Man gets life in drug case

Kourtney Atkins
Kourtney Atkins

NEW BOSTON, Texas-A Bowie County jury handed down a life sentence Thursday in a drug case involving a defendant with a lengthy criminal history.

The jury deliberated less than 30 minutes on the punishment Kourtney Atkins, 31, should receive for possession of approximately five grams of methamphetamine after hearing witness testimony concerning Atkins' prior criminal conduct.

"The punishment evidence in this case is some the worst I've ever seen. Kourtney Atkins is a career criminal who has spent his life abusing women, taking drugs and unlawfully carrying firearms," said Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp. "He has repeatedly fought police and demostrated an absolute lack of respect for authority. The jury heard from law enforcement about the danger they face in apprehending violent repeat offenders like Atkins, and with their verdict, stopped him to the maximum extent permissible-with a justified life sentence."

The offense for which Atkins received the life term occurred June 17, 2016. Texarkana, Texas, patrol officer Johnny Bailey responded to a disturbance call in the 3600 block of Olive Street at Atkins' mother's home. Atkins' mother, Marilyn Eason, was attempting to hold the door closed from the outside, according to a probable cause affidavit. Eason was trying to prevent Atkins from taking an infant child from the home that he had said he was going to take to live on the streets.

As the officer approached, Atkins managed to get his right hand inside the door and throw something he was holding into the residence. Bailey testified that Eason gave him permission to enter the house and retrieve what Atkins had thrown inside, a plastic bottle containing five and a half grams of meth and unidentified pills.

Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp questioned Eason about the drugs at trial. At trial Eason claimed police must have planted the drugs and told the jury she was afraid officers were going to shoot her son. Chief Public Defender Rick Shumaker filed a motion seeking to suppress the drug evidence based on Eason's claim that she didn't really give Bailey permission to enter her home and retrieve it but the motion was denied by 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart.

During the punishment phase, the jury heard testimony concerning Atkins' prior record.

In April 2005 Atkins received two ten-year terms of probation in Bowie County for robbing a couple at gunpoint Oct. 3, 2004. Atkins and a co-defendant knocked on the door of an apartment in Texarkana, Texas, and stood with his back to the peephole, according to court records in the case. The residents of the apartment opened the door believing it was someone they knew when Atkins and another man rushed in a pointed a gun at them before stealing jewelry and $225 in cash.

Atkins' probations were revoked later in the same year because he committed assaults in May and August 2005, submitted drug tests positive for cocaine and marijuana, and failed to appear in court. He was sentenced Nov. 21, 2005, to eight years in prison.

After being released from prison in 2010, Atkins continued to break the law. A former girlfriend of five years was so afraid of him she acquired a protective order against him in 2015. According to a petition for the protective order, Atkins threatened to kill the woman via text message Oct. 9, 2015. In August 2015, Atkins used a gun to smash the windows of the woman's car when she tried to get it back from Atkins. The woman reported that Atkins knocked out one of her teeth during an assault, has shot a gun into the air when he is angry with her, drinks constantly and has woken her up by strangling her.

In July 2015, Atkins was arrested by Texarkana, Texas, police who stopped to talk to him as he walked in the 400 block of 22nd Street, according to a probable cause affidavit.

"Because of the time of night, Atkins' nervousness and his change in demeanor when I asked about the weapons and drugs, I decided to frisk Atkins," the affidavit states.

Atkins became unruly, called for Jesus and kept trying to reach for his right pocket as officers began to physically subdue him. After cuffing Atkins, officers found a small silver handgun in the waist of Atkins' shorts, a small bag of marijuana in a pocket, and two pill bottles. One of the pill bottles contained crack cocaine and the other bottle contained bags of marijuana, two pills containing Ecstasy and a broken Xanax pill.

In November 2015 Atkins was arrested in a Texarkana, Ark., housing complex. The manager of the public housing had previously banned Atkins from the property and called to report that he was trespassing, according to arrest reports. A Texas-side detective who was listening to jailhouse phone conversations as part of a separate investigation, overheard Atkins telling a friend on the phone that he intended to harm the police officer who arrested him and the public housing director who banned him. Atkins threatened to break the officer's jaw and threatened to throw a brick through the housing director's car window in hopes of hitting him in the face.

Atkins is currently being held in the Bowie County jail awaiting transport to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division.

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