In May 2008, Rene, a friend named Joshua Lamb and several other people drove to the northeast Harris County home of Tedrick Carter, Wolfford said. Details about the gang, however, are hard to pin down because of the secret nature of gangs. He investigated Rene for possible connections to shootings, drug dealing and prostitution.ĭeputy Mike Squyres, a gang expert with the sheriff's office, estimated that there are more than 1,000 members of 59 Bounty Hunters spread across Harris County. "Sylvanus Rene is as big as they get in the Southeast Texas chapter of the Bloods," Wolfford said.
![rene 25 houston rene 25 houston](https://ssl.tzoo-img.com/images/blog/2021/8/25/postoffice-street-galveston-houston-alamy-ED72AC.jpg)
Rene was a "five-star general," complete with a five-star epaulet tattooed on his shoulder, who probably outranked everyone in the 59 Bounty Hunters, Houston's largest subset of the Bloods street gang, said Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Dennis Wolfford. She said Addison's fears mirrored the neighborhood's residents who were afraid of Rene's ability to get to them or their relatives. Five years later, Keon Addison testified about that night during the punishment phase of Rene's trial.Ī stout 280-pound inmate who carries himself with authority, Addison was visibly afraid as he testified against Rene, McDaniel said, "because of what might happen." The gang member survived but refused to press charges. In 2005, investigators said, Rene shot a member of a rival gang, the Crips. "You'd go out to these neighborhoods and people would be terrified to come out of their houses because of the guy," McDaniel said. He spent two years in prison for assaulting his common-law wife. Within four years, convictions for drugs and theft stacked up and his reputation as a violent gangster grew. Rene attended North Shore High School and has a criminal record that began a month after he turned 17, when he was arrested and accused of assaulting his mother.
![rene 25 houston rene 25 houston](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/10/26/sports/26cardenas/merlin_142207611_70bcf109-2520-462e-87f3-83d4abc44d5c-jumbo.jpg)
"It's very clearly him because of his tattoos." Assault charge dropped "She's performing sex acts on Sylvanus," McDaniel said. "I'm a gangster rapper."īut he is also, at the least, a convicted rapist who was put behind bars for 65 years in February after prosecutors found a videotape of him having sex with a 16-year-old runaway, said McDaniel. "I'm not in a gang," he said, showing a tattoo of a microphone on the right side of his neck. Rene also dealt in violence, investigators say, including a capital murder of a 51-year-old man was bound, gagged and shot execution-style.ĭuring a recent jailhouse interview, Rene denied he was involved with prostitution or crime, saying he turned his back on gangs years ago. "There were anywhere between five and 10 girls there at a time."
![rene 25 houston rene 25 houston](https://fastly.4sqi.net/img/general/1398x536/953920_mJL-ATo11Jul2cXTEr6oxfVU3MFCm7a9k4IjRUpw4GE.jpg)
"He had three apartments in this one complex that he ran girls out of," Assistant Harris County District Attorney Katherine McDaniel said.