{"id":414100,"date":"2026-08-22T21:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414100\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T21:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:16:14","slug":"man-accused-in-harris-county-deputys-death-denied-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/414100\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused in Harris County deputy’s death denied bail"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man accused in the July 2024 death of Harris County deputy Fernando Esqueda<\/a> will be held without bail until trial after a surprise drug test found traces of alprazolam \u2014 also known as Xanax \u2014 while he was free on a $1 million bond.<\/p>\n

The judge in the 248th District Court based her decision on testimony Friday that Dremone Francis, 28, asked a Harris County Pretrial Services monitoring officer to \u201chelp me out\u201d when ordered to give a urine sample following a June court appearance.<\/p>\n

Francis failed two attempts to provide urine in one hour despite being given a bottle of water. The third attempt nearly two hours later was successful but came back positive for benzodiazepines \u2014 a type of medication typically used to treat anxiety and insomnia, according to testimony.<\/p>\n

Francis did not provide a prescription for the medication, the monitoring officer said.<\/p>\n

Francis was charged with capital murder of a police officer and tampering with evidence following Esqueda’s death. The deputy was fatally shot while looking for a man accused of pistol whipping a Little Caesars pizzeria employee. The suspected attacker, Ronald Palmer,\u00a0shot the deputy as<\/a> he sat in his unmarked vehicle, authorities said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Francis’ case was unusual among defendants accused in the deaths of local law enforcement officers. He managed to pay for his release seven months into his confinement at the Harris County Jail, much to the dismay of some lawmakers and criminal justice stakeholders<\/a>. Most defendants in that circumstance remain jailed without bail or unable to afford the large sums required for pre-trial release.<\/p>\n

Judge Hilary\u00a0Unger set bail on Francis\u2019 charges after prosecutors failed to follow through with a hearing to deny his release until trial.<\/p>\n

Authorities believe Palmer was the sole shooter, but Francis helped him get rid of two firearms, including the one used to kill the deputy, records show.<\/p>\n

Francis, who knew Palmer and lived nearby, told authorities he was standing outside his residence in the 10300 block of Blue Wonder Lane in east Harris County when he saw Palmer fire a gun at a truck, according to a search warrant affidavit linked to the investigation.<\/p>\n

Unger\u2019s bail for Palmer was more than triple\u00a0what she set for Francis.<\/p>\n

A trial date hasn’t been set for Francis, but Palmer is expected to go before a jury in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The judge challenged the prosecutor, Jamie Burro, to argue why Francis\u2019 use of benzodiazepines over methamphetamines or other narcotics threatened community safety if he never set\u00a0foot outside his home.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said Francis doesn\u2019t have to go far to commit a crime \u2014 and he hadn\u2019t in connection to the deputy\u2019s shooting. Francis could also assault the people he lives with or deal drugs from home, the prosecution said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe put all this money up and he still chose not to follow your orders,\u201d Burro said.<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 attorney, Sam Cammack, asked for leniency as Francis had not had any other issues on bond and under house arrest since he posted a portion of his combined $1 million bail in February 2025.<\/p>\n

Unger appeared most swayed by the pretrial services worker\u2019s account of Francis\u2019 delay in providing a urine sample and his apparent plea to avoid the test\u00a0\u2014 a statement Cammack objected to during the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears to me your client knew what his circumstances were,\u201d Unger said. \u201cHe picked and chose which bond conditions he was going to follow. That to me is a huge problem \u2014 especially when he appears to be telling the pretrial officer to cut him some slack.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man accused in the July 2024 death of Harris County deputy Fernando Esqueda will be held without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[86133,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-414100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-hc-crime","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}