For the second time this month, a Harris County murder defendant has allegedly ditched his court-ordered GPS ankle monitor and disappeared right before jury selection. Investigators say 32-year-old Walter Pozos vanished after a monitor tamper alert went off two days before his scheduled trial in a case tied to a 2023 high-speed crash that killed a passenger.
Details of the disappearance
According to KPRC, Pozos was due to appear in court last Wednesday, but his GPS anklet generated a tamper alert early the previous Monday. The station reports Pozos had been free on a combined $35,000 bond since October 2023, that bond has been forfeited, and court records now show new felony counts including bail jumping and tampering with an electronic monitor.
Echoes of a recent international flight
The disappearance follows a widely reported case earlier this month in which another Harris County defendant allegedly cut off an ankle monitor and fled the country. The Houston Chronicle detailed how prosecutors say Lee Gilley used forged travel documents to reach Italy and has since sought asylum, a sequence that prompted intense local scrutiny of pretrial supervision.
Manhunt, new charges and bond status
Law enforcement has added felony counts tied to the alleged escape, and the U.S. Marshals Service is involved in the search, KPRC reports. Court documents show bond on Pozos’ original cases has been forfeited while prosecutors pursue the new charges.
Pretrial monitoring under scrutiny
The back-to-back incidents have raised fresh questions about how quickly Pretrial Services and courts are notified when monitors register strap tamper alerts. The Chronicle reported that in the earlier case a Pretrial Services officer signed a bond-violation report after a tamper was recorded, an apparent delay that a judge called troubling and which has renewed calls for tighter oversight.
The search for Pozos is ongoing. Authorities ask anyone with information to contact the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, and local prosecutors say they will update charging and custody information as it becomes available.
