Broussard's inexplicable, leisurely trip to the hospital, followed by a delay in medical attention once he had arrived. "[Broussard] was on a slow boat to China," the medical examiner stated. (http://theguywiththeknife.com) The Guy With The Knife was screened and received numerous accolades from several LGBT film festivals across the nation. This drew a different kind of attention to Jon Buice's case: the role of politics and the media in the parole process. In early November 2015, the film was publicly screened at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in partnership with University of Texas Law School, the Harvey Milk Society, The Center for Health and Social Policy, and The William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law - and followed by a panel discussion. Jon Buice was granted parole in late November 2015 and is now scheduled to be released in late 2015 or early 2016. (http://theguywiththeknife.com) Nancy Rodriguez currently lives near Macon, Georgia. She has attended more than 20 parole hearings in her efforts to keep her son's assailants in prison. Jon Buice: In April 1999, Buice wrote an open letter to the gay community apologizing and seeking to make amends for his role in Paul Broussard's murder, which was addressed to the radio station KPFT and printed in the Houston Voice. Buice says he was moved to write the letter after hearing about the murder of Matthew Shepard. In a subsequent interview with a researcher, Buice said that he was not homophobic and had close friends and relatives who were gay. Buice also said that the attack had less to do with Broussard's sexual orientation than with thrill-seeking, male-bonding, peer pressure, and the influence of drugs and alcohol. Almost all of The Woodlands 10 were intoxicated that night. Some, including Jon Buice, had also used marijuana and taken LSD. Buice claimed to have "blacked out" on the night of the attack, and only remembers riding home with Broussard's blood on his clothes. According to prison officials, Buice has a spotless prison record. He has earned associate's degrees in business and accounting and a bachelor's degree in psychology. Buice was denied his parole requests in 2007 and 2009. He was scheduled to be released on parole around October 2011, but after protests from the victim's mother as well as other gay activists, the Parole Board reversed its decision and denied Jon Buice parole. Buice's parole was reviewed in August 2012. Most recently, Buice's parole was denied on October 21, 2014, and the parole board has agreed to rehear the case for Buice’s parole on a yearly basis. Unless he is paroled, he will remain in prison until 2037. Buice's appeal has been supported by gay activist and radio host Ray Hill. Hill, who is also an ex-convict and host of "The Prison Show" on KPFT, has corresponded with several of The Woodlands 10, supports Buice's parole, and has said he hopes Buice will take over as host of The Prison Show upon his release. The documentary film "The Guy With a Knife" by Alison Armstrong explores the case.