Criminals commit crimes again and again, only to be released from jail to commit yet more crimes, such as killing children or cops.
This belies the myth of mass incarceration.
Austin Justice tells of a man who savagely beat women over and over again, with few consequences, and then went on to kill a deputy constable:
The man arrested for executing a deputy in an Austin bar spent years beating women. He dragged a woman out of a bar and repeatedly punched her in the face until her eyes turned black. He stomped on a woman’s face while ripping a child from her arms. He broke into strangers’ homes coked up and naked wielding knives. A jury never once heard from his victims because prosecutors kept giving him plea deals and probations. Now a deputy is dead.
Thomas Vences, arrested last night for murder of a deputy constable, has a long history of beating women, breaking into homes, and terrorizing families. Sunday’s shooting at Club Rodeo wasn’t even his first violent crime at a North Lamar bar.
2017 — Beats up his girlfriend at La Preferida Bar on North Lamar:
Vences approached his ex-girlfriend at the bar and demanded she leave with him. When she refused, he dragged her out by her arms. Once outside, he pushed her to the ground, then threw her into the backseat of a borrowed car. While she lay on her back, he punched her in the face with closed fists, multiple times. Witnesses saw him drag her out. Police documented blackened eyes and finger-shaped bruises on her arms. This was enhanced to a felony because he had a prior family violence conviction from Williamson County in 2013.
Result: Probation.
2019 — Stomps on woman’s face and takes child: Vences was arguing with the mother of his child. He announced he was taking their daughter and leaving. When she grabbed the child and retreated to the bedroom, he followed. He pried the child from her arms. He pinned her arm to the bed. He pressed his foot down on her face. When she tried to follow him out, he grabbed her by the hair and threw her to the ground. The day before, he had choked her. Then he took her phone so she couldn’t call police. She told deputies he “frequently uses the child as a mechanism of control” — disappearing for days, blocking her calls. At the time of this arrest, he was already in pretrial for forcing his way into her sister’s home and assaulting her there.
Result: Probation.
2019 — Breaks into stranger’s apartment: Vences showed up intoxicated at an apartment looking for his daughter. A woman named Mariana — who babysat for his child’s mother — answered the door thinking it was her boyfriend. Vences forced his way in and went room to room searching. When she tried to push him out, he shoved her into a wall. Bruises on her arm were still visible 10 days later. He fled, leaving behind a ripped shirt and his cell phone. Police traced him through CPS records. Result: Probation. Naked, coked up, breaks into two homes with knife Police were called at 4a.m. for a prowler. They found Vences naked in a parking lot, covered in deep cuts, acting irrational.
What happened: He broke a window and entered the first apartment while a family slept. A mother, her adult son, and her brother locked themselves in separate rooms “fearing for their lives.” They could hear him banging on bedroom doors. When he left, the apartment was covered in blood. He stole a kitchen knife. Then he went next door. He did a “full dive” through the window, landing on the living room floor, knife in hand. The woman of the house jumped on top of him and grabbed his wrists to control the blade. Her husband helped. Together they disarmed him and threw him outside. At the hospital, Vences admitted to police he had ingested 20 grams of cocaine. He said someone was chasing him. He asked, “How much is the window?” and offered: “I’ll buy them both windows.”
Result: Released on bond.
Skipped court in June. Became a wanted fugitive on four felony warrants.
Seven months later, Deputy Aaron Armstrong is dead.
Criminals are sometimes quickly released by progressive prosecutors and judges who worry about “mass incarceration” if offenders have to do serious time. Most prison inmates in America are doing time for violent crimes, and the typical state prison inmate is a repeat offender with 5 convictions.
Releasing them quickly to reduce incarceration rates is risky: Most inmates commit more crimes after being released, even when they have already served over ten years in prison. Nationally, 81.9% of all state prisoners released in 2008 were subsequently arrested within a decade, including 74.5% of those 40 or older at the time of their release. (See Bureau of Justice Statistics, Recidivism of Prisoners in 24 States Released in 2008: A 10-Year Follow-Up Period (2008-2018), pg. 4, Table 4)).
