Lucas Samora, left, and Austin Reid. (Harris County District Attorney’s Office)
A Texas man will spend the next several decades in prison for two suspiciously similar child injury incidents involving two separate children – one of which led to the death of a 2-year-old boy in 2019.
One time on the run in Colorado, Austin Reid, 25, was arrested in the tiny town of Fairplay, the county seat of Park County, in March – just days after entering guilty pleas on two counts of injury to a child in a Harris County courtroom, according to local ABC affiliate KTRK.
The man from Deer Park, a medium-sized city and part of the broader Houston area, removed his ankle monitor and fled to the Mile High State after formally accepting legal culpability.
Authorities realized he left the Lone Star State after he failed to show up for sentencing on the child injury charges. Once apprehended, Reid was charged with five additional felonies in Colorado, including failure to identify by a fugitive, resisting arrest, evading arrest, possession of fake license plates, and felon in possession of a firearm.
“This is rare. It doesn’t happen very often,” lead prosecutor Gilbert Sawtelle told KTRK. “All accounts suggested he was going to show up the day of sentencing, and there wouldn’t be any issues.”
After a few months of delay, the defendant was sentenced to 50 years in state prison for each count of child injury on Wednesday, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday. Visiting District Judge Mike Wilkinson ruled the sentences will run concurrently – or at the same time. Reid will be eligible for parole after serving at least 25 years behind bars.
“I think this is the right outcome,” Sawtelle mused in comments reported by local CBS affiliate KHOU. “I think a lot of people deep down think, ‘Well, he should have gotten a lot more.’ And I agree. But I was dealing with evidence that was given to me.”
In May 2019, Lucas Samora, 2, died under mysterious circumstances. Reid claimed the boy drowned in the bathtub, but an autopsy – inconclusive as to his actual cause and manner of death – determined that he had suffered from brain bleeds, optic nerve sheath hemorrhaging, spinal cord hemorrhaging and more than 20 cigarette burns. Those injuries were indicative of child abuse.
“The injuries that were all over his body – there’s was no way this was an accident in any way, and we did not want it to be looked at as an accident,” Darlene Scrivner, the deceased child’s grandmother, previously told KTRK.
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As Reid was under investigation by Houston Police Department and Child Protective Services, Reid’s girlfriend, Emily Aust, gave birth to the deceased boy’s half-brother. In January 2020, the second boy was taken to a hospital by Reid for a dislocated elbow.
“He told medical staffers that the infant had gotten his arm caught in a laundry basket five days earlier,” the DA’s office noted in a press release. “At the hospital, staffers called authorities because the baby had signs of child abuse including a brain bleed, broken arm, burns on his fingertips and other injuries.”
Reid later admitted that he was addicted to drugs, including methamphetamine, marijuana, and Xanax.
Aust has also been charged in connection with both child abuse incidents. She has not entered pleas in either case.
During the sentencing hearing, the doctor from Texas Children’s Hospital who treated both boys testified that neither child’s injuries were accidental – saying he disagreed with the toddler’s autopsy.
“He chose drugs and violence over family and the people who loved him,” Sawtelle said in the press release. “These are horrific and unthinkable crimes, and he deserves to be sentenced to 50 years.”
The ADA doubted Reid would ever make it out of prison, saying he had a long history of violence, including against his father, stepfather, both children and an inmate in the Harris County Jail.
“Children are the most innocent and vulnerable people in our community, and when a child abuser hurts, maims and kills them, we work hard to get justice for the victims and their family,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “This child abuser deserves to spend decades, and hopefully the rest of his life, in prison.”
Ryan Samora was the father of the child who died. He took stock of the sentencing hearing.
“You could tell he’s not really remorseful at all,” Samora told KTRK. “At least a ‘sorry,’ but he didn’t even look our way at all.”
As the sentences were read aloud in court, the victims loudly cheered.
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