Former Houston security guard on trial for murder
Houston TX December 10, 2022
In his final moments, Michael Haynie bummed a smoke and feasted on fruit.
The 60-year-old homeless man was hobbling back to a folding camp chair when a security guard confronted him around 9 p.m. in June 2019 in an attempt to force him off a southeast Houston strip mall property.
The security guard, Lance Campbell, without apparent warning, knocked over his shopping cart, spilling Haynie’s clothing and hygiene products to the ground, according to surveillance footage from a nearby business.
Haynie, shirtless, leaped from the chair and stood directly across from the guard outside a washeteria.
Within a second or so, Campbell brandished a gun and shot Haynie — who never appeared to take further steps toward the guard over the cart.
The man who provided Haynie a cigarette took refuge behind a pillar as the gunshot rang out, the video shows.
The surveillance footage played Friday in Campbell’s murder trial in the 174th District Court. The guard’s account of the shooting to a Houston police detective later that night did not match the encounter described to police. Campbell suggested that Haynie aggressively approached him.
Houston investigator Justin Brown testified that he watched the same surveillance footage a few minutes after midnight and concluded that Campbell had not acted I self-defense or lawfully.
“They charged him because they didn’t like the way he remembered things,” Campbell’s defense attorney, Murray Newman, said after the video was shown in court. The trial paused for the week before the defense could cross-examine Brown about the footage.
Crime scene photos shown earlier in the week captured the fruit Haynie had been eating within arm’s reach of his body. He had been unarmed.
Court started with women wearing leather jackets and black shirts emblazoned with “Urban Animals” insignia hurrying out of the courtroom to turn their tops inside out — at the judge’s request. Their attire paid tribute to a storied roller skating group in Houston and Haynie, who was one of its members.
Friends of Haynie from the 1980s punk rock scene knew him as “Spike” and were unaware that years of drug addiction had left him homeless. He had no living next of kin when he died.
Defense attorneys depicted 30-year-old Campbell during opening statements as a man with no business being an armed security guard — forced to work nights because he could not find a higher-paying job to support his family and a son with Down syndrome.
Campbell told authorities that he encountered Haynie the night prior and told him to leave. The earlier ordeal, surveillance footage of which was not available, effectively left Campbell spooked, said another of his lawyers, Cheryl Chapell.
When he confronted Haynie that second time, Campbell alleged that the shopping cart tipped over by mistake when he placed his hands on it. He then said Haynie aggressively stepped toward him and he opened fire out of fear.
He eventually called 911 and tried saving Haynie with chest compression. Haynie did not survive.
Officer Mitchell Saphos arrived at the shooting scene in the 7800 block of Bellfort and searched for witnesses.
He encountered Campbell standing by as paramedics tried desperately to save Haynie.
His body camera footage showed Campbell wearing a dark security uniform and purple evidence gloves on his hands. He threw his hands in the air as Saphos approached him, according to the footage.
“He came at me — I shot him,” Campbell said.
