Harris County crime: Documented gang member sentenced to 40 years in prison
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - A member of one of Houston's most infamous street gangs, the 52 Hoover Crips, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for shooting a neighbor in 2020, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.
According to a release, Robert E. Chenier, 32, was sentenced late Friday after being convicted by a Harris County jury of murder in the deadly shooting of 37-year-old Shaun Lewis near Houston's Clinton Park neighborhood on November 23, 2020.
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Officials said Chenier and Lewis knew each other and had both grown up in the area.
On the night of the murder, Chenier had a dispute with someone he knew and shot up a house in the 300 block of Cartersville Street after midnight.
Officials said Lewis, who was not connected to that shooting, and another man saw Chenier on the small semi-rural street.
Robert E. Chenier
Chenier confronted them, appearently to rob them, and took a pistol from the other man, officials said.
As the other man ran away, authorities said Lewis put up his hands to give Chenier whatever he wanted. Chenier then shot him, wounding him. Lewis tried to run away but fell in a nearby field.
Officials said Chenier then approached him and, as Lewis begged for his life, shot him in the head, killing him. Chenier then also took a photo of Lewis's lifeless body.
Shaun Lewis
After the murder, Chenier told several people what he had done, and investigators with the Houston Police Department quickly pieced together what happened and charged the habitual offender with murder.
"When a gang member shoots up a house, brutally murders a man and is so confident he will get away with murder that he brags about it, we see exactly how pervasive gun violence is in our community," Ogg said in a statement. "We mourn for the victim’s family and thank the jury for ending this gang member’s reign of terror."