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It's interesting that Lawrence and Garner, the defendants in Lawrence, have criminal histories.

Just to add detail to that point:

Men whose sodomy case led to Supreme Court ruling keep low profile
BY BRUCE NICHOLS
The Dallas Morning News

"They are not the kind of people that the lawyers want to comment on this case," Hill said. "They were never a couple. . . . They are not articulate."

It was neither man's first brush with the law when a Harris County sheriff's deputy, responding to a romantic rival's false report of a man with a gun, entered the apartment at the Colorado Club on Sept. 17, 1998, and found the men engaged in sex.

For Garner, Harris County court records list arrests for assault, drunken driving and possession of a small amount of marijuana. Department of Public Safety records show only two convictions for assault, in 1995 and 2000. Lawrence has two convictions for drunken driving and one for murder-by-automobile in 1967.

In 2000, the former roommate of Garner who called deputies to the apartment - and was later convicted of filing a false police report - went to court to obtain a protective order against Garner, accusing him of several beatings and a sexual assault.

Garner "punched me on my left eye two times" in January 2000, said Robert Royce Eubanks in an affidavit. Garner also beat Eubanks with a hose in 1999 while "using crack and drinking" and beat him with a belt in 1998, the affidavit said.

In May 1998, Garner "stabbed me on my right ring finger with a box cutter" and "grabbed a hot iron and burned me" and "then sexually assaulted me," Eubanks charged.

Date:	October 17, 2000
Subject:	Incident at 3942 Faulkner

A man assaulted in the 3900 block of Faulkner on October 10 has died from his injuries.

Robert Royce Eubanks, 42, suffered severe head wounds and was pronounced dead last Saturday (Oct. 14) at Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Eubanks had left a residence on Faulkner, where he had been visiting a friend, and was seen walking in the 3900 block of Faulkner. Someone from the residence on Faulkner contacted 911 and Eubanks was transported to the hospital.

There is no known motive or suspect in this case at this time.

Anyone with information in this incident is urged to contact the Houston Police Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

The case was assigned to Officer L.D. Garretson of the HPD Homicide Division.

JFC 10-17-00
Inc #133701500

Garner had a history of assaulting Eubanks, most recently in January 2000. At some point later in 2000, Eubanks sought a protective court order against Garner, and the court granted a temporary one. However, it never issued a permanent one, because Eubanks couldn't be found. On Oct. 10, 2000, Eubanks was fatally assaulted by some person or persons unknown. All of this, I take it, within the city of Houston.

I wonder who committed the fatal assault on Eubanks. I wonder if the reason Eubanks couldn't be found for the court hearing was that he was already dead (or possibly just otherwise intimidated.) I wonder if Garner has an alibi for the time of the murder of Eubanks.

While I've been aware that Eubanks had been assaulted and died, that Dallas Morning News article was the first that I ever read that Garner had been abussive to Eubanks (after the phone call, and possibly before).

The only commentary that I had ever read in an article (outside of the seldom repeated detail that they were roommates and lovers) said that police said that the men had a previous history of making false emergency calls on each other (I've never seen any more details on that; I don't know if they were catty or if charges were filed and then quieted down).

According to the Dallas Morning News article, Tyrone Gardner had been arrested for assault so there seems to have been something to the charges.

For those who don't know, here is the thread devoted to that Dallas Morning News article:

Men whose sodomy case led to Supreme Court ruling keep low profile(Lawrence Garner Texas)