Ernest Sonnier

The Crime

On Christmas Eve 1985, a 24-year-old woman identified as E.K. and her nine-year-old niece were at a carwash in Houston, Texas. A man grabbed E.K. from behind and punched her in the eye. Another man then put E.K. in a headlock. She yelled for her niece to run away as the two men forced her in the backseat of E.K.’s car.

One of the men held E.K. in the backseat while the other man drove on Interstate 10 toward San Antonio. E.K. told police that the man in the backseat sexually assaulted her, although she said she was menstruating. She said that at some point, the car pulled over. The men traded positions and the other man sexually assaulted her. E.K. said that both men ejaculated.

At some point, the men pulled off of the interstate and E.K. managed to get out of the car and run into the woods. The men chased her, and she then fell down a ravine where she pretended to be unconscious. When the men left, E.K. climbed up to the road, found her jeans, and flagged down a vehicle, which took her to a hospital in LaGrange, Texas, about 100 miles southwest of Houston.

The Investigation

A few weeks later, E.K.’s car was found stripped. The front seats and the radio were gone. Police recovered fingerprints, and a stain was identified on a rear door panel.

Six months after the crime, in June 1986, 23-year-old Ernest Sonnier was accused of breaking into a home in Houston and sexually assaulting a woman, identified as M.C.

Subsequently, Mr. Sonnier’s photograph was put into a photographic lineup and shown to E.K. She identified him as the man who punched her and was the first to rape her. E.K. also identified Mr. Sonnier in a live lineup. E.K.’s niece was shown a videotape of the live lineup, and she also identified Mr. Sonnier. 

On July 3, 1986, Mr. Sonnier was charged with aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping in the attack of E.K. He was also charged with burglary and aggravated sexual assault in the attack of M.C.

The Trial

In December 1986, Mr. Sonnier went to trial in Harris County Criminal District Court. E.K. identified him as one of the two attackers. E.K.’s niece also identified Mr. Sonnier, although she said he looked different in court. The defense argued that Mr. Sonnier had been mistakenly identified. E.K. had described the attacker who punched her as more than 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 160 to 170 pounds. Mr. Sonnier was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed about 130 pounds.

A Houston police crime lab analyst testified that a hair from the rape kit was microscopically consistent with a hair from Mr. Sonnier, although she could not say the hair came from Mr. Sonnier to the exclusion of everyone else.

David Coffman, a police crime lab serologist, testified that he did not find any seminal fluid in the stain found in the car, but that he did detect seminal fluid in E.K.’s jeans and in the rape kit. He said Mr. Sonnier had blood type B and that he did not find any type B in the fluids — only type O, which was E.K.’s blood type.

In response to a hypothetical question from the prosecutor, Coffman said it was possible that a person who was menstruating at the time of an assault would “flush out” any seminal fluid, leaving only the person’s blood and not the attacker’s biological material.

The defense argued that since E.K. testified that both men ejaculated, the absence of any biological material containing Mr. Sonnier’s blood type was evidence that he was not one of the attackers.

On Dec. 10, 1986, the jury convicted Mr. Sonnier of aggravated kidnapping and acquitted him of the charge of aggravated sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison. The prosecution then dismissed the charges involving the attack on M.C.

The Exoneration

In May 2007, the Innocence Project sought DNA testing of the physical evidence. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office agreed to the testing, and in August 2009, attorneys for the Innocence Project filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus based on DNA tests that excluded Mr. Sonnier and implicated another man.

The petition said that the stain on the rear car door panel yielded a DNA profile. That profile was submitted to the FBI DNA database and linked to Kirk Jerome Thomas. A DNA profile obtained from E.K.’s jeans was identified as belonging to Avery Breaux.

Mr. Sonnier’s DNA was not detected in any of the evidence. In addition, mitochondrial DNA testing excluded Mr. Sonnier as being the source of a hair found in the rape kit.

The petition also said that one of the fingerprints recovered from E.K.’s car was matched to Darrick Breaux, a brother of Avery Breaux. Mr. Sonnier’s lawyers contended that the Breaux brothers committed the crime. 

On Aug. 7, 2009, Mr. Sonnier was released on bond, more than 23 years after his arrest.

At a hearing on the habeas petition in August 2016, the prosecution argued that the evidence did not exonerate Mr. Sonnier. The prosecution asserted that Mr. Sonnier had committed the crime with Avery Breaux, and that Mr. Thomas and Darrick Breaux had only stripped and ransacked the car three weeks after the crime.

In May 2017, Harris County Criminal District Judge Michael McSpadden, who had presided over Mr. Sonnier’s trial in 1986, denied the writ. The judge ruled that the DNA evidence would not have made a difference at Mr. Sonnier’s trial. 

The Innocence Project appealed and in October 2017, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted the writ, vacated Mr. Sonnier’s conviction, and ordered a new trial. The appeals court said Mr. Sonnier had shown that had the results of the new mitochondrial DNA testing been presented at trial, he would not have been convicted.

On June 1, 2018, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case.