Cypress Man is Sentenced to Life in Prison for Fatal Restaurant Robbery in Houston in 2016
HOUSTON — According to District Attorney Kim Ogg, a Cypress man was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole on Wednesday for the New Year’s Day murder of a kind stranger at a Chinatown restaurant in Harris County.
Ogg said, “He was a ringleader who sent masked shooters into a family eatery.” “People have the right to sit down to a Christmas dinner with their loved ones in safety.”
After a five-day trial, a jury convicted 24-year-old Enzo Ubadimma of capital murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his part in the robbery and murder of 58-year-old Herman Ray Browning at the Huong Giang Hue restaurant.
The Night of the Robbery
Ogg said that two males and two females worked under Ubadimma in a criminal organisation. Before the heist, he travelled to the restaurant many times with other gang members to scope it out.
Earlier on January 1, 2016, two ladies posed as bathroom patrons in order to snoop around the restaurant.
A little after 8:45 tonight. Ubadimma escorted two men inside the Vietnamese restaurant Huong Giang Hue in west Houston as they waited for Herman Ray Browning, Jr. and his family.
The guys wore ski masks and carried firearms. Customers and staff were made to lie on the floor as the masked guys ransacked the store, stealing valuables and cash. After getting up from the table, Browning, Jr. was reportedly shot in the chest by police.
Apparently, Ubadimma drove the two guys away from the restaurant as they fled in a vehicle.
First Court Appearance
On January 11, 2016, Ubadimma, Tiala Alexander (then 20), Telavell Coleman (then 18), and Dadriana Holmes (then 19) went to court for the first time after being charged with capital murder. Everyone smiled and waved at the cameras.
Road to Closure
Assistant District Attorney Megan Long, who is a member of the District Attorney’s Homicide Division who prosecuted the case, said that Ubadimma regularly scouted the restaurant and then recruited others to assist him in robbing it.
Also read: A 16-Year-Old Boy Robbed Two Men at Gunpoint in Englewood, Caught Shortly Later: Police
“This defendant was not only a getaway driver; he was the mastermind behind the whole heist,” said Long. “While Mr. Browning’s family was there to celebrate his wife’s birthday, their New Year’s aspirations and wishes turned into a nightmare.”
The cases against the two women and one of the males, who was a minor at the time and has been certified to be tried as an adult, are still ongoing. The second guy, Coleman, was also convicted of capital murder and condemned to life in jail without the possibility of release.
