Here is the booking photo for Clines-Martinez who worked for Texas Card House:


There is no booking photo for the alleged shooter yet. He is 41 year old Jermaine Patrick Spirlark and it appears he was arrested 3 days ago in San Antonio. Apparently 22 different law enforcement agencies/departments worked on this to locate the suspects.

News Story: https://patch.com/texas/downtownaust...ker-club-heist

http://www.kxan.com/news/crime/two-a...oom/1191275393

hopefully they get a long and hard punishment and attempted murder charges instead of just aggravated robbery

Apparently the robbery was an inside job...disgusting:

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...m-85307-tbla-3

Man this sucks, I played that game all of last month (5/5 and 5/10). Only played with Tom once but seemed like a nice kid.

For people wondering how often this happens in card houses or home games in Texas, sadly this is an expectation and it wont be the last time.

I was involved in a firefight in Houston several years ago (there's a thread about it here somewhere), and it happened at several home games since then. I played in NYC home games as well and several have happened there. Sadly we are always targets, I'm always watching my back even at casino parking lots etc.

TCH is such a nice place with armed security but really the expectation (specially for high stakes regs) should be that these things happen all the time. It doesn't have to happen onsite either, plenty of people get followed home and the TCH system has you DL and home address. I even go to the lengths of having an old but valid DL with an address that is a UPS mail box.

good to hear 3betpanda is recovering and the two guys were caught

I've never had a driver's license with my real address on it
There is no upside and all downside if you do, especially if you play lots of poker.

There's enormous downside if a police officer ever asks you for identification.

In most places you're required to have a current and address on your valid driver's license. A fake id and or address is only going to stop the least effective of criminals. As they say, locking your doors only keeps your friends out.

What?

Aggravated Robbery is a FIRST degree offense, carrying with it the possibility of 99 years or life in prison, with a requirement that 30 calendar years be served prior to becoming eligible for parole on anything beyond 60 (otherwise, half of the sentence must be served).

Attempted murder, on the other hand, carries a second-degree cap of 20 years and would, in this case, very likely be held to be a lesser-included offense.

The concern is that this is a prosecution that will apparently occur in liberal Travis County as opposed to its far-tougher-on-crime cousin to the north (Williamson). Knowing the sentencing practices in Travis, I can easily see this pleading out to something in the range of 30-40 years. Williamson would be more inclined to have held out for 50-55 since a jury would very likely be north of 60.

On edit...society caught a break it appears. Even though this is an APD case, it was just enough on the fringe to apparently be in the WilCo part of Austin. http://judicialrecords.wilco.org/Pub...CaseID=1816295 is the history on Clines-Martinez for the case.

It IS a little disconcerting that he was able to post bond so quickly though...even with a $100K bond, he was able to get people to pony up the $10K (maybe a little more) to secure the release inside of two days. Booked on the 18th and out on the 20th.

No case information showing on Spirlark yet. I could see an instance where he is charged with attempted capital murder since the shooting occurred in the commission of another specified felony and, had there actually been a fatality, this would be a death penalty case. Attempted capital murder would carry the first-degree punishment range.

30 to 40 years seems quite excessive relative to other sentences I've seen. The man that stabbed a poker player to death in 2012 received 25 years for murder (initially charged with capital murder). He is eligible for parole after 12.5 years.

I'll never understand the TX justice system though. They sentence more people to death than any other state and yet from 2000 to 2006, they gave probation to 120 people that pled guilty to murder. 9% of the murder convictions in Dallas county during that period resulted in probation.

Great news, lock them up and throw away the key. Honestly they don't deserve to live for doing this and any punishment they get will not be severe enough.

It never ceases to amaze me about people that want to judge a jurisdiction on what sentences were given (probation) without knowing the facts of the conduct. There are so many variables that go into sentencing that lay people rarely bother to take into account...

Further, the numbnuts in this case were stupid enough to use a firearm in a period of heightened awareness over violence involving guns...they get to pay the penalty for that stupidity. Then the additional stupid tax for engaging in the conduct in WilCo...

Seeing that the affidavit of indigence was filed, I am curious which poor soul gets appointed to the case...there are some decent attorneys in WilCo but not all are in the wheel...

On this, it is safe to say that you and I have found common ground

So you're saying they are likely to get punished harder for using a gun than they would if they had stabbed the young man? I don't understand that, especially in TX where tons of people carry guns.

Sorry, I'm one of those lay people that can't wrap my head around giving probation for murder while giving 30+ years for aggravated robbery.

My assumption that could be wrong was that aggravated robbery was just robbery with a weapon / force not necessarily damage caused, Does someone need to be bodily injured (shot / stabbed / beat up) for that charge? Or could you point a gun and get aggravated assault as well? That was why I assumed attempted murder via actually shooting 3betpanda would be a worse crime/punishment under the law.

Under Texas law (see Chapter 29 of the Texas Penal Code), simple robbery requires that one, in the course of committing theft and with intent to obtain or maintain control of the property, he "intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another OR intentionally or knowingly threatens or places another in fear of imminent bodily injury or death." This is a second degree felony.

HOWEVER, it becomes Aggravated Robbery when, while committing Robbery, he "causes serious bodily injury to another, uses or exhibits a deadly weapon, or causes bodily injury to another person or threatens or places another person in fear of imminent bodily injury or death IF the other person is 65 years of age or older OR is a disabled person. Aggravated Robbery is a first-degree felony.

Thus, in this case it is the exhibition and use of a deadly weapon combined with the serious bodily injury.

In the case where there was a conviction only for robbery with the stabbing, that would have been something that was a product of the negotiated plea between counsel and the State. The knife would clearly have been a deadly weapon.

The definitions are why you see some shoplifters charged with Robbery because of injuries sustained by the store security personnel while attempting to detain the deadbeat thieving scum.

Plea agreements allow for all manner of legal fictions to be created, but the underlying facts of the offense remain a part of the permanent record to be considered by the Board of Pardons and Paroles at the time of each consideration for release.

The reason attempted murder also would not fly in THIS case as a companion charge is that it becomes a second punishment for the same conduct specifically by virtue of its included nature. Double jeopardy would result in the Court of Criminal Appeals kicking the lesser-included offense and has, in a few cases, resulted in the case being bounced back to square one and the State being unable to proceed due to a loss of witnesses or evidence through the passage of time. The CCA tends to TRY and just bounce the lesser offense, but sometimes has to kick all of the convictions and remand for new trial.

Not quite sure what you're asking, but my post was not difficult to understand, although perhaps a little with a typo in the first sentence.

1. If you have an invalid address on a drivers license you can probably be issued a citation for it.
2. If someone is intent on identifying, following, and/or robbing you a fake id, false address, or locked door is not going to stop them.

That's horrible ..be safe people. Lots of poker heading to Vegas for the summer influx of people etc.

Although what can do you to be safe really? not a lot.

So you'd rather willingy give out your actual address because you asume that criminals are competent?

I guess you haven't dealt with much crime.

I'd rather take the risk of a dumb citation to protect my family myself and my assets. Also please note that what I said is that I keep an OLD but valid ID. I do have a current ID with my actual address. I just don't go giving that out to randoms.

Having two IDs isn't illegal in Texas. But yeah go ahead giving your address out to anyone and leaving your door unlocked while playing high stakes poker.

That will surely work out well.

California dgaf what your license address shows. DMV does want your current address in their db.

Source: DMV workers have told me this a number of times.

great job texas police. hope the kid's recovery is going well