Enoch enters guilty plea for manslaughter

The Yoakum man whose murder trial was awarded a mistrial in 2022 after it was revealed that the lawyer prosecuting him had allowed her law license to expire appeared before State District Judge William D. Old III on Monday to accept a plea deal in the case.

Under the terms of the agreement, Deandre Tireon Enoch, now 23, entered a guilty plea on the charge of manslaughter, a lesser offense than that of murder, under the eyes of the law, but still a serious felony offense.

Just how serious a felony offense remains under review by the courts, as is how much of his time already served might get credited toward his sentence.

Enoch’s sentencing in the case is scheduled for Monday, Jan 27, according to an update provided by Sheriff Steven Greenwell last week.

Enoch was booked into Lavaca County Jail on July 18, 2021, the same day that he reportedly shot and killed 31-year-old John Scott Calloway of Hallettsville while attending a party that was already underway at a private residence along County Road 157A that began that prior evening in eastern Lavaca County.

By accepting the guilty plea, Enoch basically agrees to the accusation against him, that he in fact killed Calloway by “shooting him in the head,” on or about July 18, 2021, as his March 2022 indictment reads.

Additional court documents revealed that roughly 192 young people, most of them high school-aged or recent high school graduates, were also in attendance at the same party.

Descriptions from those on that party list indicated the shooting took place near where everyone parked their vehicles along the roadside. As such, most who attended the party would have, at very least, witnessed the aftermath of that shooting when going to their vehicles to leave.

Enoch, just 20 when he originally was arrested in 2021, has remained behind bars ever since, unable to post bail on the $750,000 bond on which he’s held.

He has since filed for indigency, meaning he has no formal address, nor can he afford any legal expenses tied to his defense.

Defense attorney Micah Hatley was Enoch’s second court-appointed attorney when the case first appeared before the 25th District Court in 2022.

He was the same lawyer who also secured a mistrial in that case, after it was revealed that assistant prosecutor Kelley Bazie had just given the state’s opening statement in the trial and had done so with a license practice law in Texas.

Bazie’s law license officially lapsed as of Aug. 31, 2022, according to the Texas State Bar Association. It had done so for her failure to renew her annual State Bar membership, which requires its annual dues get paid June 1 of every year.

That trial, incidentally, took place in November 2022.

When the mistrial request was made, the court had spent a full day selecting jurors and then returned for Day 2, during which, Bazie spent half the day on her opening remarks, effectively laying out her case against Enoch, before ultimately yielding the floor to the defense, right about lunchtime.

Hatley made no attempt to present a case or refute any claims the prosecution set forth. Rather, he simply requested a mistrial in the case, a mistrial that Judge Old quickly granted after hearing why.

Bazie graduated St. Mary’s in 2011, meaning she should have had 11 years’ experience already, dealing with the state bar’s renewal process.

In her defense, her State Bar records at the time were listed under a different surname than the one she used here, and that other name—her married name, presumably— included a West Texas address. It’s highly probable she never received any of the reminder notices from the State Bar informing her of the statement due or that it might be lapsing.

After being made aware of her flub, Bazie immediately paid the costs and late fees and got her license reinstated, all within minutes over the phone. She even obtained written documentation from them stating as much, making her reinstatement retroactive, as if it never happened.

By then, however, the damage was already done. The mistrial was granted, and Hatley was busy filing other challenges on his clients’ behalf, trying to make a case for double jeopardy as well as some other more technical legal claims based on similar such arguments. These he filed with the Texas criminal appellate court, further delaying the case even more as they reviewed its merits, or lack of, as pertaining to this case.

In a show of confidence in his assistant attorney, Denney had Bazie file the briefs for his office, refuting all claims made by the defense, a refute won the day, as all of Hatley claims were dismissed as invalid in this case.

Plus, the court, the appeals judges ruled, had done everything by the book when learning of licensure lapse. No faults were found in Judge Old handling the situation, though they did lightly chastise Bazie for they called a “lack of responsibility” in letting her license go.