Trial Begins for Man Charged in Off-Duty Deputy Almendarez's 2022 Killing

A black Nissan Altima sat backed up against a Harris County deputy's pickup truck in a grocery store parking lot near FM 1960 and Aldine Westfield Road on the evening of March 31, 2022. Two men were underneath the truck. Deputy Darren Almendarez, off duty and leaving the store with his wife, told her to walk to safety before he approached. The suspects opened fire. Almendarez, struck multiple times, returned fire and hit at least two of the men before they fled. He was rushed to HCA Houston Healthcare Northwest, where he died. Four years to the day after that confrontation, opening statements began in Harris County in the capital murder trial of Joshua Stewart, one of three men charged in his killing.

Stewart, who was 23 at the time of the shooting, went to trial beginning March 30. Co-defendants Fredarius Clark, who was 19, and Fredrick Tardy, who was 17, each face the same capital murder charge and will be tried separately.

Prosecutors announced in August 2025 that they would not seek the death penalty against Stewart. If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The road to trial included substantial delays. Defense attorneys argued earlier in 2026 that Stewart was mentally incompetent to stand trial, a claim that could have halted the case indefinitely. The court rejected that argument, clearing the way for proceedings to open on March 30. Stewart had remained in Harris County jail for more than three years since his arrest.

Two of the wounded suspects drove themselves to HCA Houston Healthcare Northwest shortly after the shooting, arriving at the same hospital where Almendarez was being treated. Authorities later identified those two as Stewart and Clark. Investigators subsequently linked the three defendants to a broader criminal network: federal authorities confirmed that a catalytic converter theft ring busted in Pearland and Fresno had been fencing stolen parts for the same men charged with Almendarez's killing.

Almendarez was a veteran of the Harris County Sheriff's Office, shopping on an otherwise routine evening when he came upon the suspects. His decision to confront them, alone and off duty, placed him at the center of a case that quickly drew county-wide attention and amplified debates about the violent potential of what prosecutors and law enforcement had long been pressing legislators to treat as more than a simple property crime.

Stewart's trial is the first to reach a jury. Witness testimony and forensic evidence from the parking lot near FM 1960 will now determine whether he spends the rest of his life behind bars.