SPRING – Tuesday night, several dozen people gathered for a candlelight vigil in honor of Bao and Jenny Lam at Hermann Square in downtown Houston.
The couple was murdered inside their home in Spring in January of 2018.
Investigators say they were tied up and shot execution-style by three suspects who were arrested less than a week later.
But the trio has yet to stand trial and one of the suspects, 24-year-old Erick Peralta, has been out on bond since September.
“Made me sick to my stomach when I first heard it,” said the Lams’ son, Rich.
Rich, who attended the vigil, says the approval of the bond was a slap in the face to his family. He is now calling for stronger bond requirements.
“The judges, they’re not doing the public any service by letting these violent criminals out on bond over and over,” he said.
According to numbers from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, there are nearly 56,000 defendants free on felony bonds in Harris County. More than 300 are facing murder charges and 87 are carrying charges of capital murder.
Houston Crime Stoppers said that since 2020, 114 people have been murdered by individuals who either had multiple felony bonds, felony personal recognizance bonds where suspects aren’t required to pay a bond, or by individuals who have skipped bond.
“Whatever happened to my parents, it can happen to anybody,” said Rich. “We just want to make sure that violent offenders are kept off the street.”
Peralta’s trial is scheduled for January. The other two suspects have trials set for next December.