John Jefferson
Inset: Michael Maurice Mack (Harris County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Scene of the crime (KTRK).
Armed with multiple guns and wearing tactical gear, a Texas husband broke into his estranged wife’s home, shot a man, forced the woman to shoot the body and made her join him in driving the remains to another city, according to an arrest affidavit.
Michael Maurice Mack, 48, is wanted for capital murder, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez announced on Saturday.
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The defendant and wife married in 2019 but have been separated for the past year and a half, at which point he began to stalk her, the woman told investigators.
The murder victim, Kelvin Hinton, 53, ended up beginning to date her, but he never revealed to his family about how bad Mack was allegedly acting.
“He didn’t let me know the guy had called his phone and threatened him not to come back to the house,” the victim’s brother, Michael Lewis, told ABC Houston affiliate KTRK.
But on Wednesday, at about 3:30 a.m., Mack allegedly broke in through a side window into the wife’s home in the 2500 block of Wells Station Court in the city of Katy.
According to documents, the wife told investigators that she woke up to her husband beating her with a rifle. Hinton woke up and demanded a stop to this, shoving the rifle, but Mack allegedly shot him and continued to beat the woman with the firearm.
The wife told investigators that her husband wore a tactical vest, had two handguns on the vest and one on his hip.
“Please don’t shoot me,” the wife said as Mack slapped and hit her, threatening to kill her, and telling her he had been watching her all day with Hinton, according to documents.
Pointing the rifle to her head, he handed her a handgun and ordered her to shoot the victim, authorities said.
“Grab it, b—-h,” he allegedly said. “You better shoot him or I’m going to shoot your ass right now.”
“[She] said she was in fear for her life, closed her eyes as the Defendant grabbed her hand placing it on the handgun with her finger on the trigger, as he placed his hand over her hand and forced her to shoot [Hinton],” documents stated. “[She] said once he pulled the trigger she did not know if [Hinton] was shot a second time. [She] said the Defendant told her she was going to help him dispose of [Hinton’s] body because he could not get rid of two bodies.”
Threatening to kill her if she did not help him get rid of the remains, he wrapped the body in bedsheets and placed it in the trunk of his wife’s car, deputies said. They then drove out to a gated lot in the 1000 block of Old Highway 90 West in Vidor, Texas, a city about 120 miles east of Katy.
Authorities said Mack eventually let her go.
“Get your ass out of the car,” he allegedly told her. “I’m not going to kill you today.”
Gonzalez said that deputies were called out to the scene of the murder, found evidence of foul play at the home, and tracked Hinton’s body down to the Vidor location.
Authorities said they found the wife “reliable and credible” when questioning her.
“During the investigation I spoke with several people who said they spoke with the Defendant at different times after the incident and the Defendant admitted to his participation in the Murder and Tampering with a Corpse,” the affidavit stated.
Other evidence included surveillance footage at a gas station in Vidor showing Mack, they said.
Hinton is reportedly survived by two daughters. He was also a grandfather.
“I don’t have no choice,” a distraught Lewis told KTRK. “I got to go forward. It’s going to hurt.”
Mack faces an arrest warrant for capital murder.
From Gonzalez:
Anyone with info regarding this case or Mack’s whereabouts, is urged to contact their local law enforcement agency, our Homicide Unit 713-274-9100, or Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
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