Texas lawyer allegedly killed and cremated son, saying he mistook him for intruder
A Houston lawyer is accused of waiting about 17 hours to call police after allegedly killing his son and burning his body on a woodpile at his weekend home in Sabine County, Texas. (Image from Shutterstock)
A Houston lawyer is accused of waiting about 17 hours to call police after allegedly killing his son and burning his body on a woodpile at his weekend home in Sabine County, Texas.
Texas lawyer Michael C. Howard, 68, was charged with murder and tampering with evidence after telling a Sabine County sheriff’s deputy that he shot his son, Mark Randall Howard, on Dec. 1 after mistaking him for an intruder, report Houston Public Media, the Independent, KBTX, KTRE and Fox 26 Houston.
Howard said he placed the body in the front-loading bucket of a backhoe tractor before taking it to a wood trash pile more than a mile away where he cremated it, sheriff’s investigator JP MacDonough said at a press conference. Howard said his son would have wanted cremation.
MacDonough also said the crime scene appeared to have been hosed off, which “I would take as indicative of nefarious purposes,” according to Houston Public Media.
Paul Robbins, the district attorney for Sabine and San Augustine counties, said he will seek a grand jury indictment with additional charges, including desecration or mishandling of a corpse, according to Houston Public Media.
A sheriff’s deputy was previously called to the property Nov. 29 in response to a report of a burglary in which a tractor and a trailer were stolen.
Howard’s son had been diagnosed with high-functioning Down syndrome.
According to the State Bar of Texas, Howard’s practice areas include ethics and legal malpractice, family law, litigation, personal injury, real estate and oil-and-gas law.
He was suspended in 1995 after pleading no contest to third-degree felony theft, according to the Texas Supreme Court Board of Disciplinary Appeals. The suspension was to last during the one-year probation term in the criminal case.
