A woman is dead and a recent parolee is back behind bars for her murder after the suspect’s mother came across a gruesome scene outside her Texas home.
Richard Tanner Ozment, 36, faces first-degree murder charges in the death of Michaela Brooker, who died after an altercation on September 21 in China Spring. Per the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, a concrete block and machete were used in attack; the victim died after being flown to the hospital.
According to the criminal complaint in the case, via KCEN, it was Ozment’s parents who called the cops on him, after his mother found him outside the home “very sweaty” last Saturday morning. After he allegedly blocked her path when she tried walking past him, she noticed “a human foot lying on the ground behind an RV on the property.” Per the sheriff, the victim’s foot wasn’t severed in the attack, but could apparently be seen behind her son.
His mother then reportedly exclaimed, “What have you done?!” before he allegedly said Brooker “tried to stab me.” The man’s mother then ran back into her home, where she “barricaded herself” until first responders arrived after her husband called 9-1-1.
While Brooker was treated at the scene and taken to a hospital, she died of her injuries.
Ozment, meanwhile, allegedly fled the scene, sparking what authorities called an “exhaustive manhunt” to find him. He wouldn’t be located until 10 hours later, allegedly hiding in a stock tank that was underwater just a couple hundred yards from the crime scene.
“This is one of the most horrific, horrible, brutal, senseless attacks that we have seen in a long time,” said McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara at a press conference (above), noting the crime “never should have happened.”
The sheriff also revealed Ozment was recently released on parole, after serving just 10 years of a 40-year sentence for burglary. He also has a sexual assault charge on his criminal record, from when he was a juvenile, said the sheriff.
“He never should’ve gotten out and he did,” McNamara continued. “Anytime you see somebody paroled out early like this and they commit this kind of crime, it’s senseless. It didn’t have to happen. And this is so brutal, you can only imagine what this lady went through with this attack.”
He said the suspect and victim did know each other, but had no other specifics about their relationship, why Brooker was at the home or a possible motive for the attack.
Ozment has not yet entered a plea in his case and remains behind bars at McLennan County Jail on $1 million bond.
