[For those people who think the Parole Board could never release someone too early again...]

Accused serial rapist convicted

He broke into UT student's apartment.

By Steven Kreytak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Almost immediately after she turned off the lights and got into bed that night in November 2003, Mary Ewing heard something outside her apartment. She walked into the living room and saw a hand reach through her partially opened back door and unlatch the chain, Ewing testified Wednesday.

A silhouette came toward her, and Ewing, then a 21-year-old University of Texas student, heard an older man's raspy voice telling her he had a gun and ordering her to sit down and be quiet, she said.

"He had me laid down and put the (bath) robe over my head," she said.

Then he sexually assaulted her.

Prosecutors say the man was Merlon Hines, who was found guilty of aggravated assault Tuesday after a one-day trial before state District Judge Jon Wisser.

Hines, 61, is an ex-convict who has also been charged with sexually assaulting two other women. Wisser could sentence him to life in prison after the penalty phase of the trial in Ewing's case, which continues today.

Police linked Hines to the attacks through DNA evidence, but Hines, who represented himself at trial, denied that he assaulted Ewing and suggested that the DNA testing was faulty.

Ewing lived alone in a two-apartment building that sits behind a three-story house near 32nd and Guadalupe streets. Another woman Hines is accused of assaulting lived in the French Place neighborhood in East Austin. Court documents don't say where the third woman lived.

The Austin American- Statesman typically does not identify sexual assault victims. Ewing agreed to be identified for this story.

Ewing testified during the sentencing phase that after she was attacked, she felt shock, then depression and later fear.

"I started seeing everyone around me as a threat," said Ewing, now 24 and a math teacher at Leander High School. "I guess because my home hadn't been safe, I felt like nothing could be safe for some time."

Her boyfriend, James Willis, testified that he wants to kill Hines.

Willis was dating Ewing in 2003 and was at her duplex before the attack. Willis testified that he sensed something was not right that night when he opened the back door to let Ewing's cat out and the cat stopped in the doorway and ran back inside.

Ewing testified that there wasn't a working lock on her back door other than the chain, which wasn't installed properly.

Prosecutor Amy Meredith said that moments after Willis left the duplex, Hines forced his way in and remained inside for what she said could have been up to an hour.

A nurse at St. David's Hospital found DNA on Ewing's body and gave it to police, who gave the samples to the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab. About a year after the attack, analysts matched the DNA with Hines'. His profile was in a database of known offenders because of his previous convictions.

Hines has a long list of convictions in Texas, including a life sentence for attempted burglary dating to 1969. He was most recently convicted of burglary of a habitation in Walker County in 1992 and sentenced to life in prison but was set free on parole in 2002.

Don't get too carried away debating the significance of Mr. Hines' new life sentence just yet. There's a reason why he's going to the judge (THAT judge) for punishment ....

Point taken, Shannon.

Life sentence in student's assault


A 61-year-old man convicted of sexually assaulting a University of Texas student in her apartment in November 2003 and accused of raping two other women was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.

A day before sentencing Merlon Hines, state District Judge Jon Wisser found him guilty of aggravated sexual assault after a one-day trial.

Hines also was sentenced to life in prison for burglary in 1969 and in 1992. He was paroled on the most recent case, out of Walker County, in 2002. He will be eligible for parole in the latest case in 30 years, when he is 91.

Why do judges hesitate to stack when a defendant is clearly a dangerous criminal with a serious track record of heinous crimes?

I've practiced before quite a few District Judges, both elected and visiting, and there were only a few (less than 50%) who could be counted upon to cumulate a sentence with a really bad crook and a strong history of criminality. Those who would stack were both republican and democrat, from large and small communities in the State.

What's the deal?