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                          Harris County District Judge Ana Martinez

 

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas -- A man charged with two felonies in Harris County is out on a $2 total bond.

In December 2021, 50-year-old Melvin Cross Jr. was charged with a felony in possession of a weapon and assault of a family member after court records state "he choked his girlfriend and stopped her blood circulation."

His lengthy criminal history of assault dates back to 2009. Court records show he was convicted of murder in Dallas County in 2001.

You may be wondering where is he now? He is not in jail. He is out on the December felony charges on a $1 bond each.

The reason he is out on such a low bond is that the state did not indict the case within 90 days, according to the judge's bail order.

Texas law says the bond for someone charged with a felony must be lowered if prosecutors aren't ready for trial within 90 days.

Judge Ana Martinez lowered Cross's bond. ABC13 reached out to her court to determine why the bonds were set at just $1. Martinez had no comment and referred us to the court records.

So why did it take so long for the grand jury to get the case?

The Harris County District Attorney's Office did not answer that directly and sent the following statement:


"We appreciate the hard work of grand jurors who indicted this defendant as soon as they could. He is currently indicted for two felonies and faces trial in June. Prior to him being released, he was required to be outfitted with a GPS monitor that tracks his location 24/7. If prosecutors learn of him violating any of the several conditions of release, they will ask the court to have his bond revoked. If fails to appear in court, they will ask that his bond be forfeited. The entire criminal justice system remains under tremendous strain due to the building setbacks of the pandemic and, prior to that, Harvey. There are now more pending criminal cases than ever before in the history of our county."

We have not received an answer on how often this is happening with the current case backlog.

As of April, Harris County has more than 47,000 active and pending cases, a number that has doubled in the last two years.

Cross's trial is set for June.