Suspect in shooting of Texas judge arrested on separate charge

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A man being questioned by police in connection with the shooting of a Texas judge is being held on a separate murder charge in Houston, Austin police said on Tuesday.

Chimene Onyeri, 28, has been charged with felony murder in the shooting death of Jacobi Demon Alexander last May, according to documents from the office of the district attorney for Harris County.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told a news conference that investigators were looking for a motive in the shooting of District Judge Julie Kocurek, 51, in front of her Austin home last Friday.

"For all of us who believe in the rule of law, when you attack a judge simply for doing his or her job ... it is really an attack on the fabric of society," Acevedo said

Kocurek was in stable condition on Saturday and her family said she was improving. Acevedo described her as "a tough woman."

"Investigators believe that the assault was an attempt to murder her, an attempt on her life," he said.

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.

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, effectively sending him back to prison.

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 Suzannah Gonzales and Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Rigby, Bernard Orr)