HOUSTON (AP) – A murder charge has been dropped against a homeless man accused of fatally stabbing an 11-year-old Houston boy as the child walked home from school last year, prosecutors announced on Tuesday.
DNA tests prosecutors received this week were inconclusive and there wasn’t enough evidence to try 28-year-old Andre Timothy Jackson Jr. for murder, said Harris County First Assistant District Attorney Tom Berg.
Josue Flores, a sixth-grader, was killed as he walked home from a science club meeting at Marshall Middle School just north of downtown Houston on May 17, 2016. Authorities say the boy was stabbed at least 20 times.
Jackson is still a suspect in the slaying but authorities are essentially starting over with their investigation, Berg said.
“This was a very difficult decision we had to make… We are not forgetting Josue,” he said.