Suspect in shooting of Texas judge held on separate charge

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A man seen by police as a person of interest in the shooting of a Texas judge in Austin last week was ordered on Wednesday by a judge in Houston to be held without bond on a separate murder charge in that city.

Chimene Onyeri, 28, charged with felony murder in the shooting death of Jacobi Demon Alexander last May, was booked into jail after the appearance in Houston. Prosecutors said he shot the victim four times in the head and four times in the stomach.

Austin police have not yet announced a motive in the shooting of District Judge Julie Kocurek, 51, in front of her Austin home last Friday, or any link to Onyeri. They said they consider him a suspect.

The Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported that Onyeri has a motion in Kocurek's court that would revoke the conditions of a previous plea deal for a fraud conviction and send him to prison.

Kocurek was in stable condition on Saturday and her family said she was improving.

"Investigators believe that the assault was an attempt to murder her, an attempt on her life," Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told a news conference on Tuesday.

He said several rounds had been fired at the judge and into her car.

Kocurek was returning from a high school football game when she was shot, police said.

Kocurek, a former prosecutor, was appointed to her position in 1999 by then-Governor George W. Bush.

Among her early cases was the high-profile capital murder trial of Celeste Beard Johnson, who is serving a life sentence for killing her millionaire husband, Steven Beard, in 1999.

Kocurek was initially named to preside over the 2014 felony case involving former Texas Governor Rick Perry, in which he was charged with abuse of power, but she recused herself. Perry was lieutenant governor when Bush appointed her to the bench. That case is still pending.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Andrew Hay)