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The haunting legacy of the Stay family massacre
FOX 26 Reporter Randy Wallace spoke with Harris County Constable Mark Herman about the day that still haunts him after 10 years.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - "This is the first time the story has ever been told to any media station," said Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman.
What prompted Herman to relive that hot July day a decade ago when Ronald Haskell became one of Houston's most despicable mass killers? A recent Breaking Bond report on a motion to recuse 351st Criminal Court Judge Nata Cornelio from Haskell's case.
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According to court documents, he had the death row inmate moved from Huntsville to the Harris County Jail for three weeks last summer to have an MRI.
Apparently, only Haskell, his appellate attorney, and Herman knew about it.
"Randy, your story has awakened the demons that live in my memory that horrific day," Herman said.
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Herman was an assistant chief in 2014.
"When the call went out, I was probably about a minute from that location, and another deputy and I drove up at the same time," he said.
That call came from Cassidy Stay. Her Uncle, Ron Haskell, showed up dressed like a delivery man.
She watched as he gunned down her 34-year-old mother, Katie, her 39-year-old dad, Stephen, and her four siblings, 13-year-old Bryan, 9-year-old Emily, 7-year-old Rebeca, and 4-year-old Zach. The then 15-year-old Cassidy was shot too.
"Cassidy Stay played dead. When he left the house, she was able to get on the phone and call 911 to our office, and basically get us in route over there," Herman said. "I was walking alongside the deputies when the EMS folks to get her loaded, she was giving us information that her uncle did this. He's driving a small red car, and he was going to the grandparents house."
As assistant chief, Herman was over the canine squad. He says that day the entire squad was at the Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department. He told them to go to Anvil Drive, that's where Cassidy told them her grandparents lived.
"Just look for a small red car, and about that time the police radio lit up, we're in pursuit. We started chasing him," said Herman.
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Haskell was arrested before he could continue his killing spree.
"This is how close his ex-wife, kids, and their parents came to also suffering the same fate as the Stay family," Herman said. "He said that's what he was going to do, Cassidy knew that. They verbally spoke with him when he actually killed the family. That was his whole reason for coming to the Spring area to murder his wife, and probably the kids too."
Being so close to the scene, the constable says he has no doubt it was God's will.
"There is no doubt in my mind God set it up that way," he said. "I wish God could have helped and saved the Stay family. But by Cassidy making that phone call playing dead, she's the true hero. She made it happen."
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Five years after watching her family die, Cassidy addressed Haskell when he was sentenced to death.
"Do I think the punishment fits the crime? No, I hope that when you die you get the punishment you deserve from God. Only God can help you now," Cassidy Stay said from the stand in October 2019.
July 9, 2014, a day that will never leave Mark Herman alone.
"Those demons live in my memory, it's something you can never take away," he said. "I've seen a lot of bad things in my life, that's probably the worst."