Brazoswood whoops up on Stings

By Billy Loveless
Special to The Facts
Published January 13, 2010

CLUTE — Brazoswood’s boys soccer team continued its hot start to the season Tuesday with a 6-2 pounding of Texas City at Slade Field.

The victory, coupled with a win at the Pearland/Friendswood tournament over the weekend, ups the Bucs’ overall record to an undefeated 5-0 mark.

While he admits it’s good to start the year with some wins, Brazoswood head coach Jeff Hunt isn’t allowing his team to look ahead.

“It’s nice to start out this way, but you sure don’t want to hang your hat on it yet,” Hunt said.

“We have a long season ahead, but it’s good to get a little confidence early on.”

The Bucs appeared to have plenty of confidence against Texas City.

Brazoswood scored two early goals to jump out to a quick lead. Then, after Texas City (2-3) scored midway into the first half, the Bucs turned it up a notch and grabbed control of the game.

Brazoswood took multiple shots, resulting in two more goals, in the final 15 minutes of the first half, followed by two more quick goals in the opening five minutes of the second half to up the ante to 6-1.

Nick Sanchez netted three goals in the game, including both of the second-half scores, while Roy Renteria found the back of the net twice. Will Robbins ended with one goal.

“We’ve got some things to work on, but it’s stuff we can clean up in practice,” Hunt said. “Texas City is a very, very fast team and we needed to play someone that would run up and down the field with us.”

The game began on a strong note for Brazoswood when Sanchez headed the ball to Robbins, who scored from close range for the contest’s initial goal two minutes in.

The Bucs increased their lead 13 minutes later when Sanchez netted his first score off a throw-in from Robbins.

Texas City responded with an aggressive offensive attack that resulted in a goal by Luis Rodriguez to cut Brazoswood’s advantage to 2-1 with just less than 15 minutes remaining in the first half.

That seemed get the Bucs fired up, however, as they scored four unanswered goals in the next 20 minutes.

Renteria scored consecutive goals before the first half ended to give Brazoswood a comfortable 4-1 lead.

Renteria’s first goal came off a corner kick from Shea Blevins. His second goal was possibly the nicest score of the game. On the play, Joe Sanabria threw the ball in to Robbins, who delivered a crisp pass to Renteria right in front of the goal for the close-range shot.

“I think a lot of it was panic mode,” Hunt said. “We weren’t playing the kind of ball we had played over the weekend. I think they kind of woke up and realized that we needed to play our kind of game and start distancing ourselves from the opponent.”

Texas City was fired up at the start of the second half, but Brazoswood quickly doused any hopes of a comeback.

Retrial under way in fatal shooting

Retrial under way in fatal shooting

By John Lowman

The Facts

Published January 13, 2010ANGLETON — Reginald Carmen “did not know what he was walking into” when he was shot to death in his own home, authorities testified Tuesday.

His son stands accused of pulling the trigger.

Ashton Carmen, 18, is on trial for a second time on a murder charge in his father’s death on Dec. 8, 2005. A state appellate court in 2008 ruled the judge in his first trial erred by not allowing a self-defense instruction in the jury charge.

Ashton Carmen was 14 at the time of his father’s killing. He was tried as an adult and convicted Jan. 12, 2007, then sentenced to 50 years in prison.

If convicted again, his punishment could range from five to 99 years in prison.

Police said Ashton Carmen waited for his father to return to their Pearland home from work and shot him as he walked in the door.

Defense attorney Stan McGee said the boy was driven to the shooting by eight years of abuse by his father. At one point during Ashton Carmen’s childhood, McGee said the boy was hospitalized because of physical abuse.

“Ashton was so fearful that when his father arrived at home, he acted like an immature 14-year-old, not a cold-blooded killer,” McGee said during opening statements Tuesday in Judge Randall Hufstetler's fourth-floor courtroom at the Brazoria County Courthouse. “When he was threatened by his father, he took the gun and shot his father.”

Ashton Carmen regularly ran away from his father’s home because he wanted to be with his mother, McGee said. In taped and written confessions objected to by McGee, Ashton Carmen said he shot his father because he was afraid he was going to be beaten. Reginald Carmen “yelled something” before falling to the foyer floor, but neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys said what those words were.

Prosecutor Jessica Pulcher told jurors Carmen broke into his father’s bedroom and found a gun, then waited for the man to come home from work. Reginald Carmen was shot three times in the left side of his back, she said.

Wearing a long-sleeved, black-and-white checked shirt, black shoes and black pants, Ashton Carmen sat quietly thorough the testimony.

Officer Robert DeSilva was the first person at the home after Reginald Carmen’s employer asked police to check on his well-being. Police kicked in the front door to enter after DeSilva said he saw a man lying motionless in the foyer.

“I checked the man’s pulse to check if he was alive,” DeSilva said. “His left wrist … rigor mortis had set in. It was stiff.”

A black bandana with a white pattern covered the man’s face.

Pulcher said when Reginald Carmen walked from the garage into a foyer, his son shot him. Herrera told jurors Reginald Carmen initially was not aware of what was happening.

“From the position of the body, it appeared the victim was walking from the laundry room area to the dining room area,” Herrera said. “It appeared to me he did not know what he was walking into.”

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