Buncombe County Employee Faces Two Felony Charges, Investigation Ongoing

The woman whose job was to keep a violent pretrial defendant from harming anyone now faces two felony counts of obstruction of justice herself, after a Buncombe County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment against her on April 7.

Rasnelly Vargas, former Buncombe County Pretrial Services Coordinator, was indicted following an investigation by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation into her conduct while working in the county's program. The North Carolina Attorney General's Office will prosecute the case. Two arrest warrants were issued for Vargas, according to NCSBI public information director Chad Flowers.

The charges carry stakes that extend well beyond a single employee's conduct. Vargas resigned shortly after Houston died in a fiery wrong-way crash in August 2024, ending a three-county crime spree. Houston was out on pretrial release when authorities say he stabbed his girlfriend, Malerie Crisp, invaded a home, assaulted the homeowner, and stole three vehicles while running from law enforcement. The crash that killed Houston also claimed the life of former Marshall Police Chief Mike Boone.

Vargas was the county employee assigned to prevent exactly that outcome. As Houston's pretrial case coordinator, she was responsible for reporting violations to the courts under the county's pretrial supervision policy. In the 11 months before his deadly spree, Houston's GPS tracker registered more than 240 alerts of possible violations of his court-ordered release, but none was reported to a judge, according to the wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Crisp's mother. A civil complaint also alleges Vargas was in a romantic relationship with Houston while he was under her direct supervision, which was admitted to in depositions.

Houston had been on pretrial release on serious charges: he was out on bond in connection with a May 2023 domestic violence episode that culminated in him shooting a Buncombe sheriff's deputy.

District Attorney Todd Williams requested the SBI probe following Vargas's resignation, citing potential conflicts of interest, noting that statements from an assistant district attorney in his own office could be part of the investigation. That conflict prompted the appointment of a special prosecutor from the Attorney General's Office to handle the outcome, a step that underscores how far the accountability failure extended into the county's justice system.

A federal civil complaint filed by Crisp's mother names multiple county officials, including County Manager Avril Pinder, former Justice Services Director Tiffany Iheanacho, Pretrial Services Program Manager Cindy Green, Pretrial Supervisor Renee Ray, and Vargas herself, alleging gross negligence and a failure to monitor and report more than 240 violation alerts from Houston's electronic monitoring device.

A federal civil complaint alleges Buncombe County's Pretrial Services Program had no review or oversight to ensure accountability. In response, Buncombe County has since limited pretrial service eligibility, nearly a year after the Houston rampage. Whether those internal reforms are sufficient remains a central question as the criminal case against Vargas now moves forward and the SBI's broader investigation into the program continues.

Vargas is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.