A 20 year old Bryan man who admitted to seven felony crimes against family members, a Bryan High educator, and a Brazos County detention officer is headed to prison. Louis Henry Armstrong was denied his request for spend six months in prison then depending on his behavior be released on probation. A ten year sentence covers threatening family members with a knife in 2020 and 2021, and last year violating a protection order by assaulting a family member, assaulting the educator, and assaulting the detention officer.
In January, a Brazos County district court jury convicted a Giddings man of a family violence assault that took place six years ago in Bryan. On Wednesday, the trial judge sentenced 39 year old Terrance Moore to 20 years in prison. According to the Bryan police arrest report, Moore strangled a woman and said in front of her children that she was going to die. Moore, who was previously convicted of a family violence assault, has appealed the jury’s decision. And Moore is awaiting a trial on a charge of evading arrest with prior convictions that also took place in 2017.
A Bryan man admits in Brazos County district court his week to assaulting family members in 2017 and 2020. A plea agreement with the district attorney’s office results in a three year prison sentence for 37 year old Mario Vega. Court records show Vega had a prior conviction for family violence assault in 2008 and a conviction in 2013 for manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance.
News release regarding the Terrance Moore trial from the Brazos County district attorney’s office:
On January 13, 2023, Terrance Moore was convicted of Assault Family Violence Strangulation with a Prior Conviction by a Brazos County jury. He elected for the Court to assess punishment. On April 5, 2023, a punishment hearing was held and Judge David Hilburn sentenced the defendant to 20 years in prison.
On May 10, 2017, Bryan Police were dispatched to 708 Suncrest on a disturbance just before 11:00 p.m. A neighbor called 911 to report a woman screaming, “don’t hit me” and children screaming something about
“don’t hurt my mommy.” As officers contacted the victim in the front yard, they could see she was covered in dirt and out of breath. While telling officers she had been strangled and the suspect fled, the
victim passed out in the yard. As the her two daughters started screaming “my mommy died,” the victim regained consciousness.
The victim told officers she was in the back yard doing laundry when the defendant arrived at her house. Because he lived across the street and they had been in a dating relationship, she told her daughters to let him in the house. When the door was opened, he ran through the house and attacked her in the backyard. When she fell to the ground, the defendant got on top of her and began to strangle her. While doing this, he told her “you aren’t leaving me” and “you are going to die in front of your kids.”
The victim lost consciousness multiple times. Her daughters tried to intervene, and that distraction of the defendant allowed her to regain consciousness. The victim yelled for her daughters to call the police. When they tried to use a tablet to call for help, the defendant took it from them and fled the scene. Officers noted scrapes and bruising on the victim, as well as redness and bruising on her neck.
Officers testified at the trial that strangulation cases often do not have any visible injuries due to the nature of the assault. They further testified that the injures observed on the victim’s neck in this case are only seen in more extreme strangulation cases.
During the punishment hearing, five different officers from four different agencies testified about the defendant’s previous criminal history and other pending charges. The defendant has previous convictions in both Brazos and Lee County for Theft from Person, Criminal Trespass, Assault Family Violence, and multiple incidents of Evading Arrest and Resisting Arrest. He was sentenced to prison in 2003 for Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity after violating conditions of his probation. That conviction increased his possible punishment range to 5-99 years or Life in prison. Officers testified about an incident on 4/18/22 in Giddings where the defendant fled from a traffic stop and officers recovered an AR style .22 caliber firearm in his car.
Statement issued by assistant district attorney Brian Price: “This defendant has spent his adult life harming and terrorizing others while refusing to comply with any rules to rehabilitate himself or protect others. He is a serial domestic abuser that won’t be able to harm someone else for quite some time.”