Punishment trial ongoing for man who drove victim to hospital after shooting him

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New Boston, Texas–Testimony in the punishment trial of a Simms, Texas, man who drove his victim to the hospital after shooting him is scheduled to continue Thursday afternoon at the Bowie County courtouse.

Barry Kendall Green, 35, entered a guilty plea earlier this month to aggravated assault, deadly weapon, with serious bodily injury in the Sept. 18, 2016, shooting of Michael Brad Hooks but asked that a jury decide his punishment. In a videotaped interview with Bowie County Sheriff’s investigators, Green explained that his anger with a woman led him to shoot a rival for her affection with a 12 gauge shotgun.

Cherie Bourland testified Wednesday that she became romantically involved with Green in December 2014, under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards. Bourland said the relationship was tumultuous and that Green threatened to shoot himself and then hit her with the barrel of a shotgun in July 2016. Bourland said she was treated at a hospital and filed a police report after the July altercation.

Bourland said she dated Michael Brad Hooks, who lives just a short distance from Green, for about a month after the July 2016 break-up with Green. Bourland testfied she spent several days at Green’s home packing her things in a three-day period leading up to the shooting. Under questioning by Chief Public Defender Rick Shumaker, Bourland admitted that she claimed in an affidavit related to a protective order proceeding that she had gone to Green’s home on the day of the shooting. The contradiction led Shumaker to ask Bourland if the jury should believe anything she said.

Hooks testified that he drove by Green’s driveway and revved his truck engine on the morning of the shooting because Bourland had asked him to check on her. Bourland testified that she called Hooks and asked him to “please” not drive by again. Bourland said her use of the word “please” in her phone call with Hooks made Green angry. In his videotaped interview, Green told investigators Robby McCarver and David Biggar that Bourland responded to his anger by threatening to become romantic again with Hooks.

“I said, ‘You ain’t gonna have a chance,'” Green told detectives in the video.

Bourland said Green grabbed a shotgun painted neon green and sped down his driveway in a Suburban he’d been working on for a friend. After wrecking the Suburban in a ditch at the end of his driveway, Green walked back to the home and got in his mother’s truck. Green drove from his house on County Road 4239 to Hooks’ home on 4240.

Hooks testified he didn’t realize Green, who stayed in the truck, had a gun. Green said the two spoke briefly and he thought he would end the conversation by going back in his house.

“I had just pushed on the door handle when, boom, it blew me inside my house,” Hooks said. “I stood up and said, ‘What the hell Barry,’ and he said, ‘I’m sorry man, that bitch just makes me crazy.'”

Hooks said his adult son called 911 and Green picked him up and put him in the truck after telling the son he would take Hooks to the hospital. Hooks said Green stopped at a minor emergency clinic in New Boston but staff there were not equipped to treat such a serious injury. As Green drove along Interstate 30 toward Texarkana, officers from BCSO, Texarkana, Texas, Police and Department of Public Safety troopers attempted to pull him over. Green refused to stop until he reached St. Michael’s hospital in Texarkana.

Emergency room doctor John Baugh M.D. testified that Hooks lost a kidney and an adrenal gland and suffered a collapsed lung, two fractured ribs and a punctured diaphragm.

In the middle of the afternoon Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp asked 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart to remove the jury from the courtroom. Crisp said she believes the state should be allowed to call a witness to testify that she was also abused by Green because Shumaker had “given this jury the false impression that this was an isolated incident.”

Shumaker objected and asked Lockhart for time to collect documents related to the older case of alleged domestic violence. Lockhart adjourned court and instructed the jury to return to the courhouse around noon Thursday to continue the punishment trial.

Green is facing two to 20 years in prison. In his opening remarks, Shumaker told the jury Green is eligible for probation. Green, who has no prior felony convictions, is eligible to receive probation if the jury sentences him to less than 10 years and recommends probation.

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