Paul Broussard

Paul Broussard (1964 – July 4, 1991), a 27 year-old Houston-area banker and Texas A&M alumnus, was beaten and stabbed to death in a gay-bashing outside a Houston nightclub on July 4, 1991 by ten teenage boys. The youths drove from the northern Houston suburb of The Woodlands to the heavily gay area of Montrose solely to “beat up some queers,” in the words of one of the convicted teens.¹⁾

Paul Broussard & Mother, Nancy Rodriguez

Paul Broussard, Clay Anderson, and Richard Delaunay were walking across a parking lot just after 2:00 a.m.²⁾, on July 4, 1991, in Houston's Montrose neighborhood, when they were attacked by 10 young men from the Woodlands area: Jaime Aguirre, Javier Aguirre, Derrick Attard, Jon Buice, Paul Dillon, Raphael Gonzalez, Gayland Randall, Leandro Ramirez, Brian Spake, and Jeffrey Valentine.

All but three of the attackers were under 17, and the eldest of them – Brian Spake – was 22. All except Spake attended McCullough High School in Houston. The Woodland Ten, as they became known, spent the two days prior to the attack binging on alcohol. Hours before the attack, they piled into two cars and cruised Montrose harassing men they presumed to be gay. They identified their targets by asking directions to Heaven, an area gay bar, and threw rocks at men who answered with directions.³⁾

Broussard and friends were just blocks away from home when the attackers asked them how to get to Heaven. Upon receiving directions, the 10 attackers exited their vehicles attacked the three gay men with fists, steel-toed boots, nail-studded two-by-fours, and a knife wielded by Jon Buice. Anderson and Delaunay escaped down a busy street, while Broussard headed down a dead end street where he was surrounded by the 10 attackers.⁴⁾

Delaunay said the ten young men were cheering and yelling as they attacked Broussard, who suffered abrasions, puncture wounds, a broken rib, bruised testicles, and three stab woulds. As he lay on the ground, almost unconscious, two of his attackers rifled through his pockets and took a comb as a souvenir. The ten young men then drove off up I-45 towards the Woodlands, still cheering and yelling.⁵⁾

Broussard was treated by EMS at the scene, and then airlifted to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died eight-and-a-half hours later. His mother, Nancy Rodriguez, flew into Houston from Atlanta, Georgia, and met with Houston police as well as with Anderson and Delaunay.

Houston newspapers did not initially report Broussard's murder as a hate crime. As a result, gay activists like Ray Hill organized large public protests, some of which took place in front of the mayor's house, with Nancy Rodruiguez and Queer Nation participating. The resulting media attention led to one of the assailants' girlfriends calling the police. All ten were soon arrested.⁶⁾

Derrick Attard went to New York after the attack, and was arrested there. Jon Buice is reported to have turned himself in after being encouraged to do so by his father.⁷⁾

All ten of Broussard's assailants were eventually convicted. Activist Ray Hill, who had organized the protests after Broussard's murder, lobbied the prosecutor and District attorney for “meaningful sentences” for the Woodlands Ten.⁸⁾

Derrick Attard received probation for agreeing to identify the other nine. Four more also received probation, and Nancy Rodriguez – aided by the Houston Crime Victim's Office – worked with the D.A. to set the terms. The court also ordered them to pay for Anderson's hospital bill and Broussard's funeral. Derrick Attard and Gayland Randall violated the terms of their probations and were sent to prison.

Jon Buice confessed to inflicting the stab wound that the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office said caused Broussard's death, and received a 45-year sentence. Paul Dillon received a 20-year sentence for attempted murder and aggravated attempted murder.

The three remaining assailants received sentences of 15-years-and-one-day, for their admitted participation in the beatings. Their sentences were criticized by Queer Nation and Nancy Rodriguez as being too light.

Paul Dillon was the first of the attackers to be released, in March 2000, after serving just six years. He owed his freedom to a mandatory release law that was repealed in 1996.⁹⁾

Derrick Attard, Raphael Gonzalez, Gayland Randall, Brian Spake, and Jeffrey Valentine also received probation and were released.

Brothers Jaime and Javier Aguirre were set to be released in January 2007, after Jaime was denied parole in 2003, and were expected to face deportation to Mexico upon release.

Leandro Ramirez was set to be released on parole in March 2007.

Jon Buice, who received longest sentence and is the last of the Woodlands Ten remaining in prison, is scheduled for a parole hearing in October 2007, after having been denied parole in October 2003 and October 2005. ¹⁰⁾

Nancy Rodriguez currently lives near Macon, Georgia. She has attended more than 20 parole hearings in her efforts to keep her son's assailants in prison.

Jon Buice

In April 1999, Buice wrote an open letter to the gay community, apologizing for his actions in Broussard's murder and seeking to make amends. The leter was addressed to the radio station KPFT and printed in the Houston Voice.¹¹⁾ Buice says he was moved to write the letter after hearing about the murder of Matthew Sheppard.¹²⁾

In a subsequent interview with a researcher, Buice said that he was not homophobic and had close friends and relatives who were gay. Buice also said that the attack had less to do with Broussard's sexual orientation than with thrill-seeking, male-bonding, peer pressure, and the influence of drugs and alcohol. Almost all of the Woodlands Ten were intoxicated that night. Some, including Jon Buice, had also used marijuana and taken LSD.¹³⁾ Buice claimed to have “blacked out” on the night of the attack, and only remembers riding home with Broussard's blood on his clothes.¹⁴⁾

The ten were also bolstered by a sense that they could get away with it. Harassing gays in Montrose had become a “sport” to them, and they claimed that others at McCullough had known what they were doing. Classmates, friends and teachers had all heard them bragging about belonging to a “gay-bashing gang.” They had even taken to wearing black bandannas to school to signify membership in their “gang,” all without consequences from school officials. They assumed that gay men were likely to carry more money, were unlikely to report attacks for fear of being outed, and that police would be unlikely to pursue them.¹⁵⁾

According to prison officials, Buice has a spotless prison record. He has earned associates degrees in business and accounting and a bachelor's degree in psychology.¹⁶⁾

Buice, now 33, had his most recent parole hearing on October 15, 2007. It was his third parole hearing, after being denied parole in 2003 and 2005. His appeal is supported by gay activist and radio host Ray Hill.¹⁷⁾ Broussard's mother, Rodriguez, said she planned to attend the hearing to make her plea against Buice's parole. A decision on Buice's parole is expected within a month of the hearing.¹⁸⁾

Hill, who is also an ex-convict and host of “The Prison Show” on KPFT, has corresponded with several of the Woodlands Ten, supports Buice's parole, and has said he hopes Buice will take over as host of the Prison Show upon his release.¹⁹⁾