HOUSTON – On Tuesday, 22 years after HPD Officer James Irby was gunned down at a traffic stop, his family had to relive all of the details again.
Carl Buntion was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991, but an appeals court ruled the jury instructions in that case were flawed.
More than two decades later, at 68 years old, Buntion is fighting for life in prison instead of lethal injection in a retrial for his sentence.
"When Mr. Buntion walked in, and gave the whole, the few attending people that God-awful stare, it all came back to me. And I really, really, really was very upset having to sit there and look at that man as long as I did," Robert Mills, Irby’s father-in-law, recalled.
The medical examiner who performed the autopsy went over the details again. Security guard Richard Castillo, the man who caught Buntion as he tried to get away after the shooting, showed the jury how he saw Buntion shoot Officer Irby back in 1990.
Irby’s father-in-law said it was an emotional day for the family.
"He was a hero, he was a hero then, he’s a hero now. We miss him terribly," Mills said of Irby.
The defense told the jury about Buntion’s troubled childhood, and how his father abused him and his family.
Officer Irby’s family said they were holding out hope that the new jury will reach the same decision as the last one.
The retrial was expected to last three weeks.
