Odessa man pleads guilty to aggravated robbery, firearms charge
Oct. 19—Jurors who must decide the fate of an Odessa man who pleaded guilty to savagely beating a woman during an armed robbery were forced to watch video surveillance of portions of the attack Tuesday and to look at more than 100 photos documenting the bloody scene and the victim's injuries.
Isaac Jerald Jackson, 33, pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon in the 244th Ector County District Court just before his trial was set to begin in connection with the March 21 attack at the Garden Rose Spa.
As a result of his guilty plea, jurors are now being asked to determine his fate. He's facing 15 years to life on the robbery charge and two to 10 on the weapons charge. Whatever sentences he receives will run concurrently.
Odessa Police Department Cpl. Thomas Rallo and Detective Leslie Goodson were the first two witnesses questioned by Assistant Ector County District Attorney Melissa Williams.
Rallo testified he began taking pictures of Liying Chen, 62, as paramedics treated her shortly after the assault. His body camera captured more images at the hospital.
The photos shown to the jury showed patches where her hair had been yanked from her head. They also showed her bruised and bloody face, hands, arms and legs. One eye was bruised and swollen shut.
Rallo's body camera captured her crying and screaming out in pain as he aided a nurse in placing a cervical collar on her.
Goodson testified two cameras inside the spa on East 7th Street captured portions of the assault, but the worst of it happened off camera in an office.
The 19-year-veteran cop narrated as the black and white video clips were shown, repeatedly stating Chen was "fighting for her life."
Goodson told jurors Jackson and another man surveilled the business from across the street before calling and seeing if they could make an appointment.
Jackson is seen walking into the lobby of the business. A short time later, he's directed to a massage room. In another clip, Jackson can be seen running out of the room with a disheveled Chen following, clutching her head.
Over the next 10 minutes the video shows Jackson, who Goodson said is 5 foot, 11 inches tall and 200 pounds, assaulting Chen from one end of the business to the other and back again after locking the front door.
He's seen strangling the 100-pound, 5-foot-tall woman, shoving a gun in her mouth, pistol whipping her and literally dragging her by her hair all the way down a hallway while talking on a cell phone.
At one point, Chen manages to get the back door of the business open, but Jackson is seen throwing her to the ground and then stomping and kicking her.
He is ultimately seen removing his bloody hoodie, unlocking the door and leaving.
Goodson showed jurors more than 70 color photos that documented the blood left behind in pools, streaks and droplets. She testified Jackson was tied to the crime through the bloody palm print he left while leaning on the wall and kicking Chen and by a bloody fingerprint he left in one of Chen's notebooks.
Court documents indicate Jackson has served prison time for a robbery in San Jacinto County and one year in jail for assault family violence in Montgomery County. He's also been arrested multiple other times for theft, aggravated robbery, burglary of a habitation, evading arrest and possession of marijuana.
Court documents also show prosecutors intend to present evidence Jackson and other inmates threatened to "incite a coordinated attack on jail staff" back in April, started a fire in the jail and was seen smoking illicit substances that had been smuggled into the jail.
Williams also alleged in court documents that Jackson directed people using jail mail and telephone calls to sell guns he's not supposed to possess.
Judge James Rush is presiding over the trial.
